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Tuning of Forces Year 2, Lecture 5 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on November 1, 1922, Sofia Fir-fur-fen Tao-bi-aumen Silent Prayer The disciples essays were read on the topic "The Distinctive Features of Life". What is meant by the word coordinate in mathematics? (Coordinates are mathematical constructs which determine the position of points in a coordinate system.) Imagine that you have the four coordinates of a point. Do they relate in the same way to the centre of the coordinate system? No, they don't. Therefore by coordination we mean correlation, tuning of forces. Picture a point in space; this point is alive. Since it is alive, it is in a state of motion. If there are two points, they will form a straight line. This straight line will have only one dimension, that of length. Therefore, when two points move consciously, they form a straight line, which has a concept of only one dimension. The two points can move only along this line and only in two directions: upwards or downwards. If two points, A and B, move in opposite directions, they will meet in one point after a period of time, but they will not be able to pass by each other. If you asked these points if the beings from their world could pass by each other, they would say, “According to the laws of our world, when two beings meet in one point, they cannot pass by each other. In our world all beings can meet only face to face and when they part, they turn their backs to each other.” So, when they are coming towards each other, they face each other, and when they turn around to go back, they have their backs to each other. Why is that? Because they cannot pass by each other. However, in the world people live in, they can go and come back always facing forward. Therefore, all relations amongst beings are like mathematical formulas that we need to translate so that we can apply them consciously. So, if two beings move only in a straight line, they will know only one thing, the point. In their mind, the line is but the sum of multiple points, and they will never even suspect that all these points form a straight line. If you asked them if straight lines exist in the world, they would say, “A straight line may exist, but it is not a part of our world.” Therefore, according to these beings, the point is the measuring stick for figuring out the world. They view the point as an infinite unit, i.e. as 1 π. The number π cannot increase infinitely because, at a given moment and at a given occasion, a given thing in the world can only be measured by a specific unit of measurement. Different things are measured with different units of measurement. For example, the concepts and objects of the one-dimensional world can be measured using linear metric units. However, can a plane be measured linearly? No, the plane, being a part of the two-dimensional world, can only be measured in square metric units. The plane is also a living, conscious being that has its own unit of measurement. When the beings from the one-dimensional world ponder the question of right, they reach only relative conclusions. For example, those beings who move only in a straight line say about themselves that they are the only beings who are right. Why? Because the only movement they know is that of the straight line, they do not recognize the curved line. If I ask these beings, “Could you stab someone in the back,” they would say, “Not under any circumstances.” “How about in the chest?” “This we can do.” “Why?” “Because, in our world, there is only a front but no back.” If one of the wisest beings of the one-dimensional world finds a way to bend a straight line to form a circle and thus manages to leave the conditions of the one-dimensional world, created by the straight line, then when beings A and B move towards each other, they will eventually touch their backs. We call this movement falling. These beings will be bewildered by the fact that they can touch their backs. This is the situation of the fallen and sinful people in the world. They do not face each other but have their backs towards each other. The sinful people are people of the one-dimensional world. He who knows the laws can make these people pass by each other. However, this is something impossible to do for the beings from the first dimension. Now picture the point on which one of these beings stands. Here is my question: can this point move in a right angle, i.e. can it move perpendicularly to the line to which it belongs? No, it cannot do that. Why is that so? It is so because this point can move only in one direction. If you could photograph the movement of the beings from the one-dimensional world, you would see this movement as a straight line. However, the individual shifts of the beings themselves would be marked as individual points. If the points that make up the straight line start moving perpendicularly to themselves, they will form a plane. How is a plane different from a line? The line is the border of the plane. The line has an infinitely remote point and the plane has an infinitely remote line. What lies behind this line? Nothing. However, this nothing marks the boundary of reality; it marks the boundary of what has been manifested. This, which has been manifested, lies behind this nothing. This nothing does not imply at all that it is impossible to manifest that, which has not yet been manifested. You wonder how nothing can beget something. Well then, how can the imaginary unit, which is a nothing in itself, become a real one when raised to the fourth power? Now let us put aside the one-dimensional world and move forward to the world of two dimensions. Let us imagine that I meet two beings who are at two opposite poles and I ask them if they can meet; I ask them if they can unite the two ends of the straight line into one point. Their answer is that this is impossible for them to do. This means the following: two beings who are of opposite opinions cannot share the same place by any means. This statement is true about their world. However, we can prove to them that this is in fact possible to do. How? By forming a circle. Therefore, the two ends of the straight line are the end boundaries of the broken circle. These two beings - who have been thinking, until now, that their views are diametrically opposed to one another, and as a result, they cannot meet in one place - can under certain conditions, form a circle and meet in one point. If you ask the beings from the two dimensions if there are planes in their world, they will tell you that in their world there are lines, but no planes. According to these beings, the world is made only of points, and lines. I ask these beings, “If the lines of your world move perpendicularly, what will they form?” “We do not know,” they answer. “This knowledge is transcendental, and is beyond our consciousness, and experience.” They have no idea that if the lines are connected in a perpendicular direction, they will form a myriad of worlds, similar to their world, and that all of these worlds together will form a plane. If the plane moves perpendicularly to itself, it will form a cube. So, if the line moves perpendicularly to itself, it will form a plane. If the plane moves perpendicularly to itself, it will form a cube. A cube is a three-dimensional shape. People belong to the three dimensional world. We asked the beings from the first and the second dimensions what they thought about movement in their world. However, we will not stop at that. Now we would like to know what they think about the movement of the beings from the third dimension. I ask the following: is it possible to bring together all the points and all the borders of a cube? How many sides does a cube have? Six. How many edges does it have? Twelve. Is it possible to bring together all the edges of a cube? It is impossible to bring together the points, the boundaries, or the edges of a cube. Picture twenty-four cubes with differently coloured sides. One of these cubes is positioned in the centre of all the rest. If the central cube changes its location, the rest of the cubes will move, too. Can you tell, in this case, how each cube will be positioned in regards to the central one? Even when the cubes are repositioned like that, you will notice that neither the points nor the sides of these cubes can be converged into one point. The four-dimensional shape that is formed by eight cubes is called a tesseract. The cubes within this tesseract move from the periphery towards the centre. And so, the four-dimensional world is characterized by its four coordinates; it is the world of time and space. That is why simple people say that time can fix everything. The tesseract is a shape of the fourth dimension. The four dimensions determine the relationships among all beings. These dimensions are used in mathematics, as well. They can also be applied in people’s actual life. For example, people cherish certain moral views about what is right; they have the notions of positive and negative, and they judge things with those views and notions in mind. Some people maintain that the negative cannot be turned into positive; this, however, is not true. The negative can turn into positive under certain conditions. Take, for example, a man who owns a small sum of money, but needs another ten thousand leva. He goes to a banker and gets a loan of ten thousand leva from him. Now, this banker who used to have a hundred thousand leva available is now, having lent ten thousand of it, left with a hundred thousand minus ten thousand leva in his safe. On the other hand, the man who started with a small sum has now added ten thousand leva to it, and thus, his sum has grown. However, the time comes when his payment is due and he has to pay back the loaned money. After he has paid back his debt, he is left with a sum that is minus ten thousand leva. In this case, the money in the banker’s safe increases by ten thousand leva. When it comes to monetary exchanges, people come across a number of crimes. What are all those crimes about? He, who lends money, creates conditions for crime. Why? Because he, who has borrowed the money, has to resort to lying when he cannot pay it back on time. The one who returns the money on time passes for an honest person. On the other hand, the one who lends the money passes for a benefactor. These are all external appearances and one cannot judge people’s character based on those things. Imagine that you have ten thousand leva in your safe and you depend on it; you build your happiness based on this ten thousand leva. An acquaintance of yours comes by one night and pilfers your money. As soon as you learn that this person has robbed you, you say a number of bad things about him. A few days later, this same person comes to your home disguised as someone else and starts conversing with you. One thing leads to another and you finally come to the topic of the ten thousand leva, and you complain that you have been robbed. “No problem,” he says, “I can help you by giving you another ten thousand leva. I am a rich man and I have a lot of money at my disposal; I won’t even know that I have taken money out of my safe.” “I am extremely grateful,” you say. “I have never met such a generous person in my life!” I ask this now: are your conclusions in either situation correct? The person who robbed you and the one who gave you the ten thousand leva are one and the same man. Is it possible, then, for one and the same man to be both a criminal and a benefactor? We can draw the following conclusion from this example: in their relationships and their actions people can be both good and bad but, in essence, they are neither good, nor bad. What does this indicate? It indicates that a person may be working with the positive at a given moment, and then at another moment that same person may be working with the negative. With this in mind we can define the bad as something negative, which creates suffering for people and the Good as something positive, which brings joy to people. However, in Nature both the negative and the positive have the same value. This is not so for us, though. Why? Because we apply different measures to qualify things: one person’s measure is not the same for another person. In this case, in mathematics, we speak of the so-called incomparable values where we are dealing with unrelated constructs. For example, what is the formula for the area of the circle? The area of the circle equals π.R2 where π equals 3,14…, i.e. it is an immeasurable number. The letter R designates the radius of the circle and it can be a different figure. The circle is an emblem of something related to the notions and concepts of the fourth dimension. The circle designates time. It can be measured by using different means and that is why we speak of the quadrature of the circle. If this is so, you should know that in Nature there exists one absolute measure and that this absolute measure can be applied to everything. When moving, this measure exists everywhere simultaneously; it is everywhere with all its points no matter how intangible those might be. People cannot comprehend this measure and it will always remain incomprehensible to them. Therefore, the circle represents the ideal world for the first dimension, the cube represents the ideal world for the second dimension, and the tesseract represents the ideal world for the third dimension. The tesseract is formed by eight cubes. It cannot be drawn, i.e. it cannot be represented on a plane. The same way a plane marks the boundary of a cube, a cube marks the boundary of a tesseract. Can you imagine a tesseract and picture the way it will move in space? This is impossible for the common mind, but the impossible in one world is possible in another. Therefore, it is possible for two people to make peace with each other; it is possible for hatred to turn into Love; it is possible for falsehood to turn into Truth; it is possible for injustice to turn into Righteousness. What is the modern people’s concept of lying? Imagine that someone borrows ten thousand leva from you and promises that he will return it after a certain period of time. However, he does not keep his promise after that period of time has passed. The period is extended for a few months more and then that person appoints a new date by which to pay his debt. This date arrives and he is unable to keep his promise again. What does lying come down to in this case? It comes down to an inability to keep time. How do you define time; what is it related to? How do mathematicians and philosophers define time and space; how and with what do they define the projections of these forces? They use a clock to measure time and certain measures of length to measure space. Mathematicians often calculate the intensity of certain forces, which act on certain energy lines. (Time, in physics, is measured according to the quantity of performed work.) In mathematics, one letter is multiplied by itself, which shows that certain values can grow. To what degree can they increase, i.e. to what degree can they grow? They can grow to an infinitely great degree. This is growth! Every impulse, every urge is part of time; every expansion is part of space. Therefore, time and space are manifested in one and the same moment. When energy passes from one state into another, we call this transition time; the expansion at any given moment we call space. Now, Good and bad can be given new definitions from the viewpoint of time and space. In general, Good and bad are two processes that are manifested in the conscious life of man. That, which simultaneously grows and expands, we call Good, and that, which simultaneously moves and shrinks, we call bad. In this sense, bad is a process of division. When people are divided, when there is division and subtraction amongst them, this is the bad in the world. When there is addition and multiplication among people, this is the Good in the world. However, in Life, as it is in all of Nature, these two processes take place simultaneously. For example, when we speak of expansion, this implies that a body or a shape used to be small once. In that case, even the smallest expansion is noticeable. Therefore, if one wants to expand a body, one needs to make it small first. A verse of the Gospel says that the righteous will resurrect and the sinful will disappear. This means the following: the righteous will grow and the sinful will become smaller. Many think that this is impossible, but it can be proved. For example, the ground is covered with ice and snow in winter and you consider this to be real. However, you do not see the little seeds hiding in the ground. Therefore, you do not see the Good that is hidden in the ground. Since you do not see the Good, you do not consider it real and you say, “For years we have known this condition of the earth, the way it is all covered with snow and ice. If we want to remove this cover from it, we need to break through it with hammers.” This is how you think in regards to evil. However, as soon as the Sun comes out, this age-old ice and snow starts to melt, then it turns into water and sinks deeply into the earth. Where did your reality go; where did the evil in the world go? However, the activity of the Sun does not end here. It continues to grow and under the influence of its warm and bright rays, the seeds that were hidden in the ground start to sprout. Before long, the earth is covered in grass, trees, and flowers. Where did the evil go? The evil had to go down, melt and disappear in order for the Good to come in its place. If you look at the Earth from the fourth dimension, you will see that it is covered with a huge layer of ice. You are the Earth. There is the following line in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Therefore, the Earth has the ability to fulfil God’s Will, i.e. everything that is planted in it has the ability to grow and develop. Since people represent the Earth, they, too, can fulfil God’s Will. Some think that people will be able to fulfil God’s Will only if a new social order is instituted. However, the social order is only a shadow of Life. Therefore, the shadow is something changeable and the fulfilment of God’s Will does not lie in variables. Every object casts a shadow, but the shadow itself is not a constant as it comes and goes. If this is so, then the social order, being the shadow of Life, may exist or may not exist. For example, the shadow of an object is largest in the evening, smaller at noon, and very small or non-existing in the morning. Man represents the Reality of things and everything else is fictitious. You might say that man is influenced by economic conditions. I ask you this, was there man before any kind of economic conditions existed? Yes, man existed before any other conditions; it was man who created all the conditions. It is ridiculous, then, that the creation could influence the creator. Man should not be fooled by claims that economic conditions are a factor in human life; hence, man should not be influenced by those conditions. Man is above all conditions. Religious people might say that it was religion that created man. This, too, is not true. Man existed before religion and before all economic conditions. Scientists, on the other hand, say that science will fix the world. Was there man before science? Therefore, man, who has created religion, and science, and economic conditions, has the ability to change everything himself. This is the idea that should remain in the minds of all people and become the foundation of their life. The human Spirit is the main factor in Life. If the human Spirit makes a decision, everything - religion, science, and conditions- will change. When this happens, people will act according to Nature’s laws. And now, people act according to their own understanding, and beliefs. Someone writes a maxim about Life, and everyone tries to act according to this maxim. This maxim is a personal view; it is not Nature’s view. For example, most people today pass as Christians because they believe in Christ. This is true, they are Christians, but Christ was not a Christian? Why? In order for him to be a Christian, he should have believed in someone else, someone outside of him. What do we know about Christ? We know that Christ preached about Love and fulfilled his Father’s Will. Christ never preached Christianity. The heathens created Christianity; it did not exist before Christ. What is Christianity? Christianity is a collection of formulas and rules that are imposed on people. We believe in the Absolute measure of things; we believe in one principle that regulates all manifestations of Life. Every teaching that is based on Absolute measures, on Absolute principles, is outside religion, outside science, outside any conditions, i.e. such a teaching is above religion, science, and conditions and can change them at any time. When the human Spirit moves parallel to God’s Spirit, it can be the master of everything in its life. Today some people argue amongst themselves about who is orthodox and who is not. Others, on the other hand, argue about communism. Was Christ orthodox? Was Christ a communist? He preached the idea of Love that has existed before time and will exist for all times. You may say that communism, too, preaches love among people. True, communism also preaches love, but this love is still misunderstood. This love cannot give people what they need. Religion, science, and economy represent mathematical relations and coordinates. Religion is an upward movement; economy is a downward movement and science is a horizontal movement; these are three coordinates that are in a certain relation to each other: they have one common point. Since they have one common point, they also have common interests. What do their common interests lie in? For example, if a factory makes icons, what determines the number of icons that it must produce? This number depends on the number of pious, religious people who believe in icons. If the factory depended on people who do not believe in icons, it would have gone bankrupt. If the rules of a religion state that people should not eat meat and butter, before long a number of butter makers and butchers would go bankrupt. What will the butchers and butter makers do after that? It is science, then, that will come to their aid, “The latest scientific data shows that the doctors recommend that the consumption of meat and butter should increase.” Right away, the condition of both the butter makers and the butchers improves. Now, we can use one of the mathematical theorems of Pythagoras in order to define economy, religion, and science in scientific terms. Let us say that one of the sides of a right triangle represents religion, the other side represents economy, and the hypotenuse represents science. Then we can rephrase the Pythagorean Theorem like this: the possibilities of science contain the possibilities of religion plus the possibilities of economy. Therefore, science, i.e. the hypotenuse, will solve the religious and economic problems. The delusions of the religious people are in the fact that they think that religion will fix the world. The world will be fixed only when we look at religion as one factor and at science and economy as another two factors and we find the relationship among these three factors. Now, let us demonstrate this idea through the equation a2+b2=c2. These parameters are religion, economy, and science. So, the sum of the squares of religion and economy equals the square of science. Two other equations can be derived from this first equation: a2=c2-b2 and b2=c2-a2. What can come out of these two equations? Here the mathematicians have the floor. Religion, economy, and science are concepts of the mind. In that case, we can talk about another way of reading the Pythagorean Theorem, namely, we can say that the possibilities of the mind plus the possibilities of the heart equal the possibilities of willpower. Then we can come to yet another application of the Pythagorean Theorem by saying that the possibilities of the mind plus the possibilities of the heart plus the possibilities of willpower equals the possibilities of the soul. In this case, we reach the equation for a sphere. Finally, we can talk about one last application of the Pythagorean Theorem: the sum of the possibilities of the mind, of the heart, of willpower, and of the soul equals the possibilities of the Spirit, i.e. a2+b2+c2+d2= Д 2 These are forces and relations that you need to work with. Therefore, willpower is an equal force to the mind and the heart; the soul is an equal force in relation to the mind, the heart, and willpower; the Spirit is an equal force in relation to the mind, the heart, willpower, and the soul. Besides these several equations, we can form one more equation, namely, that the sum of the possibilities of the mind, the heart, willpower, the soul, and the Spirit equal the abilities of God. This can be expressed in the following formula: a2+b2+c2+d2+ Д 2= Б 2. We can form yet another philosophical equation: the sum of the possibilities of the mind, the heart, the willpower, the soul, the Spirit and God equal the abilities and the possibilities of the Absolute, of the Infinite. This we can express through the formula a2+b2+c2+d2+ Д 2+ Б 2=A. Through this last formula, you enter the boundaries of the transcendental realm. These mathematical formulas will help you make calculations in astrology and some other sciences. Let us assume that you take the mind as a given factor, as a given force. Let us say that this force is placed within certain conditions and possibilities where it can manifest itself. What are these possibilities that we are talking about? They are the Signs of the Zodiac. Let us say that the mind has manifested itself on the night of the first day of March. Given these conditions, it is already predetermined what possibilities the mind will have to manifest itself. Likewise, it can be determined what possibilities the mind has to manifest itself if it has appeared on the second, the third or any other day of March. These are all mathematical relations. When you do these calculations, you should record precisely when the mind has appeared. You can do the same about the heart, if you decide to pick the month of July for its manifestation. The human mind and heart never manifest at the same time. The mind comes together with the physical body. First comes the body, then the mind and finally, the heart. When a child is conceived, the extremities (legs and arms) form first, then the rest of the organs are formed (the liver, the respiratory system, etc.) and finally, the heart is formed. The heart is formed at the moment when the activity of the willpower in the child is manifested. It is manifested at the moment of birth, when the child cries. When the child takes in its first breath, its heart starts beating, i.e. it manifests itself. Therefore, when a man manifests the Conscious life, this shows that he has already left the uterus of Nature. When a man manifests his consciousness, this shows that he has left the limiting conditions of Life and has started to live freely. This is the day of birth. The first thing a child does when the willpower is manifested is cry; then it lifts its arms up. When it lifts its arms up, this signifies that its willpower has manifested itself and has started to act upon the child’s consciousness. When the hand starts to regulate precisely the direction of its movement, this shows that the child is already manifesting its conscious willpower. It is a different story if these movements are harmonious or not; what matters is that the child’s willpower has started working within the child. Only a correctly manifested willpower yields harmonious movements. What did you understand from everything that has been said tonight? (That every world has its main unit of measure for defining and measuring things.)1 Truly, when we say for a man that he has a limited mind, i.e. that he is limited in his thinking, this means that he moves in the one-dimensional world, in the world of the line. For example, the miser lives with only one idea in mind; he thinks only about money. In his mind, the coin forms a centre, a point around which everything else revolves. In this respect, he is a man of the one-dimensional world. On the other hand, someone else may only think about building a house, getting married, finding a companion, and having some children; such a man lives in the two-dimensional world. Wherever he goes, he speaks of the two selves - me and you - he lives in the plane. Will these two people be able to live harmoniously, should they get together at one place? When two people get together at one place, this means that they will go in a new direction. Picture a deep well with a thousand steps leading downwards. There is a person sitting on each step and there is a big, sturdy pole in the middle of the well. All the people, who live in the well, look up through the opening and say, “I wonder what is up there, in that world?” The life in the well is arranged in such a way that they give orders to each other while being unable to raise each other further up; everybody just sits in their place and will not move from there. The one, who is on the highest step of the well, is only ten meters from the opening, but he does not realize it; he thinks that he is far from the opening. All the people in the well have been in this situation for years and none of them has been able to rise even a step higher from their situation. After a while a wise man comes along, looks down into the well, and seeing all the people in it, asks them, ”What are you doing down there?” “We are sitting in one place.” “Can’t you move?” “No, we can’t.” “Will I be able to help you?” “It is very unlikely that you could. We have been sitting here for years and we have been firmly planted each one in our own place. This pole here has been sitting in the middle of the well for a thousand years.” Then the wise man brings a rope with a hook on one end and lowers it into the well. Everybody watches to see what will happen. What happens is that the hook catches the person on the highest step by his clothes, and without realizing it, he finds himself outside the well, in the bright, wide world. The rest wonder where their friend has disappeared, how come he just vanished from before their eyes. The absence of the man on the highest step creates a small movement in the well. The second one immediately moves up to the place of the first one, and in this way, everyone climbs a step up. The wise man asks them probingly, “What is happening down there?” “One of us has left the well and the rest of us have climbed a step up.” This is what we call evolution. “Can you move now?” “We can’t.” He lowers the rope into the well again and catches the next one. The rest move again and climb another step up. The wise man lowers his rope this way into the well 999 times, each time pulling a man out until there is only one man left in the well. This man says, “By now I have travelled 999 steps up. I am ready to leave the last step I’m on.” I ask this now; can this gradual climbing from one step to another be culture? This is no culture at all. Is there anything important about the ladder you have been climbing? There is nothing important about it. The important thing is in the rope and in the hook. This is where the world’s culture lies; you lower the rope into the well, catch someone with the hook and fling him outside the well. Evolution, on the other hand, is all about the gradual climbing of the steps. It is about time that the Fifth race should leave the hole of this well. By the word hole, I mean the thick matter. I will use an example to explain to you more clearly the meaning of the well. There is this rich farmer who owns millions of wheat grains. Come spring, the farmer goes into the barn and asks the grains, “Are you comfortable in here? Do you have the opportunity to expand?” “No, there is no room in here. We are too close to each other and have no conditions to expand, and as a result we cannot stand each other.” The same way people enter each other’s space and think that they are happy. The farmer picks up a grain and holds it in his hand for a while. The grain looks happily up at him and feels free. Then it asks its master, “What do you plan to do with me?” “I plan to put you into better conditions.” The farmer picks up a scoop of wheat grains, takes them out to the field and seeds them with a sweep of his arm. Each grain falls onto the ground and into a little hole that feels like a big well to the grain. This well is no deeper than fifteen centimetres; not many grains can fit into a well this size. When it finds itself alone in the well, the grain starts crying and complaining that here, too, is not a good place. The farmer tries to convince it that it is going through this process for its own good and that soon a hook will appear that will bring it up to the ground surface. Before long, the moisture starts working on the grain and tells it, “Come on, go out of the well already so that there is room for other grains.” The little grain starts climbing out of the well little by little. Therefore, the well, i.e. the restrictive, limiting conditions of Life that one enters, represents the thick matter. The same thick matter also envelops the human consciousness. If one wants to crack open this layer, this shell of consciousness, one needs the help of moisture, light, and the New life; one needs the help of Love, too. God’s Love, being a supreme force, will sweep over these conditions and will give a new guidance and a new direction to one’s consciousness. In order for this to happen, one ought to pass through several phases; one ought to leave the barn and then enter the well, i.e. the soil where one will be covered with more dirt until one grows out of it. The process of growing is but the action of the intelligent forces of Nature; the forces of warmth and light which are like the rope in the hands of the wise man of the previous story who pulled the man out of the well. Half of your brothers – the roots - will stay behind in the well, waiting the day of their salvation. One day, they, too, will leave the well and others will climb up to their place. Most people today need to leave the last well they are in; the well of the flesh. When they start moving consciously, they will leave this well, too. And so, Righteousness, the Absolute measure which we apply to Life, is neither in the one-dimensional, nor in the two - or even the three-dimensional world. It is in the four-dimensional world, in the world of the fourth dimension. It is in the world of time and space that good and evil are defined. When you apply time and space correctly as a measure for things, you will feel a deep Joy and harmony inside. If you do something wrong, immediately you will feel grief and disharmony inside yourself. Then you will know that the world, in which you move, is not harmonious. However, the world of the fourth dimension is harmonious. No crimes can take place there. Why? Because this world has round, circular walls. Imagine yourself living in a world that is like a cylinder. At the base of this cylinder are stashed all treasures; all the gold is there. If a thief enters this world, he will take some of the gold as soon as he sees it and he will start climbing up the walls of the cylinder. If he decides to rest for a while and put the gold aside, it will slide right down to the bottom. It does not matter how many times the thief will climb up and down to take the gold from the bottom of the cylinder, for, at the end, the gold will end up in its place. For this reason, there are no crimes in the four-dimensional world. One may get robbed time and over again, but his money will find its way back to him in the end. That is why Bulgarians have a saying that where water has flowed before, it will flow again. In this case, where money was once, it will come back again. So, each thing that has been lost or stolen in the Divine world will go back to its place. This is the law. There are no crimes in the Divine world. There the desire may exist for crimes but no conditions exist there for realizing such desires. The people from the second and the third dimension have the habit of stealing but as soon as they enter the fourth dimension, they find out that all crimes are pointless. What is the point in stealing something if it is going to return to its place right away? The same law is applicable to ideas, as well. Let us say that you are sitting quietly and peacefully when an illuminating, elevated idea comes to your mind. You feel happy and want to remember it, but you realize right away that this idea has disappeared without a trace. What is the reason for this to happen? This idea was not yours. It was someone else’s idea, which happened to pass by you on accident after which it returned to its owner. Therefore, all ideas, all desires, all feelings that you forget easily, are not yours, but someone else’s; those are stolen ideas and desires. Sometimes people lose their love. Why? It was a stolen love. All things that are lost easily are things stolen. You should be thankful that you live in a world with superior and intelligent Beings who continuously correct your actions. If you lose your love, you should know that it was not yours. Nobody can take away what is yours. Remember this: the Real, the Divine is never lost. When Love comes to a man, it cannot be taken away by any being if it belongs to this man. Moreover, Love does not change; it always remains the same. If you lose your love or if it changes, then it is not yours. Being disciples, you should be aware of this. Once you know this, you will neither apologize nor deceive yourselves. The young always speak about Love. If so, why don’t you define only one of Love’s properties? If you cannot define one of Love’s essential properties, then I will tell you one of those: Love gives Freedom. Therefore, when you feel love for a being, the first thing you will do is give freedom to this being. If you feel love for an ox, you will take off its harness and let it roam freely. Love has the desire to free every living being, so it can freely use Life’s goods. Love gives Freedom to all living beings and this is its essential quality. You need no other philosophy. There is a way to tell if the ones, liberated by Love, have understood this law; the way to tell is to see if they, in turn, have the desire to liberate those who are still enslaved. That one, who does not have this desire, this aspiration in oneself, has not understood Love yet. Therefore, being the disciples of the same School, you should not limit yourselves. Limitation is not a manifestation of Love. When you speak, you should give everyone the right to say what they think. When one of you speaks, the rest should listen. You should instil it in yourselves that every person's thought is right. If you do not think so, you suspect that this man is being insincere. You should wait patiently for the others to finish what they are saying. When you write your essays, you have the desire to write a lot to demonstrate that you are learned. This is a false situation. You might write a whole thesis about Love and its qualities but when it comes down to applying it, you fail. I will give you the following task; if you see someone bound in ropes, go and free him. When you go closer to this man and notice that the rope is tight, you will need a knife. Buy a knife and cut the rope. You might object, “Yes, but this knife is expensive and all I have is a hundred leva in my pocket. I need this money for food and drinks; you should send someone else to free this man.” If you say this, it is a sign that you have no Love. What you do not know is that this man is a millionaire and he will thank you for freeing him. Indeed, if you free him, he will say, “Thank you, my friend, for freeing me. Many people passed by me, but no one stopped to free me. I will thank you because you did this big favour for me. You freed me physically and I will liberate you financially. You want to learn, to develop intellectually. I am at your disposal.” And so, he, who has Love, is free; he, who has no Love, is roped. If you have feeble faith and weak willpower, you are roped; you need someone to come along and cut the ropes to free you. New methods and application are necessary for a man to become free. Just reading is not enough; rather, what has been read and learned should be applied. There exists a certain relation between reading and applying. There are mathematical relations in everything in Life. For example, how is the physical body related to the Etheric, the Astral, the Mental and the Causal bodies? According to esoteric science, each one of man’s bodies represents a certain entity. The Physical body is one entity, the Astral body is another, the Mental body is a third one, and the Causal body is a fourth entity. These four bodies represent four coordinates. Each of these bodies has its own energies. You should be able to understand these energies so that you can transform them and translate them from one world into another. Once you have achieved this, you will be able to correct your mistakes easily. Now when I observe you I notice that some of you often put one or two hands up to their temples. Why? Too much energy has collected around the temples, due to which the mind cannot think properly. When you put your hands over your temples, what you do is take away part of the excess energy that has collected around these centres. But you should place your hands conscientiously. First, what you need to do is polarize your hands in a higher field of activity, so that when you pass this energy through your hands a few times, your mind should become clear right away. Sometimes the energies in human hands are connected to lower fields and then he will not only be unable to help himself, but he will even make his situation worse. If this is the case, it will be beneficial if you call someone else, whose hands are magnetic and has good energies and this person should massage your temples. Therefore, do everything consciously. If you follow all the necessary rules, you will achieve results fifty to ninety-five times out of a hundred. However, you must know why you are doing something and how you should do it. You should remember that the essential properties of Love are that it gives Freedom and that it sacrifices everything. God gives everything and never thinks of Himself. People do the exact opposite; they think only of themselves and give nothing. In fact, the situation needs to change in the sense that God should think of us and we should think only of Him. In other words, we should take in God’s Love, we should work for its sake and apply it everywhere as a specific, strictly defined measure. Now, let us close the well! Secret prayer Fir-fur-fen Tao-bi-aumen 1 Whenever the disciples in the audience respond to a question posed by the Master throughout the lecture, their comments are transcribed in italics and placed in parentheses. Source
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The Occult Music 4 th lecture of the General Class, 2 year. Oct. 22, 1922. I will give you a brief explanation about the occult music. The occult music differs from the common music with the following two characteristics. In the occult music are first given the basic features. It is something like sketching: an artist will draw first the nose, the brows, the eyes, the mouth, the ears — the basic lines and then will gradually develop the picture. We are proceeding in the same way so that you may learn how gradually the music develops, beca use there is nothing that grows up at once in nature. Tonight we will develop another part of the song "living power, springing, flowing"; a new addition, because the song is not yet finished. In the occult music it is not acceptable to have words or tunes with two meanings. In it every word must have only one meaning. If you sing a word with some vibrations you may have a good idea, but when you express it in your subconsciousness the idea will enter which these sounds contain. Now you will learn without criticizing because I do now only the sketching of the basic lines. The words may sound to you somewhat funny but there is nothing comical in them. I am choosing old words. For example for tonight I am choosing the following musical sonorous words: Venir, Benir, Bikhar Benoum II beyout, il bezoot Om beyout II bezoot Om beyoot Zoon mezoon, zoon mezoon benom too meto The mystic meaning of these words is approximately the following: Thou, the Great one, who blesses everyone and everything, be blessed! Lord, bless the great, bless youth, the beginning of life. Bless the young, sprouting divine life. Bless the divine that is conceived in the soul — the Breath of God that we have received in the beginning. These words being in an occult language cannot be translated word by word. For example I will take the following words in the Bulgarian language: The sun is rising, it sends forth light that brings joy to life. These are words with an occult meaning. Now if you want common poetry here we have an example. I gave these words to a friend of ours to interpret them in the spoken language, (The song was read as it was interpreted by our friend Grandpa Blago.) This is ordinary poetry. I explained right away to our friend what mistakes he has made. These are not grammatical mistakes but rather from the occult point of view: the Bulgarian word "obronvam" has two meanings: one meaning is ""shed" (leaves, tears), and the second is "injure" (the prestige of someone). He has used it in the following metaphore: "We shall shed a kind word." The second word with two meanings cannot be well explained and interpreted. Each word must have one and only one meaning. This way I would want you to uproot all old habits. When the words start to vibrate in you all the dust that you have accumulated over the centuries, all your habits will jump away as does the dust when you beat the drum. Now we don't know how to free ourselves. The occult music is one method for freeing. Everywhere, even in the most distant past music was being used, but the religious people have misused it. From the point of view of the occult we want to apply music scientifically in all its fullness. Basically it is very simple outside but for the world — very complicated. Besides, when you perform this music you must have the disposition of a child. You step forward to sing a song and say "I am an old person". What does "old" man mean? If saying that you are an old man you mean that you are feable, weak, let us be frank and accept this truth. Yet if by this word you mean that you have become wise — let it be so, but there should not exist two meanings about it. If by the word "young" you understand foolish, a child that takes advantage to have certain shortcomings, then in this sense neither old nor young are in their proper place. We must always avoid all negative words. When you come to the school of the occult do not permit your mind to keep words with two meanings, if possible keep all words with negative meaning on the outside; you must not cast them away, we may have some use for them, but we will not permit them to enter our parlor or our living room. We will tell them "you do not possess the required value". Further, in the music of the occult one must apply feeling. This music does not permit any wavering in the voice, as some do. Does this come from the depth of the soul, if this trembling indicates noble feelings then you may tremble, but if it means nothing, why should you tremble then? This is a lie, falsehood. This way you create a certain diversion that may cause a catastrophy as a result. Nature does not tolerate deviations. Do not believe that if nature sometimes closes its eyes that it does not observe everything and that you may cheat nature. When it catches you and takes you into its laboratory, you come out from its other end completely purified, but you will have to pass through at least 10 retorts. This is a general law, it is unchangeable, there are no exceptions for anyone. When I speak about nature I have in mind the manifestations of nature. To me nature is the manifestation of God in life. Because God had begun to manifest He will never agree with our childish concepts and change the order of things. Those things that now exist have been tested over and over again. He has examined everything not only once but thousand times. The world that He has created is the best possible world that God has chosen from the experience of the past centuries. He has created this world as one of the best worlds. This does not say that better worlds will not exist, but for the present conditions this is one of the most beautiful ones. At the present conditions of the whole of creation, of the boundless creation, this world is one of the best, i.e. when I say that it is one of the best I understand that in it are existing all conditions and possibilities for a proper development. There exists no power that could cause us to run off the rails. No one exists who could force us to do wrong. We err because of our own will. I speak to you as disciples, I want you to be strong, to stay away from temptations° He who can be tempted has a weak character, his will has the quality of iron, of granite. Why do people get tempted? For example there is a beautiful woman. God has created this woman so that people can enjoy seeing her. One man wants to possess her; another, too, wants to appropriate her. I ask, why should not people enjoy looking at her? God has created this monument so that everyone who passes by can be glad. The Turks say "It is good for one to observe beauty." This statue is exhibited so that people may look at it and improve their own taste. Someone wants to possess this statue and steals it. If the statue is big, he would not be able to take it, but if it is small and made of gold, he simply takes it. I ask, is the statue or he who has stolen it to be blamed? If one catches him, he will say, "some devil has stolen it". Where is the devil? The devil is in us, The desire to possess the statue, to sell it, to gain a pleasure, all this comes from the devil. We speak only about facts, but behind these facts exist instigating reasons. They may be conscious, or subconscious, they may be simple like a weapon. Several people may come together with the intention to steal but one person is the stimulator, the real factor, and the others express it. By studying the occult music you will sing: This is a method for rejuvenation. We need to bring music into our thoughts and emotions, this harmony that will make us feel deep in ourselves something singing, as if we can hear this harmony. This is a condition that will soothe our hearths and our minds, and will give a new direction to our thoughts. You may say: "God will send His Spirit and He will accomplish this or that". Well, are you sure that when the Spirit starts doing it, you will not start to complain, asking God if He could not do this in a different way? He have strange conceptions of things and sometimes we even would want to advise God how He should have created the world. The people who have created music were very intelligent. Music itself is a deep sphere of Creation. These people have understood the divine laws and have expressed this creativity through music. These laws cannot be changed. When the vibrations of the tunes are decreased we have one kind of music, when they are intensified, we have a different kind of music. Music is expressed according to the feelings. Religious people have adopted music for the expression of their religious feelings. Those who want to express their worldly feelings have applied music for worldly purposes. Everyone has used music for his own purpose. Yet the purpose of music is to educate and ennoble man. I would not want someone to come to the class here and to say: "What are these people doing here! They do not pray but some are playing instruments, others are singing. Are these people disciples of the school of the occult?" You will keep away such people that come with the intention to criticize. Now write down the words of the new occult exercise: Izgriava sluntseto The sun rises Prashta svetlina It brings light Nosi radost za zhivota tia. And the light brings joy for life. We will make an experiment: one person will sing alone the exercise and after that the other will sing: Sila zhiva, izvorna, techoushta (living power, welling, flowing). The exercise is still not finished. Do not be hasty! I am teaching you how to build occult songs„ (The Master sang alone Izgriava sluntseto … and we all sang after that Sila zhiva, izvorna techoushta.) After we master these exercises we will give a concert and will make an experiment by introducing here and there these exercises, so that we may be able to see what the results of the occult music will be. Now, write down these words: Venir Benir, Bikhar Benum, il biout, il bisout. Write also the word "sy-mou-tou-sy" which will be an exercise. Now we will sing first sy-mou-tou-sy with the following tones: sol, si, re, sol, since the exercise "Venir-Benir" is more complicated, when we sing sy-mou-tou-sy first normally and then gradually with lowering and raising our voices the first exercise will become easier for us. After that we will sing "The sun is rising". You are singing like students in school, aren't you? After we will sing it one more time I want to see if you have memorized it. (We sang the whole song.) Let those of you who cannot sing listen until this song penetrates into their consciousness. As the words are arranged there is a certain meaning which is absolute. What brings light? Light brings living power like a welling spring. Each word is in its place; whatever you may think, it is a power, the power of light. Sing now silently "The sun is rising." (We all sang.) In the words "Zoun-mezoun" is to be found the secret meaning. In these words is the inner meaning of all things. "The sun rises, it brings light", these things are far away from us. In the words: "living power, welling, flowing" we can experience the power from within, but the light we can try to experience only through our eyes. Therefore the first part of the song is the preparation; a man must be prepared and this takes a long period of time. For this reason this exercise is not yet completed. I am interpreting the music of the occult into modern language, We are moving in a reverse way. Before the words "Living power, welling, flowing" we must place other words, as does an artist, so that the whole exercise may be completed. The first part is the preparation, the second part is the part of action, it expresses that which does the building. "Zoun-mezoun" is then the meaning — the result of that which has been built. When I was explaining to you these words tonight the weather was beautiful but now it has become slightly humid. The humid weather is not good for the music of the occult, it makes the vibrations slightly unfavourable. Now you can sing these four syllables: sy-mou-tou-sy and exercise with them. Have you remembered them? The tones are: sol, si, re, sol. If you sing these tones with their common sounds: sol, si, re, sol they lack occult significance. With the sounds "sy-mou-tou-sy" the meaning is different. Let's sing three times "sy-mou-tou-sy" and the fourth time we will keep singing the last vowel longer. Music is expressed through the same organs as speech, the same membrane in the throat which serves for speech serves also for singing. Therefore singing and speech are brother and sister because they come from the same center. For this reason this membrane must be used constantly for singing. The first thing that happens to a man who comes in touch with the Black Lodge is the harshening of the voice. When the voice becomes harsh the membrane becomes altered, the character of a man changes also because these vibrations are very sensitive. Place in your mind the thought that you are mobilized and say to yourself: "I am mobilized by divine music and I cannot sing but according to all the regulations of divine music." Implant this thought in your mind because this is most valuable. Do not permit anyone to get hold of your throat. When you sing you must be very free. Do not pay attention to what people may say. You may stop and sing even in the center of town. People may think that something is wrong with you but you say to yourself: "I do not care what people say because I sing according to the divine way. If people are courageous to sit in taverns and drink beer, I will be courageous to sing in a divine way. Why should I be the fool and you the right one." This is an important decision. Some among you may think that a certain decency must be observed. I agree that in the world there are certain rules but we have left the frame of common decency. We do things which are very decent. Go to a place where there are many people, where you have friends and start singing. Maybe now you have in your mind certain second thoughts but after ten years you will go out into reality and sing. When you decide to do something the sacrifice which you make must be worth it, it must bring respective fruit. This is an exercise for you to become courageous. You are afraid but this fear must disappear. I would recommend to you to go into the woods to loosen up and sing as loud as you can. Give expression to your emotions. Now when we sing somewhere you think what will this man say, what will the other man say. We can sing also very silently. I am for the inner spiritual freedom. Every one of you must have spiritual freedom. When you sing do not raise your voice, rather listen to yourselves to be sure that you take the correct tones. I have a second violin which I have been lending to different violinists but they said that they cannot play it. I will bring it with me next time to class. I must put into it a certain element of softness. When I put this vital power into the second violin this violin will not play well, because I will take this vital power from this violin and put it in the other violin. In the violin as well as in everything we can put this vital power and it will become alive. We can put into a violin our double and it will penetrate all the pores, at will penetrate into the whole violin. This way the violin has a special voice with fine vibrations. Great violinists and pianists do this. Singers that sing well bring into their larynx, into their soul this special softness. If you could put into your voice this element of vitality you will have a perfect voice and everyone will like to listen to you. But our soul must enter into our larynx. The soul must go everywhere. If the soul enters into the larynx we will sing well, if it enters in our head we will think well. You must know how to tell your soul where to go and it will listen to you. Say: "I want you in my throat." — Good, as you wish, what is your next desire? — Go into my mind I wish to think well. Yet you say "Please, if you wish go into my mind." No, this is not right. You must say definite words, for example say: "Go into my throat to sing for me a beautiful song as you know how to do this." It will sing such a song and you will have a recollection from the past. The soul sings. And now, when the poor soul wants to sing you interfere, saying: "I know that you have the desire to sing but my son is sick and you may disturb him." No, if the soul starts to sing your son will be cured. But you say to your soul: "Please do not sing because my husband is not well disposed." Do not interfere with your rational soul in its manifestations! Every desire, every impulse must be sacred as are sacred the thoughts and desires of God. There is no exception. Because the strivings of the divine soul in us are sacred, and every impulse, whatever it may be, is sacred, too. In the soul everything is noble. You cannot have any doubts. All the soul's impulses are noble, sacred, pure, holy. To every sacred impulse in the world there is one exactly opposite, a reverse impulse. A man has two souls. A noble desire appears in a man and immediately comes the so called evil soul. It will make you walk in the opposite way. This has been proven by experience. I believe that of those who are here every one has made this experience. Therefore, in the school of the occult observation of the laws is required. You must keep the divine laws. When you come to them you will say: "This is a law!" After you have made an experiment and have attained the result you may contemplate, you may ponder over this result. When you have made something you may explore to find what it is made of. But as long as it is not accomplished do not touch it. You can take your watch apart and see how it is made, but as long as your watch is not ready yet you are not supposed to touch it. And so, music is one of the great resources in the world. With it you can attune yourselves. We will use music as a weapon, artillery, machine-gun fire. We will not use music for enjoyment only but as a protection. What does the psalmist say? "Praise the Lord with guitars and with cymbals." I would add to it: with violins, with trumpets, with zithers and all the instruments that are now available „When the Bulgarians see a violin they think that only the devil can play it. For them the bagpipe is more honored and the bagpipe-player has a higher esteem than the violinist. I do not know why, but this is true. There is also this saying that the violinist cannot take care of a home. To me this is right, because the violinist who does not look after a house is a violinist! He is devoted to his violin. If he would put his mind into the home he would not look for the violin. Being absorbed in the violin he says: "Let someone else look after the house, I will make people happy. Those that are sad I will make joyous, those that are sick I will cure." For this reason, we, too, need music. These are short remarks about music. Let's now read some of what you have written on the crying of little children. (Some of the papers were read.) Not all of you have written your paper. Nor did you write a resume on the works of the class. Write only on the core of the theme — on the crying — only the basic aspects, but all of you must write, even maybe only two words, but they should be written. Someone may say: "I cannot write." Write two words even if they are nonsense, but write. If you say that you cannot write you remain in a negative position. Some of you come to the class without having written their themes. This is not right. Here in this school such disobedience is not accepted. The crying is the first exercise in music. This is enough. But it must be true crying, because I have observed some children that do not know how to cry. A child that cries truly makes the first exercising in music. A child that only whimpers and does not know how to cry wants to say: "How should I begin this song?" when it brings out a tone it is not musical. True crying is the first musical exercise! In this respect the tears help. Some children scream, get red but do not shed tears, their eyes bulge out, they try and cannot come to true crying. If the mother is not there this attempt for crying can come to a true crying and after a while they fall asleep. In fact there exist songs and exercises like for example this with the syllables "sy-mou-tou-sy" if they are sung in a monotonous way one can fall asleep. Variety is necessary. One must sing with small interruptions (the master sings stacatto) and then legato. As soon as the vibrations become monotonous one can fall asleep. All states must interchange. The tone "si" is a soft tone. When God sent Moses to Pharaoh what did he say to Pharaoh? —"Sy", "symou". When you say "mou" this tone is very strong at the end. In it there are two movements. The "U" in the occult science has a double movement, one movement is downward and the other — upward. What is the difference between "mo" and "mu"? Have you noticed when you sing the sound "mou" which organ of the throat participates, and which one for the sound "mo"? (The Master sings the exercise "sy-mou-tou-sy" separately but very silently.) You must sing with zeal (ardor). Make observations upon your own condition. For example if you are mentally ill-disposed, make an analysis. Take your watch and start to repeat this exercise and see after how many minutes this condition will change. Sometimes your mood must change and sometimes not. Yet when this energy comes to a point close to bursting and collects in one part of your body we must then stop this explosion, we must give a way of this energy to be used for the accomplishment of some work. Modern men suffer from accumulation of energy. Sometimes this energy gathers in your mouth, sometimes on the tip of your nose, sometimes in your ears. If you only touch such a man's nose immediately this energy will manifest. You could touch such a man everywhere else but not his nose. Others accumulate energy on the upper or lower side of their hand. When this energy collects it may cause explosion, a morbid state. Often certain diseases are caused due to such accumulation of this energy. It is rough and it causes these depositions. The depositions are due to the electrical currents. When the vibrations are coarser this semi-organic matter collects around the joints and when the weather changes the muscles contract, as a result we have at that point occurring some pressure, some friction. These semi-organic matters being solid when they pass through the tissues create friction, gradually inflammation, a chemical reaction occurs and as a result we have swelling. I would proceed to explain to you these processes but I feel that your minds are too critical. For example if I give you a password: "Could you give us another formula?" No, you need will power in order to fulfill an experiment. A friend of mine, a healthy, young man told me the following: "I was given the assignment to write on a certain problem but suddenly I had acute pains in my appendicitis. I had such pains! I started looking for a doctor but from within I listened to something telling me: 'Say to your appendicitis that you are mobilized, that you serve God and that the pain must leave you, that the time was not proper for it to manifest, since it is my time now for that.' Half an hour later the pain disappeared." Who was the cause of that? If he did not speak to the pain in such a resolute way he would have been sick at least for three weeks, with all the complications, the visits of doctors, etc You must say to the disease when it comes: "Listen, friend, I am mobilized! This is it! I live in a divine world where all "beings live in harmony what do you want from me? Go out!" The sickness is a being. Modern doctors are funny. When a swelling occurs they immediately cut it. Now, these things which I am explaining to you should not be taken into the outside world because to those people things must be explained in their own language and according to their concepts. We cannot speak to modern men of science about rational worlds, or rational powers because superficially they act mechanically, automatically. If you should tell these people that you understand these powers you will not be considered an intelligent person. They say: "This is not true." These people cannot believe us. When you go deep into understanding man you will see that two currents flow mostly through the feet in and out. Sometimes the toes are open, or rather in the ethereal double which is connected with the physical body there are certain openings. Some beings can enter through the feet and move in one way. There are currents that enter through the nose. For example a being enters in you to investigate your body and after that cannot go out. When it examines your body it finds a nice place, it likes it there and builds for itself a little home and says: "I will not leave this place, it is nice and I will make for myself a little home." It starts to break up your substances and as a good mason it knows what to use for building its home. You must say to it: "Listen, friend, you cannot build here. Have you asked for permission? Have you mobilized yourself? You must stop with the building! In the name of the great divine law which governs the world you have come as a guest and must leave „ If you do not obey I will find ways to dispose with you according to all the rules which I know." And it goes. Yet we are afraid when something like that happens. How? We call the doctor and when he examines the sick he shakes his head indicating that the condition of the patient is very serious. Modern men are hypnotized. How? The sick man sits and looks at the doctor. The last one checks the pulse. Again he shakes his head and says: "The pulse is irregular."—The poor man wonders what could this indicate. "There is a heart failure," — Failure? He is all scared and his heart begins to beat even faster. The doctor gives a prescription and immediately someone rushes to the pharmacy. This is funny, heart failure! There is no such thing. I can make everyone of you to have such a heart failure. There certainly exists the danger for heart failure. In occult medicine the true symptoms exist which indicate if the heart has a certain organic damage or not. He who studies the occult medicine will find this out. The symptoms appear by themselves on the nails. For example when one becomes sick from tuberculosis there are certain signs which appear on the nails, also. Correct diagnosis of the character of a disease can be made also within one hundred and ninety days. Now comes the doctor and checks the tongue, it is white which indicates that the stomach does not function well. He checks the eyes, they are yellow. This indicates that the liver has a malfunction. The tongue, the eyes — not normal. The third method for checking is counting the pulse — irregular. It indicates also some irregularity in the function of the heart. Well, what is wrong with the heart? The nerve which regulates the heartbeat is defective. There is a break there and sometimes this break slows down and another time it loosens a little and the heart starts to beat fast and one can become afraid. You must say to your heart in this case: "Listen, friend, it is a law that the heart of a man must make seventy-two beats in the minute and you must be obedient." You will repair the break and will not permit any more beats because in the present conditions of life in which we live seventy-two beats are enough. When you meet a man who loves you, you will say to him "Friend you can loosen your brake and make your heart beat seventy-four times a minute." When a person comes to your house whom you love you will say to yourself "Let my heart beat seventy-five times in a minute, even more." You will inform it that when the heart beats more often accumulation of energy will occur at certain places. At present the human heart does not pulsate regularly. You have not made experiments to observe how the heart pulsates and how many changes there are in the way it pulsates. This is a whole science! If you made some research in this you could notice yourselves the changes but when you do not understand this science there is a chance that you may get afraid. When you make your observations you will find how many kinds of currents there exist, how the pulsation of the whole cosmos occurs, how the flows of energy occur in nature. The heart indicates the pulsating of the whole universe. And, according to our heart we may define what kind of flows occur at a certain point on earth. This is a whole science. For this kind of study one must be very sensitive. At the end of the fingers exist certain swellings in the form of tentacles. These must be developed considerably to become very sensitive so that they may notice these flows. When the sensitiveness of the nervous system becomes excessively developed little swellings, very fine organic swellings are formed. With such refined sensitivity one can feel with the slightest touch these currents. Let's now return to music. You must begin to sing in order to be able to tune yourselves. After that we will proceed to the second exercise which is "Venir-Benir." At this point I must warn you to keep separate the songs of the occult. You must not mix the occult exercises with ordinary music. These exercises are to be sung at special occasions. There is certain time when these exercises will be sung so that you may have respective results. You cannot sing them all the time. You must be very serious about the singing of the occult music. With the ordinary singing it does not matter when you sing but when you sing occult music your consciousness must be awakened, there must not exist any splits in the consciousness. If we sing this way we can achieve in one year very good results. You must protect these exercises. Now I am presenting to you the following theory and we will apply it experimentally in the most elementary things. Sing the song "The sun rises, it brings light," Singing with the necessary concentration as I indicated above our sun will come to rise. When I say that our sun will come to rise I do not imply the external sun but there exists another sun that brings inner light. We do not sing to the physical sun. When our inner sun rises it brings us its light that brings joy to our life. Then comes the living power, that wells up and flows. These are symbols. They indicate that you enter the world of reality. If it was a question to criticize, there is not a stricter critic than I am. I have noticed that when I speak some criticize my way of expression. If we would "begin to criticize precisely I would come with such a criticism about the Bulgarian language that maybe only 250 will remain. Only two hundred and fifty words will remain and these will be the roots of the language with which something rational may be expressed. Now we can use a number of words and will achieve no results at all. Many preachers and clergymen speak but where are the results? They cannot have any results. For this reason when a translation is made of the Scripture a man must understand very well the language of the occult to understand the words in their deep meaning. My intention is to interpret exactly according to the original. In the Scripture some ideas have been translated to such an extent literally that if the prophet or Christ would appear they would wonder about the inventiveness of the mind of these interpreters, how it was possible for them to distort the thoughts and say that which none of these men have ever dreamed nor have these things come to their minds. And modern men say: "This is the most accurate translation according to the original." The interpreter has translated it wrong and then comes someone else after him, reads the Scriptures and says: "Thus has been written in the Scriptures." — Have you been able to verify the translation with the original? — "No, but the Spirit has told me." The Spirit has spoken to him yet he continues to cite the same wrong translation. This is not right! Even I have been thinking sometimes what other word to use instead of love. The only powerful word in the Bulgarian language is "blagost" which is sweetness, the natural sweetness of honey or fruit. When something is sweet it cannot be bitter. Yet what is love? This word has no roots, it has no symbol. What means love we do not know, where it derives from, we do not know. The Bulgarian word equal to love "obich" has also no root. We do not know wherefrom it originates. The word "blagost", something sweet, is a very strong word. When we find such words about which we have experience, in us are generated such thoughts and ideas which function rationally. For example in music there are certain tones (the Master sings "the sun rises", "izgriava sluntseto") which are very harmonious, after that follow such tones in the song which are not that harmonious but this is because of the nature of the language. The other tones come because of the words. Each word must express an image. "The sun rises" —this is a festive, ideal moment. In the occult exercises there is always an image. All European languages, whichever you may take, lack important elements for the interpretation of the occult exercises. At present there are some musicians in France who make experiments to interpret the ordinary music into occult. They begin to compose occult songs, but the last ones are arranged in a very special way. After some time we will have occult music which will bring something completely new. Now you must be ready! Such musicians exist and in them the occult music will be born. You must study theory of music. Silent prayer. Source
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Transformation Of Energies Twenty-third lecture by the Master, held before the General esoteric class on 4 August 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret1 prayer I will now talk for a while about transformation of energies. You should partly get acquainted with this great law of transformation. Let us say that you have a certain pleasant or unpleasant state of the Spirit, the soul or the body. State of the Spirit implies that you are thinking of something, that some thought occupies you; state of the soul implies some feeling in the heart. So you have some state either in your mind, in your heart or in your will. Well, precisely this state ensues from the tension of some force. For example, you are walking, and a tiny thorn pricks into your heel – for each step, you will feel unpleasantness. So a certain force has attacked this thorn, it influences your foot and you get restless. Whoever does not know the reason for your state – that this tiny thorn has got into your heel – would say: “This person just wants this and acts this way – twisting”, but this twisting comes from this thorn. As a rule, Bulgarians have with them such big needles and when they prick themselves with some thorn, they start picking with this needle until the thorn comes out; once it gets out, they put their mouths on this place to suck up some blood, and then they put a little salt on top of it. Well, now this thorn may get somewhere into your feelings, because thorns grow everywhere just like uninvited guests. And if it so happens that you walk along an unbeaten road where these thorns grow, then possibly not only one, but ten, twenty or thirty of them might puncture the sole of your foot. Now, these thorns are still more dangerous when a feeling rouses in you, let us say, a feeling of disgust or hatred. You may be a philosopher, you may be a religious person, but when this feeling comes, you will change; you will forget your religiousness and will show yourself just like you were originally. Twenty years ago I watched how two missionaries in North Bulgaria flew at each other’s throats and almost killed each other, but half an hour later they prayed, and after the prayer – this-and-that, they kissed and forgave each other. Now I ask what happened between them. The cause is one word – this word in a certain moment might be misunderstood, it may incite a series of other feelings and cause another kind of a state. You have to know the laws, to turn these forces into a positive direction, to replace them with something else. Now, let us say that we talk about hatred. You might ask: “Couldn’t we go without hatred?” – You cannot – the stronger hatred is, the stronger Love is, too. But when will Love be stronger? – As soon as this hatred is removed. Love will be so much stronger, as much as hatred has been stronger. Hence, hatred is a shadow of Love, and by this shadow we will be able to judge in what direction this Reality is located, because if you do not love, you will hate. However, there is a third state that is worse than hatred, because the one who hates you, is active; the one who hates you, takes from you – this person will either hit you, or lame you, or set your house on fire; if this person is a journalist, he will write in the newspapers to compromise you and will clamp you so that you can feel his hatred. This is a restrictive condition. The one, who cares for you or loves you, will do you Good, will recommend you at the proper place; if you are poor, this person will lend you money, make you a house – this is a process opposite to the first one. Now I will not dwell on psychology, where these two states have derived from, because the state of hatred has its origin, too. Initially this state was natural, but now this state of hatred is unnatural. Therefore, in present life, we should place hatred as a rear of Love, every time it is possible. And the esoteric law reads as follows: “Do not oppose hatred, because if you oppose it, you give it more power – if you oppose it, you acknowledge it a reality, and if you oppose this reality, you acknowledge it as a power. If you do not acknowledge it, then you should think only of Love, speak only of Love and leave hatred as it is – to act alone by itself. And Christ says it rightly: “Do not oppose evil”. Why? – In order not to give it strength – once you oppose it, you allow it to draw strength from you. If your mind is occupied with someone who hates you, and you want to oppose this person, you allow him to draw some strength from you. And we can say that hatred is theft done in a lawful way, blackmail, drawing of human energy. And the one, who hates you, will always exhaust you, hit you, break your head or leg. If it is in physical aspect, this person will hit and lame you so that you cannot oppose him; thus, he would like to take your energy both in an intellectual and spiritual aspect. Therefore, Christ says: “Do not oppose evil and think of Good within yourself”. So there is the difficult part, because evil – these are intelligent beings from the Brotherhood of Darkness2, and they say: “Oppose evil, because only in this way you will show your character” – for them, doing evil is life, while doing Good is death. As in the Lodge of Light evil is excluded and everyone is being punished for it, in the same way in the Lodge of Darkness, Good is excluded and everyone is being punished when doing Good. Also these moods you sometimes experience come through suggestion. For example, someone would come to persuade you, saying “You give him a lesson, prove to him that you are a good person, that you are not a simpleton; otherwise your prestige will be lowered – clench your fist and show yourself so that everyone trembles around you.” At the same time, another thought from the Brotherhood of Light comes to you, saying: “No, act after your Love, don’t pay attention to this, consider it not addressed to you.” And these two thoughts begin talking to you – the one school and the other one start talking to you. You sit and sit, and then say: “We shall take the road”. You are in the Brotherhood of Light and yet you work with the Dark ones, so you are to the left. Because every moment you are either to the left or to the right: you get angry – you are to the left, you love – you are to the right. This path is like this – each moment we will alter, now to the left, now to the right, until we come to the position to distinguish these states and immediately grasp the moment in which they want to tempt us. When you come to the position to grasp this moment, you have to let your intuition manifest and not oppose it – and once you do not oppose it, you will be victorious. Every time when one is able to withstand a certain temptation, a certain seduction, this person always gets stronger; but if one is unable to withstand a certain temptation or seduction, one falls and weakens – this is a law. When temptations come, you cannot avoid them. Temptations will come, tests will come, the question lies not in this; the bitter and sweet feelings will come – this is a law, there is no other path in the present conditions, and everyone should know how to receive them. This law is the same also in the Mental world: some thoughts are formed by the Brotherhood of Light, while others are formed by the Brotherhood of Darkness, and every single thought has its own utmost limits. Then I will define the following law for you: those who walk in the left path, they prolong the time in the beginning and shorten it in the end; while those disciples who walk in the Brotherhood of Light, shorten time in the beginning but prolong it in the end. I will now explain this law to you: for example, a worldly person has some time to think and discuss, it takes him one, two or three days, he thinks a lot about how, for instance, to cover a road of several kilometres – he would send a whole expedition to check the road, to investigate it, and would say: “This road cannot be travelled along.” While the person who lives in accordance with God, who walks in the Divine path, who has intuition, beholds this road all at once, and says: “God speaks so – it is possible to travel”. But once we come to the methods of the Brotherhood of Light, when we see the results in the end, we protract time. Now, the one who would lend you money, first protracts time for one, two or three months – the time will pass and when the term for collecting the money comes, he shortens the time, he will restrict you and you will pay, it cannot be helped. In the Brotherhood of Light, this process is reverse – we think in the beginning and then act, but when the fixed date comes for paying back, and someone wants to pay us back, we say: “We do not want this money, you can keep it for yourself” – this person extends time. And so, you will watch the process which takes place inside you. If, still in the beginning of your life, you want the fruit to come quickly, if you want the time to come soon for you to achieve something, if you want the results to come fast, then you walk into the left path – if you want to master something rapidly, then you walk in the left path. If, after having worked for a long time, you let the fruit come at last, and you are not in a hurry, then you walk on the right track, in the right way3. The one who has worked for one’s nation in the worldly manner, and who has walked in the left path, wants a monument to be built for him, and wants to be written about in the papers, and if they do not do so, he considers these people to be ungrateful. While a person who has walked in the right4 path, when the time comes for an anniversary, says: “There is no need to do this for me, let this be done after my death” – this person protracts time. If you wish for rapid results still in this life, you are to the left. If you hurry in the beginning, you are in accordance with God; if you protract in the beginning, you go according to the world. If you shorten the time in the end, you go according to the world; if you extend it in the end, you go according to God – this is a law inside you. And when you worry about the results of your life, about what you have done, you are to the left. You have done something and you worry – you are to the left. For instance, you worry: “What will happen to us, what if they don’t baptize our children, what if they don’t wed us?” – you already are to the left. So you have not come to this world to be wed and buried, these are side-matters. In which code of the New Testament is it written that one has to be wed and baptized? When God created the first man, was it written somewhere, that he would be wed, did God wed him? God created man in His image and according to His likeness; He said: “Be fruitful, subdue the Earth, live in accordance with God” - this is what the Lord has said. And later, when people came and began to live worldly, they used to say: “We must be wed, we must be baptized, the Lord has said so.” I am asking, who wedded the first man, who wedded the first humans? He who wedded the first humans, He will wed us, too. If this is a question of baptism, there are two kinds of baptism: with water and with Spirit. If it comes to baptism, we will prefer to be baptized by the one who baptizes with Spirit. The priest might dip me in his cauldron twenty times and I will still remain the same person. No, the Lord will baptize you, and if He baptizes me once, it is enough for me. Now, who will wed you? – God. And who will bury you? – If it is a question of burying, the Lord will bury you, because He will also bring you to life at least. If we worry, this shows that we bother about public opinion – then you are to the left. We could have in mind this public opinion, if it consisted of saints, of noble people, of people with the most sublime character, mind, heart and will – then we would accept their opinion. As for those who bother you – these are people who take bribes every day, at each step. What would these people say? Here is what a distinguished person of theirs used to tell me: “Though being bad people, we know that when a noble5 society appears, then bad people will crowd together and fly out at this society to justify their own sins.” And when they speak of you, we know that these are their sins, but we are not such stupid people. So when transforming energies, everyone should occupy oneself to see how much time it takes one to transform some energy. Now, you can make experiments – let two friends say to each other: “Tell me some offensive word, so that I can see how long it will take me to get over this offence”; pull out your watch and see at what time he offended you and how long it will take you to transform this offence. For instance, at 6 o’clock in the morning he offended you, and you will see how long it takes you to transform this feeling – whether you will be able to transform it in two minutes, in half an hour, in one, two or three hours. If you cannot calm down this feeling in a month, it means that your character is weak; if you can transform this feeling in one or two hours, if you can transform this offensive word, so that it becomes an ordinary word for you; and not only stand it but that this becomes a musical word for you – it means that you have a strong character. Now I am explaining to you the transforming of energies in the following way: let us say that you enter a restaurant; no matter if you are an esoteric disciple or a Christian, but you have no money, and the restaurant-keeper asks you: “Do you have any money?” – “I don’t” – “But you have a nice hat, I will give you a meal for that hat” – so you put down your hat. I am asking whom you should thank – your hat or the restaurant-keeper? – You should thank the hat. You enter the restaurant for the second time, you already have no hat, but your shoes are nice, you have no money, and the restaurant-keeper says: “I can give you a lunch for your shoes” – you take off your shoes and remain barefoot. Whom you have to thank? – Your shoes, not the restaurant-keeper. And if this restaurant-keeper tells you: “You should thank me that I fed you” – yes, but due to the hat; “Thank me that I fed you for the second time” – yes, but due to the shoes; i.e. the words of the restaurant-keeper are true to some extent. Maybe this restaurant-keeper just wants to test you, and the opposite might happen – he might just want to test you, to see what you will think about him, he might take your hat and give it back to you again, he might take your shoes and send them back to you again, i.e. he wants to conceal his virtue. So you will thank your hat, and he will give it back to you. When you thank your hat and he gives it back to you, he plays backgammon – he has won; but in the game, if he does not give your hat and shoes back, that settles the question – no gratitude. Now, our educators in church want us to thank them. All right, but if they have taken our hats, our shoes and coats, and do not give them back, but have given in exchange three meals to each one of us, then what shall we thank them for? I say: thank your nice hat, shoes and coat, that you could have three meals for them, but there is nothing to thank these educators for. All right, now I interpret: if a priest baptizes you, what will you gain? If you become a noble5 person after this priest baptizes you, it is good, but if, after being baptized by him, you become a scoundrel, the lowest good-for-nothing, then how much is his baptism worth? It is better if he did not baptize you. Hence, in each moment we should know how to transform these energies that accumulate every day in the form of feelings, thoughts and acts inside our body. We cannot require someone to be patient, we should not force patience upon this person from outside – he has to realize this from inside, this patience should be born within his consciousness. Patience cannot be present at every moment – sometimes patience is compatible while sometimes it is not compatible. In what cases must we have patience? If I am weak and someone is being hanged before me, I will have patience – this is God’s Will; but if I am a strong person and some people of a weak character are hanging someone before me, I will not put up with it, I will not keep my patience, I will stand up, bind them and try to dissuade them and I will not say that such is God’s Will. Hence, when are we recommended patience? – When I am weak, I will have patience, for the weak one has to be patient; when I am strong, I will not put up with it – once you are strong, you must help right away. Now this might suggest to you the thought that God is called long-patient, but do you know what God’s consideration for His long-patience ensues from? – The Lord knows that if He gets angry, the world will end, hence He is long-patient because of the consequences that might result from His anger. If He gets angry at one person, the world will be gone, because, if He gets angry, he will be angry in a way people have never seen. This is the reason why God is so long-patient. He knows that the people of weak character, the sinful people would not compel Him to betray the laws He has set up, to put Himself out of His own peace and follow their minds, and walk in their paths – He will walk in His own path. Therefore, in this respect, patience has its own place. And we should be like God – if someone criticizes us, we will walk in our path and will not stop to reason about criticism; if we stop to reason, we give strength to criticism. We will walk on the path that we are convinced of and that we have tested. Now, in Chamkoria6, in one of my talks I told my listeners that we, men, women and children at the age of 15 to 70, climbed up Musala7. – “It is a lie” – they say, - “It is not possible, you want to mislead us, a 70-year-old person cannot climb up Musala!” One of the attending persons sitting there says: “I am a witness of this, it is true.” – “But please tell us is that really true?” – People consider these things fiction. If people consider fiction the things you are doing now before their eyes, then how are you going to convince them of things they have never seen? In your reflections8 as disciples of an Esoteric school, you should always stop and consider matters. For instance, is it worth transforming the energy, do you have enough energy to spend and so on. Because in a certain case, we might have much more important work to do than deal with idle matters. And everyone has noticed that when a temptation comes, a thought always imposes itself in the following manner: you must decide something and you think that if you act in a certain way, then the affair will be settled, will be made easier; but if you act like this, not only will the things not be settled, but they get mixed up even more. In some cases it is necessary to drop this thought and absolutely ignore it, transform your energy and go on your right path, walk in the path of your own development. Sometime a person feels nervous and cannot bear9 something and says: “I can’t bear it”. Why do you suggest to yourself that you cannot bear it? This is a suggestion from outside. Imagine that four people catch you, bind you and ask you: “Can’t you bear it?” and hit you fifty strokes; then would you not bear it? – You will bear it and go beyond it. If four persons with these sticks compel you to bear it, then why could you not say, according to the same law: “I can restrain myself!” – You can, why not, only we, when suggesting these negative thoughts to ourselves, say: “I can’t.” You will suggest to yourselves: “I can, I can endure”; you would not say: “I can endure sufferings”, but you will bring Love into your soul and say: “With Love, I can bear everything!” Some stupid thought comes to you; do not deny this stupid thought, but tell yourself: “With Wisdom, I can do everything!” A lie comes; do not deny the lie, but say to yourself: “With Truth, I can do everything!” And then you draw out forces. So, when it comes to the moment to apply the esoteric law, you will always use positive words and phrases. If you use even one negative word of any nature, it will always bring bad consequences with itself. If you say: “I will get sick, I will die, our things are not getting better”, then bad effects are coming. No, all these thoughts are not for the esoteric disciple. Even the disciples of the Brotherhood of Darkness are much bolder in their statements – they come and use the positive methods of the Brotherhood of Light. A disciple of the Brotherhood of Darkness never says “no”, such a disciple says: “I will do good”, but when he gets the power, he uses it for evil. Therefore many of the Brotherhood of Light disguise themselves and go into the Brotherhood of Darkness to study their methods, while many of the Brotherhood of Darkness enter the Brotherhood of Light to study their methods – both schools have to be explored. For example, an evil person says: “I will win, I will become strong”, and a good person says: “I will become rich”, but both of them, after getting the strength, generally spend this strength – the one will do violence, and the other one will do beneficence, but both of them make statements. Now, each one of you, as a disciple of this Great school, should be positive in Good. You will not say: “I will take revenge on him”, but you will say: “I shall requite him by Love, I shall requite him by Wisdom, I shall requite him by Truth, Righteousness, Virtue, Mercy10 – that is how I shall be quits with him!” And only in this way these energies, these forces can be transformed from one state to another, because all energies are connected with Intelligent11 beings. We have to study the language of all Intelligent beings – and when you know their language, they will listen to you; but when you do not know their language, they do not help. Now we all study the language of things. Do you know what this Divine language is like? There are two things by which you can recognize it: when you have learned some of the Divine words and you have prayed, you will feel certain warmth down, in the pit of the stomach, your soul will expand and you will feel that you will soon get an answer, you receive encouragement. Then an hour, two or three hours have not even passed, and you get your answer just as you felt it. While sometimes you pray but feel some rigidity, some bitterness12, as if your prayer stands a span above your head, and no reply arrives – you speak to God in an unknown language and He does not answer you. When we speak according to His will, He answers us. Now, in the Esoteric school, the law of transformation of energies is related to the necessity of things. Every time when you start trying the law, you will begin with necessity in Life. You are hungry, you need only bread; you will take in your mind this first thought – to remove your hunger, to calm down your organism; you will not put in your mind any other thought, but you will only focus your thought to obtain bread, i.e. food, lunch, to feed yourself, this should be your thought. Once you obtain the first thing, you ought to calm down, for instance you may plan to sleep somewhere; then you will concentrate your mind upon sleeping. And then, according to the degree of necessity, all your needs will line up. If you observe this law in this way, then your prayer can be answered to, but if you put all these desires all together and if you want everything at once, all these things will be delayed and all your plans will not be achieved, because you have not observed this law of sequence. You will pray for the first thing necessary, for the thing that you cannot do without, then – for the second one, the third one, the fourth one and so on. This is how Divine law works – with mathematical precision, but if you change things and put the minor things in first place, the law changes by itself. Now, only by this law of transformation of energies, a judicious13 harmony can be created. For example, it would not be wise on my part to put on my worst clothes with a repulsive smell, enter your home and say: “Now, stand me, love me” – it is not allowed to treat any mistress like this, unless if it is to test her. I am not allowed, on my part, to tempt anyone, I have no right to do this, unless it is to test this person. Hence, on my part, I have to be so correct, so as not to give occasion to any of my classmates to lose his or her balance, neither to serve as a means of temptation, because neither will I gain something from this, nor does my classmate. Let us say that one of you, a brother, is off his balance, angry, and you gather and begin to say things about him which are not necessary – about his negative side; this passes through the whole class and then you all talk around that we have no other disciple like him – you have all failed your test, you are all to the left. Once this brother, this disciple, has made a mistake, you should all gather, make a prayer, send a grateful thought towards him, draw something from his mistake and say: “Thank God, that the Lord gave us a very good lecture and we thank this brother very much that he became a model and gave us a test.” Send him nice thoughts, he will be encouraged – then you are to the right, this is transformation of energies and that is how you should act. And so, for the future, as disciples of the School, you have to apply this law, it is a Force for you – only in this way can you develop properly. If you begin to put it into practice, you will notice a certain growing, enlightening of your mind, softening of your heart, strengthening of your will. Here is an example: I say that I have patience; you come into my room, I have some work to do, I want to write or correct something, I draw out my watch, but say nothing to you, because according to the esoteric law, it is not allowed to say: “I have some work to do, come some other time.” This is not allowed – according to the esoteric law when a disciple comes, he should guess by himself that it is time for him to leave. So I draw out my watch, look at it and the more this wish grows in me, that he should leave, the more the willingness to stay grows in him. Make an experiment: sometime you wish that someone leaves, while a wish, two times stronger, grows in this person to stay longer – he feels as if someone draws him, the process is reverse. Some other time you want a friend of yours to stay longer, because you love your friend, but less than five or ten minutes will have passed when your friend will say: “Good-bye, I will come again to your place some other time ”, he or she will leave – this is suggested to your friend by the brothers of Darkness. But if I set to myself the thought: “Wouldn’t he or she leave?”, all of a sudden my friend would find something else to tell me. No, you will draw out your watch and will see how long you will stay quiet and calm as Diogenes, without disturbing your balance – you will stay quiet and calm as if nothing happened, even though a whole day might have passed. If your friend stays a whole day and you do not lose your equilibrium, you have won. And your friend will say to himself or herself after leaving: “I should not have stayed so long, I overdid it a little” – your friend feels that he or she has given more. If your friend has stayed more, provoked you and thrown you off your balance, then after leaving, he or she would say: “I would like to go to him the same way one more time.” These are purely psychological processes which take place in you. Most of you have this kind of experience – this is a great law which you should understand and observe; this law regulates things. So, to create a character through transformation of these energies is not an easy job. Have in mind that the great Divine Spirit who has been working over you for thousands of years14, has changed your character only a little, you have done only a little job. Even when someone among you enters God, his character changes with such difficulty. There are moments when this person must absolutely change and enter the New Life, but before he or she comes to this New Life, this change happens very slowly. Once this person enters the New Life, things are radically changed already. So now you will think over transformation of energies – you will think, you will have the willingness to see to what extent you are strong. And you will all take care to transform your energies, to turn them into positive ones. Once you transform them, you win. Now, the rest of your time you may use for questions that interest you. (Brother Stoychev announced a few messages towards all of us regarding our forthcoming departure to the Gathering of the Universal Brotherhood of Light in the town of Veliko Turnovo.) This year we will apply the law, and those who come to Turnovo, will act and after that think. All will act – you will have experiments and you will think over the results of these experiments. As for those who want to reason, to think, let them not come – the ones who would like to reason, let them go into the world, this is a place for reasoning. We set to experiments – we have philosophized for twenty years, now it is time for small experiments. Some of you who want to be the first, to rank first, here is the experiment I will give them: let them go to Musala at evening time, and go through the Rila desert, through the Maritza river, the Toundjanska valley and return. After we return from the gathering, I will give this experiment to those who want to make it. The heroes will come alone and then leave by two at a time. If you cannot traverse on top of Musala, then what can you do? In ancient times, one could do as much in the world as the kind of a peak one could traverse – all adepts, all Masters of the past have gone through high places. Some of you want tests – such will be the test: getting to Musala at evening time by moonlight. There also may be another test: traversing Musala in a dark, stormy night with snow up to the knees. If you endure it, we will say that you are a first-class hero on the physical level. But if you cannot go through Musala even at daytime, there are no privileges with us, and we will say: “Brother, it is not a big thing, but you couldn’t do it”. So we will judge people by their merits and whoever endures it, we will give this person the first place. Why? – Because he or she deserves it. We will give you the first place and we will give you the last place. Now, this will be the first experiment for everyone (all of you are young), for all disciples. This is a very hard test – to go through this desert of Rila: your hair will bristle up, and some of you may be sick for several full weeks. When we went to Musala recently, a friend of mine walked back on his own, passed through the desert of Rila, and here is the experience he had: he remained alone with his wife, while two other persons walked way ahead; this brother confessed to me like this: “When you were gone, I used to see living people springing out of each bush, my hair bristled up”. And indeed, when you enter this valley of the Rila desert, it is desolate there; no birds singing, but you only hear the rustling of the leaves and branches of the trees. And only if you pass it in the dark at evening time! And if you climb up the southern slope! First of all you have to pass this way at daytime so that you have no illusion that it is easy; then you will pass it by moonlight, and finally – in a dark, stormy night. Only three tries, otherwise you will be lost, your life will be in danger there. Once you make this attempt, there are certain energies in these places, which you will make use of. This is one of the best paths, this is an occult valley – only spirits of silence15 are implanted there and they have expelled all birds. When you enter there, you feel that all these energies go only inwards, and you become more and more serious – something grand! When you pass Musala and enter the valley of the Toundja River, immediately your heart opens up and becomes merry, joyful. When passing on one side, you are serious, while when passing on the other side, you are merry; these two conditions are excellent. Nature in this desert of Rila is grand, majestic! One should spend there a day, two or three days, in order to see what a fine place it is for reflection. Disciples should begin with these experiments, because in Bulgaria you have comfort with these high places, with these mountains – in Egypt and elsewhere, they used to create these things artificially, while here Nature has given them to us without our efforts. Therefore, this year we will start with these methods, we will all be active. When you come now to the gathering, you will all work – no privileges. You, too, citizens of Sofia; there must be twenty or thirty extra people for every job – all of you should work willingly, no one saying: “I cannot do this job”. We will begin with the example of the eldest, the strongest ones, and then the youngest will work in the same way. One is the law that you will obey, one is the opinion. We will try the law and see what the consequences are. This position will give us Freedom, a certain faith so that we try God’s will and apply it without any correction. In cannot be otherwise – we will try this without any change. If a certain route is set for you, then you will accomplish it without variation. When we walked to Musala, I told them: “When we come to the places with snow, no one will walk this way, we will take the path slightly to the side”. However, four people deviated from this rule, rolled down, and two of them were saved by a miracle, they contused. A disciple walks along with me and says: “Let me go this way” – he wants to walk along the snowy path. You shall travel along the same path that I travel on. When the Lord tells you to cross the snow, you will cross the snow, but now you will go around and walk through the crags – every time you will walk along the path traced by God. We are thankful that these two persons were rescued so safely: they were a man and a woman who rolled about a hundred meters downwards – it was because of their disobedience, because they wanted to cross the snow. Now, obedience is required of you all, inner obedience. Some would say: “This spirit talks to me like this”. This Spirit is supposed to talk equally to each one of us. A spirit who says one thing to me, and to you – another thing, is not this genuine Spirit. This Spirit should speak to us one and the same thing – this injunction is one and the same for me and for you, and for all of us. His will has to be the Divine Will, which we ought to implement without any doubt. And then the results will be excellent. My experience is: where God’s Will is done, there are always good results, without any exception; where we stray from God’s Will even in the very least, there the bad consequences will come immediately. I will give you an example which a sister told me: she made her experiment to Vitosha16, but on her way back to Dragalevtsi17, she feels like drinking some water, approaches the fountain and wants to drink only two or three sips, to wet her throat, but something from inside tells her quite definitely: “Do not drink, walk on your way.” She comprehends this voice but thinks: “Just two or three sips.” She stops by the fountain – she has nothing to drink with, beholds a young girl filling her pitchers, asks her to drink from her pitchers and the village girl lets her do it, she raises the pitcher to her mouth, but does not manage to drink even one sip when she drops the pitcher from her hand and breaks it. Now she stands before the broken pitcher, still with a dried throat, but she thinks of this no more, but instead thinks of how to pay for the pitcher – she has no penny on her, and the village girl insists on being paid. This sister offers her hat to the girl. – “I don’t need your hat; I want money, fifteen leva18!” – “I don’t have it.” – “Find some; go back from where you came!” – “Listen,” – the sister says – “I am a teacher, I will not lie to you, I will go back to Sofia and will return here on purpose, to bring you fifteen leva” – she takes her address and name, and so the problem is resolved. Now, I have faith in you. I got a nice impression that there is good will in all of you. When I was looking at these a hundred and four people, climbing up towards Musala, standing before the snow, they asked me: “Master, shall we go this way?” I look – a dangerous road, snow; I say: “You may do it”. When these a hundred and four people rushed, they reached Musala in a little over than an hour. I say: with these disciples, high peaks can be conquered – this is a good feature in them, it can be used for good. And all of them came back safely, except for those two, the contused ones – it was an incident. There is good will in all who listen to me – experience shows this, but I want for all of you to make good use of your energies. Those of you who will remain in Sofia, whose things will not be possible to be settled, I want them to observe the days of the gathering – to get together in groups of ten up to fifteen persons, to be in touch, to make contact on the astral plane, so that there is a connection between us and them. I believe that this year many things will be straightened up. The Invisible world works a lot and we have to be ready. It is someone else who works now for our sake, and we will correct things that are worked out and will take care not to ruin God’s path, God’s plan, not to distort God’s Word. Let us implement everything word for word19, let us fulfil all orders – let us be model disciples of the Brotherhood of Light. Because not many years will pass, and there will come brotherhoods from other places, which will wish to unite with you, to see how you live – you have to be ready. Now, a very good future lies ahead of you, there is no reason for you to lose heart. They really put packsaddles on in Turnovo, but everyone puts his own packsaddle on. When you come, we ask: “Brother, this packsaddle is for you, this bridle is for you, can you put it on and take it off yourself on your own? If you can, take it, because we don’t have resources, we don’t have enough.” This is in the figurative sense. Once I say it, I will do it – I will be faithful to myself. The one, who is faithful to oneself, will be faithful to God as well. And there is no better thing than this – to be in the good graces of God, of the Angels, of the saints, to have the favour of God, what can be better than to be in harmony and concord with this Great law! They will not give us something that we cannot perform, they will not demand impossible things from us – they will give us things that are possible in conformity with our mind, heart and will – things which will ease and enlighten us. So we need not lose heart. Secret1 prayer 1 Here “secret” should rather be comprehended as “silent and confidential”, i.e. prayer which is only between God and the praying person. 2 The phrases “Brotherhood of Light” and “Brotherhood of Darkness” in this lecture are translated following the meaning. If we had to translate the original phrases literally, they would sound as “White Brotherhood” and “Black Brotherhood”, where “white” and “black” in the Word of the Master are always used only in their principal meaning, concerning the ideas of White (Light) and Black (Darkness) as basic opposite and complementary principles in the whole Creation (as, for example, it is in “Yin and Yang” in Chinese philosophy). To avoid any misunderstandings, the translator has preferred the words “Light” and “Darkness”. 3 “the right track” – “right” here is used in the meaning of “correct” “the right way” – “right” here is used as the opposite of “left” In the Bulgarian original they are two different words. 4 “right” here is the opposite of “left” 5 “noble” here is used in the meaning of “high-minded”, “magnanimous” 6 “Chamkoria” (from Turkish) – the old name of the resort in the Rila mountain in Bulgaria which is now named “Borovets”, in both languages it means “pine woods”, “pine-wooden” 7 Musala - the highest peak on the Balkan Peninsula. This peak is in the Rila mountain in Bulgaria and is 2,925 meters high, which is equal to 9,596 ft 8 “reflections” here is in the meaning of “reasoning” 9 “bear it” in this context is used in the sense of “have patience” 10 “mercy” here is used in the sense of “clemency” 11 “intelligent” here refers not so much to the intellect, but implies that these beings have very high level of consciousness and understanding. It should be rather comprehended as “wise”. But since “wise” is connected with “Wisdom”, which has a certain definition in the Word of Master Beinsa Douno, the translator would not like to mix the meaning of both words. 12 “bitterness” here has the meaning of “lack of mercy”, “fierceness” 13 In the original, the word for “judicious” here is the same used above for “Intelligent beings” – only here it refers to an object, not a being. 14 “has been working over” here implies that the Spirit is still working over 15 “silence” here implies the idea of “being silent”, “saying nothing” 16 Vitosha is a mountain to the South of Sofia. It is situated between Sofia and the Rila mountain 17 Dragalevtsi is now a district in South Sofia, but at the time when this lecture was held, it was a village in the surroundings of Sofia, at the foot of the Vitosha mountain 18 “Leva”, plural of “lev” – Bulgarian currency 19 “word for word” – in the original here is used a Russian phrase meaning “exactly”, “literally” Source
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Development Of The Consciousness Lecture twenty-two read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 27th of July, Thursday, Chamkoria A secret prayer First the essays of the disciples on “The Most Proper Way for the Will-power Cultivation” were read. After that brother Rouschev read an essay devoted to the material world. I will talk for a while on the development of consciousness. In this case I take the word consciousness in its broad sense. In the Bulgarian language the word consciousness consists of a conjunction meaning “with” and a noun meaning “knowledge” – this means “to walk with Knowledge, is to be aware of something.” This meaning is primarily spiritual. It means to be simultaneously aware of two different states within yourself, within your mind, i.e. to be aware of the right and the wrong deeds, to know the difference between these two deeds, to know the difference between the right and the wrong feelings. Well, when I talk to you about the consciousness some of you resemble those who like music. Those who listen to the music and who say: “The music is a wonderful thing”, but you cannot tell which is the better part of this music, you can’t tell the difference between the tones. If some of the tones are omitted, you are not able to grasp this, you are able to comprehend the general stream only, while an expert musician can discern exactly where the mistake is – he discerns it by the help of his experience. You, the occult disciples - if you cannot grasp certain tones, if you are not able to make out such differences within your consciousness as these expert musicians do, then you cannot be disciples. All right, now I shall consider this question from an occult point of view: if I write a clef on the staff and under the first line I write a zero without a tail, I’ll have a whole note. Let us assume that right besides this note I put a quarter note, then a quaver note, then again a whole note, then a half note, etc. will this quarter of a note boast that it is beside the whole note? Sometimes I notice that you the occult disciples begin to think this way – how much the small note is nearer the big note. But you shouldn’t do this – you’d better mind that the tone you emit blends with the first note and that you make these notes harmonise and mind what expression you can achieve within the common harmony of all the notes. You still continue to ask yourself in what direction you are as regards the whole note, and how far you are from this note. Sometimes you notice that you are at a distance of one division, of two divisions, of three divisions from it and you say to yourself: “We drifted a great distance away.” This is not the musical way of examining this matter. That note, which is able to give an expression, might be very far from the main note, from the first note – it can be at several sheets’ distance from the first note and yet give the best expression. And mind that military music, the music played when you are about to fight, always gives the highest possible expression from its very beginning and startles the audience. While the minor music begins quietly, quietly, then gradually gets louder and louder and finally becomes high-pitched – after that it again lowers and flattens. With major music this is not so. Now if you want to grow properly as disciples, you should understand Life in its interrelations – as God has settled it. It might be said that during the day you are like notes, but when you go to bed and when you wake up, your musical scale is not the same. For instance, tomorrow the relations between me - as your Master - and you - as my disciples - will not be the same as they are today; you think that they will be the same, but no, they will be quite different. There is another inner force that settles the things of Life and its place does not depend on the very note itself, but it depends on the respective musician. And you do not have the right to say “Why was I put at a lower position or why was I put at a higher position?” – Wherever you are you should play your role. If you are above or below, if you are a whole note or a half note, or a quaver, or a semiquaver note, or the thirty-second, or the sixty-fourth note, played by a drum, or play another instrument, you should merge your beats into one. No one should be able to discern your beats as they are of no importance at all. Because within this consciousness, which I am talking to you about, exists another consciousness – the Divine consciousness, to which your own consciousness should become a repercussion. You are not the reason for the world’s existence the world has not been created just because of you. God has created this world as a pastime, and human beings are toys for his entertainment. Consequently you are the toys for God’s entertainment. When you say: “In our self-perfection…” What is this self-perfection about? – It is about the attainment of God. In what way can you know God? – In His Love. All right, did you succeed in attaining Him in His Love? – “Well, in His Wisdom, rather.” – Did you succeed in attaining Him in His Wisdom? – “Well, rather in His justice.” – Did you succeed in attaining Him in His justice? – You didn’t, that is, you only did it partially. When His justice is being applied to you, you say, “It is of no use”. When His love is being applied to you, you say, “It is of no use”. When the Wisdom is being manifested in its high forms, you say, “This is too tangled, it is not for us”. When the Truth comes in its Light, you say, “It is not for our eyes”. So I am asking you: if the consciousness of each one of the disciples is at this level then what knowledge can you possibly have? Consequently, all of you should strive to harmonise your consciousness, i.e. to reflect correctly within your consciousness all the Divine thoughts, all the Divine feelings, and all the Divine acts. For the human being this is a kind of salvation, or I call it human consciousness brightening. The human consciousness can reflect anything – the human consciousness is like clear water that can reflect anything. And in this reflection we can see how the world has been created. So, I keep a close watch on you, I keep a sharp eye on you: you are engaged with things that you have experienced many times. For instance, now you are worried about what will you eat, what will you cook. But the wolf also worries about this – whether he will be able to find something to eat today or not. The bird also thinks of its food. If we begin to worry about such things like the birds that do not posses our mind(UNCLEAR), what will happen then? In fact, your food has been provided for because God has provided your food and if you realise this, you will be able to find your food. If you start to understand His language you will be able to find your food at the right time. Let’s say that someone from Sofia has sent you a parcel, and has written to you about this parcel in a letter, but you haven’t received the letter yet – that is why you know that the parcel has come, but you are not able to take it. (?) Well, in the occult science everyone should strive to learn the Divine language of things. Do you know what it is like to speak the Divine language? Let’s say that I teach some disciple the Divine language and that this language seems very strange to him. I teach him the first letter of this Divine language. This language has its own alphabet and you are being taught this alphabet every single day. So our prayers, beliefs, and love – all these are the means, by which this divine language can be interpreted to us and they are the means, by which we can attain its power. If you ask me why Love is necessary I will tell you that it is needed so that we can learn the Divine language. If you ask me why Wisdom is necessary, I will tell you that it is needed so that we can learn the Divine language. Why is the Truth necessary – so that we can learn the Divine language. As soon as you learn this speech, your present life will be given meaning. For instance, often the following question comes up within you, the following desire – to be loved, to be in love with. Do you know what it is like to love and to be loved? When you love somebody, you evaluate Love as follows: you make this person a garment, you make this person a present, you build this person a house, or you buy this person a horse, you give this person money and if this person is a son of yours you give him something more. In this way you express your Love externally, but this is not Love at all. Well, imagine that you are my servant, you are honest and I let you use my house and my horse for some ten or twenty years. Meanwhile I go somewhere and when I return I take all my things back – do you think that I would have done this out of Love towards you? I would have done this out of Love towards myself only. At present you, the mothers, underline that you have an ideal love and that you love your children unselfishly. Well, I don’t doubt that your Love is unselfish, but why do you love your children in the first place? You love them because you will get older and this son of yours will become a famous man, so there will be someone to take care of you. You have a daughter and you love her, why? So that she grows older, and she marries a rich scientist, who helps you. Can you say that this is not true? In no way can you convince me of the contrary. Within all your thoughts there lies an agenda of self-interest, an absolute selfishness. You come to me. Why? – In this I also see some selfishness – you come to me so that you can obtain something. When I tell you that I, in my turn, also want something from you, you say, “Help me win the lottery, and I’ll give half of the profit to the Brotherhood; help me win one hundred thousand levs, and I’ll give half of it to the Brotherhood.” After you win! This is what my disciples say, “After I win…” But this is not occultism, this is not discipleship – clear these ideas out of your heads. From you I want some absolutely unselfish toll for God – do you understand what absolutely unselfish means? In future all of you should serve absolutely unselfishly, without any expectations to get something in return. You are constantly trying to alight on the first place and say, “Now I am on the right, or - now I am on the left.” This is what the Disciples of Christ wanted. Some of them wanted to sit on the right hand side, and others wanted to sit on the left-hand side; two thousand years later the people still want the same. You cannot enter the Kingdom of God in this manner. You want to enter the Kingdom of God easily – this is not an occultism. In your consciousness there should emerge a higher idea. If I, as a Master, had the objective to use you, this wouldn’t be any Mastership – this would be just business. If I didn’t tell you the exact Truth, it’s because I have had a reason not to. I did tell the Truth to one disciple, and as a result he cried for two days; if I tell the truth to some other disciples, they might cry for three days – this truth will contain bitter things. The one who enters the Kingdom of God will be given greatest bitterness – they will put you in the strongest acids, and if you liquidate into them, it would mean, that you are not fit for the Kingdom of God. Now you have to prepare your consciousness. To prepare for what? To prepare for the truths that the Divine world will submit you to – and this divine world will indeed submit you to these truths. You are funny; you want to enter the Kingdom of God as guests. No guests are required in the Kingdom of God though. What does the girl, who is going to get married, think? Does she expect to have three of four housemaids to serve her after she enters her new home, while she is constantly sitting on a chair and getting dressed, is this what she thinks? When she is at the village, her husband’s father will want her to buckle down to the task of kneading bread, so that they can check if she is good at kneading bread, if she is a good cook, if she is good at washing, and after that, she will have to go to work in the field. Meanwhile we, the spiritual people, are often thinking that when we go to the Heavens, we will get guitars and that everybody there will play and sing to us. There will be playing there indeed, but in between the playing there will be many great things which will be done in this great world. And if you, with your present comprehension, are planning to enter this world, you will find yourself in great controversy. Imagine that you are in Heaven and that you have been provided with the best food, with the best music, with the best amusement, and that suddenly someone there comes with an order and tells you, “You have to get up now and go to Earth to visit a great sinner.” As soon as you get sulky, you will fail. But you will not get sulky then, no, you will get up and you will go to this great sinner. If someone makes you do such a thing, you certainly will get sulky though. For instance, if you have sat on my right side and someone makes you stand up for some reason, you would have said: “Once I had the opportunity to sit here and now they make me stand up” – all of you think in this way. I don’t mean to say that this is bad, - in fact this is good, but in the Divine world they say, that God is omnipresent. God is testing you – you don’t know where exactly He will manifest, and in what way He will manifest - you don’t know this, because it is not that important in what way God manifests Himself - the important thing is how all this will end? Imagine that I invite you to visit me at my place and I roast for you a nice hen, but then suddenly I say: “Now let’s go for a walk for three or four hours and after we return we’ll see whether we will eat the hen”, what would you say in response to this? Suppose that you are hungry, that you haven’t eaten for three days and that after I invite you for a roast chicken, I suggest that you go for a two or three hours’ walk; you would certainly say: “Is this the right time for a walk now?” You will severely criticize my deed, and you will say: “But Master!” But what would you say if it proves to be that this hen had been ill, and I tell you: “We will put the lunch off till later – we’d better go for a walk, than eat”? This means that I have asked you to go for a walk, and I have taken you far away, because I have considered, that if we had stayed at my place, that roasted hen could have smelt tasty and would have tempted you. Consequently we can conclude that all the temptations are nothing else but a diversion of our attention from the dangers which have been created in the world. In itself, each temptation is bad, but since it happens this means, that something greater, something worse would have happened – so this evil has happened in order that something even bigger doesn't happen. That is why a Bulgarian proverb says: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”. Consequently all the temptations aim at freeing us from the great evil, which is hanging like the sword of Damocles over our heads. As disciples of this School you should have in your consciousness a clear idea about the changes which are going on in the Divine world. What the people do is not important; the important thing is how the work is settled. The Divine Spirit, who makes these changes, gives to all the people whatever he chooses – you better try to understand the Divine Spirit, instead of trying to understand these minor spirits. Explore the Spirit who enlightens, who gives away the things, who is a source of the Divine Love, who is the bearer of the Divine Wisdom, who is the bearer of the Divine Truth, Justice, and Virtue. This great Spirit – it is He that you should have listened to, and if you had listened to Him, there wouldn’t have been any arguments at all – all these arguments, which are happening now, would have been settled quite easily. The other day I spoke to the first class about the transformation of the energies. Imagine that some friend of yours comes and insults you in a deadly manner – you make such an experiment, for one month you watch closely for how many minutes, days, or weeks you will be able to transform an insult. The goal is that not only should there remain no trace from this insult, but also when you hear it again, you should feel good. Watch carefully how long it takes for you to transform this insult into a pleasant feeling – this again depends on the power of your consciousness. If you cannot convert it within a month, it means that you are far from it. Then a month, two, three months, a year, two and more years pass and according to the law of karma after a great while, everything passes, God erases this recollection and you say: “It is over.” Yes, but such a person is not a disciple at all, and he hasn’t learned any lesson. You might consider that you have learned your lesson well only in the case where after someone insults you, you manage to erase this insult within an hour – and not only to erase it, but also to conceive a liking for the insulting word. If you master this science, it would mean that you are a disciple who has an understanding for the laws. Can you do this? Yes. When Christ says: “Love your enemies” this means that you should be able to convert the insult that someone has given you because when he, as your enemy, insulted you, he freed you from a greater evil. All of you should strive to clear your consciousness. Now I’ll tell you the same in a religious language: you should pray to God, you should call the Holy Spirit, so that you can apply the Divine Spirit. If with the help of your Love you can’t transform an insult, then you are not a disciple and your Love is weak and it is not Divine Love. All elements should melt within your Divine Love. Some of you might sigh. But the real disciple should not sigh “Oh, oh!” No, you should work. He might moan today, he might moan tomorrow, but finally he will say: “I understand everything now, I’ll not moan anymore, the task is solved”. I do not get angry that you moan sometimes, but when I hear you moan, I am watching to see if you still continue to work. When I hear you moan, and I see that you don’t work, then I say this matter won’t be settled by moaning. If you don’t adopt this method, which I am giving you tonight, you will waste your time, that is, you might graduate the school later. I am saying this, because some of my disciples repeat this class for fifteen years now - they say: “Master, tell us something more!”, but when I give them a more complex task, they say: “This is beyond our powers.” Then how do you want to go up a form? I don’t mean to say that I personally want this, but I am saying that everything in this School is fixed and necessary. It is not a privilege to love – it is a necessity; to be wise is not a privilege – it is a necessity; to love the truth is not a privilege – it is a necessity; to be merciful is not a privilege – it is a necessity. You should not say: “I can’t.” – No, you should just obey - this is a necessity. If you don’t obey this necessity, then death is in store for you. Why do you have to love? – Because if you don’t love, then there is no Life – if you love, there is Life, and if you do not love – there is no Life. If you don’t adopt this piece of wisdom, then the conditions of this Life will not manifest themselves. So when we talk about Love, when we talk about Wisdom, when we talk about Justice, when we talk about Truth, we comprehend the necessity of the Divine life. You should not ask why, but you should say: “I have to love, I have to be wise, I have to be just, I have to love the truth – this is a necessity, this is Divine, this is imposed on us, there are no exemptions” – that’s the way you should think. Some of you ask: “Why should we love?” – It is necessary that you should love. – “But why should we love a bad person?" – It is necessary. – “But he is so and so.” – It is necessary, don’t you see – such is the will of God. Do you understand what the will of God means? If you do not submit to His will then it will sweep away everything; if you submit to it – it stops. God will not submit to childish self-will and He will not give you answers to your questions what for and why – not at all. You must know: it is necessary. – “Why should I love?” – It is necessary; “Why should I be wise?” – It is necessary. That’s the way you should think and these things should be implemented within your consciousness once and for all. And they should be present not only within you - you should preach them to the others as well. So when they ask you what you study? You should answer: “I study that it is necessary to love!” – What else do you study? – “I study that it is necessary to have Wisdom!” – What else? - “I study that you should not make foolish things!” – What else do you study? – “I study that it is necessary to learn the Truth!” This is our doctrine: so it is necessary – you should not say: “I might, but only when I’m in the mood.” No, you should just love and that’s all. You should not do it depending on your mood – you should do it on order. You should submit – if you refuse, then everything will be over. So the reason for all the suffering in the world is just that the Invisible world wants to make the people reasonable, and wants to convince them that these sufferings are necessary. From the occult point of view, this is the reasonable side of the matter. From the Divine point of view, as long as these things are necessary, then they are to be realized most easily. For instance, it is necessary that you should eat. Is it difficult for you to eat? – No, it is easy. It is necessary that you should drink water. Is it difficult for you to drink water? – No, it is the easiest thing, one sip after another and you will drink it, just lift the glass and start. These are the easiest things. Now these disputes, which you carry on, stem from the fact that other beings exist in the world, and they obscure the human consciousness. Often the human consciousness gets obscure and the person cannot tell the difference between one thought and another, or between one feeling and another – he says: “That’s the way I think”, while the other person says: “Well, my opinion is so and so – let’s come to an agreement!” There is no place for discussions – there won’t be any contradictions as regards Love - it is necessary that you should just love. You might say: “But how, how can I love?” I’ll give you an example: when the little ducklings hatch, does their mother give them lessons on how to swim? As soon as they hatch, they know how to swim; does their mother teach them how to peck? They know how to peck as soon as they hatch. So I am telling you also: as soon as you come out of your egg you will know how to peck, and you will know how to swim. If you tell me that you don’t know I will tell you that you are kidding me, that’s how things stand. I am talking to you about the Truth, which is implanted into your soul, so that you may know it. As the chicken is able to peck and as the duckling is able to swim as soon as they hatch, the same holds true for you – you also know. The mother-duck says: “Cluck, cluck” – if we interpret her language this would mean: “Do as it was written within you.” As the duckling comes near the water, its mother croaks: “Croak-croak”, which means: Swim as it was written within this Divine book.” You might ask me: “How shall we love?” I’ll say: “Croak-croak” – you should love like it was written in the Divine book. There is no place for arguments – you can open the book and read. If you stop me, and you reason philosophically, you won’t be able to even enter the water at all. So have in mind that the fundamental Divine thoughts and ideas are invested and written into this Divine book and that everyone can read from it as long as they want to read and as long as they want to listen. Watch closely the chickens and the ducklings – when they hear the voice of their mother “cluck-cluck”, all the chickens gather and submit to her, i.e. when their mother calls them they all go to her. Well then, mind, that when God calls you and you do not listen, you will lose. If your mother, who is supposed to call you, says, “cluck-cluck” and yet you are not there, don’t you lose? If she says to you “cluck-cluck” and you go one or two minutes later – then you will find that everything has already been eaten. You say, “There is time enough in the future.” There isn’t time enough though – everything is fixed. This chicken cannot retreat to a great distance from its mother – it can move away to a distance of about one, two, ten, fifteen paces, but it cannot move away to a distance of let’s say one hundred paces or more. If it moves away to a larger distance, it will lose its mother. Likewise we, in our consciousness, cannot move away from God. You might say, “I shall move away from God” – all right, but if you retreat to a great distance you will not hear when your mother says, “cluck-cluck”. In our consciousness, we have to remain at such a distance from the world, that as soon as we fall under these Divine circumstances, we can detect what is the Spirit saying, and what our mother is saying - to be able to immediately grasp what was said and follow it - to realise her will. You don’t have to think about the consequences though, because within the realms of the necessity everything is for the Good. We finished at 8:50 a.m. A secret prayer Source
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THE LIVE POWERS IN NATURE Twenty - first lection from the Teacher, delivered at the common occult class on 20th of July, 1922, Thursday, Chamcoria (The forest school) Do you have a theme for next week? (- No) The best method for educating the will is for will to be your theme. What method will you present? The live powers in Nature. We will separate them into four categories: unconscious, subconscious, conscious, and self-conscious. Unconscious is in the minerals, subconscious – in the plants, conscious – in the animals, and self-conscious – in man. The unconscious powers in Nature act through the precious stones – in all of you one desire arises, one love to bring these stones, to use their powers, to know the important reasons why and for what. When we talk about the unconscious powers, we understand that their relations are distant, i.e. they do have some direct connections with human life, – one mineral stays far away from Life. Sometimes you use it to wear on your hand as a precious stone, i.e. we may say that it, like an accident, is inside Life. Now, of course, the Live Nature wants to act upon man’s consciousness – for these stones to act upon man with its powers. And we may say that these powers, these unconscious powers bring bigger reserves of energy, they spend (consume, use up) less??(unclear). [M1] In the mountain places, in these crags is enormous energy for the future development of the Earth. These crags have to break into little pieces through rubbing, to become radiating and then to come to the second phase – to enter into the plant life. These unconscious powers have a connection with our skeletal system. And often[M2] , it may be in the future that the precious stones will be used in some relation as an educational instrument to the human mind. We see, in the Revelation it was said that one town was made from precious stones, from many precious stones. This is to act upon the human imagination, because these crystals serve, more correctly, the refraction of Light and its bringing it into the human mind. That is why it is good for some of you to study precious stones. Precious stones, of course, have influence in the Spiritual world they are connected with it. The crystallizing of these precious stones in different forms shows that upon them works one sensible principle. For example, if one famous writer has some diamond, when he looks at it, it will put his thoughts in one way; if he has one precious stone with greenish colour – emerald or with bluish – sapphire – and it, at some stage, will exercise influence upon his thought. Now, of course the occult view of the precious stones is not like contemporary science. Occult science maintains that the precious stones are fruits – they grow and develop in a way as the fruits on Earth. And we may say that they are the highest presentation of the Mental field on the Earth, or they are creatures which live in the Mental field and show its activity on Earth through the precious stones. And those who can read will find in them a lot of knowledge. There is a lot of knowledge put in there, in these precious stones there are many things written, but whoever wants to and is interested, has to control the Akashic Records, they have to develop centres of clairvoyance, to understand the combination of these stones. Therefore, the practical putting into practice of these powers is their influence upon the skeletal system. If you have some ailment in the skeletal system, learn about the precious stones, transport them through your mind, transport the different kinds of Light through your mind – they will exercise the most curative influence on your organism, especially to your bones. This is practising and in the population: they put these pebbles on children’s heads so as not to catch the evil eye or not to lose themselves they will put some pebbles in his hat. The precious stones always attract these unconscious powers, they control it. Under the world unconscious powers, I understand these powers, which have no moral, because in the world there are some occult powers in which there is no moral. They are life powers too and when you get under their influence, they may do everything with you. For example if some of you pour out a little sulphuric acid on your body, it will not ask you if is it correct to break down, to attack – it will show its reaction. The subconscious powers are connected with the plant life, with the plants. And there begins the present life of man – with the subconscious life begins its sense – the body, the contemporary physical body has formed by it. Therefore, now in the world the plants exercise the biggest influence upon us. What is the practical application of the plants? – You always have to love the woods, this is the first thing. After you love the woods they are in connection with these subconscious powers, and they are necessary for your physical body. All the plants are one store in Nature where a man can draw from. It is not necessary for a man to be only among the trees but he has to learn to love them – this is one of the instruments in education. Love to the trees – this is one connection with them, to let them help us. When we enter in the conscious powers now, we go to the animals. We have to be more careful there. From the animals we have been taught many good things, but also many bad things – from the ox we have been taught industry, from the wolf we have been taught ferocity, from sheep we have been taught meekness and humbleness, from the bear we have been taught the irreconcilability in Life. The bear is very irreconcilable in Life – all tamers of animals declare that if the bear is insulted once, it doesn’t forget, it will always seek revenge, it is irreconcilable, it remembers for a long time, in the bear astral feelings are strongly developed. Now, the love of plants, for example, an occult disciple has to show [M3] when he starts to cultivate some fruits – the pear tree, the apple, the cherry, the plum, or some others. In general, they exercise a strong influence that is why in your yard you have to have fruits. Afterwards, it is nice when you are in Chamkoria among the pine-trees; they exercise an excellent influence upon the spiritual strivings of man. Go out often, speak with the pine-trees to give you this striving. When it grows uphill (upwards)??(unclear), the pine-tree is sharp, disinterested. Take some other tree – beech-tree or sycamore: when they are among pine-trees, they grow up the same, they adapt themselves, but when they exit, they immediately want to possess it. The pine-tree always takes the least space – there is no egoism in it. And afterwards, other characteristic in pine-trees: when its top is broken once, it does not grow any more – in that way the pine-tree shows us all the spiritual strivings in man. These are the spiritual feelings – if they [M4] spoil everything else plants[M5] in a man stops. That is why the occult disciples have to give priority to his spiritual feelings, to grow up – then everything in them can grow. It’s nice to go in these places, to look at the pine-trees, to examine them, to accept a little energy and good-will from them, which serve you through the year, to give you impulse, because in our present life we demagnetize ourselves. Every day anxieties, anxieties until the man demagnetizes himself, can’t think and has no good-will. Now, many of you have lived here for so long but haven’t made any attempts to speak with the pine-trees. But the sick may go to some pine-tree, to rest on it with his back, to think about it. The pine-trees exercise an excellent influence, the animals – too. Whatever animal a man likes, he is in position to perceive its qualities – it influences him because the conscious powers, when they pass through the animals, introduce good and bad qualities too. For example, from the cat, you can learn cleanliness, but simultaneously you can learn this greed – it has no patience to clean its victim, it is very unclean, from gluttony, it eats its victim with the coat. So from the cat you can learn clearness and to be quick but you can have the opposite qualities too – to eat unclean. There are spiritual people who don’t need much clearness[M6] , they say, “Let’s fill our stomachs, no matter what the food is.” The cat says the same. No, take for an example the donkey, from it you can learn one very good feature – how to choose water. You can’t let the donkey drink unclean water – it knows what water to choose, but when it comes to food, it eats unclean too. Now, all the animals like the dog, the cat, the fox, the bear, the wolf, etc. always exercise influence on people. And from the Astral world these forms are used often – when you sleep, throughout the time you sleep they present them to you. For example, you want to know what some man is like, want to trade with him – you dream of a wolf; it means that the man, who wants trade with you, has the character of the wolf. Or if you dream of an ox, or a horse, this shows the character of the man and you will judge from this – from the Invisible world people are always likened with famous symbols. One symbol of an animal is not bad, it means some Divine idea in a positive, or a negative form. Now when you think about the wolf, you may take it in a negative sense – to be as irreconcilable to the evil as the wolf is irreconcilable to the sheep, i.e. as it has cruel disgust to the sheep, as you are disgusted with evil??(unclear – Now?). In that way you can understand the power of the wolf in this relation and in a negative sense you can use its power. If you don’t know this law, immediately the power of the wolf will introduce in you cruelty and rudeness. All the animals and birds exercise some influence, strong enough influence, but you don’t have to reach the extreme. They influence collectively. For example a whole tribe of cats exercise influence. So, if you want to know what powers act you will see which animal or bird you think about and you will diagnose what powers function in you. And in the occult science there are some systems: let’s say that you have some of the conscious powers, i.e. these from the animal species; then you will transport other forms as the forms of any sheep, ox, or horse, to oppose the bad influence of the first forms – you will put the forms of animals with positive features, to oppose those with negative features. The powers of the animals can be separated into two camps: positive and negative, or destroying and building. That is why in the future when they teach about animals, it will be very interesting when a teacher, who teaches his pupils zoology, will explain to them what powers and influence it exercises upon people. He will have to know all this, so when he talks about the wolf he has to talk about the sheep, and when he talks about the bear, to see what the opposite of its nature is – in that way in the minds of the children, it will remain as two opposite forms. And now the teacher teaches only about the wolf and as a result can’t have this occult education. In future, that will change, then it will have contrasts; in teaching about plants, there will also be contrasts like these. When we come to the self-conscious powers, we understand a man in all his manifestations. With the self-conscious and the hyperconscious the human kingdom begins. When you meet a man, you have to distinguish what predominates in him – the physical, the astral, or the mental, does the mind in him exceed the heart or the will. If you have ten friends in whom the physique predominates, they are in position to maim you; you may almost pervert yourselves. Therefore, if you have one friend in whom the physical predominates, it will certainly put him in counterbalance with the mental – he will have one mental principle with which to oppose the physical. And that is why in the grouping of friends you have to put them in order like this: one, in who the body predominates, in the others – the heart, and in third – the mind, afterwards again – the body, the heart, the mind. If you have friends like these then the work goes harmoniously – because monotony is not good, for all to be only mental is not good. I do not want all of you to transform only to mental types because if you become a mental type you could become thin and get old, only the nerve system will remain and you will remain quite dry. If the physical predominates in you, you will to transform to bones and extensors. If the feelings predominate in you, you will begin to be compared to casks, because when the feelings predominate in somebody??(unclear – Now?), they develop in themselves an appetite which may be conveyed in eating and drinking – this is clearly an astral desire. But the physical life expresses itself with activity – this is the life of man and all the people who have a physical nature, they are in constant movement. The man, in whom the heart predominates in its low manifestations, subordinates to desires for eating and drinking, his entire life will be occupied with what to eat and what to drink – from the one end of life to the other only for eating will there be a question. That is why our manifestations have to change. If you do two hours of physical work, it immediately has to make work for the heart, afterwards for the mind – this is a rule, in that way it has to be educational. For now, almost unconscious, this energy balances itself but doesn't give good results – famous people become only mental types, we have different types for the heart or for the will but there are also balanced types. A man has to balance the energy in himself consciously: the physical – in astral, the astral – in mental and afterwards back. Laziness is one sign for work of the physical powers. Gluttony is one sign for superiority of the cordial powers – he may not eat but his mind is occupied only with thoughts about eating, in his mind are only the thoughts of eating and drinking, sweetmeats, syrups, and others, and that man whatever he does, nothing comes of it. Now when we come to the occult science it will join the eating. The eating has a form – in it there is a science too. Through eating, they educate people: if you feed a man for one week only with kasha, the second week – with apples, the third with plums, and the fourth – with cherries and if you know how to rob[M7] them from the trees, you will act upon in one rational way [M8] on his[M9] nature. Now vegetarian food is in use but there are no occult results. I will show you, first here in Chamkoria, a way to be acquainted with the crags – to look at them, to examine them; with how many crags there are to be acquainted with! After that, I shall show you to teach the pine-trees[M10] , to occupy[M11] and to examine the blueberry. Do you know what the blueberry represents for those who have weak stomachs? When they use them, in this way their stomach will be corrected. Mostly, afterwards, do your best to find which is the most beautiful place in Chamkoria – it will produce handsome combinations, it will concerns[M12] your mind in a way that you will deduce from the resort one blessing. Only in this way will you have it, if you will go only to a resort, and whatever you acquire, you will spend and after three-four months will be poured again[M13] . Can our walks be used in a way to enter Nature gradually? Many works have to be forgotten, many formalities have to be forgotten – when you come to a health resort(?? - health) like this, you have to forget about people for a while. Now you will create one diversion in your mind: you will learn about the pine-trees alone, its nature, its extent – you have to visit forty – fifty pine-trees in a day, to look at them, to examine, to make one acquaintance with them, to consider them as friends with whom you have met as living people. And when they enter in your mind, they will give you one new temper and when you come back into the city, you will be renewed. Do not be afraid that you may be estranged from Life. Afterwards, in Chamkoria, you may be interested in what animals live here – squirrels, roes, wild goats. It’s good to have the desire to see one wild goat and to give it mobility in your mind. If you meet a bear, this is good too – the bear is not so bad, it is good, the bear walks friendly but it’s frightful when you meet it. It is necessary for the pupils of the Occult school, because life is such that we lose the most important powers, which may come along with it, thus losing our balance. For example, if we talk about the spiritual constantly, there is danger of our life becoming monotonous. There is one law in Life that if the nicest things are repeated many times, they become spoiled. Many evangelic songs have been spoiled only because of this – somebody dies, they sing this song and it is spoiled. Do not sing songs to dead people – bury them without songs and when two – three weeks pass, sing that song far away from the grave. But how many times do you sing that song at the grave, afterwards, when you sing, it will be remembered in connection with the grave again, this must not happen. When somebody among us leaves, let some of the friends accompany him to the grave and nothing more. I don’t allow any one of my songs to be sung at the grave of some friends and whoever sings one song at the grave of some dead man, he is out of the School. No, with us, there will not be a song – we will bring him to the grave without a word, will wish him a good way, but will sing only after one month. We will not think about the grave, there is no reason to sing at the graveyard. In this way, you will not use even one of our songs for dead men – other songs you may use but to sing, “Dawn beautiful is dawns”…No dawn is dawns.[M14] (When somebody is ill, do not sing to the sick?) When somebody is ill – prayer, prayer, (by the original text) but the sick has to sing by him[M15] . If he sings a song and you are with him; if the sick does not sing, you don’t sing either. We will be distinguished from the others: here we don’t make a memorial service for dead people; we will do it for living people, but for dead men we will not – we will mention living people every day. And most of all, firstly, when some dying man calls us and starts to give instructions with what clothes to dress him in when he dies, we will call people from the world: “Come on bury him, he goes to God.” He gives instructions about which grave to put him in but he will not go anywhere, he will stay here, on Earth. And I say, You will bury the body but will know that the soul is not the body, the soul is free. And that man who leaves, has to know that he is alive, he will not stay in the grave – maybe he will stay there for forty days, his body will hang around for a while and afterwards will be set free, but may leave after a few days. But when somebody leaves, make one secret prayer, all can wish him a good way but not to sing any songs. The dead is something official – that life is dead, there is no reason to sing, he wants peace and calm. Whoever leaves, the first thing is that he wants peace and calm. Let God give him Light of the mind and Peace to the soul because when he looks at his life he may use the mistakes of the past. This you will keep from occult viewing[M16] ??(unclear – OK?), there is no reason to sing to the dead people. If some of our friends want to sing to him, then we will call some preacher – evangelist and will tell him, “You know how to sing to dead men, be so good to bury him and to sing to him and we will pay you.” If somebody wants to sing to him then the Orthodox or the evangelicals will bury him because they sing to dead people. But if he wants to be with us, we will make only one secret prayer – for God to give him Light to understand the deep sense of Heaven. When we send him on his way we will not sing, but those who meet him there, they will sing better to him. Let the angels sing to him, but there is no reason for us to send him on his way with songs, we don’t know what his work is. It doesn’t come, it doesn’t go to send with songs from this world, it’s better there to meet you with songs[M17] . And so, if some of you are ready to leave for that world, know that after they want to sing songs for you, we will tell them to choose an evangelic preacher or Orthodox priest who will want to sing to them. But as occult disciples you will leave without songs from this world, but upwards you will be met with songs, there they will sing to you. Last night I did you a little notice[M18] , didn’t I? The Occult disciple must have something mystical in his character – if this mysticism is lost, life becomes too empty and senseless. If we all become occult disciples we have to be blind to the mistakes. I perceive that after I make you notice[M19] , all the notices[M20] that I make are very expensive for me. Why do I make you notices[M21] ? I can let others make you notices[M22] because you don’t always have mystical tempers in your soul. And as disciples of one Occult school you will keep one rule if you want to finish your relations correctly: everyone will find one good feature in the other and will keep you in his mind – and then he will love you; and if he finds in you one good feature, you will love him too. Now you, when you meet, you look for the worst features and keep them in your mind. And then you start to pray, and go into the Occult school. But because you have selected the worst feature, after you have finished the prayer, you as if [M23] you think good about Ivan, Dragan, Petko, but it’s notable his bad feature that immediately spoils your temper acquired from the thought of the good feature. You, the occult disciples, to keep your character you have to know one rule for a law: to find in yourself one good feature. Every one of you has one good feature – find these good features among yourselves and keep it in your mind. Only in that way you will be able to help yourselves – and God will help you, and the Angels will help you, and the saints will help you. I shall adduce one example. I said to one sister, to one of the disciples, “Tell that sister this and this.” This sister said it to her and she answered, “Why doesn’t the teacher say it to me directly, but says it to the other?” What I said, she doesn’t want to do, but is occupied with small-minded works – no matter through who it was said, it has to be done. I say to her, “Don’t stay in this place!” Don’t ask why, don’t stay and don’t think because where I live is a very good place to live - for you my place is very dangerous, the person who lives with me has to be a hero. – “But shall not the Teacher keep us safe?” I am on the battlefield and the person who comes there must have the bravery to sustain these shells. I want to put you on the home front – at the back, far away. With all that, keep away from one delusion: it is not physical intimacy, which brings people together – the bringing together is in their souls. When their souls vibrate equally and when God’s Love penetrates us equally, these souls can understand it themselves. For example, I see how some of the disciples spoil the good temper in the others when they quarrel. Does the Sun mourn to us? It shines but sometimes a cloud will come and will distort its light. For example I came among you, I spoke from some objective; exactly[M24] you have a good temper along come two men, who start to quarrel, making clouds. And at the end, these two who quarrel stay – all the disciples leave and talk, “Petko, Dragan, and Stoyan said it correctly.” What education could there be?(or,could there be?)[M25] So the first thing: the disciples of the Occult school have to be obedient, absolutely obedient – if something is said, to do it. But he will say, “The spirit said to him.” Which spirit? The Divine Spirit is a Spirit of humbleness, Wisdom, Pravda, Truth; it is a Spirit that always takes the last place, it doesn’t order – wherever it goes, it will be last, it is ready to do a good turn to the poor. And this man in whom the Spirit works, will sit last at the table; if he sits first, God’s Spirit is not there, this is the way I know it. So when we come to the occult powers you will keep[M26] if you want to renew yourself. You will see that self-consciousness to execute the Will of God correctly. Afterwards, you have to verify how your influence acts upon those around. When I do notices to somebody [M27] every one of my notices[M28] not only has to dress the wound but I want to see if my dressing brought an advantage. If I make dressings for ten men and make the situation worse, it’s better for the wounds to stay undressed – if you can’t do Good, let somebody else do it. So I want these rules that I give you now to be executed constantly. I shall give you other rules. You will not suddenly become saints, because for a saint not one life, but many lives are necessary – it is perfection, it is not a law for salvation. Man has to start to vibrate in a way that in any given moment he will guess alone how to do the Will of God. Under the title holy man I understand a man with experience, consciousness, who knows how to help, but not only to take the name of holy man. A man like this is full with Knowledge, with all the virtues, and he always does the Will of God. Now we prepare to be strong, to help the great act. I say, the sixth race is coming. When the sixth race comes, you must have Knowledge and this Knowledge you will have now. So now the first thing: you will find one good feature in yourself – only for yourself, you will find one good feature, which God puts in you. To say that we are very bad, this is extreme, and to say that we are very good, this is extreme too. If we say that we are bad it means that we are not executed[M29] . God in us is good and that we will understand well and will thank God for what we are. You make one mistake but after that the consciousness in you cries, it pray, it repents; you say, “I thank God that I have that good feature – the consciousness; if I did not have that feature what would be my situation?” So when I make one mistake, I have one good feature that I understand and soon I correct my mistake. Afterwards, some man meets some poor person and his heart immediately feels pity – and with this one can guess that there is something good in him. When I say, to find our good feature this is a way we may have space of [M30] the Spirit. We have to subordinate to the Divine Spirit. And when you use these powers in Nature and when you come to the man, if you want to create friendly relations in the future, you will search inside friends and enemies for one good feature in which to put in your mind. It is quite a hard art, but an excellent art. Now you will be occult pupils – you will learn everything, you will be brave and decisive. When there are notices[M31] for you, you will not anger; when exposed, you will stand with patience; when you meet with whatever disaster, you will see only the good side in everything. Blessed is the man for whom you make notices[M32] – does God leave him? And the Scripture says: “Those who God does not expose and does not punish, they walk on a wrong way.” Don’t think that is something pleasant that can make a notice [M33] to one man. If you expose one man, do you win something? – Nothing – when you come back to your home will have anxiety within you, nothing more. Somebody says to expose. To expose whoever I always think that is the same as to make an operation – when you come back you always will have stench and for a long time you have to wash your hands to lose the smell. In the future when you enter into the School you will not see your mistakes. In the high classes it is absolute forbidden to think about the mistakes of people – people do not exist for you and the mistakes do not exist either, you will work upon yourself. One Hindu teacher says how one disciple goes to him and he shows him three methods. Three men moved in the forest; The Teacher said him, “You will go and will deliver to the three of them one slap in the face.” The disciple when he gave the first one a slap in the face, that man gave him two slaps in the face; he goes to the second, and gives him one slap in the face, that man raised his arm but put it down again, didn’t hit him; when he slapped the third one in the face he doesn’t even pay any attention, and continues thinking. The Teacher asked him: “What did you do?” – “I gave the first one a slap in the face, he gave me two.” That is the man, who lives by the law an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – the Mosaic Law. The second one, who raised his arm and quickly put it down, lives in the Salvation, he saves – it comes to his mind to execute the law but says, “It haven’t to”, [M34] it comes to his mind not to execute the law. But that man, who didn’t pay attention to the slap in the face, he lives in the Love. So now, some live by Mosaic Law, others – in the salvation and the third – in the Love. Who lives by the law will hit you twice; who lives in the salvation will raise his arm and will say, “Let it go away from me,” but the third one, who lives in Love, will feel nothing. Now the occult disciple has to live by the law of Love – somebody will come to hit you but you will feel nothing, you will not even know what hit you. What a consciousness you must have! Secret prayer [M1]They consume less of what? Example – {…they consume less energy.} [M2]Is this needed for the sentence as it doesn't connect to the sentence. [M3]Usage – unclear. What does he have to show? [M4]It is not clear who "they" are. [M5]Shouldn't this read {growth}. If it is not growth, then revise the sentence as "plants" does not make sense. [M6]Shouldn't this be {cleanliness}. [M7]Usage - rob means to steal. Perhaps the word should be {pick}. [M8] [M8]{…act in a rational way…} [M9]It is not clear who {his} refers to. [M10]Unclear. I understand this to mean - {…show you how to teach the pine-trees…} Maybe it should be – {…show you how to learn from the pine-trees…} [M11]Unclear – usage. {…to occupy yourselves in examining the blueberry.} [M12]Usage. {occupy] [M13]Unclear. {will be renewed.} or {will be filled up again.} [M14]{"Beautiful dawn is dawning"…No, dawn is dawn.} [M15]{…but the sick person has to sing by himself or herself.} [M16]Unclear. [M17] [M17]Unclear. What doesn't come and go? Example – {It isn't fitting to send dead people on their way with songs from this world, it's better that they will be met there with songs.} [M18]Unclear. Usage. The word "notice" is not used correctly in this sentence or in the ones below. {…made a little observation for you…} [M19]Unclear. Usage.Notice what? Example – {…make you notice something…} or {…make you notice your mistakes…} or {brought your attention to a certain issue} [M20]Usage – {observations} [M21]Unclear. Usage. Example - {…notice certain things.} or {…observe certain things.} or {bring your attention to certain issues.} [M22]Same – {notice things} or {observe things} [M23]A word missing here – {you act as if…} [M24]Usage. Example – {exactly when} [M25]{What education could there be in this?} [M26]Keep what? Example – {keep the rules} [M27]Unclear. Usage. {When I bring a persons attention to a certain issue…} [M28]Usage. {observations} [M29]Unclear. [M30]Unclear. {space in} [M31]Unclear. Usage. {When certain things are brought to your attention…} or {When there are certain observations made about you…} or {When there are certain issues for you to deal with} [M32]Usage. {observations} [M33]Unclear. Usage. {make an observation} [M34]Unclear. Example – {"It doesn't have to come to this."} or {"I don't have to do this."}
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Simple and Complex Movements The twentieth lecture of the Master, delivered at the General Esoteric Class on 13 July 1922, Thursday, Chamkoria1 Papers were read on ‘Why God Created Man’. I shall speak about the simple and complex movements in Nature. Primary movements you will substitute for simple movements, and the last movements, the faintest movements you will substitute for complex movements. One explanation: complex movements imply a great deal of opposition, while simple movements imply little opposition. Now in all of you, in your mind there are two movements: there are simple movements, there are also complex movements. For example, in order for you to come here, to Chamkoria, what movement was there in you - simple or complex one, in which category would you place it? – “Complex.” Simple primary movements are only movements to God – movements, which are pure, where the consciousness is not split. Primary movements are crystal clear, while with complex movements, human consciousness is always split. You go to a resort, but you have several motivating reasons – it is not one reason, you have many reasons. I will then ask you, when one gets married, is marriage a simple or a complex movement? Complex, because it seems that the woman can say that she loves the man or the man can say that he loves the woman. This is one of the reasons; secondly, they want to have children, thirdly, the man wants somebody to cook for him. There are a number of motives; hence marriage is a complex movement. And you have to be aware that in all complex movements in the world there are obstacles, which you should be prepared to expect. And consequently as students of the Esoteric School I give you this distinctive difference in terms of methodology, so that you can psychically recognize the forces that are active in you at any moment – whether these are of the primary or of the secondary, the latter type, so that you can know in which category each movement falls. Once you know the difference, it is easy to find your way around. You are now confused between these two – there is a complex movement in progress - you expect the results of the simple movement, there is a simple movement in progress - you expect the results of the complex movement. While each movement has its own definite results. Now it is ridiculous that some people, when they want to become religious, they expect to become rich. One who wants to become religious in the full sense of the word, particularly such a person will lose all one’s wealth, because wealth itself is a complex movement. If you have Knowledge, this is a complex movement. Therefore you have to be aware of the categories in which the movements, taking place in your mind, fall – they fall either to the one or to the other category. This is a practical means to orient oneself – just to know which one is prevalent at the moment. These movements do not belong to you. If you are in a crowd, can you walk in a straight line through the crowd of people? – You will be faced with a very complex movement and when you get out you will say, “Thank God, we are safely out of it, we overcame the obstacles.” Often in life you unwillingly pass by a celebration and therefore you have to fight; what method will you apply – a complex movement, you will make thousands of by-passes in every possible direction and you will then think. These are what I call, human movements, while simple movements are short. What kind of movement is friendship, true friendship? – “Simple.” – All these motives, which take the least expense, are Divine, while those which consume huge energy, pertain to complex movements. Let’s define movement – what does it spring from? – It springs from Life – Life is the primary cause of movement. Each movement in the world shows that the consciousness of any being wants to gain access to certain food – certain forces necessary for this being, are laid for it. Thus Life generates the first movement, and the energies, stored in Life, have ensued from the World of Thought. So we are faced with one movement, representing the purely physical world; there is Life, representing the World of Spirit, the Mental World (The World of Thought). This world is expressed in the thought dominating Life, hence thought is expressed in Life – it is Life in progress, while any movement is an implementation of these three together. This is why we can determine: if your thought is simple it will generate a simple life with primary, pure, simple movements; if your thought is complex, your Life will inevitably be complex and the movements will correspond to it. Let’s say that a being, living in the Mental World, conceives the idea to become great, to create a Solar system – a complex movement is conceived within it. If this Being wants to acquire a primary, conscious movement, to try Divine Love in its pure forms, we shall then have simple movement in the consciousness. Often, you extend yourselves, wanting to reconcile simple and complex movements – these are irreconcilable. A simple movement cannot be combined with a complex one – these are incompatible. A saint and a sinner cannot live in the same place – they can live, but not in the same place; sick people and doctors may be at the same place, but it would be the doctor attending to the sick, while the sick are cured; so shall the saint stay with the sinner, until the one cures the other; the child under the same law will live with the mother until the child takes what it needs and having taken it, the child no longer looks for the mother. Now you say that God created Man in order to manifest Himself. Manifest in what; manifest to whom? I would like to correct you a little bit now: to manifest to Himself. If God wants to manifest Himself in the world then there must be another Deity. This is how it turns out to be, and this is dualism. I want to manifest myself to whom? – Not to myself, what is there to manifest to myself – I want to manifest myself to another entity and the other beings if they want to manifest themselves, they also need someone else to manifest himself or herself to. While God can manifest Himself to… whom? This is a question, one of the difficult questions. And I shall give you the following answer: God created Man in order for Man to be created. Now I will put the following question to you: when can something be created? – As man cannot be created, and I do not mean the creation of Man by God. To create implies constructiveness; there are esoteric students who cannot comprehend this. To build, to construct – there is always the implication of material life. When a place is being constructed why is it constructed; for whom is it being constructed; could it be for its own sake? Something could be constructed for Man to manifest oneself. If we say that it could be created in order for Man to manifest oneself, is this idea right? People construct a bridge for example, in order to communicate – there is an obstacle, so a bridge is constructed, the bridge is a means of communication. Similarly Man is a bridge serving as a communication link between worlds – nothing more than that. You will have an even more righteous idea because you as a whole, you still do not know the meaning of the physical world, i.e. the physical world is not only little known, but some say that it is an illusion. These are only words whose profound meaning is yet to be grasped. As to the Divine world with these Beings inhabiting it, as well as the beings who live in the physical world – what are their direct relations in this aspect? Now, under this situation we shall dwell on the following two issues: we say about the Spirit, who is pure, “Spirit is in constant struggle with matter”. And again there is the philosophical question: what needs, can the Spirit have, being pure, being in such a serene state, why should the Spirit need to incarnate itself in matter and why does it have to incarnate? Some will argue that it had to descend in matter to acquire certain experiences – if so, then this Spirit is not complete. And then there comes the question: if matter is something unreasonable by itself, how is it possible for something unreasonable to confine Reason? If matter is to confine Spirit, then there must be certain Reason in this matter and, at that, such a Reason, which is equal to the Reason of Spirit. If matter can capture Spirit, then such matter has its own intelligence – at least this is what comes out, if Spirit is confined by matter. We shall not resolve the issue now, and shall leave it like this – unresolved, as everyone has left it. And you know why? We shall climb up on top of mount Moussala2, shall enjoy the panorama, shall climb down and shall be thinking of Moussala only – about its natural history, we shall study it, while it shall be immovable. I am asking you to investigate a huge mountain peak – what is its natural history. This is a long story, but so that you could be thinking along more appropriate lines, I shall once again give you a hint and shall ask you why a person should be woken up from a sleep. If you are a servant why should your master wake you up? – To work. Why should you sleep? – To have a rest. When this servant is woken up, is the master creating the servant? Similarly, Man in the current circumstances has just awoken from a sleep, nothing more than this – you have been sleeping until now. People call such waking up creation. After having worked, who manifests oneself – you or your master? Both you and your master manifest yourselves – you manifest yourself in the work done, while your master can manifest himself in the plans he granted to you. We shall substitute this question and rather than asking why God created man, I shall ask you why Man came to Earth, or why Man was sent here to Earth – this is a more appropriate question. Man has come from somewhere, but why has man come? This is an easier question to answer than trying to answer why God created man. Look, the issue why God created man has no practical aspect under the current circumstances here, where you are. In order to know why man came to the Earth, why God created man – you should read the archives of Nature – there must be someone who loves you, to open this book for you, to go over the annals – there it is put on record why and to what purpose. I raised the question why God created man, so that you could find your own attitude to God and be assured that without God, if you are not related with Him, you can have no growth, no Life, no mental activity, because Reason springs from Reason, Life springs from Life, and activity springs from activity. Because God is right in everything and because man belongs to complex movements, this complex movement has to find its impetus in the primary aspect. We need to be connected to God not by form, nor by content, as these are yet external aspects. Not by meaning, but on principle, internally, in the very essence of things – to be linked with God by necessity of the very Existence itself, because only in this way can His thought give an impulse to our Life and His movements can give an impulse to the movements of our life. And then everything is possible. Such must be your innermost goal, your innermost desire, so that there is no chance for you to stumble. On entering this School, you may intend to conquer certain natural elements – but you may have no conquering whatsoever. I do not call it a conquest if I tend a pear tree for ten years and when it bears fruit, someone else comes and picks the pears – I do not consider this a conquest. I have worked and someone else eats the fruit – there is no sense. We can work only to obtain knowledge, but when we want to take advantage of it, we have not explored this. Now you often say, “It’s in the Scripture, it is said that we should love each other”. To love each other – the implication, according to me is to make a bridge. Do you think that if we make a bridge, everything in the world will become better? If the two parties are enemies, then it is better not to have a bridge, because they will then start quarrelling; if they are friends, then let there be a bridge. If people are ready to serve God, let there be a bridge, if they have not learned how to serve God, let them be without any bridge – this is better. So you should not mix things in esoteric science. I often keep observing you – this is how you are arguing, “You may want anything in the name of God – wolves, bears, tigers.” You may say, “I now live according to God’s law, to Christ’s law.” And the wolf also says, “God is Love”, but the wolf is alone, the wolf attacks the sheep and says, “Because I love God, and I love His children, because of this you have to fall victim for me” Well, can you reconcile this? The wolf is allowed to eat the sheep; if a man eats a sheep, it’s tolerable - neither here nor there - but if a sheep eats a wolf, the sheep will undergo the greatest suffering; and when a man is eaten by a bear, the man will experience the same. We are not sent to Earth to organize a menagerie – sheep will be kept separate, wolves will be kept separate, so will bears, all will be kept separated. There will be a fence separating them, a wire – to speak brotherly to each other but with strictly determined borders. And not like this: I see someone has the brains of a bear, someone else has the brains of a sheep, and both of them say, “Let’s break this fence, let’s unite our brains.” But what can a sheep and a wolf do together? Imagine someone with a bear’s heart, someone else with a sheep’s heart, how can you unite them? Some act like bears, others like sheep – how can you reconcile them? They cannot be reconciled. You will say, “Esoteric science can do everything.” Esoteric science can do everything, but you cannot do what esoteric science can. God can, I know that God can do everything, but we cannot. We should not be trying to do what God does – we cannot. Hence we should do only what we can, what is within the scope of our knowledge. Now I want you to do things, which you can, not things, which you cannot. We are getting mixed up together, therefore I shall tell the person: “Listen, do not demolish your wall; by saying what I said, I did not mean to make you demolish it - you keep the fence, and you shall find a new place for the new stuff where you will not place old stuff.” For example, you often want to reconcile the idea of Divine Love with your present love – these are irreconcilable. My Love, the Love I have is incompatible with your love, do you understand what I mean? If I transfer these ideas, do you know what will happen? I will tell you: there are many cases described in the book of Caprices of Electricity, where electricity appears in big round shining balls – such a ball suddenly falls upon a person, all the clothes are burnt, but the person is intact. The Love that I speak of is such a ball – if it falls upon you, you will find yourself naked; and after you find yourself naked, you will be doubtful and you will say, “This is no Love.” This is exactly where Love is. You want a new understanding of Love – bearing a new signature, while containing the old concepts. There is no sacrifice in the purely Divine Love. Sacrifice is just a result of the complex movements of Love in the physical World – this is a temporary period of transition. When people say that a person must make a sacrifice, this does not concern Divine Love – there is no sacrifice whatsoever in true Divine Love. Hence in order to understand Divine Love, you have to inevitably descend to the physical world, to learn the law of sacrifice. This is precisely why people descended to the Earth - to learn the law of sacrifice too. People will learn what Divine Love is when they experience the law of sacrifice – this is a law of the Divine energies proper transformation. Someone says, “I want to know what you think about me”; I say, “You may know, but I have to eat you up.” And therefore Christ says, “If you do not eat of My flesh and if you do not drink of My blood, you will have no eternal Life.” So, if you want to understand me, I shall have to eat you, so when you enter me, I will understand you and having understood you, I shall know how to help you. This is to say that you will sacrifice yourself in order for God to enter you, you will make this sacrifice. If you want to understand someone, then either you are eaten or you eat someone else – this is a symbol. If you want to understand someone, that someone has to eat you; if you want someone to understand you, you have to eat that someone. To this you will say, “This is scary!” But look, doesn’t the present life consist of eating and drinking only? If you take eating away, what else is left in life? Perhaps, having eaten a good pear, a bright idea will come to mind and you may write a poem – this pear is also a flower and therefore Christ said, “I am the water of Life and I am the bread of Life.” You have to make a difference between the simple and complex movements and to understand for what purpose Man has descended on Earth. You have to learn the law of sacrifice – this is one of the significant issues, which you have to investigate. But what sacrifice – sacrifice the way one understands it? You have to ask yourselves the question what you are supposed to sacrifice. The little concessions you make do not count for sacrifice – the law of sacrifice is a law, which reconciles all contradictions in the world. Let’s say you are in a very sad and difficult situation; apply the law of sacrifice and you can immediately remove this sadness of yours. Let’s say you have to receive twenty thousand leva, you do not have this money in your pocket – what will you do? Open your books and make a decision to sacrifice this money for your tranquillity’s sake – you will immediately feel your soul relieved and Peace will come to you. Now don’t you move to the other extreme! Sometimes you regret that you are not a highly educated person, and you say, “If had a good education, I would have become a Minister, a doctor” – you torment yourself. Tell yourself, “Even if I am not a Minister, I can still live like Man” – and you will feel relieved. Sometimes you go to the other extreme and some say, “We need no knowledge.” This is not the question – in this particular case we are suffering due to the lack of such goods, which stem from knowledge. Say, “We can do without the good of knowledge.” Such knowledge does not imply that you have to become a minister, doctor or priest – the absolute, pure knowledge is a simple movement. You for example often say, “We have to increase in number in the new movement” – our strength does not lie in our numerousness. – “We have to build a home” – strength lies not in building a home; “We must possess knowledge” – strength does not reside in such knowledge. What we bring to the world is a kind of a need, which Life cannot do without; what we bring is a necessity, just like water and bread are needed for Life. These people, anyway, shall come, but when they come we shall not say, “Hang on, this is unbearable, it’s expensive, you have to pay for your bread, and then you have to pay for your water, you have to pay because I am the first one who has brought it.” No, once this thought enters your mind, the issue is over. You have to act absolutely selflessly – bread you will give in order to be used, water you will give too, and whomever you give to, you will tell this person so, “You also have to give under the same law, in the same way.” Give everything – this bread and this water you have to give, but only to those to whom they are meant to be given. Now some of you think that once they enter the New Teaching they will become better. How do you know you will become better? A person’s goodness always depends on the sacrifice – the better one understands and applies the law of sacrifice, the better one will become. Time is nothing but a manifestation of sacrifice. I am now hinting at this idea so that you will not be at odds with yourself. For example sometimes when I am talking some people say, “The Master should not have said so.” I can place a stone on the eastern wall, on the western, to the north or south, but I can also place it on top – but where should I place this stone? Let’s say its place is determined, where shall I place it? – Where it is determined to be – according to the measure of the place, this is where I should place it. Well, in this life you have entered, you are determined, measured. Sometimes I place you somewhere and you say, “I do not belong here, I am not fit for a prince”, and I see – this is the place determined for you; which is to say you are spoiling it. There you will stay, where you belong, nothing more than this. Afterwards you summon someone (this is how false masters appear); and you say, “I do not belong here, can you not relocate me?” Everybody gets drawn to this place and says, “What work can this stone do?” - They start building something new and distort the whole edifice. And then the committee comes over and says, “It’s not built well” – then they take the stones down and say, “This and that society has disintegrated, this and that religion has fallen to pieces.” I am warning you: there is a weakness within you – you want to fall back into old building practices. You will deny the old ways; you cannot go ahead without sacrifice. You must be clear with this issue in yourselves, so that each of your deeds, each of your thoughts, has to be absolutely clear, selfless. You must be certain about it for your own sake; do not declare this publicly. You have to preserve and develop this feeling, and never say to people that you are good. Now you say, “Let’s live like brothers!” Sheep live with sheep; wolves live with wolves, bears with bears, hares with hares, flies with flies, while the way you are carrying on is no good. But one of the Hebrew prophets says that lambs and lions shall live together. Remember this line, but when will they live? – When God comes, so that there will be ample space, won’t there? We shall leave this line; it belongs to another category. Do not reconcile your good thoughts with your bad thoughts; do not place them in the same place. Someone says, “I have one bad thought.” If your thought is bad, place it where it belongs; if you have one Divine thought, place it right where it belongs; if you have a desire – either good or bad - put it onto its proper place – everything has to be placed where it belongs. Many of you (I see you) when you find a wolf with nice teeth, you bring him here and you say, “Master, we found a good man – he is very clever and educated person, and what a disposition he has, what language, what words, let’s take him with us.” I can see him - he is an old wolf, but I say nothing to the man. You say, “Let’s give him a good reception; let’s open the door to the sheep, so that he can visit them.” And I tell you, visit them he will! There are not only male wolves, there are female wolves as well; there are not only bears, but there are also she-bears – these are all symbols. All of Nature around is symbol-ridden – all of these bears and wolves are a whole branch of science, which we have to study and understand. It is easiest of all to learn about ourselves while studying the animal, mineral and plant kingdoms. Bear in mind that trying to understand this story one may find it difficult to understand the changes that are under way. Sometimes you get up from sleep, you pray, but say, “God does not listen to me”; how can you explain this situation? When you know the reasons, the attitude within you should be as pure as possible. Many of you are caught in a complex movement, you have to resolve one of the most difficult tasks and to this end you need resourcefulness, tact, skills, knowledge, will and stamina in the world. And those of you who have a better understanding, shall perhaps understand tonight what I did not say, and shall say tomorrow, “Did not the Master say so?” You will find yourself in the position of that priest, who preached like this, “Let those who have two shirts, give one to the poor”; his beloved comes back home, the preacher had two shirts and she had given one of them away following Christ’s law. In the evening the priest asked her, “Where is one of my shirts?” – “I gave it away.” – “How come you gave it away without asking me?”- “You said so in church, didn’t you?” – “I said this to the others; I did not mean it for us”. Well, the priest’s wife had given the shirt away; where did she go wrong, do you think she acted right, why didn't she give one of her shirts away, but one of her husband’s? She is not right, because she did not give away one of hers, but one of the priest’s – the priest should give the shirt away himself. She says, “I followed Christ’s law”, the priest is discontent that she had given his shirt away without asking for his permission. Well it is often the case that you give away my shirts – I do not mind, but you should give away your shirts also, nothing more than this. Some interpret it like this, “You were given for free, for free you should give!” When you take a Divine idea or whatsoever, the rule is that you keep this idea to yourself. You have the right to give the fruit to the others, but the idea you should keep to yourself – to all you should give of the fruit it bears, but it should stay with you. You, however, take this idea and say; “We were given for free, for free we shall give”. This is not right, Christ also says, “Each sprig coming from Me shall bear fruit.” These Divine ideas should pass through us and should bear fruit – and of the fruit you will give away. You all have to be rich of the fruit of the Divine thoughts. Secret prayer So, the main points are: simple and complex movements, the law of self-sacrifice, the law of sacrifice; the Divine idea has to stay within you in order to be sown in you and bear fruit, and of this fruit we have to give away – these are the main ideas in the lecture. You get together sometimes - for this purpose I shall assign a certain task to the students so that you can seriously start working to resolve it. Discuss the three aspects – to the physical world, to the Spiritual World and to the Divine World. Each idea should be discussed in three aspects. Direct your thought to be clarified, in order not to be held back. If you were ready I would give you a task now, but you are not. I would give you a complex task to perform. Do you know what it means when a person is not ready? This is what I imply: imagine it is winter-time and I send you to an excursion, but you have no shoes; can I send you barefoot? Imagine I send you to a place in the mountains with glaciers, while you do not have the required equipment – you need to prepare. You will say, “Everything can be done with God”; God can do everything, but we cannot. So now you will think it over. I want you to gather energy at least from Chamkoria, more Light for your mind, to strengthen your heart. Perhaps I would assign this task to you under more favourable conditions, but everyone should be ready, because I will give to you a more complex task – as is required. Now that I say so, you may wonder what this task might be. You will get to know, certain things are kept back. Now when you start, first you will act, and then you will think – do not be scared. For example I tell you: “In an hour’s walk from here, at about 10 kilometres there is a place, you will walk on one of the sides, you will stop there and shall not move.” You won’t ask me why – go there and you will get to know why. You will walk ten kilometres from here; you will find a sack with weight of 10 kilograms, you will not untie it, you will take it and will bring it back to me. I will then tell you, “You will take this sack and you will open it, there is a measure of wheat, you will put oxen to the yoke and you will sow it.” You won’t ask why – next year you will get to know whether the task was right. Let me explain the idea: you will go a ten kilometre distance from here, there are ten kilograms of wheat in a sack there; you won’t untie the sack, because you will waste time, you will not be curious and I will not tell you anything, so as not to waste time; you will harness oxen – next year, when the wheat grows, you will reap it and you will then reason. This is what the esoteric student should be like. Well you may now ask, “I must know what there is in the sack.” – You may know – I can tell you this, “You will go to a place ten kilometres away, there is one sack of wheat there, you will bring it here, will harness oxen and will go to the fields etc.” – I can tell you all this but do you know what the results will be? You will not get there on time; you will be late. We are already late; we have missed the most favourable circumstances, because I was explaining all this to you, an hour had passed. This one hour wasted the best circumstances under which this seed can live. Therefore in the Divine world there is no waste at all – no sooner said than done! You will then acquire punctuality; all of you have to learn this punctuality. And you will try my thought whether it is right or wrong. The day before yesterday, at Moussala peak I tested your hesitation: we reached a place where we stopped – not possible to go ahead, as it was dangerous; if you had decided to go across the ice, then everybody would have fallen into the lake. You now say, “There are a lot of obstacles along this road (as the road was covered in frozen snow), what shall we do?” We could have cut a road through, we should have taken hoes with us, but it would have taken us a whole day until we cut a road through – this, however, we did not foresee. You thought there were no obstacles on the way to Moussala. There is no way back – then you say, “Upwards!” – You manifested courage. – “No one shall pass through the snow!” Then you started crawling up the hill, not even thinking of stones falling on you. You have to be very careful, as there are many obstacles in our development. While I was climbing a big stone passed me by – four fingers thick – such a stone can break bones. So while climbing up the hill, you have to be careful not to touch a single stone, you should not aim only at climbing up. What is the law concerning this? – Do not be in a hurry, I do not demand of you to hurry. If you reach a certain place, sit down – try it, place your foot on this place and find out whether it is strong. By touching the stone with your foot you will receive certain energies, will concentrate within yourself. This is a task: to climb up to the top and to try the whole road, to get to know what dangers there are – such should be the tasks, this is the only way to carry you up there. In a certain respect all of you were very brave, not cowards. Courage is a good feature – indication that you can do the job. But it takes someone else behind your backs – I should have been the last one in the line and had I remained last everybody would have climbed up. Then, you did not follow my instructions – I said, “Absolutely no one should pass through the snow”, while some of you did and this might have cost them their lives. Had I told you, “Go through the snow”, it’s my responsibility. Some other time I shall take you to Moussala and shall tell you, “Up you go through the snow” – then it is my responsibility; then everybody has to carry a hoe – will dig a step and will pass. But if I say, “You may not pass though the snow”, then you may not. Someone says, “We may.” No, now is not the right time – we shall walk along the path that is predetermined; this is a rule. In Esoteric science a task that is not accomplished properly has risks – this is absolutely so. While the results are always correct, i.e. everything will be going well; will be supportive. I want you to see what laws operate during these excursions, to see that this Divine mind; these elevated Beings take part in all of our deeds and acts. And these two, the brother and the sister, who slipped down, were saved along a direct line, not along a curved line. Had they not stopped slipping, they would have fallen into the lake. We shall now walk in a living faith – I am not preaching to you an ordinary faith. This faith is extraordinary and our deeds shall also be extraordinary. And so shall Love – everything within us will be extraordinary, this we have to be sure of. Translation: Maia Mitcheva ______________________________________ 1 Chamkoria literally translates Pine-Woods; At present, the name of this famous resort in the Rila mountains is Borovets. 2 Moussala: 2925 m altitude, summit on the Balkans in the Rila Mountains Source
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THE THREE MAIN LAWS: LOVE, WISDOM, AND TRUTH Nineteenth Lecture delivered by Master Beinsa Douno to the General Esoteric Class on July 7, 1922, Friday, 8:15 - 9 p.m., Sofia Silent Prayer We just heard the disciples’ essays on the topic of the wheat grain. The second time I will appoint an essay topic only to some of you. You will need to write clearly; there is no need to write too much, but to write clearly on the topic of Why God Created Man. If I were to give you another topic, for example: What is the Distinctive Characteristic of the Disciple, what would you answer? My answer would be: the desire to learn. Now, the Esoteric School is not a place for playing or for musings; rather, it is a place for learning. You have come to the Esoteric School with certain preconceptions - you think that you know things. Outside of the Esoteric School you know a lot, but inside the Esoteric School you know nothing. I want to state the following now: you may have graduated from University, you may know a lot on the subject of philosophy but if you go to a technician in some workshop, you will find yourself in trouble; he will make you feel like a child, so you will have to pay attention. If you go to a laboratory, you will find out that you know nothing about chemistry. You may be a philosopher, thinking that you know a lot about chemistry, but no, you should admit to yourselves the fact that you don’t know much about that. When you enter the workshop, too, you should admit that you know nothing. You need to do the same when you are in the Esoteric School. Now you enter the Esoteric School thinking that God will enlighten you and will teach you everything. God does not teach those who do not want to learn. When you are here, in the Esoteric School, you need to pull yourself together and work, do you understand? Some of you have entered the Esoteric School with the intention to acquire everything with only little work; I will clean out the Esoteric School of disciples who do not learn. I do not need those who do not learn. There is a lot to do outside of the Esoteric School, but if you are here, in the School, do not waste your time, for it’s a shame; you will fall into the temptation of imagining that you are learning and what will come next is hypocrisy, because you will be fooling yourselves. Please, be fair to yourselves and correct yourselves. Then only ten people may be left but they will learn; if they stay but have not corrected themselves, then I do not want them either. Those who think that they know everything may leave; I do not need them. Those who only know how to criticize may also leave, please; it is pointless for me to deal with them. Only those shall remain in the Esoteric School for whom it is said in the Scriptures: “If you don’t become as the little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.” The Kingdom of God is a science, a great science. The Church may be willing to tolerate anything, but the Kingdom of God will not tolerate ignorance, crime, gossip, or evil. The Kingdom of God tolerates only eternal harmony - this is the Kingdom of God on Earth, on the real Earth. I’m speaking to you openly here, and you need to know that. Many of you are on the wrong path and if you keep following it the sole of your foot will become deformed. There are some who enter the path of Wisdom and then do not follow its laws - I do not mean to be rude to those, but, rather, to be honest with them. There are three Laws. The first Law is: The Truth in the Kingdom of God tolerates absolutely no deception in any form or shape, not a shred of deception, absolutely none, do you understand this? You might say, “It is in our nature.” No, there is no nature in this; lying is not in one’s nature; lying is something that was subsequently grafted into man. And if a philosopher or a theosophist or a teacher tries to convince you that it is in human nature to sin, then that teacher himself knows nothing, for it is not in human nature to sin. When I use the word “man”, I refer to that living Divine soul that originated from God; it is not in its nature to sin. If it does sin, then there are other reasons for that; you should be aware of this. And if one of you sins, he should not blame his nature for it; no, he should look for the reason outside of his nature. If I trip somewhere and fall onto my face, I won’t say, “It is in my nature to fall”; what I will do instead is look for the reason for my fall outside of myself, not in me. The second Law is: God wants from all of us to learn and learn constantly, at that. As long as we learn, we can live - Life is in the sublime Divine consciousness and nothing else; Life is in the process of Knowledge, because the Divine Wisdom gives Knowledge; Truth gives Freedom; Love gives Life; Life gives Joy; Knowledge gives Power and Freedom gives expanse - this is how these things work. Then you have Truth and Freedom; you have vast expanse, the expanse of the whole Universe. If you have Wisdom, you have Knowledge; if you have Knowledge, you will have Power; Power stems from Knowledge, but Knowledge does not stem from Power. If you have Love, you have Life; if you have Life, then you also have Joy. Now, I have said many times that we need to learn to bear the sorrows in Life. But one of Life’s characteristics is Joy - he who lives, should rejoice and only he who learns can rejoice. And only he who is free can learn; he who is not free cannot learn. I tell you all of this because there are old preconceptions, morals of the past. There are spirits from the Astral world who have entered some of you and are whispering in your ear, “You don’t need knowledge.” No, we do not want to have anything to do with these beings from the Astral level, with these ignorant spirits; we know more than they do, we don’t need their advice; they may keep what they know to themselves. They say, “We don’t need knowledge.” Well then, what do we need? To eat, to drink, to get dressed, to fight, to get married, to leave each other, to butcher animals, to write articles for the papers, to criticize each other, to create religions… - is this what we need? We need neither their rules, nor their advice, for all these influences are coming from the Astral level; they are not manifestations of the Divine Wisdom. The Divine Wisdom reveals that one true path where people can live mindfully and grow up to be something other than foot-tall pygmies: to be like a God in their mind and grandeur. And then there will be one Sun, not a small one that cannot sprout a single grain of wheat, but a Sun that is big enough to improve the wheat in the whole world. Therefore, all of you are required to be servants of the Absolute Truth; there must not be even a trace of a lie in you, do you understand! I’m saying that what you should do is not preach Truth outside but when you face your consciousness, God, your soul, you should realize the fact that there must be absolutely no change, absolutely no lie in your soul. My soul’s sky should be clear, with no clouds in it. Now I’m referring not to the outside world, but to the inner one; I’m talking about reaching a certain state of mind and only at this state can we think right. The second thing is that all of you should maintain a thirst for learning. What I see now is that some of you sit there and say, “I’m 45 years old.” Forty-five years is nothing; why do you think you are old? Do you know what the age limit is that defines one as old? One turns 60 years and says, “I’m an old man.” What codex states that at this age one can claim, “I’m old”. You say, “I’m old.” - The criterion that defines one as old, is wrong. God is referred to as the Ancient One, no one knows His years, but when we turn 60 we assume a label that says that we are old, now this is a shame. There is no standard for old people it is a shame to think that there is. What you should say instead is, “I have been around for 60 years, but I’m not old at all, nor have I become wiser at all - the Earth rotated 60 times, but I was sleeping the whole time.” Now you say, “I’m old”. Very well, if you say that you are old, tell me what you know then? Because the meaning of “old” in Sanskrit is “one who has Knowledge”. If you are that old, tell me what the Earth was like when God created it? Tell me about when God created the Earth. You might say, “Well, I don’t know about this.” Well then, you are not one of the old ones, why do you claim so? Now, here’s someone with his hair and beard all white, but so what if your beard is white, does that make you old; where did that assumption come from? When trees are all covered with snow in winter, does that make them old? Those with white heads say, “My hair is white, I’m old.” No, don’t link these things to your age. The first thing you need to do is tell yourselves that you are disciples; if you are 60 it means that it is your perfect time to be a disciple, to learn. Why? I will tell you why: the young woman walking outside will not tempt you, no woman will give you any trouble, and no children will make a ruckus. Exactly because your mind is where it should be and your heart and willpower are where they should be - that’s the perfect time when you can learn, i.e. you will be a disciple who is able to understand every single subject. And now you sit here and I often hear both the young and the old of you say, “We’ve grown old.” I would like to know how many of you are old so that I can ask them about how God created the world: that is how I will test you to see if you are old or not. First, as soon as you enter the Esoteric School, you will put one main thought in your mind - you need to forget about the world. What I see happening now is that you enter and say, “Let’s see what the Master will tell us tonight.” Here is what I’m telling you tonight: you must throw your old idea out the window, because it is worth nothing. All of you are young; even if you are 60 years of age, you are still young. The fact that the Earth has turned 60 times has nothing to do with you; when it turns, it does not affect your growth at all. Let’s say someone puts you into a magnetic dream at the time when you are born and while you are in that state the Earth turns 60 times; when you wake up, you will not be old. What ages on Earth, is not the years, the turning of the Earth is something accidental. We say, “At 12 o’clock there was a murder”, that murder is an accidental measure. These are all accidental measures in the world, because the Absolute measure is the expansion of the soul, not the turning of the Earth: that is something impermanent. I want you all to have the desire to learn, do you understand; I want you to learn, not only to feel. You want to be in pleasant spirits, right? However, there are better things than spirits and those better things are brought about by what one can create through the Law of Wisdom. Without the Law of Wisdom, you cannot serve God. You cannot make use of Love, either. You need to know that true Love in the world can be manifested only when the great Law of Wisdom is at work, only when Knowledge comes. In order for you to love someone, you need to know his distinctive characteristic. You say, “This person has dark eyes.” All right, I see this differently and I’ll make the following analogy to explain how I see it: when the farmer says dark soil, he implies something else; what he means to say is that this dark soil is rich and provides more of the elements that are favourable for the growth of the wheat grain. That is why he says, “This dark soil is excellent; it produces excellent wheat!” And when we see someone with dark eyes, why do we like that person; why do we like people with dark eyes? Because such people are more consistent in their feelings - if a person like that falls in love with you, he is ready to give everything for you, you can rely on him. A person with dark eyes will not deceive you - he is true to his character no matter if he loves you or if he hates you. That is why we say that dark eyes have energy. A person with dark eyes may hate or may be rude, but such a person has one characteristic feature - he is always honest; he will tell you directly if he hates you or if he loves you, he plays no games. Such people are not agitated, but are true to their character. Therefore, only Wisdom will show us the qualities that are inside us, the properties and qualities that are hidden in our consciousness. This is the goal of the Esoteric School. If, in the Esoteric School, we do not learn what causes all the misfortunes in our lives, and if, in the Esoteric School, we cannot improve our future life, then why do we even need this School? I can talk to you about Heaven, about how the Angels and the saints live there, about their houses and so on. I can describe to you many things and you will say, “This is very interesting!” It is very interesting, indeed, but it is not the smart thing to do. Why is it not smart? Imagine that you are ill in bed, you are feeling sick and I come to visit you and start describing to you my travels in America; I start telling you how the Americans live, but your stomach hurts. You will not get better by my stories about America! In that case you will tell me, “Before you tell me the first thing about America, tell me about a cure for my stick stomach!” Similarly, is it not smarter for me to describe to you the ways in which you can improve your life first and then tell you about the Superior Life? Here is the first thing about the Esoteric School: its goal is to help you get rid of all your flaws that have remained in you from all kinds of cultures from times immemorial and you still carry them in you. Some of you say, “I don’t need to know much, I can get by even with little knowledge.” No, you need a lot of Knowledge in order to save yourselves. You need Knowledge to understand Love, to understand Wisdom, to understand Truth. You need to apply things in the present real Life. Do not think that you understand Love. If you really understood Love, you would have been immortal; if you really understood the Divine Wisdom, you would have had eternal harmony, i.e. you would have had Knowledge, you would have been strong, you would have been able to understand Truth in its entirety, and you would have had eternal Freedom - the great expanse of Life. You would not have been in the dark then, we would not have been limited in this room talking about these things; instead, we would have been travelling incredibly fast. Do you know how fast we would have been travelling - at least fifty thousand kilometres per second. What would we have done then? We would have gone up to Vitosha, blow once and be past the Moon in a second and be on the Sun in five minutes. We would stop at the first station where they would greet us; we would visit for three-four days and, because they are polite, they would show us around; we would see their schools, their meetings, we would take notes and afterwards we would head for the next station, Alfa Centauri*. Now you say, “What a wonderful voyage!” It is wonderful, of course but it also contains some ideas. The advanced students of the Esoteric School go on voyages like this. You may not be able to make such a voyage in your present condition, but you need to get ready for it in some future existence. You should think on Earth, you should descend to the physical level and make voyages like this from that level. Once you are on the Astral level, you will make other voyages there; when you enter the Mental level you will find that it is organized differently, because the structures in these worlds are based on different foundations. So here is the first thing: a true thirst for Knowledge should be born in you; I want from all of you to think. I am happy with your thought but it should be an original thought, it should be such that when it enters your mind, it will beget humility. You all have met young women like that one who behaves like an aristocrat before she gets married; she does not like placing her hands just anywhere, but has a specific way of holding her hands, because she doesn’t know where to put them. However, once she gets married and has her first child, she can find where to put her hands - she lifts their child, then puts it down or holds it. The first idea that comes to one’s mind is the greatest; then one’s hand, the willpower, has something to do. Someone says, “What should we do?” Give birth to a great Divine idea in yourself and then your hands and everything will find what to do - this is why we have the Esoteric School. Now when you come here you say, “Aren’t we going to learn some prayer?” Do you know what is the true prayer, how you should pray - Lord, enlighten our mind, give us Light because the ignorance is so great that we do not understand You at all and we have sunk in sins up to our ears. We pray to you, give us Knowledge and Wisdom to do your Will. Here is a prayer: Give us Knowledge! Give us Knowledge so that we can serve You with all our heart and be happy and so that You can be filled with Joy that we are learning. What you say now, instead, is, “Lord, forgive our trespasses.” Well, your trespasses and your sins are a result of your ignorance, of your lack of Wisdom. Therefore, the disciples and all of us should pray in the Esoteric School; we need Wisdom and Knowledge. Some of you who are more advanced and well-read know that there are books about these levels. I don’t have the time now to talk about the levels. Make sure you look into these things; those of you who know more on the subject, should tell you in a private conversation. We have no time to go over things that are written in books; our time is valuable; you can read it and mull over it and I will talk about things that you cannot find in books. Now if someone tries to say something, you interrupt, “Wait, let’s ask the Master, he will tell us.” It is written in the book and you don’t need to ask if it is right; just read it, and if you like it, then accept it; if you do not like it, use your head to make up your mind. And when it comes to me to talk about these things, I will touch on them briefly and will talk about them only inasmuch as they are connected to our subject. Because my goal is to make you learn how to think by showing you how I think and then we will be able to study things. But until you learn how to think, I will use this hoe, I will dig and you will dig; I will dig and you will dig and so on until we learn how to think. And what will happen then? We will play and sing and when the wheat is ripe, we will put it in the barn and will have brotherly discussions about the eternal Laws and the future Fraternity. We have decided that we will not allow for anyone to lie to us anymore. Woe to those disciples who enter the Esoteric School intending to mock God’s Name! They will see what a Divine School means. The one who enters the Divine School needs to know that the great Divine Righteousness is behind this School. This is a Divine School - you are absolutely free but you are absolutely responsible for your deeds, as well. I need to show you and I will repeat again: the only unforgivable crime in the Esoteric School is lying! You should know this - lying is unpardonable. Do not think that you have common morals, pretend morals, such understanding… In the future we will have such high morals! I am not talking about how I treat you on the outside; I am not talking about those morals but about the inner morals in every given moment. If all I think about is how to use you, this is not morals. My relation to God - this is morals. There must not exist, even a shadow in my mind, soul, heart, or will of the thought of using you in any way. Absolute purity, absolute selflessness! Do you know what selflessness is? This is what is understood, these are the morals of the Esoteric School. And if all of you enter the Esoteric School, you need to have these morals in your soul so when you face yourselves in a given moment, you will know that you are pure. You can trespass thousands of times on the outside, but what is important is the motive, the inner motivation that causes you to do something. You may say, “But this is a school!” Yes, but this is one of the best rules. When you apply this rule as disciples, your things will improve in every aspect: mentally, spiritually and materially. Your things will improve in every aspect with no exception; if not now, in the future; if not for you, for your children. This is so and so does Jesus say, “There is no one who has left mother and father who shall not receive many times more in the present time and in the age to come – eternal life.” Therefore, you should have no fear. Then there is this irritability in you that I will start testing. Someone says, “I’m in a bad mood.” We know the reason and the source of all bad moods. If you fall asleep at night and a vampire puts his mouth on you and sucks your blood, what do you think you will feel when you wake up in the morning? You will feel a great weakness. Why? - Because this vampire has sucked out your blood. You have good intentions but some vampire comes along and sucks out your blood. Therefore, when you go to bed, you should close your door so the vampire does not come, do you understand? Someone may say, “It was my Karma that he should suck out my blood.” This is no philosophy; if you hadn’t opened the windows, it would not have been your Karma. If someone trips, they say, “It is Karma”; but if you hadn’t fallen, would it have been Karma? Someone is nervous, restless and says, “My father and mother were of a nervous disposition, and I have inherited it from them.” But if there were no father and mother what would you have said? We explain Karma a little bit differently. Do not blame your mistakes and foolishness on Karma. No, what you should say is, “I wasn’t careful in my step and I fell.” That’s all. Then there is another thing: in our Esoteric School we need to create a favourable atmosphere for learning. The first thing is to create this pure, holy, pious atmosphere so that you feel an impulse for knowledge as soon as you enter the building where these subjects are taught; this is necessary for all of you. You will create this atmosphere yourself. I have nothing against you, you are all good and I do not question your goodness. Now when I talk, you may say, “Master probably can see something bad in us.” No, I look at the matter objectively: if you are a musician and play badly, I will say, “There is no harmony.” I’m saying that not to judge your moral character but to say that the performance is not good and you don’t understand music; this has nothing to do with your moral character. You may say, “I have not developed this centre in me, but I will develop it in a day or a couple of days, or a month, a year, or longer.” When you say this, the sense for music in you will become activated. When I say that these senses are not developed in you, I mean that the Divine Curiosity is not awake in many of you. Now, I want to appoint a task to the three most capable disciples of you who know a lot on different subjects; I want one of them to write a summary on the Physical world, another one to write a summary on the Astral world and define it, and the third one to write on the subject of the Mental world. And I want this description to be ready in three weeks starting from today. Are there three volunteers here? They will write an essay and then read aloud what they wrote in front of all other disciples so that first, we can obtain a clear idea about the physical world; then a clear idea about the Astral world and then a clear idea about the world of Wisdom, the Mental level. (Now, you choose these three people.) This is how it is, then: Ruschev will write about the physical world, Ilia Stojchev will write about the Astral world and Veliko Grablashev will write about the Mental world. We will keep the rest of the capable disciples for more difficult subjects; if they are sorry that they haven’t been chosen this time, we will choose them next time. When does the third week from now fall? - On July 27th. Those of our friends who are writing this time, should write the main things. You may use books on the subject and take notes. So, I want all disciples to be always young, never old. When you enter the Esoteric School, we make no difference between how and when you have entered; here you are disciples and nothing else. In the Esoteric School you are all only disciples; outside of the School there are many professions, but when you enter the School you will be only disciples. When you are outside the Esoteric School, then you can have various professions. You need to observe one main rule: when you enter here, you will discard any other profession. If you are a professor, you will say, “I’m a student now, a disciple.” Here is how you should discipline your will and your mind: if, for one hour, you can release a burden, or forget about a difficulty and think about yourself as a disciple, now, that’s willpower. When you leave after that and go outside, you will feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Someone may ask: “How can I train my willpower?” You should spend one hour during the week thinking about yourself as a disciple: this is another experiment for you to see how well you are able to focus your mind. You might think that you cannot do that - all is allowed. We will follow the same rule as in a battlefield: those who are fighting do not stop; they keep going even when people are falling down around them; there is a medical unit which will come afterwards to take care of the wounded. Now, if one of the disciples falls down, the rest need to keep going and let the medical unit take care of the one who fell. You are not to stop and inquire, ”What happened to him?” No, onward you go, there are no sick people here. We will not stop for the sick ones; everyone must be healthy. We welcome the healthy ones and we offer our cooperation to the sick ones. Therefore, we will not discuss sick people in the Esoteric School. One’s flaws and inabilities are but sicknesses of the Astral world. When someone does not learn, it is a sickness; if someone else gets offended easily, it is also a sickness; there is an astral medicine that studies the symptoms of the sickness. The disciples in an Esoteric School first need to study Love and the subject of Life - how it originated and what its purpose is for the earth forces and the way they connect to produce these elements. The first thing that a disciple should study when he enters the Esoteric School is Life’s joys and bounties. After that he will go on to study Wisdom, then he will continue with Truth and in this way he will finally get prepared for his higher purpose in the world. Silent Prayer * Alfa Centauri is the star closest to our Sun. It is 4.3 light years away from the Sun.
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The Bear Trap The eighteenth lecture of the Teacher, held to the Common occult class on 29th June 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret Prayer The works on the topic were read “The profit of mountain tops”. The rest will be read in the other Thursdays' meetings. Next Thursday do you have a topic? – No. For the next time, write something about the history of the wheat grain. When did it appear on Earth? Write only about the wheat grain – when did it appear and under which conditions, does it exist in a wild state or not. You have to think little if it exists in a wild state. (– It does not.) Why does not? You will write conceptually, will not spread to talk about minor matters, only with notions – all, that you say will be told conceptually, figuratively, but later on the details. Learn to speak loftily. The occult pupil must speak: “I am hungry”, but not: “I am too hungry, very hungry.” – “I am hungry, thirsty, feel like walking”, but that: “I feel very much like walking, I will feel very well...” – this is for the people, who have time, who spend plenty of time. Later, when a theme is given to you, from an occult point of view, you will describe the most distinct feature. For example which is the distinct feature of bread, which is the distinct feature of water, which is the distinct feature of light, which is the distinct feature of Love, which is the distinct feature of Wisdom? You can say many things, but the distinct feature is only that, which shows first of all, which projects – it is distinct. The distinct feature is the first, which appears first. If I ask which was the distinct feature of the world? – When God says: “To be the Earth and Sky.” What does God say? – It created Light, that means the visible world – the distinct feature of the visible world, this is Light. Therefore which is the distinct feature of Light? – it reveals the world; which is the distinct feature of darkness? – it hides the world. This is distinct, and light does this, does that, these are minor matters – the distinct must stand out. Later, what does Love, which is the distinct feature of Love? You say something, anything, many things. Which is the distinct feature? You can say many things, but do not hurry to evince, because I will say one thing and you will consider yourselves insulted, think. Which is the distinct feature of the Spirit? Now, may we say that God, who contains everything inside, can be a victim? Can the eternal and the endless become a victim, for whom he shall sacrifice? Because, as you say sacrifice, you have to understand which the distinct feature of the victim is? This is a philosophical question. We say, that God has sacrificed, but which is the distinct feature of sacrifice? The distinct feature of the Eternal is, that He does not want to scrunch the most miserable – God wants to give this Life even to the most miserable, the one He has. And God stops even in front of the smallest bug to make a way to pass by – this is a sacrifice for Him. He stops the whole movement, in order for a bug to pass by, is that not а sacrifice? This is an effort. Therefore, some time God stops his Car for us and if he did not stop his car, what would we leave? – We would fail, but He often stops the whole movement. And often the conflicts, the misfortunes in the world result from what God has stopped His wagon, so that a bug can pass and you feel concussion. I say: God stopped His wagon – this is the sublimity of God. And tomorrow because if you it stops, the law is the same – tomorrow is ahead of you and He will stop His wagon for you to pass, this is a great thing. These are cogitations of your brain, so you have to think. Now, what is the distinct feature of Love? You will say: “The distinct feature of Love is sacrifice.” But how you will understand the sacrifice, when you alone did not sacrifice? Only one can understand who has sacrificed; if you did not sacrifice, you do not understand sacrifice. Now, as we say sacrifice, we can understand the preparation for such a good lunch: fried chicken, so freshly butchered and fried on grill, reddened; after a good soup made of her legs; after that pasty, made of milk and eggs, with cheese; then, put in a bottle half a kilo of six-year-old wine. And if you, after you starved and waited for that chicken, then a friend of yours comes, who has starved for three days, you give up your meal, this is a sacrifice. And this will bring you delight, that you sacrifice the chicken and the pasty, and all – to be satisfied, as you see, that he is eating. This is what I call to a certain extent, according to your understanding – this, which is appointed to you to give it to somebody else. A necessity is the sound thought, i.e. the perfect thought. Now, these must be the cogitations of the occult pupil of the Live Nature, the simplest cogitations are the following. And if you, the contemporary, let’s say, teachers and pupils, go into a contemporary exemplary school, are not all things presumed as possible: the program, subjects, how many hours you will be studying, how many teachers there will be, which teachers which subjects will be teaching and every teacher will explain his subject – all is presumed. The pupil, as he enters, must learn, it does not look proper on behalf of him to criticize all those textbooks and to say: “This textbook is worthless, that is worthless.” And in one evangelic school the teacher teaches Bulgarian, a pupil stands up and says: “Mr., The Bulgarian language has so many grammars – of Iconomov is written so, of Ivan Stoyanov is written so, of Todor, of Petko the grammar...” The teacher says: “Listen, what Iconomov writes about the grammar I do not know, I want you to write about the grammar, which I teach in class, and as you go out of class, you can take whatever you want.” As we are in the school of Nature, you have to use its language, nothing more. One day, as we outgrow it, so that we can leave the school, then we can think, what we want. In this Live Nature all is forecast. Let’s say, I give you a certain object for mountaintops; which is the distinct feature of a mountaintop? When you sharpen a plume, why do you sharpen it? – in order to write better; why do you sharpen your pencil? – in order to write; why do you sharpen your knife? – in order to cut better. Which is the distinct feature of a knife? The mountaintop or valley, these are two conditions inside Nature – and in the valleys, and in the tops gather two contrary energies. The mountains form the spine of the Earth, they the backbone, therefore our Earth has come to the position of the backbone, that’s why mountains exist. Once upon a time it was a soft body, without mountains, i.e. it was a time, when it was without mountains, and it becomes spinal. And then the rivers compose its blood – arterial and venous blood, which runs and comes in through the spine and so on. Now you may say insignificantly, that the mountains have gathered a huge energy that the spirits have come together – all these things are true. Through the backbone are there a lot of nerves, which pass, many knots, which is true; many cells become bent in the hollow of the head, millions of cells are gathered, but this hollow is made for whom? – for music is made. Now, of course, those, who have created the mountains, had one aim in the history of the Earth, if we say geological to describe it, the mountains are not created because the temporary geologists try – on all tops there is something distinct, but they are not created so. Now, the first thought will be established. It is not our question to discuss all secrets of Nature, but each task, which is appointed in the great school of Nature, we must riddle half of the tasks, which are given to us, we must riddle. When you get up in the morning, the first question is not what you shall eat or what you shall drink. Therefore says Jesus: “Who thinks so?” – Only the pupils. And the pupils, who know the Nature and who know God, will not think about eating. The good son and the good daughter, when they get up every morning, they will go to their mother, they will kiss her and the mother will kiss them – this is the purpose – they go to school, because they are pupils, and they will kiss them. After that the father and mother will order them to go to school, but they will eat before the lesson. And now you, when you get up in the morning, right away you decide one important question – what you will do during the day. You do not go to your father; you do not go to your mother, you do not know Nature and, what’s more, you want to be pupils. You must know Nature. If you have a certain opinion, when you get up, to whom you must go? And when you get up in the morning, when you turn to God, you must know whether He is up – you do not know where He is. You have to find Him in You! If you do not find Him in the people, if you do not find Him in Nature, you doubt; don’t you know what comes from this doubt? Imagine you and I are in two near posts, we are connected by telephones, telegraphs and other means for communication, but imagine, that the messages of the telegraphs and telephones are broken off and we shall be isolated – and then we exist without announcing. If you send to your brain one criminal thought (let’s say, some evening we go to bed, a criminal thought has come, but you did not perceive it), as you get up in the morning, you will be disposed, all messages with Nature, with God will be broken off. Maybe you are indisposed, and somebody with his bad influences has corrupted you – it will be strange, if one great spring is muddled by some other small spring. If you are a very shallow spring and somebody can influence you by his thoughts, to change the pace of your life, to make you restless, you are shallow. But it is true, that inside your life you have allowed one thought, which in a certain moment has stopped all the messages. When they come from the Invisible world to help (because even the Nature has its own servants), an hour or two will go by, maybe one-two days, until they put the message for order – and you will have one pleasant disposition of the soul. So in everybody that exam must be determined– every time to know which is the cause of your state. You are in a certain state – you have to know that state, which you are in, in what category it falls: in the physical, or the spiritual or to the Godly state. I will give you now one categorization between the physical, spiritual and the Godly state. Now, if you are questioned which states are simply physical? – The physical states are the exact states, they are restricted states – meaning the restricted states which we have, are the physical. They are also transient – every time every physical state changes quickly, the physical states change very fast. Let’s say, you have one disposal, thinking that, you are very patient person; take one small needle and stick it in the gentlest place – it will produce one little pain and right away you will change, and will change your state. At that moment, if you have control over yourself, this needle must not produce anything, not to change your state. So these states are connected to the subjects on Earth, which constantly change. Let’s say, you have one brooch or one you have one precious stone; you get attached to it, but one day an other gets attached to your stone, steals it – your states changes. You’ve got a book, which you love, a great poet has written it, this is a precious book; somebody comes, steals it – stored in your brain – it cannot be taken away, you are stronger, but comes somebody, hits a strike there and bothers your calmness, but you cannot open the sheets. Therefore we have to reach that state, in which, as we see, that somebody will cast a strike on our head, to be able by our thought to stop that hit, instantly to paralyze his action. Somebody will say: “If it is the Will of God will we be able to stop somebody?” You may ask: “Is it fateful that somebody hits you on the head.” If you are stupid, yes, one can hit you, the stupid one is hit every day. The clever, when he is hit, becomes clever, and the stupid, when he is hit, becomes stupid. You will say: “A law of fate that somebody hits you in the head.” No, it is not a law of fate – this strike can come consciously or unconsciously. In Khazunlak region somewhere somebody made a trap for bears, but in the morning he goes and sees – there his donkey is trapped. Imagine now, that you are a traveller, passing and touching this trap and you become trapped; if you were not so curious and you were not interested in that bear trap, would you be trapped in? – No. Therefore in the Occult school every time they warn their pupils, that the Astral world is only full of traps, bear traps, looking like nice flowers, like nice juices, like nice things. And the Teacher says: “Down this somewhat road you should not go, somewhat trap, somewhat book, somewhat flower, you should not touch, anything more!” But we, the contemporary people, say, that everything we must travel over, we must try everything. If that pupil decides to examine all bear traps, he will say, that uselessly will test them, no value will obtain. Now these bear traps will also be form between you. I will say one day, now there is not, but I am preparing one talk for the bear traps, which are formed between us and you are fooling with every day. As you are fooling with them, come and ask me why that trap is laid – you, as pupils, did not walk your way, you will not ask me why, these are for bears. And twenty years I have to talk only about bear traps – why did somebody do this act, why did he do this fault. So good, I retail – I will tell you the cause why this fault happened, what use will you make of that? You tell me, that Dragan Stoyanov, a husband of somebody, bought her a silk dress, but a cow passed near her, she ran away and tore her dress in the wire. And you ask me: “To tear her dress, what portent does it have for her, is it good or bad, whether astrologically on time has this dress been made, whether the day has been chosen well or badly, or the quilt is in that trader, from whom is the cloth bought, which is the purpose?” It’s nice, imagine, that I explain, what will you use? The only thing is that this Turk was not careful, she has travelled with a gentleman, in rapture, the cow shoved her in the wire and tore her dress – this is an explanation. Now, the second explanation is that this female Turk was afraid of buffalos and therefore buffalos happened to get out, cows on the opposite and she starts to run, and as she jumps over the wire, tears her dress. The third situation: this female Turk carried her bag with money, but somebody needed money, chases her, she runs and tears her dress. These are a number of reasons; which of these reasons is the essential – which tore her dress? Now, you shall think. I do not want you now to think, that I give this for a comparison with your dress, no, the principle for explaining is not important. There are many things, which I do not have to explain to you. For you, the occult pupils, it is important to study the art to build excellently; to pull down, it is not an art. For example, if in twenty years’ time you have come to ask me in this way: “Teacher, I have decided to do a good deed, give me one best method - and I will do it”, and if you had been thinking so: “Teacher, I have decided to reconcile with all those who am in conflict with, give me the best method, I will do it without my eye to wink”, “Teacher, I have decided to sacrifice all my property for the poor, give me rules, I have decided that”, if in twenty years’ time you have asked me these things!... And now they will come to me, saying so: “Mr. Teacher, just imagine that sister there the previous day do you know what she did? – “She did not let me say a word during the meeting, not only that, but the other day, when she met me, she did not greet me, does this beseem a good Christian?” Now, do you think, that is an explanation – I have to sit as a lawyer and explain why she did not greet you. No, she did it on purpose, because she was in such rapture. – “How is that, she must not be in rapture!” We can say: she can be in rapture– “No, no, when she meets me, she must not be in rapture, in any other case she can be in rapture, but not me...” And well, I ask now: who has never been in rapture, once a man will be in rapture – these are bear traps, do you understand, these are bear traps! And I will once in the School make an attempt – I will make a bear trap, so that you can see how funny it is, how people are deluded. Decide now to make one of the best deeds – by all means at least ten bears will show up in your brain. You decide to do one good deed; you will first scrub, and say: “Let’s feed myself with pasty, and after that”, the second time will say: “I have some work, this or that”, and then say: “For today it is not possible, but tomorrow I will do it.” When you, as pupils, enter the Occult school, right away in your mind will spring a number of contradictory actions and you must understand these laws, in order to get rid of them, they will not change. And maybe the occult pupil is exposed some time a big temptation, to big contradictions is exposed – why and for what he will not explain, he is exposed – I only present the facts. But this exposing, if he does not use, is good. And therefore that day I told you, that when we are somewhere in the occult way, we will act and then think – the occult pupils must act, then think; out, in the world, they will think, then act – one of the two. Whatever good is it and to be a good thought and to come in your brain and then show up as very distinct feature, do it, without hesitating. If one morning, after you get up, in your brain comes a strong, good thought and shows up as a good feature, make it, do not stop in front of any philosophies, do not eat, do not drink, do it – if it is shown up, do it. And after you did it, do not go around shouting out in the neighbourhood. Make an attempt – they will think later, and when results come, then you will find out, after time you will know how to give it in. You have noticed in the morning, when you get up, what thought you have first? Do now a kind of investigation: as you wake up your first sleep, notice what thought is in your mind – whatever thought it is, write it down in your book. This – for a week, for seven days what thoughts you have. As you wake up from your first sleep, write it down – you will be strict; the first thought may be pleasant, maybe also unpleasant – you will note the fact, as it is. Because, as you wake up, you may be thinking of a fried chicken, even though you are vegetarian, or you can think, that you have twenty thousand leva, and in your mind can be such a thought: “So long time I walk on this Godly road, I gained nothing, as I walk on the wide road” – I will note the thought correctly. For seven days, if only good thoughts come up, it is pleasant, a pleasant occurrence is also the field, through which you go is excellent. Now, you expect, saying: “God will enlighten us”, (will he/ won’t he!!!)? But if God looks from the left side, you will use a method; if you look on the right, he will use another method. As he sees you on the left, he will put you on the right, he will put you in front and then he will talk. If you do not come from the left to the right and then in front, never will God talk to you. And I will give to the mothers one rule (I will not explain the occult law): but in the first place take the child, put it on the left, then on the right, embrace it; then take it in front and then kiss him – the kiss is already Godly – as you kiss him, you will begin to talk. Now, you will ask your philosophy again: “Isn’t it possible that I place myself on the left and on the right?” Make an effort, because these are microscopic efforts. Why as a result of this effort – from the left or the right – we will produce another effort. Now begin with the children: you have a daughter, 5-10 years of age; place her on the left, on the right and as decide to put it on the left, the child might say: “Why mother?” and to listen; if it does not listen, do not disturb it. The fathers to do the same with his boy – of course those, who have children. And those who do not (to them might be left behind wish), will find some poor orphan, a little orphan, who you will love – you might find it somewhere, will go in some poor house and you will place it on the left, on the right. For a week make this effort – go into a poor family, which you like, and there make your attempt, this will certainly come. Now you will see an other objection: “What will the people say about me?” If you think what will the people say about you, do not go. The experience, which I give to you, go, do it and nothing else – do it, even though the world can turn upside down! These children, with which you will make the attempt, will thank you – they did not have a sweet kiss, nobody loved them and they will wonder how, where from did such a good man kiss that orphan. If you are being philosophical, you are free, I give you full Freedom – let only those do it, who can by the law of Love and Wisdom do it; who can’t, should not be seduced, because they are going in unnecessary trouble. How do you think, when God sends a great Angel to a sinful soul to comfort it, what must he do? And the angels have an occult school, to help such sinners. Do you know what is the situation? Some saint is sent to deal with some wrongful sinner; if that was you, you hairs would stand upright, and say: “How can be that in that place that I am defiled!” and without any hesitation – said-done. Don’t you know what is the law – as it this Spirit touches you, right away the sins will be taken, burned in that Godly fire. And if you believe, this fire will surrender. Now you, the occult pupils, are not expected to become saints. We will pray, will make efforts, to see how much you can carry out the law. For example generosity is preached; it must be helped, but you do not know how generous you are. Let’s say, that you are one official or trader, and you have an income of one hundred thousand leva per year; you get up, want to show how generous you are, say: “I give ten thousand leva”, but when you go to the safe, stop a while: “Is that not too much?” you will say: “Five thousand leva”, then you will say: “No, these people do not need even five thousand leva, let it be two thousand and five hundred, but they do not need even it – so, a hundred leva” – and so you go down from ten to one hundred leva. Then do you think, that you will be an occult pupil? – No, in the Brotherhood, they know that you are but nothing – you are a tree for work. It is not right, once you said to you “ten thousand leva”, to go down to ten pieces, do not go back on your word – said, done. Do not hurry, but once said, you should hold on to your word till the end – this is a distinct feature. And can every pupil act like this? It is not in the quantity, but this, which we promise, must always do – this is submission. Why this thought has come from somewhere, it has come from God – you have promised and after that you are hesitating if it is from God. Try it – as you try, as you know it whether it is from God, or not. Secret Prayer Source
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The Influence of the Music Lection seventeen from the Teacher delivered at the common Occult class on the 22nd of June 1922, Thursday A secret prayer The works for music have been written. Now, if they ask you which world touches music or which world descends from music, what are you going to answer? – From the Mental world, i.e. only an intelligent man may sing. Therefore, music and human intelligence go together. Because the right thought, is music. Now I shall give you one little musical attempt. Of course those of you who don’t know how to sing have to make an effort. Firstly learn the scale, the seven tones and from them – learn the natural tone which the scale starts from. You may take the natural tone of the organ or the piano. Some pianos starts from higher or lower with a half tone. Learn the tones of the scale without rising or lowering, naturally, everybody here learns C, D, E…C, B – forward and backward. When you have a good frame of mind, sing the tones. Afterwards, after your frame of mind changes, sing them again and notice what the difference is. For example, if you are angry, sing C, D…C, B and backwards and see what resistances you will meet. Observe psychically, make a difference in the singing: sometimes you have an inharmonious temper – see in which tones what disharmony comes; sometimes you may have some inner fear – sing the scale again forwards and backwards, note the tones you don’t sing properly. You will make psychical observations. Make these attempts and psychically you will differentiate how far you are far from perfect. For example, some musicians, I have heard, take higher D, cannot sing it correctly. Why? – Because they are extraordinarily active. At some point they don’t sing B correctly, somewhere they don’t sing C correctly. To sing means that you must always make the tones correctly. After you change it in whatever relation, you are not a musician any more, you do not keep the rules. Therefore, a musician is only this, the one who in all conditions keeps the natural relations – I see the sensible natural relations that exist between the tones. For example now, when you quarrel, and the quarrel is music, somewhere the emphasis in some tone is higher. In speech there is rising and lowering, isn’t there? If we translate anger into a musical language then when somebody gets cross, he sings forte; when somebody wants to gloss himself, he sings very softly, sings pianissimo. But you will see that in all of you the tones are weakly included. In the past, you didn’t learn music and now you have to make a very big effort. And your failure in life is due to a lack of music. The criminality in people is due to the fact that there is no music. For example, people – killers do not have any music. Therefore, the music is one stimulus – after you start to sing, the blood starts to flow into the front part of the head, the brain attracts the blood to the front part, and so it develops correctly. And the first thing in the Black lodge is that it always says, “You are old, you do not need singing, God may do and without your singing, you are indisposed today, do not sing!” And you start to become coarse, to become coarse till you lose this feeling, and the blood goes down in the lower centre of the brain and everything in you begins to pine. Afterwards in some people there is a shame – they love music but don’t sing since the others will laugh at them. There is no shame in this because there are no singers. I have heard only one singer sing nicely, to control her voice so much – one Turkish woman, I listened to her twenty years before. I have heard two or three singers who sing nicely – where the soul takes part, not only to quaver the voice, but also to make an effort. Music is one natural art. When you sit, you start to think how you will sing. No, you have to sing without thinking; if you start to think how you will sing, you will not sing. When a man starts to think how to pay his debts, he does not have money in his box, and when the case is full, he doesn’t think, but pays; and whoever comes along says, “How much do I have to pay you, here you are.” Why? – His box is full. All of us are people that think a lot – we think about religion a lot, about the virtues we think a lot. Why do we think? – Because the boxes are empty. Now the disciples of the Occult School do not know music. After the box is empty, you will think but you will know that without music you can’t be disciples of the School that you have to know. One condition: without music, you can’t be disciples of the School, so good disciples. And the first exam we will give is on music and there you may degenerate. The first exam in the School is music – they will give you one part to sing, one very easy song will be given to you to sing. So, you understand already, music and thought go hand in hand. And after that we can use the music as an educational resource. Watch different people and see what kind of songs they like. When somebody is indisposed, sing him the song which he likes and he will have a good frame of mind. Every man has a favourite song. The religious people in the Orthodox Church and in the Evangelical Church also have a favourite song. Now first, the observation, which you have to make, is in controlling the scale. Do this exercise for two weeks one by one – every day, morning and the evening before you lie down. In the morning sing the scale three times – make observations, not just singing. You want to study occult sciences, have great ideas to grasp the powers of Nature but if you can’t grasp the difference, the soft vibrations between two music tones, how will you grasp those great powers with higher tones? And now I don’t want to encourage you but when you study the occult music and you start singing, all the grit will start to group in one place and create stones – there are occult songs with which only when you sing to a stone, for ten minutes from above it will start to split; there is an occult music which if you sing you can stop the stream of a river; there is occult music that if you sing near by some dried up spring, the water will flow. And if sometime you dry up and begin to look like dried up springs, it is because you don’t sing. You say, “God does not love me” – your spring dries up. Start to sing and your spring will start running immediately. You will say, “Now I am sad, when I get into a good frame of mind then I will sing.” There is no reason to sing then, you will sing now! Afterwards, if a boil breaks out in some of you, I shall give you one musical attempt to cure it: if somebody has a boil sing the scale three times in the morning, in the evening – again three times and if you sing correctly, this boil will pass. And why can't some illnesses be under treatment? You lose the music. A man who is afraid and who can’t sing dies. You have an inflammation, forty degrees temperature, sing some (some, any, 1) song and the temperature will fall immediately by (few, 3-4 degrees lower) several degrees. But the doctors will say, “He is ill, to keep silent, no singing, only to feel his breath.” You have a bad frame of mind, an unpleasant state – sing! Sing to this state one song, sing a second one, third, till you sing the proper song. The practical educational influence of music – it does interest us. We don’t have an interest in things that stand in our way, but what can produce the music in us, it interests us. Now, in connection with the music, I shall define two ways of Life. The ascending, the correct way of Life is a way that contains in itself all the ascending powers: there is form, content, and sense in it - it is called the correct way. The descending way is a way that contains all the descending forms, content, and sense of the descending life; it is called the Left way. So, with Way you will understand all the possibilities which Life demands in a given moment – it is called Way. Now, music is one of the resources of the Correct way, of the ascending way, one of the great resources of the ascending correct way in Life. Therefore, every single life has to start with music. Now when you sing you will not do it as pupils C, D, E, F, G…- it is not singing. You will stop yourself and when you say C, will forget that you are in the World – when you say C you will think that you start Life, and start to live. And when you say D you will think that this Life in which you live will start to form it, will start to collect materials for it. When you come to E you will understand that you distribute this material. F helps to understand for what the received inside combination could be used in Life. G, it is a construction – starting of the construction, A is plaster, and B is finishing of windows and doors. Then you will finish – you will do not only mechanical windows but will know that one window is one opening, a place that the Light may come from. The door is a place from which a man may come – a way for movement of the soul. When we talk about windows and doors we see that the window is a place where the Light may penetrate, and the door is a place through which the soul may come in. These are only a few occult signs in music; I shall speak about this another time. Now sing C. You take Ci-i, is there music in this Ci-i-i? The soul still doesn’t take part in this singing. In these vibrations, not only do you have to take part, but you also have to control your respiratory system, because here you have one more of the important centres – the larynx. Through the brain you will develop the larynx. The correct speech in the world depends on music – if music is correctly developed, then speech will develop correctly. Therefore, you will concentrate all your energy in the lungs – between the sympathetic nervous system and the larynx; between these two centres, the wheel of the brain begins to turn. Of course, there is that shame in you – if I invite somebody to get up and sing now, all of you will start to laugh. For example, you will not watch how he sings but will giggle, and laugh because he doesn’t sing the tones correctly. And with that you kill his desire to sing. Well, let’s all now take the first tone C. (Everybody sing: C, C, C). Let’s now come to D. C, D, D – louder! (Everybody sing). You don’t do it correctly, this D is not clear, something let you be far from perfect, this shows that the energies are not distributed correctly. But C is clear, it is good. (Everybody sang the whole scale.) Sometimes I shall occupy you – we will take some occult exercise on music. Then we will make one difference: we will sing one usual song normally, and afterwards we will sing the same song with the rules of the occult music to see what effect it can produce. Now the rest of the things you will read the next time. Do you have another theme? (- No) “The use of the mountain tops” – what use does climbing up bring? Afterwards what other use do they have? – They retain the snow attract the dampness and the wind. Now, you notice all these objects, do not think that they are given arbitrarily. All the themes you will write in one special notebook and will think them over. For the music in fact you will think from now further. As many themes as you have written, you will stop over them and will look at them again because in the future we will start to combine – for example, I shall want to combine the relations which exist between music and the mountain tops. Of course, these are complex exercises, we will pass onto them later. After one year, we will come to the complex exercises. You will be careful to put one strong base now, because if you don’t put this strong base you can’t build upon it. Because in the Occult school we have aimed first to develop the centres of Faith, Hope, Love, to develop the musical feelings, to develop the imagination, to develop the mathematical abilities, the judicious abilities, the creative mind, to develop amicability, to regulate human ambition, human pride, afterwards to put to work the executive possibilities of the man in work, to develop speech, to put it in a correct way, afterwards to create the correct forms for Life. These are tasks which have to be worked upon. And after these centres are developed, then we will connect them. Every single centre is connected with some trend and then it can manipulate. So it is imminent to do exercises, exercises. Let’s say that you have one hard task: you are a pupil or a student and you failed the exam, and you haven’t the resources to learn in the next year – your benefactor doesn’t support you any more. Three thoughts may pass through your mind: to kill yourself, to interrupt your life. What should this student do? – He will sing, he will start to sing the scale from below upward and from above downward, he will say, “Life is one ascending scale.” Start from lower C and go to the other, to upper C. – “They have failed me.” – you will go down in the scale, i.e. the failing will think as a coming back on the way back. When they fail somebody, they will say, “Sing the scale backward C, B, A...” Who doesn’t understand music will say, “I have failed.” But whoever understands the music will say, “I sing the scale on the way back.” – And then he will rise again to upper C. And when he acquires the tones, he safely passes the exam. But when they fail him too, he will sing the scale correctly backward – it is the same thing. For example, now you cannot convince yourself that if they fail you on the exam it is better than to pass. Many times miserable pupils don’t learn throughout the year, but it happens that he is examined on the easiest object, he has five and passes, but it is so much better to fail him, and let him repeat learning the material thoroughly – then for the next class he will be ready. Now in the Occult school you can’t pass just like that. The material is connected in a way that you can’t pass by skipping material. The disciple has to learn everything and to do it nicely. No matter what kind of tricks you will use, there is no way you can pass, it is one necessity. So, all the things you have to learn well. And the sufferings in life are nothing but failing - constantly failing us. Sometimes you think that you are virtuous but suffering fails you on the Virtue. You say, “I was good until yesterday.” But you still haven’t learn the art of being good – it is an art to know how to be good. In occultism, we understand “good man” as one who knows how to use some Divine powers correctly in the forms that are predetermined to them. This means a good man: to every Divine power to give the respective form, which is definite for it. Because if in different states, in different tempers, and in different ages, you know what the form is that corresponds to this power and you may give in to it with no mistake, then you will be a good man. It’s like that. Therefore, you will learn with which power, in which case which form corresponds. Because in the Occult meaning, only in this way will you obtain Light. Now you discourage yourselves, every day you become good and bad and hard work is imminent to you – mainly to those of you who want to learn. Afterwards, you will keep another rule: the great occult science always put itself in a way that a man has to start to work with the weaker powers in the world, they are the most productive. You will start with the most weak power that you have. And even in the practical relation you see the same: when a man starts with big steps immediately after he leaves his home, he can’t finish any kind of job – as he goes further he reduces, reduces, and in the middle of the way he tires and stops; but if some man goes out and if he suspects and if he starts very slowly, very slowly and gradually increases, this man will finish the work. And now in religious relation the science consists of the same: the one who goes out in the street and says, “I shall do this and that,” he will do nothing. No stop yourself and say, “This that the teacher gave me, I shall learn it; for the other way I don’t know, but today this little step, I’ll do it.” He doesn’t think about the future. Somebody, when he comes into the school, does think about how he will end the second, the third class etc., what diploma he will take, how they will meet him with flowers, adornments – all this fills his mind, but this pupil is going to do nothing. Now some of you, as occult disciples think in this way, “Now when we finish here, we will do this and we will do that.” No, whatever you are going to do, don’t think about it as only coming to an end, don’t waste your powers. When you have free time, you may dream on different objects but in the School – no other objects for sure. Out of the Schools there is dreaming. The Occult brothers, when they want to dream, from the Invisible world, they go down to hell to see all the dreams – because hell is full of great dreams. If somebody wants to see the greatest dreams, the greatest plans, he has to go down to hell – what dreams, plans, and projects there are there! The most learned philosophers write to the priests, to prophets, to teachers, to mothers, to fathers – all the plans are collected there. And when some man wants to become very great, God sends him down to see the great plans. And because of that in the Occult school firstly they learn the little works and after that step up to learn the great works. There you will start with the little powers that you have in you, with the smallest impulses – do not start with the strongest impulse of the soul. Some preach to begin with the strongest energy but in the occultism we start with the smallest, with the weakest inner convictions. If you can give life to the smallest inner conviction, you will have power to do great works. With money if you may do something, it’s good – but if your father leaves you a hundred thousand leva; but if your father leaves one penny and if with this penny you do something, you are a man, but if you do something with one stotinka… Mind is required, it’s required heart, and required will! Because of that with the weaker powers you have, you will start with them. And the world starts with the weaker things. A secret prayer Source
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Thoughts and Deeds Sixteenth Talk of the Teacher given before the General occult class on 15th June 1922, Sofia Next time you’ll write about the influence of music in Life. Because the class is general you are not equally prepared to grasp the subject in the same manner, you have a different understanding. Those, who are not so familiar as the other students, consider themselves equal to that who know and thus is born a little disharmony. Those, who have not grown, have to learn. This is not the place for amusement, no, you will think. Here you have to devote yourself to learning, here a serious thought is required. When we say a serious thought, there should be no fear, do not fear. At least fifty minutes a day the student must stop for a while and think. You have to think about different matters: sometimes you are in pain – think about why you are suffering, you have a troubled life – think why you have encountered such trouble, which are the reasons and how can you objectively find a solution to them and not to say: “ I’m unhappy, such is the society. God has made me in such a way!” This is not a philosophy, this is a solution to the problem. This is a bird’s philosophy, they solve their matters in that way – when the bird is chased by a falcon, it stops by a tree and says: “Here is the salvation.” Or when a big mouse sees a man, hides itself in the hole. I’ll give you an example: in the working field of a Turkish man many mice bred and they said to him: “Hello, Hassan, your field is ravaged by rats!” – “Is that so?” – he went there, put cartridges in the gun, aimed at them as to settle the thing but the moment he raised his gun, all the mice rose at their back feet before him – some thousand rats. – “Well, this means you count me as your master.”- The Turkish man said. “I’ll spare you.” (The Turkish word “harizvam”- “to spare someone’s life”), he lowered his gun and they went backwards. Hassan knew the reason for this, that they consider him their master, however these mice want to know what the man’s intentions are. But Hassan thinks: “I admit my mistake so accept my apology.” Now, when you join the Occult school, you expect to act more humanely, to prepare yourself for an occult student. Yes, you do, but reasoning is needed, the occult students need quick wit. You don’t have to misinterpret some facts, each fact should have its own weight to our life, neither bigger nor smaller – Nature has given it its value. If you don’t learn to reason in that way, are you aware that sometimes you give yourself more weight than you deserve, and sometimes you give yourself less weight than you are worthy of – both are excesses. So my point is that a certain disharmony is bred, which harms the ears of wheat, hampers the thought of the Teacher. Because the students can also trip up their Teacher, at least they can turn him away from the mainstream. And when the stream is driven away, their gardens will be left unwatered, nothing more, nothing less. Now I want to introduce you the most basic things in Nature and show you their inner sense, the foundation. On this elementary basis the further knowledge you will receive will be laid. This is because there many occultists that have lifted themselves high up, there are adepts, who have climbed to the Third vaunt of heaven and they have fallen down head over heels. Those who have passed in the occult, they will be let in but they will be returned back from above, they will be given a good lesson – on the sacred road of Holy school one can not pass without knowledge. One should know- he needs knowledge so he can work. When I say should know, this means that you can always check your knowledge, to prove it, as one student understands his or her knowledge – they give him a task and he starts solving it, he knows the rules, he can work. Now, don’t mix the occult truths with religious. Religion is also one method for educating people but it is an inner method. Church is one seedbed, and the Occult school, this is a school for more developed souls. Some of them have elevated minds, their consciousness has woken so that they can understand the basic laws, which work in their organism, which operate in the society and manage the human evolution. Now, you have to bear something else in mind: you can’t set up yourself a home, to be happy unless you grasp the occult laws, you can’t love your friends until you have understood these laws. And that’s why people will marry and divorce, will become friends and stop being friends, will reconcile themselves and again quarrel, and nations will make wars until they understand those occult laws, which Nature has laid in the foundation of contemporary society. But people have to subject themselves to this society – if they don’t follow these laws, Nature allows all the extremes, which now exist: illnesses are born, which wash way health and knowledge, which people have. Often some small illnesses weaken memory, darken mind, sometimes earthquakes, a hurricane, storm. The reason for the earthquake is us, people – people’s thoughts can be the cause of an earthquakes. Yes, they can and Bulgarian people are not far from this conclusion: when in some Bulgarian village there are crimes committed draught and hail will destroy the crop. (The Bulgarian word for wasted crop is “gradobitina”, a word, received by blending of “grad”, which is the Bulgarian word for hail, and “bitina” a noun, which comes from the verb “biya”-, meaning “beat”, “heat”). Gradually, step by step, after these transgressions have stopped, rain comes again, and the “gradobitina” ceases. Now in Nature we are all connected and we are so sensitive to this connection that we can make a great good or a great evil. That’s why God has limited us, God has not given us great power. Sometimes you wish to have power – in the preset conditions, had god given you power, you would have hanged all human beings in the world and when enraged you would have chopped off the head of someone without really meaning it and then regret it. Now, occult science requires moral stability, not common morality. Absolute good will is required from the student: he or she should never misuse what he has been given. Because when you misuse it, those, who execute control, there are Beings that control, God will not hesitate to send them to execute their control and they will punish you – because there are laws in Cosmos, which are applied everywhere, everything is being monitored. They will punish you and then God will pardon you. Mistakes are forgiven but mistakes are not excused, mistakes in the class must be corrected. Now we won’t elaborate on what and why. Our wish is that the mistakes, which we witness in the class are to be corrected and the reasons why and what for, do not apply to us. We are interested that mistakes be corrected and if they are, then we can guess why. Some expect to obtain more knowledge. At the stage you are now, it is useless to give you lectures, had the best lectures been given to you, you can’t learn because here inner quickness of mind is sought of those subtle psychic forces that are at work. For instance, contemporary occults speak of will, that one should have will. A person can have will, for instance he and she can clench his or her fist, knit his or her brows – this is manifestation of one’s will too. However the one, whose will is strengthened, can seem quiet and calm but he can send a thought so powerful in its intensity and yet so quiet that it can produce a small illness but when this thought reaches its uttermost bounds, it will make such an upheaval, which the world has not yet seen. That now evil people sometimes send stronger and more powerful in their intensity thoughts and good people say: ”God will arrange all this.” We have to say: “The world goes according to God’s order and we should not disrupt it, my life has been arranged by God a long time ago and it will stay so lest I violate its order; God arranged my life long time ago.” Brain is subordinated to mind, stomach - to digestion, the lungs – exhaling system, heart is subordinated to circulation. It is well enough if I don't disturb my heart, brain, stomach, foot; all these little cells where Life functions. They know their work quite well. But one day, you drink too much, disturb your cells – and God gives you a lesson. -”Our life has been planned” - this thought must gradually be shaped in our mind. And first thing is: we don't have to misshape Life. When I say: ”World has been designed”, what is the meaning of all this? Let's imagine that you have a son, five years old, you have opened him an account of one hundred thousand leva, this child has been provided for, isn't that so? But this money is not at his or her disposal, his father has written that it has to be given to him or her when they come of age at 21 years, till then this child has to be taught how to manage this capital. When I say you are provided for, I don't mean that you have the right to do whatever you want, to have the capital at your disposal, no, the capital has been invested and you have to learn that when this capital comes in your possession to make results, you should know how much of it to invest, otherwise you will waste the money and you won't realise the meaning of Life and why you have come here. Now, for instance, did you know what was your program as students today? Today you had one important program. When you woke up today how many of you uttered a prayer to his Father to tell him: ”Father, I thank you for the conscience you gave me, I thank you for the opportunity you created for me to go to school, for the friends, for society and the social circle, for all these endeavours!” How many of you said this? Some of you first have washed yourselves, have said quickly the Lord's Prayer then had a bite, and went to work. But the work is profound – if I am a poet this is a profound work, if I am a philosopher, it is a profound work. They say: “ He is an excellent philosopher”, well when we philosophize, what are we to prove? - “I will give evidence for causes of the world's creation.” And do you know how we prove it to the scientists so often? By making ourselves a laughing stock. There is such an example that it is taken from Bulgarian life, I don't know how much of it is true but take it as an anecdote - the son of a family from a poor, desolate village where the houses are in fact huts without tiles and the holes are filled with faeces (Bulgarian word is “izverzhenie” - obscure form of the regularly used word “izptazhnenie”), by the will of circumstances goes to Europe and graduated in nature science. He then comes back to his village, sees a big “izverzhenie”, stuck on the wall and started proving his father by the work of what natural law the “izverzhenie” has gone up there, relates him philosophy. His father tells him: “Son, I've just seen your mother putting it there, for the forces I know nothing of.” So, my question is, if it wasn't for your mother, by the work of what force would the faeces go to the ceiling? Often we want to prove that the things in the world take place without any reasonable force, in some mechanical way. This is not the case. Now you are in the occult and say: “Why is there evil existing and why is there good?” I will put aside this question for further discussion. Why faeces are to be found? - “Izverzhenie”, this is one evil, all illnesses in the world are given birth in the faeces on the account of faeces being rotting substances. What is this “izverzhenie?” -”Izverzhenie” is one indication for existence of Life. Because some of these beings haven't studied the laws of nutrition, their faeces contain more poisonous substances. Take for instance these beings, fist the dog, which is canine and is therefore of the character to bite, take then the ox, compare their faces and by their content you will know the character of the animals. Bear by its faces shows that it is not that bad, take the goat, she is also not that bad, the sheep too. Then in the same way the sins of people are not the same – there are sins which are like the faces of the dog, sins as the faeces of the ox, as these of the sheep and so on but by a grade. And someone is asking why is there sin, how should we abolish sin? - Cease to eat and each sin will be abolished, all evil will disappear from the world. But then you say: “Can we live without eating?” - Then I will answer you – if it can't be without eating, it can either can't be without sin – this is philosophy. You, since you want to eat, will feed your hen, and eat it. This hen is a kind of brother – you will take her eggs and argue why. Because you want to live. Well then, do we, from the occult point of view, think that meat food is the only healthiest food? For science will find proof in the future but occultism has another statement on that matter. These substances which the meat of these breastfeeding contain, of hens and turkey, these essences can be found in Nature in ten or hundred times pure form. And if we were more reasonable creatures, we would have extracted these substances not from the meat of the animals but from its original source and would have been healthy but now we have need to send animals to gather this energy for us. And do you know how they gather it? It is restricted, because we are restricted too. I take this restriction not as one moment but restriction for one long-lasting culture which has began first too slowly (in the text is used the Russian word “medlenno”, familiar to Bulgarians) went unnoticed but gradually it has increased. And our mind our is so twisted that even the intelligent European citizens would find difficult to prove that this food is not healthy. He will prove you with regard to physics and chemistry that this is the right way to eat – he or she will prove you what are the results and what is the death rate according to statistics. What do many births and deaths show in the population? - These are two anomalies. When many people are born, this is an anomaly and when many people die this is an anomaly too. Some support this: “A family must have many children.” I am not against this but how many children must one family have i.e. how many Nature demands? How many does there have to be? - This is a disputable question. Taking into account the present conditions if we reason the question has to be asked in another way – What was in fact the preliminary plan when Nature created man? And another thing: how many boys and how many girls should be there? Now I see that in some families predominate boys only but with feminine character and in another family only girls but with masculine character. Do you consider this to be the natural state of things? When man dresses himself by a feminine model and the woman by a masculine, human 's life has turned upside down. Not only this situation we will find but also all men want to be teachers, masters. To be master means to be a man. And now consider this -all women want to be men. What is more - they say even this: that in each family one man is born blind. There is no man or a woman who wants to be blind, to be born blind. Then some say: “It isn't worth being a student, you should be a teacher.” I would discuss on this matter not factually, I want us to consider it as a thought -should we be manly or not? This is not important. Whenever you think righteously you are a man, when you live rightfully you are woman. When you think right, considering all laws of reasoning, from the occult point of view you are a man, a sensible man, I name you a sensible being. And when you live right, having in mind this thought, live up and sense the delight that you have refined yourself, you are woman – not woman but a virgin, you are a virgin. In the first case you are youth, not a man, in the second your are a virgin. When you become woman it depends on how you act, reasonably or not. There is some intertwining of things. Sometimes you notice that some clever people don’t lead a good life. Therefore I say: there is some discord, a disharmony between their mind and their life. And we say that these people are not clever. Don't say you think that clever is the man that can engross his people in war? - He or she is not clever. Does a writer who has written one book that has fascinated one generation and after hundred years people learn that they are on the wrong way? Do you consider an occultist clever if he or she for the sake of this science leads him or her in the wrong way? - No, one thought has to be in the soul of a student, he has to know the Truth. Now they ask, why do we need Light? I won't give you a definition but I say: Light is there to show us the way of Life, the road we have to follow. Sometimes you ask why you don't find compassion, to give you incentive to walk onward. Each wish, this is an incentive, therefore, make use it. This incentive can take many directions, you can take different detours. Light, it has its application but the aim of Life, the inward side of Light is to show us the Way. And do you know what the Way is? Nowadays, we, the contemporary people, under the term “way” understand only the distance which we can walk from one point to another: this is not way but one straight line. The Way, The Way of God, these are all possible methods and ways according to which a person can live sensibly in this world. This is the Way – all sensible methods and ways, included in the laws of God of Sensible life that we can apply to our life. And to you, the advanced students, I will present you the following: some of you have an undeveloped brain, you have to learn. We say this: a person should think and then act – this is one point of departure, don't you think in that way too? And there is something else: a person should first act and then think. To make out these two statements, to deduce them to their premises and to determine their proportions you must have a reasoning mind. How can you act before you think, how can you begin one task before thinking it over? You should say: “The rightful way is to think and then to act but to act and then to think, is stupid.” No, it is not so - if you do a job conscientiously first you have to think then to act, when you do a job by the rules of God, first you have to act, then to think. When you act, God will think for you – He thinks, you act – this is the way of God. He has given you his plan, you don't have to think that much – you will do the work that He has given to you, you want reason, He will determine. And when we want God to do instead of us, we have to have given thought about our life in advance and then God will do as we have anticipated and the way you think, so will God act. So you can try but God is very careful in this respect. If you are sincere, He will respond to you with the same. For instance you want to steal – He will create all the conditions for stealing and killing – He will give you all conditions to kill but then he will establish prisons, gallows, he will make all this. You want to help - He will create all the conditions because God will say so: “You conceived that thought, that's why I did it in such a way – you want it your way.” And when we act all comes good, God realizes. His thoughts are omniscient, His plans are clearly defined – there are no two plans in Him, there is only one plan and in this plan the only the Absolute Good in the world is inside. Now you can explain the norm one way or another but you will know that strictly defined: what you think that will be, what you do that will be. So if you do according to God that will be. But if you hold up to exact at one phenomenon of God your thought, you will experience the opposite result: Where God has determined you don't have to correct His plan. For instance He creates one form of a woman and you say: “Why should I be a woman?” When you say: “Why should I be a woman?” do you know what will become of you? - You will get the worst of man, the worst of children, you'll get the worst possible place for giving a birth and you will say “ I haven't enjoyed one sunny day in my life!” Why is that? Because you have said: “Why I have been born woman?” It doesn't depend on you whether you will be born man or a woman, this question is determined. It is not within your power to chose your parents, it is not, it is destined by the circumstances of your previous incarnations. You are not in state of chosing your father and mother but once you are born with a father and a mother, you are your own master, you can face your life alone. When you are released, when you become 21, when you become of age, you are in the state to change your life as you want. But will is needed, will to do it – it won't come to you without you giving a thought. Let's say that your father was a drunkard and you got disgusted by his drinking and you say at once without pondering: “I won't drink!” and that’s it! I met a Bulgarian young man fifteen years ago, at 21; his father was a drunkard and he since he had seen all the things his father had been doing at home, said:” I'll never take a sip of wine in my life!” He decides this and so he does not. He said: “ There is that much disgust in my soul - I hate wine that my father loves!” So this son avoids the vice of his father and after some time he will teach his father a good lesson. There is will in him. Now, you, the students from the occult school say: “God will fix the job, God is good.” We know that God is good, I am convinced one hundred and one percent that God is good, that God will set things in the right path and He has done that already but we have to learn, to learn. And in what is the foundation of this teaching? First, you can move your eyes at the normal level, right, can you move your nose in that way, do you know how to direct your chin, from an occult point of view, likewise? In occultism this is strictly defined, there is way how to hold your head, where to put your hands. Some speakers would put their hands first before them, then behind them, in their pockets, everywhere about. Where should we put our hands? You will say: ”This is irrelevant!” They are, my friends! Take electricity as an example – between these two poles, when electricity runs through them, there is contact and you will receive such a shock that you will shiver. But what if instead of poles, for some time you hold your hands together, what then? - It is not safe for you to hold your hands together always: there are times when you have to hold your hands free. And when you pray, you have to pray with hands folded, this is a not a good prayer, God will not accept this prayer. What the reason is for this, I will not elaborate on. People generally hold their hands turned upwards because in all other positions it will form a bad contact. And if you raise you hands up to the Invisible world, then you let some other contact in your left hand a reverse action will take place in the right hand: another contact should happen – two contradicting actions will occur in the Invisible world and you will experience a change. Now take for instance, when we love somebody and when we don't want to listen to somebody: when the father is angry with his son, he says to him: “Ivan!” and when he is pleased with him: ”Ivancho”; or the son says: “Father!”, not “Dad”; can a daughter or the son have another name: ”Petko” (Bulgarian for Peter), “Peter” and so on. Why does the child bow down? - This child bows down, blood flows to the rear part of his head, doubles the pressure in the brain and breeds negative energies - and because the noble energies come from the sympathetic nervous system, [sympathetic nervous system – sympathetic part of the vegetative (autonomous) nervous system in which the stomach (sun) string also called stomach brain is anatomically the biggest nervous string (editor's notes)] this person impedes these energies and says: “You are the father but I don't want to know about you.” And what will you do then? - You have to know the law. This water which flows has to be less, you have to put the flap so that lesser blood circulated in the brain of your boy Ivancho. Now, there are many called Ivancho among us, don't think I mean a concrete figure, no, I do not: Ivancho, Ivane, these I voice only to give you and explanation, don't think I have a real person in mind. Precisely this part of the blood has to be sent in another directions, to circulate it up and then down the forehead, in the upper part of the head, in different centres i.e. in places that are short of it. You have to know how to impose on ourselves. And in this relation you have to be prepared. We will come up to the science – to one science which we have to apply to its limits. So we will make small tests. In the present society, as it is here, in Bulgaria, a reaction originates: the newsreporters want to counteract, commence a reaction from one hand, the priesthood from the other hand makes hindrances with which they want to stop one movement and at least to discredit. We know all that is being done – I know why these people want this to happen- they want this because they want to deprive us of the energy won: they want this society to be devastated so that they can easily consume all and become heirs of this energy. But this will not take place: I have already said – not only will they rob us of five coins, but we will make them pay a huge fine, we will give them nothing. While I am in Bulgaria, there will be fertility, when I am gone, there will be desert here as in Palestine! And you, the students, when you leave so it will become. Such is in one law of God written: when a nation disregard all great laws of God which have been set for them, such a nation can not prosper. And you, as students from the Occult school will say: “ What should we do?” - You will be positive inside yourself. And we, when we come to stand for the God's Name, there is only one opinion for us – the Grand God's Law. And no nation will venture to transgress it. And there, when to the Slavs were sent those great ghosts, I don't speak of me (I don't include myself also), I have in mind this great law because God shows his will the Panslavism as to embody it in one work, in one mission for mankind) – this is a fact -those goods are given to him but there have to be reasonable people to make use of these conditions. They don't, Slavic peoples will be followed by others, third and fourth. Each nation as one individual does has to reasonably fulfil its mission. Now, they want to say in Bulgaria that this thing here is a sect, they want to convince you either. Why? You will become are apostates to the Bulgarian people. If you are not students in the School, you are apostates, not only to the Bulgarian people but apostates to mankind because you impede God's majestic energy which prepares the new way of the mankind. We do not speak in the dark, come and try, we say: ”Believe” but come and try, we don't want such misleadings. Well, you will be brave and resolute – we will spin the wheel and when we turn it round, all the newsreporters in Bulgaria will hit the ceiling and then we'll see what they will write in the future. I will make all these newsrepoters neurotic, sleepless, the worst illnesses will befall them, they could not eat sweets, do they know that one can not play tricks with God. They have to use their pen in favour of the Truth. I have nothing against a newspaper publishing the truth but when a news reporter writes lies, they will not be forgiven. A priest, a teacher, a mother or a father telling lies won't be forgiven. Now when you embark on, you don't have to build your life on the old foundations. We have to reform our lives. Now many people say: “What is our benefit for so many years?” Well, a person that has done work in the world, hasn't he won something? The one that has risen up each morning and worked on his field hasn't he won something? As for the one that has sent others to dig for him, it is not certain for him that he is going to win anything. Now, for so many years I have tried to give you a method to work as I do. I start from scratch too, I have also been present at excursions and other events. Though you are prone when you come to say: ”I can do without going there?” – You can't. “Can't we do it in another way?”- There is no other way. “Isn't there an easier way?”- This is the easier way: when you come out for a walk, this will do you good. Even when a person makes friends with the simplest people, this is one good – if you know how to act, you will learn many great things. Few days ago, at Vitosha came two oxen, they laid down and the one started to lick the other, to clean him, and the other exposed his flank to him so that the other can clean him well. I said to those that were there: “So excellent example is that!” One of oxen smoothed the skin of the other, the other moves afore so that he can be well cleaned. I say to those that were there: ”What an excellent example!” The ox cleaned him well, the front, the back, the sides, the other stands still, peacefully. What an excellent example is this, who from you is willing to clean his or her brother's face? You will say: “Go and wash yourself up there at the wash-basin” though it will not occur to any of you to say: “Let me give you a hand and pour the water for you.” You will say “Oh, come on, now!” This is a great moral. Think of it at one: ”Let me pour the water for you”- this is alertness, one good feature. Well, you will need experience, through these little deeds nobility is being cultivated as a feature in the human character. And sometimes I enjoy going for a walk with you. Why? - Because this walk teaches me, do you follow me, I make use of the small things, not the big, I gather material. Because there are things in Life which I will gather in a special way – as one bee must fly around thousand blossoms as to gather a little honey thus must a teacher and a student learn many things. Best things are won hard. Then I demand a little patience from you -and the result is: you are in a hurry. And then I recently made such a test that all became worried lest i go. No, I am testing your faith, God's can 't be torn apart, can you grasp this? That which comes from God can die but it will be resurrected ten times stronger than before. This is God - in Good. He can make you die but he can then resurrect you. When God comes to ruin a job of ours – he doesn't do that but He gives new energy to us to do this job. Therefore, whatever the conditions the student finds himself, he or she must know that in the God's plan there are exceptions. When Jesus was crucified, all students ran away. “It's over.” - all of them said, and all Peters, and all the rest ran away. For three days they all were in shivers and thought: “We thought that he would become a king and now He has been crucified and it is all over.” Do you know in what situation were his disciples until Jesus was resurrected – everyone thought: “What is going to happen now?” (This is not written in the history). But the Godlike are at work, inside in the soul, this man Jesus was resurrected not only in his tomb but in their hearts also and they saw Him and were filled with strength. In the occult science you will again see this new state in one living Truth which will bring this invisible Life into you. So now I' m telling you: don't fall in despair. Jesus has said to his disciples: “I must leave, it will be better for you that I go now”, then he says: ”Sadness filled your souls but I will see you again, you will rejoice in yourselves. I go only for a time but this means nothing in the course of fulfilling God's law.” When we come to fulfil the law of God, there is only one opinion in us and neither beforehand, nor late we'll do sufficient work but only on time. Now I want from you, as students of this school, not to fear. Now some of the students here are in deep thought: ”What will happen to us when our Teacher goes away?” What will happen? And I will tell you:” if you have given it a thought and acted afterwards, all this will be smashed to pieces and if you have acted and then thought all will paste together again. If you consider this to be my job, then you waste your energy uselessly but if you think this is God's deed, you will exalt yourself. But you have to determine yourself. This is the question: Godlike or not like God. If it is Godlike, go with it as I am with it. This is God's matter and I stand up for it because it is Godlike and not only I, but everyone would say: “This is God's matter and you will sacrifice your life for it – there your salvation is.” With this God's deed will make you famous and without it you will become infamous. You would say: ”But how should we know?” Come on, brother and I'll tell you, no need for big philosophy here: I have a loaf of bread: I'm asking you: what you think of this bread -is it nutritious or not nutritious? “Don't know.” “Here you are.”- I take a piece of the bread and hand it over to you, I give you a quarter of it to last you for four hours. First I ask you how you're feeling- “My feet're shaking, I don't feel well.” Then I give you another quarter from it and again four hours to go – if this bread can't restore your condition for four hours and more, it is not worth it: if it can – it is a bread indeed. Would you believe it is good? Well then, after four hours it will restore your strength. You can say: ”That I doubt”- it's alright, you'll give it a second try. Again you doubt – again well try. Ten attempts are enough, there is no need for more than ten attempts in occultism. Ninety nine attempts I have made -you doubt that, then I'll give you any bread, go: you're be the breadwinner from now on. Therefore the occult truths you will test for yourselves and when you 've tested an occult truth, it is a temple, don't doubt it – we don't prove ten times one and the same thing whether it is Godlike or not. God's things are true. Everything that starts with a deed and ends with a thought is Godlike and everything that starts with a thought and ends with an action, it is of a man. Right? - (It is right.) Well, why is it right? Because when we start with an action, God will think instead of us and when we think, God act for us. Therefore in either case our business will go well. I can see in your minds: you say to yourselves: ”We want more, we want something more.” Not that I can't give you more but to people that suffer consumption doctors give eggs and two or three kilos milk a day and what comes of that? They fatten and illness temporarily halts but their mind is only busy with the thought of staying alive- when they sat down and would say: ”I eat that much eggs and drink so and so quantity of milk per day.” And so they, day after day, speak of eggs and milk, so what is the meaning of their life then – one thought about eggs and milk. If you, as an occultist sit down and give it a thought: ”Let our strength be given as to fix the matters in Bulgaria”, nothing would become of it. If a nation is given the greatest fortune in the world, you will destine them the greatest misfortune, had you made them strong, you would have created another disaster for them.” Not that I say the nation shouldn't be strong but the powers should come from its inward capacities, fortune should come someway (eventually: same way). And this means that everyone should work hard for it, should make his living through hard work – now this is the law. Now the work is not divided and due to this we suffer. I leave this for now, this is not our fault but because we make the foundations for our new life, we won’t build in the old fashion. I have the greatest intention to give a new direction, a new way to things. With all that I'm saying I ignite in you a new energy, I wake something new, the Godlike. If you are listening to me, this energy will do you good and if you don't listen to me, this energy would produce a reverse effect. When I say if you listen let me put it straight: let me give you a rare seed of a famous breed and I tell you which month, which year, which day and the conditions when the Moon is in that phase and I will tell you the way according to which the seed should be planted. Why should you listen? -Because this seed could grow only at these special conditions. You can say: ”Is there no other way?” When I say: dig one hole, two inches deep, you say: “Can't it be an inch deep?” - I tell: that much dung, that much sand, then water. “Can't it be done in another way?”- It can but in the Godlike law for planting seeds all famous laws are laid and all the Virtues which we have to find soul in our mind grow at certain conditions. You can nurture a thought and a year later it would disappear: someone else have planted another seed and this thought live in you through all your life. This way we will come t these great laws we can understand. I want the occult capacities to be woken in you, without this one can not learn. At first your occult abilities should be awakened, the hidden qualities which have not been put into action which are still. We will wake them gradually for if we wake them suddenly, you will suffer too much. And other abilities are gradually built because if you start building another evil will be born in you and it is not occult. Because many occultists which have grown up in a night, have become proud. We want all this to follow its natural way so that you can make use of the good things God has invested in you. Now, don't mix your religious beliefs with the occult truths. You can use one occult truth in whatever form you like – it can't be restricted and the occult truth can't be binded. Occult truth may be applied only if we have Knowledge, if you don't have such, this truth will cause you the greatest suffering. I want you first, as students in the school to get to know each other. Let's say you are not affiliated with somebody: this is not evil but it shows that in both of you similar forces, similar aspirations. Find someone like yourself and you will find one third, resultant force to bring harmony in you. If the third can't make things out, look for a fourth, fifth, sixth...up to tenth but you can still find one who can bring balance among those who have lost it. Now many times the students say: “He is too nervous, impatient” but these words are empty. An impatient man, a nervous man, is only words. In fact there are no hot-tempered people, there are no impatient people i.e. in certain moments they are such – certain energy accumulates in the brain and this energy troubles us, this energy is a bomb. When it comes out, you are calm and in good disposition, you are a good man again. Each one of you when you are enraged, would do anything in their house, and when the energy is used up, are meek as lambs - where have all the bad things gone? We now say: “He is a bad man” but in this person there is sufficient energy in this person that must be reasonably used in its place. Now, let's return back to our subject. In this talk, (it may seem a little sporadic) all of you to rewrite it and after that all students should make summary of the main points and edit it for themselves. You should have your own notebook, I want you to do this and I'll see your notes then. You will write down the main points according to your own preferences: now we will see who are the most capable students. You'll have to do this during the summer, all the summer. I am not going to look at all this now but in the last days of spring and through all the summer – I give you enough time to write it well and then you'll take your extracts and put them in order according to your taste in another book. Buy two books -in the first you'll have the original and in the second – your translation. I want to see what kind of translation you will produce and what conclusions and applications of it you will make. Those of you who can – let them make it. Now you've understood -you will write in a notebook, neatly, it is not permitted in the classes that lectures should be written in handwrite, all must be in your own writing if you want to make a progress – if it is typed, there won't be any results – the important, the valuable, has to pass through your heart. And you will keep this book as sacred. And if you know expect someone else to rewrite it, to give it to you and make the extracts for you – what kind of students are you! Sit down and think every day for half an hour, for a whole hour. Now, did I give another exercise to you? (- No.) First two weeks you will use five minutes a day for improving your flaws – physical, spiritual, and intellectual. Five minutes a day for two weeks you will use for improving your weaknesses. You'll take this talk and the first talk about the married couples- these two talks you'll rewrite. Now I want to know how many of you can apply this to their lives. Start tomorrow: at midnight if you wake up from the first sleep, apply the law, the morning is the best time for applying it – the first time you can devote to it. Thus you will not take into consideration your own self, as a viewer you will let the God's goodness to pour on you, to give impulse to the Goodness ascribed to you. So that you can be as the newborn, without anything to worry about. You will leave yourself to God's goodness to pour out and after that you will come to your previous condition. At least you will win, your mind will broaden. At the least you will gain, will be a little greater self-confidence for your soul in these five minutes. At the present conditions it is necessary for the students to have this inner confidence because there is no thing more terrible than the lack of confidence. Can this be or can it be not? There is only one law in us: it can! And when Paul said: ”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, this is the same law. Paul has borrowed it form there: “If my words last in you and you last through Me, I and My Father will come to you and make a home in you” and he also says: ”Everything that you ask for in My name, it will be and I will make manifestation of myself.” First there must be the Word and this Word must have Truth for a heading so: these two principles must be at work in work. This is a little test – five minutes, it is not a big question – five minutes for one noble thinking. Then for these five minutes you will say one formula: “I want, God, the Virtues you have deposited in my soul from the beginning, to grow with the power of Your Love and Wisdom. And I will use all my strength at your vineyard for the manifestation of Your Will.” The class will continue throughout the summer. Those of you who stay (no matter whether I attend or not), will meet each Thursday. Themes will be given to you, about which you have to write and these works will be read. Remember this – we will overcome all difficulties. Sky and Earth will go by but not a scar from this will erase. Everything, that God said will be fulfilled without exception. There is no exception in the Great God's Law. Now, don't make illusions for yourselves, work and work, work because Life is in the future – this Life comes from now on. You will say: ”This is so natural, what would this Life be like? 'What is the analogy? When that caterpillar over there dies has come to its uttermost and says: ”It's over”, life can not cultivate in this form and start making its pupa, does it asks itself what would become of it? Something better would become – second life would be better than the first. Therefore our life has reached the utmost borders and now pupa would become a butterfly. This life would define the New life for itself and this New life would be ten times better than the present -at least ten times better. And it is worth to sacrifice everything for it – such conditions would be there that now couldn’t be spoken of. And now we say: ”We won't leave.” We can go to the woods but which is the Way? -The Way goes through all the troubles which we now have to overcome. I have seen when some Bulgarian blocks the way with his carts and oxen so that no on can pass, another comes then, puts his plough down – the same result: then third, forth, up to ten men and when we join all forces and the cart sets off. And we say: ”What one can't make by himself, ten, united by the same force over come.” And one car can go without oxen. So we have the need to believe absolutely in this occult law – there is no exception to it, it is a living law. All that have come before you, have been working and trying this. And you will try from this confidence, you'll see. So absolutely no discouraging thoughts will be there. There can be big trouble, to be short of many things, this and that – these things are of second importance, I count then as one profit though they are unpleasant in Life. They can give you some exams in occultism. If you are not prepared when they give you an exam, your brain can blow off your head. There are such exams there, they will try you out. I have told you that there are such mock exams there in occultism – they will try you to see who has convictions and who has not. In the old times in the occult brotherhoods there were often exams to see whether the student was brave: they give him a guide, folded up his eyes and left him somewhere alone, then they took off the fold and he saw people around him with masks on their faces and there was a mask, holding a lit knife in front of him. If he were scared, he would start running but if he stayed, this mask would come, would jab him, but the knife was made of paper. But what would you go through in this moment! “That's it, my life has gone”- you will say to yourself. And I often witness how you run from these false knives and say: “What a misfortune!” No, no you will stand up and wait for this paper knife to stick in you with all its strength. And that's why the Scriptures say: “Everything that befalls those who love God is for good.” Even in the occult school eccentric works come into being. Someone would say: “I came here to put my things into order and they are in a mess.” You don't know, if your works have messed up, how much would they have entangled otherwise. Yours philosophy is such: someone saves ten thousand leva, buys a good ox, this ox dies and he would say: “What a loss!” Well then, if you haven't saved that much money and the ox dies, what would have you done been? Thankful for having the opportunity for saving the money: this logic isn't good. Someone comes here and says:” The karma of my life is such”, you seek help, you enter here and your things go well. You have to thank for being in this place – if here is that way, imagine what is outside. You go into one house – no clothes, nothing - you shiver but if you come outside in the wind and rain, what would your situation be, here you are under a roof, high and dry. Don't suggest illusions for yourself that now you are in School, you know better, you don't. And besides don't overgeneralise the laws of the School, don't think that this School is made only for yourself - to sort your material things out. This School has a great purpose – by the way it purpose includes sorting your things out but this is a side thing, the aim of the School is quite different. And include this verse then: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Right and everything else would be added to you.” If you understand this from an occult point of view, the question is settled for you. So as students of the School you will be hardworking because Jesus loves hardworking students: ”Those who love me keep my commandments.” You will study, you will apply it and the world will know my teaching. When you apply it reasonably, from the results the world will know what my teaching is, that you are my students indeed and that the Teaching is a Teaching of God. Now you mix things up and bear no fruit: we talk of Love – there is no fruit, we talk of Wisdom - there is no fruit either, we talk of Truth – no fruit. No fruit -all those trees bear no fruit. This doesn't mean that you don't blossom, on the contrary, you blossom and smell good but there is no fruit. I don't say that there are no bees. When pear blossoms, bees gather honey but the important is the fruit. We come from the bees to pick up honey and many occultists have gathered honey from the blossoms of the trees. Now we have to bear fruit to these trees of God. Secret Prayer Source
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Occult Hygiene Lecture fifteen read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 8 of June, Thursday, Sofia Did you have an exercise to write? (- This time we had not.) All of you are generally acquainted with the word hygiene. It is a science that teaches about the human organisms' state of health. Now with the expression occult hygiene, we are extending the word hygiene; more meaning is applied than is usually perceived in its common meaning. When we talk about a common and an occult disciple you should note that the difference between them depends on the degree of their consciousness. For instance, you can study the influence of the common hygiene on the body’s state of health, but you will reach 120 years and you will finally lose the thread of your body and so you will have to give your body up. So the common hygiene can prolong your life up to 120 years, while the occult hygiene can prolong your life for a longer period. And not only this – the occult hygiene also gives instructions concerning the healthy state of the human mind and of the human feelings. Your mind can get ill as well as your body. The human mind can get ill, the human heart can get ill and the human will can also get ill; the only thing within the human being that cannot get ill is his Spirit. That is why when illnesses get into the Spirit, then special energies emerge to correct the damage caused. The soul suffers, the mind gets mad, the feelings get derailed, the will becomes paralysed, and as a result the person becomes disabled on Earth. Now in our class I perceive that you do not follow the correct way of understanding. Let’s assume that you are an aviator, you take off, but you must hold the control stick and it depends on your balance how you will fly this apparatus and in what way you will carry out your task. Imagine that while on Earth you start looking around and divert from your main task. How do you think you can settle your task if your mind is not functioning properly? Now you have come here to study the occultism but meanwhile you are attending to side issues, to issues that are without reference to anything at all. Sometimes I call your attention to some ideas and principles but you often ask why have I said something in this way instead of another way, and you are discussing minor issues. While you are up in the air, this is not the time to discuss why I said what I said. The main thing is that while you are up in the air you should keep the apparatus by which you are flying functioning. As soon as you land on the ground you can philosophize as much as you want to. And when I’m saying: “don’t philosophize” I mean the aim that you have – to graduate from the school and after that, when you land on the ground, then you will have nothing else to do, and you can philosophize as much as you like. The occultism never explains why and for what reason – even if you go to the greatest Masters they will not answer you. When you come to me you are talking to me as cherished children, but it is not obligatory for the Master to answer all your questions – not at all. You can go to the Master and ask him something, but in response he will look at you once and he won’t tell you anything. He does not care that you might get angry; that you might graduate from the school and not believe in God – believe in God or don’t believe in Him, it doesn’t matter to him. – “But I am not following this way.” – Follow it if you like; The Master says: “I followed this way, I studied the laws and you should study them also.” - These laws cannot be changed for your sake. Therefore I am drawing your attention to this: I perceive that your minds are rather twisted, your hearts are also twisted, really twisted. You will not frighten me with this – I am telling you these things not for my sake, but for yours – your twisted mind will not divert mine – not in the least. I will follow the way and I will be what I am because such is the will of God. Now you might tell me: “But what did we do?” – What did you do? Suppose now that two thousand years later the Invisible World sends a committee to check your work – can you tell me what they would find? If they entered through the door now, what would they find in your minds and in your hearts? This committee would check the situation impartially and what would it find? Now I am talking to you as a human being: I don’t mean to say that this committee will find a lot of nice things, neither do I mean to say that they will find a lot of bad things, but I do mean to say that here and there this committee would have found that you have neglected some of your tasks. These tasks that are assigned to you at present allow no delay and you should settle them. There are tasks, which are the order of the day – your attitude towards God is the order of the day. Do you love God, which you serve, do you serve God, do you serve Christ, do you have His Love and are you ready to sacrifice your life for Him. Then in addition, does each one of you help others with thoughts, with desires, with actions? I am warning you, many of you might act destructively, but I am telling you: you will meet me on your way and we will impose a punishment on you. Here in the School there are people who want to demolish – you might break your own head instead! - “I wonder if this thing is Divine?” Do you understand that this is a deed of your God, of that one who sent you here to Earth. Up until now we were patient and understood what you were doing, but you let yourself get out of hand that when someone looks at me he says: “Well, the Master knows a lot.” But yours is not an act of discipleship. All of you will be driven to that humbleness which God requires – He will put you in my state of humbleness. So far you are not as humble as I am. Someone might say: “Well, the Master is as plain as we are.” – Like you are! I am not like you at all because there are things in my consciousness for which you cannot even suspect – you don’t even suspect what is hidden in my consciousness. I am plain, my clothes are similar to yours, I eat and sleep like you, but if Life consisted of such things… Life does not consist of this. You can't imagine what I am – my horse might be similar to yours, but after I alight from it there is a great difference between you and me. I can make myself invisible – you might look for me in Heaven for thousands of years and not recognize me. How can you pick someone out? – You can know somebody through the Law of Love only. If you have Love you will recognize me; if you don’t have Love, then you might search the whole outer space and yet I will remain nobody to you. And all of you might know each other by the help of the Law of Love. If this applies to me then how much more does it apply to you? I regret that the occult disciples in Bulgaria are rather pedantic, that they have no respect and deference for each other, and that they have love only when they are in need. And also you commit such nuisances that the disciples from the ordinary schools in the world do not perform. Those disciples have the courage to commit them openly, while the occult disciples do them secretly. You are not obedient to me but you are under the vigilant eye of God who does not miss anything. You might say: “Tonight we will be reproached again.” This is not a reproach at all – I am just reminding you of a great Truth from which you have diverted and nevertheless you think that you are following the right course. For instance, when I am talking to someone I know whether he is listening to me or not – I have a rule and it never fails me. When God is talking to us He also has a rule and He also knows if we are listening to Him or not. Now the point is this great inner Truth – do you have such training or not? Instead of blaming yourself I recommend to you, to be fully prepared to adopt the Divine Truth and to get through the Divine thoughts. First of all your mind should become stronger as to be able to get through all the positive and all the negative thoughts. Very often your mind is not able to get through certain thoughts and as a result you suffer. There are many young men who suffer after they have read some negative book – it brings a change in their minds and they suffer for months and for years before they revert to their present state. First of all you should observe such harmony in your own self – you should be satisfied with your own conduct. I give a task and some of you put it into practice and then they say: “These tasks can be executed in this way, but they can be executed in another way as well.” And they go along the road but their tasks remain unexecuted. When a Divine task is being assigned to you, you should solve it fully in its completeness. You might say: “I cannot solve this task”, but since you have started you must solve it. You say: “We’ll postpone it for another time”; but if you yourself cannot solve it you’d better not tempt the others. If you yourself can’t keep the fast don’t say: “One can manage without fasting as well” – don’t impose on others what you yourself have not tried. I don’t want these instructions I give you now to remain a voice crying in the wilderness – I want them to have a result so that these instructions can prepare you for the mission for which you have come here. You have come here by the end of the century – you have a mission, a very important mission that you should fulfil. I am asking you now – do you know for sure what your mission is? – You must know it - no matter how small it might be; the disciple should know what he came here for even if he doesn’t know it in the smallest details – he should at least know the general outlines of his task here. In the course of his work he should keep in his mind his task and while doing this he will be linked to the Heavens. So his will, his mind, his heart will toughen and he will be linked with the Brotherhood. The White Brotherhood will give you instructions and an inner frame. They will give you this good inner frame in the evenings while you sleep – they can give it to you in your sleep. The Brotherhood can assign to you these tasks also through some suffering in your Life – let’s say they have assigned to you a task but you have diverted and have become a tradesman. Then your state will be similar to the state of that American who felt a strong impulse to become a preacher, but said: “I was not born to be a priest”; then he went to Australia and became a tradesman, but twenty years later a crisis happened and his entire wealth disappeared; then he went back to fulfil his vocation. When the Invisible world assigns a certain task, you can divert from it for ten, twenty, thirty years, but the Brotherhood will bring you back to finish your job. So in view of this you better make it your aim to graduate from the school and do not postpone your studies. You begin this job now as you have begun many times – you began but you have not finished. For instance we’ll join the occult school so that we can research the reasons for these social weaknesses. You might say: “Karma.” All right, let the reason be karma, but this statement is rather general while in fact the very reason itself must be known. If you know the basic weakness then you will know how to correct it – certain weaknesses should be corrected. For instance, some disciples have sharper and brighter minds; the minds of the others are not so bright because they are occupied – they are occupied by their feelings. A person comes here as an occult disciple but the next day he needs two or three thousand leva for bread, for his children’s shoes, for clothes; I may preach wonderful things to him, but his mind is constantly preoccupied with the thought for money – his children need clothes, so he cannot be free. Our task now is to first of all eliminate all this, but we must utilize, even the shortest time we have in our occult training, as a means to improve our condition. I watch closely now, I make an experiment and I perceive that recently a certain atmosphere is growing: all of you are becoming positive and consequently a release from struggle is beginning. All of you had accumulated a great reserve of electricity – we want to harness this electricity for lighting. Your mind had become more active in a negative sense. The main point now is in what way we can correct your weaknesses. Let’s say you have some doubt – a doubt in yourself. At a certain moment you doubt in yourself so when a task is being given to you, you say: “This task I cannot solve.” If you ignore the suspicion inwardly you might say: “I doubt myself but I do not doubt God.” But in fact you doubt God as well. I have heard an Orthodox priest who said: “Not only we are sinners, sometimes God sins as well; not only do we sin, but He sins as well.” This means that as a result of his mistakes this man says: “Since I sin then probably God also makes mistakes.” We most certainly should avoid mistakes, and if possible we should avoid them. So how can we manage to cope with this doubt? Let’s suppose that many disciples are preoccupied by the following thought: “Well, I shall graduate from the occult School, but what will happen after that? I shall have knowledge indeed, so what? – And they start philosophizing and finally work out that it makes no difference. But this is not a philosophy of Life. To that disciple who solves some simple task and then says: “What will happen after I solve this task”, I respond: you first solve the more complicated task and then wonder why. You’d better not reason but solve the first task, then solve the second task also and then ask why. And while solving these tasks you will find the reason why. This answer is - all deeds in our Life must be perfect. If someone asks me why we have to talk I would answer that we should talk until our language gets perfect, until we start to pronounce these words in the way they are being pronounced in Heaven, where once they pronounce the word it is so fine that it sounds nice for everyone’s ear. Imagine that all of you disciples who are listening to me tonight had such soft voices and that your speech was as melodious as theirs – can you imagine what kind of atmosphere there would have been tonight? If your thoughts were smooth and sharp it would have been good. At times they are so sharp because at times even the thoughts come out from the mouth as bombs. And the cadence of speech and of muscles corresponds to the cadence of thought. Now we will make use of our will. Suppose that you are in a period of suspense, you are angry because someone has offended you, and so you say: “I’ll teach him a thing or two!” Instead of teaching such person by a blow isn’t it better to teach him by words? Let’s say that you want to punish him; you can do this in two ways: you can give him such a knock on the head as to smash him as you would smash a snake’s head, or you can also take him by the leg and lift him upside-down and then leave him as he was and tell him: “My friend, do you still intend to bother me and to criticise God? I could smash your head but instead I want to tell you not to play games with me – the occult disciple.” Now you the disciples should know that there are other disciples also who one day might take you by the leg, but instead of smashing you they might lift you up and tell you: “Do you intend to study or you intend to play games instead?” That’s the way I myself would precede with you. But you might make some objection to this point: “Well, why should I be obliged at all?” You are obliged indeed, you have obligations that do not date from now – they date from your distant past and you have to pay them off. You have obligations indeed – obligations which you should fulfil. Many times you have begun and left this task; you can leave your task again now. You can solve your task easily within yourself – it might be solved by itself if you have the burning desire to solve it. In the Gospel it is said: “God is who gives.” You strive to do the Will of God, so God also has a desire to help you. Here are the vices: there exists envy, there are white lies and laziness among you as well. Then also you never look approvingly at others: when someone starts to work you crowd to hinder him and you say: “You can’t work without us.” All right then, if I go to the woods and find the birds which make nests and damage one, then two, then three of their nests and then say: “What will you do now, can you hatch now?” – I am asking you – what will be my profit if I damage the nests of these birds? If I do that the number of the caterpillars in my garden will increase and they will damage my garden – these birds will stop nesting in my garden and I will have to cope with the caterpillars by myself. It is not permitted to damage the birds’ nests. When some of you decide to work, all of you should give him countenance – cooperate with him, give him positive thought. For so many years the situation here in Sofia and in the country is identical. I think that the reason for this is a great deal of jealousy. In the other churches when the people want someone to talk to them they usually invite a preacher and he talks because he is paid for this, while in our country no one pays anything. In one town the people were not pleased with their leader so they asked me if it was possible to invite someone else to guide them. Instead of answering to them directly I said: “This is no concern of mine; if you are so stupid that you don’t know how to work with this leader then let ten of you gather and alternate with each other – you might talk one after another and so ten persons might take turns; they might be able to talk better than your present leader. If these ten persons can’t get along, then gather another ten persons; among these twenty persons there must be several persons who can talk.” But I would like the way that these people, who like to talk, to have some deep experience, to have a broad knowledge of Life. And instead of displaying themselves I would like them to manifest this experience very vividly. Apostle Paul says: “Many people do not preach Christ - they are displaying their own knowledge.” That we preach Christ implies that we are preaching the great law of Love that should put in order and regulate everything in the world. And this great law should change all the laws within us. Several hours ago I had a conversation with a gentleman who was saying: “The world cannot be put in order with Love – it can be regulated only by a whip, the whip is the only way to put the world in order!” But his brother said: “You are talking like our father talked long ago; do you have any idea how much he beat us with his stick but this stick did not put order in us at all.” If you don’t follow the New teaching you will return to your father – this is the law of Moses. Now it is good that we have begun with Christ, but our mistake is that we are constantly returning to the Moses law. We either have to start with Moses and end with Christ or vice versa. Instead we begin with Christ and end with Moses – i.e., we follow a return journey. I want you to choose several persons among all the disciples who are to serve as an example – several persons, one, two, three, up to ten persons – to take them as a model, so that they become a model for the whole class with their polite way of talking and not only with their way of talking, but also with their behaviour, with their thoughts, with their feelings, i.e. in order that they give a new impulse – an impulse should be given. Because this philosophy, the way I am talking to you, is still an introduction for the experiment that lies ahead of us. For instance I gave to the other class an experiment. To all of you I can also assign an experiment: to spend one week without any money, I mean that you should not rely on any money at all – you should pretend that you have nothing but yourself and God and your own hands to rely on, so that you can get used to this. During the whole week both the male and female disciples should earn their living during the day. The idea is not to fast but to earn the money for your lunch. The task is as follows: if for example you are an office worker, then you will give your weekly salary to the poor, so that you will be out of cash and when you reach in your pockets there shouldn’t be any money left in them. You must not rely on your friends, you should not say: “I’ll borrow some money” – no, you should pretend that you are left alone in the world. Imagine that you are in a populous town like New York or London and you are out and hungry; I am asking you how will you solve your task? You are bound to think of something. If you do so for a month, then when you get your salary you should give it away and say: “Now I’ll earn my money with my own hands” – but there might be objections that we should not tempt God. No, no, it is now that we are tempting Him because as long as we have money we do not rely on God. At present the office worker relies on his salary, the woman relies on her husband, the man relies on his customers, but no one relies on God. We often talk about faith but faith is still not a living experience. Now you should spend one week without money. For instance when you need money to buy something to eat, go to some friend of yours and ask him: “Is there some work for me here?” And when you find some work you should do it and be aware that what comes out of your hands is a result of your efforts. Now you might make the following objection: “But I write in my office is that not an effort?” No, it is not, because it is something settled – there the things are already settled. When I say labour I mean that you should work for two hours in some building. You should work for two hours and then take as much as you need for a lunch and leave without providing anything for the evening; on the following day you again should look for some job, then again you should work for three hours and leave. Some people might say: “This man goes to work and then goes off his work.” But in fact this man is strengthening his will, he is not a fatalist, he says: “Today I earned what I needed, let me see if I can earn it tomorrow as well.” He allows this self-assurance and after that he will start speculating as to what the inner conditions are in which he is advancing. In occult science, the following principle exists: if you meet someone while you are hungry and say a certain word and this word reaches his ear, he will tell you: “My brother, can you come to my place for lunch?” You will not talk about lunch; you should only know how to say this word. A hungry old woman went to a village and entered the house of a wealthy man who was one of the most cruel men who turned out each person from his house; the old woman did not say that she was hungry, but since the daughter of the wealthy man was ill, the old woman entered the house and massaged her, made this and that and thus it turned out that the old woman was a healer. Immediately this wealthy man became aware that the old woman was a healer and said: “Give her something to eat.” If she had required food in the first place he would have turned her away, but she started to work in the first place – to earn her meal with her own hands. Now all of you, the disciples, must have confidence – the occult disciple needs inner self-confidence that he can cope with all the difficulties that exist in his life. We have this motto: “No Love is like God’s Love.”, don’t we? And I perceive that this greeting has become almost meaningless when it is pronounced quickly: “No Love is like God’s Love, just God’s Love is Love.” Well, it already has gone beyond the frames of the occult science. You should stop inwardly and say: “Since no Love is like God’s Love, can I do everything for this Love? And I’ll do it.” And after you say: “Only God’s Love is Love”, say: “I can do everything and I’ll do it. There is one poor brother there, I’ll visit him and I’ll do everything for him.” – “But shouldn’t we invoke God?” – We are invoking Him. At times I say to myself: I made a serious mistake that I entrusted these people with a sacred rule that they vitiated; they also vitiated the name of God and as a result I incurred a heavy karma upon myself. So as a result of the venture I made, I said to myself that if I could have had this experience before, I would never have given you this rule; frankly speaking I would have never entrusted it to you. The disciples say to each other: “No Love is like God’s Love” but as you look at them they are at one another’s throats. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but neither of them can accept the facts. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but none of them gives up and each one of them holds his own. So, tell me please what kind of Love is this? But you might tell me: “I am a man, I have dignity, and I have personal feelings.” But is there dignity greater than Love? Let’s do the will of the Father! There isn’t greater dignity than this – to serve God driven by Love. This is the greatest dignity of man – to serve Love and Wisdom. Now I lay this accusation not against some persons outside, but against myself, for I entrusted you with one sacred rule. And then I lay against you the accusation that you haven’t used it – not because you did use it. And next time I’ll be very careful regarding the rules. And sometimes when I hear you pronouncing the word Love, I feel like someone is cutting me with a knife. You quarrel. I say: there is no such Love as the Love that stains, scratches, and cuts. But anyway I won – for I learned that there is no Love as God’s Love and that only God’s Love is Love – I made that experiment. If you didn’t learn the rule, at least I learned it. I learned it and I would not forget it neither on Earth nor in Heaven! And each one who vitiates the Love of God will by all means get his payment. And if he doesn’t understand this Love, then everything in his Life will be finished. I will call some of you so that I can personally talk with you in a friendly way about Love – I will call you so that we can chat about Love. We will talk now – don’t think that I am not able to talk, you haven’t yet seen how I can talk – I can talk far better. Now, when I talk to you about Love I shall use a special kind of language. I shall talk to you in very special way, so you might say: “I thought one thing and it proved to be another.” I hope that the consciousness of each one of you expands and I hope that you do not bother about trifles; I hope that this Love reigns and awakens your mind and sends an impulse to your heart, to heal all your weaknesses; I wish that you feel healthy, cheerful, fresh, so that you can apprehend Love and put it into practice, because you are in very difficult circumstances for the time being. It is expected that the occult disciples throughout Europe will have to pass a very difficult exam. These social struggles should be corrected by Force – Force must be applied. You might say: “God will settle everything.” God within us should be a volitional force, He should be Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice – not only He, but also the great potential psychic forces within us should awaken us, so that we can work. Now between you and me there are points of contact and they are as follows: there exists a deep well; I travel all over the desert (in order to clarify the existing relationships – they are real relationships here on Earth), I find the deep well; I know how to make the rope but I have no thread; you the disciples have this thread, but you don’t know how to make the rope. All right, I’ll say: “You stretch the threads and I’ll make the rope” – the rope is yours and the workmanship is mine. We will put the rope down, we will draw water from the well and all of us will drink; then you will take your rope with you, while I think that I have made it. Then we continue to walk and we see each other properly… These are the contacting points between the disciples and the Master. Now, this concerns only me – only your attitude towards me; this is the attitude towards Christ. He had disciples that He appointed to what He Himself could not do. Christ cannot come down now – He will send some of His disciples here to this village; Christ will not come to preach even in the town of Sofia, He will not preach even in London. In order for Christ to preach there, there would have to be some chosen souls present, who should be highly elevated, who should have such a consciousness, and who should posses such harmony, that as He descends they should be prepared to accept the words which He will use in order to let the Light in. And everybody should know Him; if He has to prove that He is from God and to heal the diseased persons, this would be a rather longwinded process and Christ will not attend to such longwinded processes. Christ is free now, so now you have to create within yourself certain conditions so that He can work within you. You might say: “We know Him, don’t we?” I don’t deny that you know Him but why don’t you make better conditions for Him? How? – Love your friend, he has a garden; plant throughout this garden – this is what Love is. Plant throughout every garden until you manage to plant this garden. We should plant throughout this Christ garden from beginning to end. Have faith in yourself – trust in one another – believe not only in yourself but believe in each other as well. The greatest trammel I come across within you is the impact of the scepticism – scepticism, scepticism. I don’t mean to say that this scepticism is imposed by the outside world, but you take it and since you are more sensitive souls, you attract the negative sides of the world – you are capable of receiving them and this is dangerous. A sensitive occult disciple is like a sponge and if he is not familiar with the laws he can sap from the outside. That is why he should be positive in Love – so that he can attract the positive qualities and throw out the evil – this is a mere science. Let’s say that now you study in the Occult School; one of the disciples in the School is talking with another one and says to a young lady: “We can go to a night-club – we are occult disciples so we will be able to learn a lesson from such a visit.” Well, fine, but if they go to the nightclub and this young lady adopts these images, these contortions that are being demonstrated there, these images can gradually obsess her mind. So I am asking where will the occultism go then? I am asking you: if these images obsess you for one, two, or three days, what will you profit from them? You don’t need nightclubs; there is such a nightclub up the Vitosha Mountain, there is another nightclub in the mountain resort Chamkorya1. Let the one who wants a nightclub, go to a hospital, to a church, to some temple. But the night-clubs where women with tambourines play Turkish dances… The nightclub is for those great spirits, who can withstand the temptations there, but you should not bring the weaker persons there, you better protect such persons. Sometimes, when a certain person is rather sensitive you should influence him gradually. Well, other arguments are being given to us – that, sometimes some drunkard might be a much better Christian than a righteous man can be. A strong will is necessary for a drunkard to become more righteous that a faithful person. There is a character in this man – he can fight with and he is stronger than a righteous man who does not have such an experience. When he sees them drink, the latter, not having such experience, might say: “I can solve the matter in another way as well.” While the other one – the drunkard - might say: “I tried and I overcame this vice so I can overcome another one also!” I don’t advise the young men to go to nightclubs and performances, because distorted and false things might obsess your minds. If I undertake to criticize all these dramas and tragedies from a psychological point of view how many of them might turn out to be true? Are they trustworthy? – No, they are not. There are things that seem true, but if I submit them to my criticism they will turn out to be untrue. Take for example the drama “Danton” and tell me if this is true? Its author has gathered these facts and has combined them in such a way that they give an impulse, but if they are to evolve in time they will not have any effect at all. When they see such dramas people often cry, while outside the theatre there are thousands of dramas: poor people are passing by, but no one is crying. I am asking you why inside the theatre they cry and outside the theatre no one cries? Because the actors are trained to present a lie, while in fact it is not real. But you might say that the drama was written like this – fine, but it depends on the actors – they are the persons who make others cry. So consequently from the occult point of view each drama should be true, i.e., we might have drama, but this drama should be composed in a specific way – it has to have some psychological aim and it has to produce a certain effect. So these authors did achieve something – I don’t mean to say that they don’t have some ambition, but the contemporary novels and dramas are not written by these occult rules. So when you go there to see these performances you should have an occult disposition of your mind and you should know what to accept and what to neglect. Even while you are listening to me you should be aware as to what to accept and what to neglect. Sometimes you are discussing some minor facts for a whole hour – I am talking to you about Love and you say: “We know what Love is.” I myself have been studying Love for so many years and yet I am still at the introduction of Love. I say for myself – I have barely got the introduction of this Love and you claim that you know it. In such case I would rather listen to you instead. Love is an alchemical law – when you feel Love you will know how to convert all the elements. And when you convert the elements containing your nectar there won’t remain any wall unbroken and there won’t remain any door unopened. For instance your friend might be in prison, but then there won’t be a prison that you can’t open, there won’t be any wrong which cannot be righted, and then facing Love any death will disappear. After you pass along the way with your magic wand you will do wonders – this is what Love is. And Christ carries this magic wand now; He says: “I was given the whole power in Heaven and Earth” and this power is the wand. And after He comes He will start waving with this wand and can you imagine what will happen? Whatever house he touches will be put to rights, whoever He touches – everywhere men will start to rise from the dead. Now you will take into consideration all this but you won’t become saints. I don’t want you to become saints just because of my words, I don’t want you to become perfect either, but I do want that seventy five percent of your gossip should stop right this evening and that only twenty five percent of them remain. Seventy five percent of gossip is unnecessary, so you should erase it completely; let only twenty five percent of the gossip remain. For if you don’t put into practice these two rules then how will you succeed? I intended to assign a task to you, but I cannot assign it to you as long as you have these weaknesses – the task might get vitiated, this is a small task. Up till next Thursday I will be constantly checking, to see if you have annulled the seventy five percent of the gossip and if I find out that you have annulled them, I’ll assign the task to you. But be careful – I don’t want any criticism in the Occult School. Let whosoever knows that much, come here, and I will put him here at the desk. Let whosoever that is so learned come here – I shall get down – we are ready to put him at my desk – let him come. If someone thinks that he knows so much; let him show his knowledge. There should not be anything in the secret room – you have Light, so turn to the Invisible world and the matter will be settled for you. And the relationships between you and me should be proper. The rule is: I must have one opinion only. I would say: “He is a good disciple, but he is careless, he doesn’t tell the Truth.” Why do you say that he is lazy? – Because no matter what task I assign him he doesn’t solve it; he is a good disciple but he is constantly dissatisfied – no matter what I do for him he is never satisfied. The surrounding people might encircle him and might do him all sorts of favours but he still goes on feeling dissatisfied. It can be like this –the same holds true for the disciple and for the Master. So now the general principle should be applied – you have to annul seventy five percent of your gossip. Now let me see if you have enough willpower to put it into practice. I mentioned the nightclubs and someone might say: “I know that someone has betrayed me.” There is no need to worry that someone has betrayed you because when you go to the nightclubs I can personally see you. And I can see what you are doing in these nightclubs – both men and women visit nightclubs. After that they say: “Our Master knows everything”, but then again they ask: “Who told you about the night-clubs? It means - you are not clairvoyant but someone has told you.” I see you, I see you in a very special way. The person, who has visited a nightclub, bears the stamp of the nightclub on his face, this is a truth. I do not enter in the Astral world, but I can tell such person why he has been at the night-club – there is a stamp on his face, the whole night-club is stamped on his face. And I can tell what nightclub he has been in and at what table he has sat and from what glass he has drunk and who else has sat at this table, I can tell him everything. His eyes are not soft but have a peculiar colour, his eyes are playful, and his eyes are roving as the eyes of a cat. And after he has been at a nightclub, his face acquires a different colour – each nightclub has a specific colour, each place of amusement has a colour. In each nightclub there live such evil spirits which exercise great influence upon your souls. Your souls and your hearts are not a toy, there exists a psychic force and it can carry you away as well. Now some of you might say: “Who might the person be who went to a night-club?” You don’t have to know who he is because one day you yourself might also go there. I have heard many persons say: “What nightclub might this be, let’s go and see what the matter is with it” – everyone likes to see what is happening there at the nightclub. In such a case it would be nice to send delegates there – three or four persons might go there and see what a night-club is and then read us a lecture entitled “What a night-club is like?”, so that the matter can be settled. Good, you are right, in the last resort it is preferable to send a commission composed of the strongest persons. So, we have a difficult task to solve, it is not easy for a man to cope with his own self, with his thoughts, with his feelings. We have a difficult task from the point of view of the law of heredity, from the point of view of the law of rebirth and of our pilgrimage in the world. It is a difficult task but it is a task that we can solve. And I believe that you are among the noble disciples that are unprejudiced, which have minds hungry for knowledge, which have noble hearts, which do noble deeds, which have an iron will, and who are ready to fight. And because of what I told you, you might draw your knifes out and make “So!” and the matter will be finished. You will not talk too much that this is the way we are thinking, instead you will all of a sudden make “So!” I want to clarify my relationships with all my disciples and friends – either your attitude will be an attitude of both disciples and friends, or we can’t have proper relationships. We must know each other – this is what the Brotherhood demands. An absolute purity, an absolute Light, an absolute Truth should reign among us! When I say Purity I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Light, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Truth, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal – an ideal for which we should strive. Whether we will attain it is a different question, but it should be an ideal equal to all of us. Then we shall have an equal opinion upon this question and both you and I will think about this matter. And I believe that we will solve our task. A secret prayer I have never seen you so quiet as you are this evening – the silence is deathlike. This is a good sign. 1 Up till 1942 Chamkorya was the name of the mountain resort Borovets (ed.note). Source
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Sunrise and Sunset Fourteenth Lecture by the Master, delivered to the General Esoteric Class on Friday, June 2, 1922, 8-9:30 p.m., Sofia Keep in mind that tonight we have not gathered here to sit at a laden table; that is, I have not called you here for a feast. This is not the time for a feast, nor is it the time for me to give you advice or instructions, but rather, it is a time for learning. Therefore, I want you to listen to me with your minds, to feel with your hearts and to use your willpower to apply what you have learned. The methods of the Esoteric School are different from all those methods that present day schools use. The various views we hold of Life depend on our environment. Say you found yourself 10-15 meters below sea level and looked at the world from that viewpoint, what would your views be? And then, how would you perceive things if you were to descend another hundred meters or another two, three, four hundred meters, and then went further down to a thousand or two thousand meters? As a result, the refraction of light would be different. Now, let us imagine the reverse process: how would you view the world if you were to rise above sea level and ascended into the air to a hundred meters, then two, three, four, five hundred meters, then you went further up to a thousand or ten thousand meters? What if you were to go up not a thousand meters, but ten thousand kilometers into the air? On the other hand, if we were to stand on Earth, it would act as a balancing force. Therefore, your perception of the world from the bottom of the ocean and from the highest atmosphere would be from two opposite poles of understanding: those of sunrise and sunset. Sunrise, this is up in the air and sunset is down below, at the bottom of the ocean. However, the analogy that I’ve made is not correct in all of its points of view, because our sunset is sunrise for others, and vice-versa, our sunrise is sunset for others. Henceforth, when your Sun is rising, your sunrise is sunset for someone else; and when your Sun is setting, others have a sunrise. Therefore, sunrise and sunset are relative notions, not an Absolute reality. At the place where we are now, there is sunrise and sunset. However, if you were a clairvoyant, there would be neither sunrise, nor sunset for you, for you would be able to see the Sun on the opposite end of the Earth even in the middle of the night, and so there would be no sunrise for you. Even the Earth would not move for you if you were a clairvoyant because movement exists only for those who move, and as such cannot register this movement; but for those who are able to register it, there is no movement. Because, if I move faster than a train, will there be any movement? Take the following example as clarification: imagine a point in the Universe that moves so fast that it is in all places in the cosmos at the same time. Well, if it is at all places at the same time, is there any movement then? Yes, there is movement, but it cannot be registered. How can you register it when it takes place simultaneously at all places? We perceive movement only when there is a certain relation between speeds. But if you have an absolute speed we regard this point as a constant. Now, in this world, unstable people are those who move rather slowly. Snails, for example, are quite unstable. You cannot count on a person who moves like a snail because as soon as he touches a leaf, he, like the snail, retracts his antennas and says, “This is not my kind of thing.” You, then encourage him by saying, “Listen, there are such and such laws; there exists order in everything,” and he pulls out his antennas again. However, as soon as he encounters the next leaf, he hides inside the shell and says, “There is no law here.” And this is how it goes: in and out, in and out. Why does this snail move? From an esoteric point of view we explain it like this: this snail has encountered obstacles on its way. And when you throw this obstacle into the train engine, the wheels start turning. Therefore, when the engine driver comes to this obstacle, he uses it. If he stopped every time he came to a certain point, there would be a waste of energy. However, the engine driver collects this energy, gives it a slope and the wheel starts turning. The engine driver has learned from the snail’s obstacles and says, “If you want to use misfortune for your benefit you should put this misfortune in a curvy line.” Why does the train move? Because of the snail’s mistakes; our trains are the mistakes of the snail. Often, when people travel from one town to another, there are accidents on the way, i.e. in this case the snail did not retract his antennas on time. Thus, the engine driver miscalculated the time and so he could not hide away in time, and then when the accident happens, all travelers jump out of their shells. Now I’m speaking of your consciousness, for it can be that of a snail. Since my last lecture was philosophical and critical, you now ask, “If this is not Love and if that is not Love, what is Love, then?” When I discussed Love, I had in mind your love as you express it now. I say that what you consider love is worth nothing; this is not Love. You ask, “If this is not Love, then what is?” I will tell you what Love is. Here is an example: let’s say that you have a bottle full of water. This water has been sitting for ten days and has started to smell; there are a number of tiny microscopic bugs swimming in it. I try your water and I say, “This is not water.” “What do you mean, this is not water? We just filled it from the tap.” “It might have been great water but this water today is not healthy.” I, then, take your bottle, pour out the water and you complain, ”This is outrageous! He emptied out our bottle!” Then I say to you, “Wait, come to my water tap.” I take the bottle, wash it out a couple of times; then I boil some water and scrub it inside with sand. “You will break the bottle,” you protest, but I tell you, “Wait a bit longer.” I then rinse out the bottle, I draw from the premium water and I ask you, “Do you remember how your water tasted?” “Yes.” I pour you some water and I give it to you. “Now drink from this water,” I say. This is the only way you could understand the difference between the kind of Love I’m talking about and the other one. You need to keep these two moments in your mind simultaneously and you need to be able to tell the difference between the reality of consciousness and the other reality that can be manifested. Sunrise is a moment in consciousness and this moment is only the initial one when the Sun comes up from behind the horizon. After the Sun has emerged fully, then this is not sunrise any more. Likewise, sunset is that initial moment when the Sun touches the horizon and then sinks below it. Once again, sunrise is the other moment: the moment when the tip of the Sun first appears, and then it lasts until the sun has appeared fully. Everything in between these two moments is neither sunrise nor sunset. Therefore, in your whole life you will have two moments: every day and every minute you will have either sunrise or sunset and those will consist not of hours but only of a few moments. And if you are able to fully comprehend these moments of your consciousness you will be able to think correctly because your sunrises and sunsets are different every time. Notice that in Nature, sunrises are never the same. For example, sometimes the horizon is not so clear and at other times it is very clear; sometimes you cannot see the sunset and at other times you cannot see the sunrise - these are all mathematically related. These sunrises and sunsets show the relations that exist inside our consciousness, for sunrise and sunset exist as a reality only in our consciousness. If you are not aware of this reality - that the Sun rises and sets - it won’t do anything for you. If the Sun is rising and setting, it is only for your consciousness and once your consciousness is able to perceive the rising of the Sun, then your mind, your heart and your willpower will take part in your consciousness. Therefore, your mind will dwell on the forms and the vibrations of this light that expands; your heart will dwell on the content, and your willpower will focus on the results that may ensue from the combining of the forms with the content. This is all philosophically put. Now you cannot see the relation between these two ends. I am explaining the sunrise and the sunset in relation to consciousness. I am explaining the fact of the expansion, the content, and the effects of the Light that penetrates into our consciousness. We perceive the Light that is manifested into our consciousness in a specific way. Presently, the extent in which you can comprehend Love is determined by your inner consciousness. Now, you often speak of love the way you perceive it now: you have a pleasant feeling here, in the solar plexus, or you have a pleasant feeling in the hypothalamus on top of your head. I am speaking only of these two centers, but nevertheless, this pleasant feeling is not very real, because this condition can change in a short while. I am telling you a sweet, kind, and harmonious word but we do not seem to understand each other, for the fact is that you are hungry, right? Now I will speak your language. You have been hungry for three days and you expect something, so I will tell you this: “Now I am going to apply the notions of sunset and sunrise to eating, because in eating, too, there is sunrise and sunset.” Imagine that you are poor and you have been eating only beans all your life. You are so sick and tired of it that even at the very mention of beans, you object, “Did God create all those beans just for me alone? I am tired of beans!” If you have been hungry for three days and I tell you, “There is roasted turkey,” then the turkey will be like a sunrise for you. “What about beans,” you say. Here, beans are your sunset. “Your day came to an end very quickly,” I say. In this case, the beans, in your mind, represent the sunset. If I said to you, “There is bread and a chicken roasted with lard,” you would say, “Excellent sunrise.” Then your day would be on the rise, and you would be joyful, right? I’m asking you this, why do the chicken and the turkey produce this joyful feeling in your mind and the very thought of the poor beans makes you say, “I wish it was something else.” Why are you unhappy with the beans? So then I say the following to your mind, “If you are tired, there is a turkey for you,” but I don’t tell you that there are beans. All right then, I mash the beans with a little butter and I tell you this, “I have meatballs here that were made with good meat.” However, when you eat this meat, it gets all mushy in your mouth. You sit at the table, start eating the turkey and the meatballs and you say, “Excellent meal!” I ask you, what is real here? In the first case I tell you the truth and I say, “You will eat beans,” and the second time I name the beans differently, and I say, “These beans were cooked with meat and butter,” and then you ask, “Was the meat veal, lamb or chicken? It was excellent!” Likewise, sometimes you cook bean meatballs from your actions in life and you tell yourself, “Do you know what great meatballs we have made, with such great meat?” However, all you really have is beans. But if I told you the truth, that it was beans; then you would say, “I know what kind of beans these are.” Modern philosophical systems, too, are made only of beans; those are bean meatballs they feed you, but they were fried in butter and cooked so well that everyone who eats them says, “These are excellent meatballs, they are very good. This is a great culture, a great science!” But those who know the Truth, would smile and say, “Yes, they are such excellent meatballs…” Therefore, we must be able, in our consciousness, to distinguish between the true Reality in the world and the transient one. For example, transient reality is when someone says, “There is God, there is future life.” This statement is a transient reality, because the person who says that there is future life has a distorted consciousness; he does not know what future life is. An occultist will never say that there is future life; instead, he would say this, “There is no future life, because, from a purely esoteric standpoint, if there was future life, it would be exactly like the present one.” However, if we take the word sunrise to mean expansion of our consciousness, and division, and expansion of the Divine life in us, then we regard sunrise in a wider context: we view it as reality. Because Life is one and cannot be limited; it is we who limit Life by saying that there is future life. Life is neither past, nor present, but is Life in itself. In our consciousness Life has sunrise and sunset for three and a half minutes; it only takes three minutes for sunrise. Do you know how many minutes it takes for a person to die? It is almost as much time as it takes for a person to be born. It takes a person’s consciousness the same time to awake as it takes for the sun to rise: three and a half minutes. The child is born and forgets again. And because there is sunrise, you think that the sunrise is getting born and you are happy for as long as it lasts in your consciousness. When this child is about to die, you see how the Sun is going down. There are some people who can live until midnight even after the Sun has set. After the Sun has gone down, they say, “We are going to die.” It is a fact that the Sun of those people who say, “We are going to die,” has already gone down. Therefore, from a purely esoteric viewpoint, you can be born prematurely and you can die prematurely; you can become rich prematurely and you can become poor prematurely; you can become healthy prematurely and you can become sick prematurely. Remember this fact, for all of this will remain in your consciousness. And when I say that we can do anything, it is true; we can do anything but all we need to do is leave the conditions of the earthly life. The clairvoyant, who can see the Sun in its path, has nothing to fear. And this Sun is the manifestation of the Divine in the world and into our consciousness. We are always able to see God. One of our friends who is here - I won’t mention his name - told me about an experience he once had. He said to me, ”I used to feel a light like that at sunrise. This light used to move before me. But this light has disappeared lately, it is gone.” He felt sad. Before he felt like this light would rise all the time and every time he would leave to go somewhere, the light would stream inside him all the time. This is the beautiful in Life. From an esoteric point of view, every mistake you make will cause your sun to set prematurely, and this is a great evil for your life. Even the smallest mistake will spin the wheel of your Earth and it will start moving faster. The Sun will set prematurely and it is then that all kinds of misfortune will befall you. And when I say that you should not make mistakes, this from an esoteric point of view, means that you should not let your Sun set. Once the Sun has gone down, all work comes to an end. Therefore, your Love will come to an end, too. Now, you have experienced this, at least when you love someone and feel a certain vibration in your solar plexus, combined with this tiny warmth in your heart. However, when you lose this warmth, you start suffering. A knot starts forming in your solar plexus and you feel cold; you feel hatred starting to form and you feel that the person you love is gradually moving away from you, and that you are moving away from him, too. This is the law of sunset: your friendship has set and the two of you are in the night of Life. Then the power of your mind wanes, and no matter how you pray or what prayer you say, you feel as if there is an icy layer above you and your prayer goes up only two feet above your head and descends right back down. What should you do then? I will tell you the law for this and I won’t use the same example I have given other people before. I will take snow as an example. Snow has a white gown; it is clean. Imagine that a person is like snow, but is cold. If you take a snowball and look at it, it is beautiful and white. You hold it in your hand and look at it: it is perfect, white and clean, but it is cold. Someone says, “May I be clean like snow.” All of you want to be clean and you sing, “May we be clean like snow,” but how are you going to be in Heaven? So, the snow that the Psalmist sings about is not your snow, because when we conduct an experiment and melt the snow, it loses its whiteness. Imagine that snow has its own consciousness and says, “What did you do to me? You have depraved me, for I used to be white and now I have lost my whiteness. You have ruined me.” This is a kind of consciousness. Then someone else comes who is like water and says, ”I am fluid like water, I can adapt to all conditions.” Modern people like adaptation and water will reach a balance in whatever position you put it; it will be pals with ninety-nine kings. Take a bottle, turn it on one end or the other and you will see that whichever way you turn it, the water will reach a balance: it will maintain the same position. This is an excellent example. But if we are like water, what will our life be like? As soon as there is a crack in your bottle, the water starts dripping away and disappears. Then when you look at the bottle you will find out that it is empty. Imagine that water comes to me like a vessel, like a bottle and tells me, “Listen, I am a thinking being, easily adaptable to all conditions. I never oppose anything; I am a very good person who holds nothing against anybody.” However, I take this water, I put it in my oven and I start heating it up, saying, “Yes, you are truly very good.” I heat it up, but then I see some steam coming out; its shape is changing because of the heat. It expands, rises up and comes out as steam. Water will then say to me, “You have changed my form and now I have no stability at all.” Now it looks at its relation to air and says, “I will reach God,” but as it goes up five-six kilometers it comes across a cold current and is corrupted again: it turns into hail, becomes condensed and falls back down to Earth, muddy and corrupted. Then it sinks into Earth, and finally, through great toil and turmoil, it comes up as a cold spring. A thirsty, suffering soul finds the spring, drinks from it and says, “What a beautiful spring this is!” But once this spring was white like snow, then it was fluid, adaptable like water; then it turned into steam, rose up into the air, hardened, fell down as hail and now, after having passed through all this suffering, it carries something new in itself and it says, “Brother, do you know what oven I had to go through to reach this condition as a clean and cold spring? I lost my cleanliness, I lost my fluidity, I lost my expansion, and then I turned into droplets, fell down and became muddy.” And you reply, “Oh, brother, this is all very well, very well.” “Yes, very well it is, but have you been in my condition?” And when we speak of the Love of a being, we should keep in mind that in order for it to express what we consider Love, this being must pass through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms. Make a note of this: only after it has passed through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms can it express the smallest Love. And when you have this smallest experience of Love, it will be like a spring for you; it will be the most pleasant feeling you will ever feel. At first you will feel it only for two and a half or three minutes, and then it may disappear for the rest of your life. And then, like a novel written on a white piece of paper, you will reminisce and say, “There was so much joy, so much happiness, such bliss in those two and a half minutes!” Anything may happen after that: you may become a king, you may have feasts laid out before you, or people may give you money, but these two and a half or three minutes will be the crown of your whole being, and you will say, “I have never had anything like those two and a half or three minutes!” They will be the head and all your life will be included in these three minutes. And we go through all our life only so that we can have these three little minutes. Where are the three minutes? They contain a whole eternity. And do you know that it takes the effort of all infinite eternity in order for Love to be manifested in its smallest form. Love can be manifested only through the effort of all eternity, for it needs this impulse so that Reality can pass through all these forms. And do you know now if you are disciples or proselytes? This thought is so grand that you should keep thinking about it at all times. It is a grand thought, indeed, so grand that it takes a whole eternity to be able to comprehend this profound and meaningful concept. It takes a whole eternity to understand these three minutes and this eternity means that you need to have a sunrise and a sunset. If the sunrise is faultless, the sunset will be faultless, too. If the sunrise is faulty, the sunset will be faulty, too. Your understanding of things will depend on the basis on which you build when you enter the Esoteric School. For example, some come here to study, but what they really hope is to learn some secrets. No, they will not learn any secrets, for I tell no secrets. You will need a whole eternity to learn the secrets you want to learn. Therefore, no one can take away our secret in only one day or one hour. What do these people study, I ask? You will not learn anything this way. But he, who enters with a pure heart in search of God and Love, will be able to understand a lot. And so, it is my wish now for everybody to rise like the Sun. I am saying this to the young ones; I call young those who are rising and the old, ones who are setting. But now you, the young ones, may say, “You should know that we are the ones rising.” However, once the old ones were in your place and they, too, used to say, “We are the ones rising.” Some day other young ones will come in your place and will say, “We are rising.” I ask you this: if you think like this, what is your definition of Life? You will say, “We rise correctly,” and the old ones will say, “We set correctly.” You should shake hands now, as Life will not come to an end, because when the young ones come to your place, the wheel will turn and then your Sun will rise and their Sun will set. Then, if your sunset was faultless, your sunrise will be faultless and if their sunrise was faultless, their sunset will be faultless, too. These two sunrises have nothing to do with your present suffering, of course. You may say, “This is all good, but what can we do now; we are suffering?” Here, in the Esoteric School, there is no place for sick disciples. He who is sick cannot be a disciple, a believer, or a proselyte. I would like for you to give me a piece of paper so that we can make a list of all those who are sick in the School. Here we have hospitals and doctors, and we will send all of you who are sick for a course of treatment and then you can come back afterwards. We have special hospitals and special doctors for the esoteric disciples and when you go to our doctors they will prescribe for you their own system of treatment. And here, in the School, I can see your thoughts, “This teaching is good but we have difficulties in our life.” The difficulties in your life are a blessing for you. The greatest blessing for a disciple of the Esoteric School is to have difficulties and to have great difficulties, at that! Then he passes for a hero. If there are no difficulties, then he is neither a proselyte, nor a believer. The first thing is this: if you have difficulties, you are disciples; if you have no difficulties, then you are done. The math students in the university have such difficult problems and they go up to the blackboard so many times and try to solve the problems one way or another. If you look at an astronomer you will see that he watches out for the minute, for the second when the comet will pass; he observes so closely and has such difficulties, such worries. You sit here and say, “God is good; when the Spirit comes upon us, everything will happen the way God says.” This is a childish view; God has already done and made everything that he wanted to do or make: I can see this in everything that exists. The question is; do we learn everything that God has made and done? “God can do anything.” Now, as I live, I know that God has made the body that I have. You might say, “Do I understand what God has made, do I know the laws; am I open to the knowledge that He has instilled; does His Word enter my consciousness; do I rejoice in His deeds and in His thoughts that are sent down by His Spirit?” “God is great,” you say, “He has made the Sun!” Have you ever explored the Sun to find out about its Essence? Can you visit on the Sun? An esoteric disciple of a third degree - not of a first or a second, but of a third degree - can go to the Sun. You may say now, “I am the first candidate!” You are like that American who calculated that it is possible to throw a grenade on the Moon. He measured the length of the grenade, then the space and also the slope, as he wanted to find out how long it will take for the grenade to fall on the Moon. He made his exact calculations, collected some money, found two candidates and chose one of them to enter the machine and go to the Moon. Now, you, too, as soon as you hear me talk about the Sun - lo and behold! – you are candidates to go to the Sun. This is not the way to go to the Sun. If you can transform your consciousness and if you can acquire, after nine hundred and ninety-nine trials, the smallest form of Love, you will be visitors on the Sun right away. The residents of the Sun will welcome you and when you come back you will be happy and with a grin on your face and you will say, “The Sun is an excellent place!” And you will know the reason for how and why this Light streams incessantly and what this Light means; you will know the language of Light. But you should know that in order for all of this to happen, a transformation of consciousness is necessary. You need a transformation, a change inside your consciousness in order for your mind, your heart and your willpower to be a part of your soul. Therefore, the Esoteric School is not a School for consoling people, but is a School for studying the great unchangeable laws of Existence and of God’s manifestation. It is within those laws that our Life develops evenly and harmoniously. Therefore, only through the expression of such Love will we be able to be in conscious contact with that Being which permeates the cosmos, i.e. we will be able to be in conscious communion with God. And only after going through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms, will we be able to hear the smallest voice talk to us. And, like in the book of Job that I quoted earlier, when we hear this smallest voice we will understand why we live on Earth. As soon as you understand why you live on Earth, this same Earth will stand before you right away like a living being and it will not be the old Earth, for the old Earth will have disappeared. And then, everywhere you go on Earth, you will bring a different moral: when you walk on this being, you will do so delicately and you will say, “This being is so mighty and gracious.” You will, then, make sure you do not cause this being any shock or pain and you will walk on it the same way you walk in a friend’s house. Of course, this Earth is related to our consciousness. Only when we start thinking this way, will the young and the old be able to live well. And now, because of our limited consciousness, everyone says, “I will live the way that suits me best.” I ask then, does this rule give you good results? Would Life have any meaning if all of us lived the way that suited us best? No, it would not. “So that I can live!” If you take the word “I” to mean the Divine inside you, then it is good to live according to the law of the Self, the law of consciousness. But if you take the word “I” to mean that you can use the temporary comforts of this limited life, then you have a wrong understanding of Life. Take, for example, a living example from your life: you have a son, you bring him up, educate him, send him to school and church, and this child grows up beautiful and obedient like his father and mother. The parents expect a lot from their son and they say, “Our little boy is very intelligent. He does great at school; he is diligent and earns excellent grades.” However, when he turns 17-18, he starts growing a little moustache and starts pushing his lips. Earlier, he would listen to his mother and ask her, “What can I do for you, Mother?” then he would take the water jug and go to the well for water. However, as time passes, he starts becoming absent-minded and his mother notes, “Our child has a new habit of pushing his lips every now and then.” Why does this boy touch his lips? I will not discuss the meaning of this gesture, for it is a secret that I am not allowed to divulge, but this little boy says, “I saw a young girl, I feel like wooing her.” How does he do that? By pulling one side of his moustache. Should it be the right side or the left side? He pulls it to one side, then he says, “I will pull both sides,” and then twists up his moustache. Then he thinks, “No, no, it’s better when it’s pointing down,” and then he looks at himself again. All of you here, young and old, have done this. There isn’t a single one of you who has not done this, be it consciously or unconsciously. The young ones are doing this right now. Someone wants to steal a certain young woman and he goes to her and says, “Listen, we will live together. I am very noble. Your old folks do not live well but when you live with me you will have all the comforts.” And he starts enumerating, “You will have a house, you will have this and that, we will live in the Kingdom of God like Angels.” “Really?” she asks. “Really, really,” he answers, “Don’t look at how your parents live for they are ignorant and they do not know, but see, I, on the other hand…” and he tugs on his moustache. All right then, they get married and what happens next? Nothing but the same old, fashionable lie, for they end up living just like her parents have lived. A man, who twists his moustache like that, cannot live well. Anybody who twists his moustache up cannot live well, no matter how hard he tries. I am not talking about your personal life but I am trying to explain a psychological point about consciousness. I do not know why and for what purpose, but this young man thinks about his moustache every day. Now, the young woman, too, starts raising her eyebrows and stroking them before the mirror. She tells him, “You should know, sweetheart, I am not like my mother. I am from a different culture. I will do this and that,” but she, too, does not speak the Truth. Those who stroke their eyebrows, too, cannot live well. The moustache and the eyebrows are two symbols, two metaphors. I will explain in some other way why he says, “Right or left?” This rule talks to itself like this, “I will speak the Truth to him if he touches his right eyebrow." Then, if he touches his left eyebrow, it says, “Why don’t I say a little lie to him? Some darkness won’t hurt; I can tell a little bit of Truth and a little bit of lie and that is how life goes.” For example, sometimes the young woman makes her eyebrows look thicker and sometimes she wants them thin; then she says, “Oh, this is no good and that is no good. Oh, oh!” This is no laughing matter; this is a psychological law. Sometimes you say these same things to yourself, but if you understand the law of your consciousness, you may be able to see and use things differently. In that case, a change of consciousness takes place, as well as a change in your heart, your mind, and your will, and if you have a correct grasp, you will be able to use the moment; if not, all these favourable conditions in Life will pass and you will say, “We were not successful in our work.” I am not saying that this is bad, but you should know that every tug leads to certain consequences. And the same law is at work when the young man puts it in his mind to stroke his moustache. Back in time, before the fall of man, when the original man stroked his moustache to the right or left, he also pronounced a certain formula, he pronounced certain words: particular words for when he stroked his moustache to the right and other words for the left. The young woman, too, has to pronounce certain words. And now, you do not pronounce any formulas. For example, if you are to pronounce the word Love, how are you going to pronounce it? The word Love has its key. First, you need to put in the key, then you need to prepare yourself, and only then will you pronounce the word Love; only then will it have a meaning. Another time, when you are to say the Truth, you will need to put in the key first: the key of Truth. All things have their own key and when you use it, these things will be understood in your mind. Now, I cannot cover everything because there are proselytes here. And who do we call proselytes? Once, in England, there used to live a very eloquent preacher. He was so eloquent that his entire audience, the rich and the poor, would be so captured that they would forget about everything. A thief, whose trade was not going very well, heard about this and thought to himself, “I will pretend to be a worshipper and then I will sit among these enraptured ones so I can fill up my pocket. I will have a great profit." So he goes there and sits with the rest. The preacher starts speaking, everybody is enraptured, and so is the thief. When the sermon was over, the thief thought to himself, “I missed the moment.” He left but vowed to himself, “Next time I will not become enraptured. I need to exert some willpower. I am a pickpocket and so I should not be enraptured but I should be feeling their purses, instead.” However, the second time, he became enraptured again, and so he did the third time, too, and so, finally he thought to himself, “I will not go to this devil any more, because I will lose my trade.” Likewise, when God’s Spirit starts talking eloquently like this inside you, you too, will become enraptured in the Divine Truth and so, if an evil spirit comes to you, he too will become enraptured and will say, “I should not go to his gathering because I will lose my trade.” And when he leaves, you will be free. The first thing an esoteric disciple needs is to have an eloquent preacher in himself, and when this preacher speaks, then the disciple’s mind, heart and willpower will lose themselves in this poetic expression, in this loving speech that comes out of the preacher’s mouth. And so I say to all who are in the Esoteric School: every one of you should express their nature freely, the way God has made you. And I do not want you to change; I want you to be the way you are but I want you to have an eloquent preacher in yourselves. And when your preacher speaks, you should be happy with him. I call this preacher the Spirit of great Life in all Existence. You can call him any way you like, but he is the Spirit of Life in all Existence. He can speak at any time, but in order for him to speak, a mind, a heart, and willpower are necessary. Not wilfulness, not a cruel heart, not a misunderstood mind, but a mind filled with Light is necessary, and a heart filled with Purity, and a will filled with power to put everything into practice. Now, you, the young ones, can test my words tonight by touching your moustache. Do not laugh. If you laugh that means that you have not understood this matter; you should be very serious. Think about why you want to stroke your moustache. The old ones, too, sometimes put their fingers on their moustache. Stop and think for a minute why you have grown a moustache, what was the original cause of this, why were you given a moustache. You can give yourself whatever answer you would like. And think also about why you were given eyebrows. You may not solve this problem, but some thought or some light is bound to come out of your thinking about it. Consequently, this eloquent preacher will give you a wise interpretation. Do not share it with anyone, but keep it for yourself. And so, I want all disciples who enter the Esoteric School to be rising like the Sun, because the School of Light is a sunrise for us. The Order of Light represents a sunrise, and the Order of Darkness represents a sunset. Now, I group you like this: if you are setting, you are with the Order of Darkness; if you are rising, you are with the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood of Light is always rising; the morning is their time. The Brotherhood of Darkness is always setting. Therefore, we need to have an understanding of these two moments of Life. If we say, “You have risen,” then you are of the Brotherhood of Light. If we say, “You have set,” then you are with the Brotherhood of Darkness. We know that there is no sunset in the Brotherhood of Light, and if someone says that his Sun has risen, then we know that he is from the Brotherhood of Light. Now you see what enormous difference there is in the esoteric view. The Sun’s setting shows that you are on the wrong path, and you should, therefore, turn your consciousness into the direction of the sunrise. Now, in saying that the old ones are setting, I made a differentiation. When I say young, I mean the Order of Light, and when I say old, I mean the Order of Darkness. This is a symbol: the old, in getting older, represent the Order of Darkness, but they represent it in form and not in content. They resemble the Order of Darkness in their life and so they must pray. When a man gets old, he becomes decrepit and is in a sour mood. When he sees a young one play, the old one wrinkles his brow and says, “What is this fool making all this racket for?” When the old one sees the young one push his way around, he says, “Keep your hand away from me, do not do this in front of me, for only I know this art; you should not learn it,” and in saying so, the old one is moralizing the young one. No, this is not right. Instead of acting this way, the old one should say to himself, “I used to be like him once,” and now he has moved to the left. The old one should not become angry. Therefore, we should always be young; we should never judge others. And when the Scriptures say, “Do not judge,” it means the following: everyone who judges becomes old and nothing more - this is the rule. Show me one person who judges and has not become old. He, who judges, becomes angry. This is not right; this is misunderstanding things. This is sliding down. Both the anvil and the hammer that beats incessantly on the anvil wear out in the process and no one gains anything. And the beautiful in Life is this: to think only about the great goods that God has created and to endeavor to be as wise and loving as God. And let us leave He who is all-wise to put Life in order. Because when we say that we live by God, we should do this not only passively, but we should rectify our life. A brother of yours may say, “I am rich; I have an income of ten thousand leva.” Some other brother somewhere else steals one or two thousand leva and people say, “One of the Brotherhood of Light did it.” Well, he is not a Brother of Light, but a Brother of Darkness if he stole ten or twenty thousand leva. Then I say, “Here, take this money, brother. I will even give you interest on it, how much do you want?” Then we will pay honestly, for there is no lie in us. Now, how many of you are ready to pay for someone else? I do not know. Those, who are outside, pay for their brothers who are in the School. And then, there are others, who, when they hear that someone else is paying, demand, “Let him pay for me, too.” No, no, I am pointing out an internal principle. This is a state of mind. Let us all be so loving in our souls, so as not to criticize anyone, because if we criticize, that means that the Spirit is not in us. All of you have experienced this: he, who has sinned and criticized, has lost their Spirit. When you make the smallest criticism in your soul, you will lose your Spirit; the Spirit will be extinguished by all means. And now, one of you who has experienced this, even in the smallest form, should say if this is true or not. Therefore, should the Spirit start speaking in you, you should pay attention. You should aspire for the higher, you should have a correct understanding of the Divine law and you should have no negative thoughts. Then the Spirit in you will explain everything to you and you will evolve with each day and will pass from one glory to another. I demand this of all who are young. I consider all of you young. Why? Because I count you towards the Order of Light; for all, whose consciousness has awoken, are from the Order of Light. Under the present conditions, all those whose consciousness is awake, should belong to the Order of Light. The old is an emblem of the Order of Darkness. The Order of Darkness is not bad in itself, but in Life these two orders do not follow one and the same principle; they do not follow the same laws. They have their own laws according to which they progress and acquire knowledge. Those in the Order of Light, who want to show the slightest levity, have lost the best conditions of Life for thousands and thousands of years and have no good conditions today. There was a time in the evolution of humankind when it was an honor to be in the Order of Darkness. Back then, the Light ones were setting and the Dark ones were rising. Now it’s the reverse process: now it is an honor to be in the Brotherhood of Light and it is a dishonor to be in the Brotherhood of Darkness. And now you, being disciples of the Esoteric School, should consider it a great privilege and an honor to be members - proselytes, believers or disciples - of the Great Universal Brotherhood of Light, which comes to introduce the New culture in Life. And, as such, you should prepare not in the future, but you should be preparing right now, already. You can start today, or tomorrow, or the day after, for you have the conditions to work; work quietly, silently, and wisely to put the Divine Laws into practice. You will work the way Light works. (The Master collects all the notes.) Now, I have paid you, therefore I can keep these notes for myself. Are you content? If someone isn’t, I can pay him some more, i.e. I will spend more time with him individually. Some of you have not signed your names on your papers. Those of you who have not signed, should do so, otherwise your wish will not come true conscientiously. See how you wanted to outsmart me, but I outsmarted you in the end. I caught all the trickery of the disciple, and in this case, I have backed you into a corner. So, you did not trust me completely and that is why you did not sign your name. Yes, this is not an accusation, but trickery. The facts say that there is no signature, right? Now, I will let you sign and correct your mistakes. I will not give you back your papers but I will make a deal with you: I will give you your old papers when you bring me the new ones, but I need them signed with your names. The intensity of thought everyone exerts in writing the papers will indicate for me if the work has been signed or not. (The Master picked out a paper and read.) He wants good for the entire humankind, and wants nothing for himself, and so we will fulfill his wish. It is all right, this is not a great mistake, but I need a signature of some kind. I do not mean a signature literally, but I mean it in essence. In other words, when one writes something and is afraid that others might know his thoughts, then this is the fear of the physical plane. However, when one writes something in order to express oneself, then those sentences are dedicated to the willpower, i.e. he has signed and these sentences will contribute a great deal; such sentences will live on. Now I will revise your work and I will give you explanations. I will read them over and I will see in what direction your thought was going. These psychological intentions will be interesting for me. I will take my time to turn over every leaf separately; I will read them over individually. It will take me at least three months to look over your papers but your wishes will come true in due time and space. Some wishes will come true in a year, others in two, and some in three years - it all depends. Generally speaking, everything comes true. When will they come true is a question, an esoteric problem to solve. Source
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On The Path Thirteenth lecture by Master Beinsa Douno held before the Universal esoteric class on May 26th 1922, Thursday, 11-12:00 Vitosha Mountain. Now, bear in mind that I do not wish to judge you; this is about the application of the principle of Love. If you can apply it, this is all right, but if you judge one another, you cannot have love. In an assembly just one cannot be blamed, rather it will be the case that either all are righteous, or all are wrong. If a penalty is given, all of you will bear it and if a blessing is given, again it will be intended for all of you. So, I ask of you to apply the Divine principle of Love - you should apply it, I should not impose it upon you as if I do so, then this will not be Love but coercion. I told you that if after the end of my talk you start looking for the one who is to blame, I shall not speak at all. Arrange these matters among yourselves in the spirit of brotherhood; apply the great principle of Love. Only because an organization is created, this principle will not be perfect. For you still cannot grasp how the principle may be applied. Do not grieve the Divine Spirit. What is being done is not against me but against God. Who will speak to you then? Can a commission be selected which will ascertain that the rules of order are adhered to? You can choose seven people; you are able to do this. You will obey, everything you do will be based on the principle of Love, do you understand? You should set this rule; if you do not, the principle cannot work and you will be subordinated to the same principles that the world, the state, and the church were founded upon, and then nothing will be successful. I will touch on a number of elements of Love in its new manifestation. It is one thing to speak of Love and quite another to experience it - this is what we are concerned with now. When a student or a musician makes a mistake, if he plays falsely, the teacher cannot forgive him. There are things in the world, which can be forgiven, but there are things that cannot. When someone takes money from you, you can forgive him, but when a great musician plays, he is not allowed to strike a false note; he will have to do no more than is necessary to correct the note. It is a necessary principle and Life does not forgive - we have to correct the note. Life is music and everyone wants to play it as they know. Take for instance a bandmaster; I say, according to the principle his life has to be reformed, as one can only be a musician if one has Love. Everyone has to live in compliance with the principle of Love. And if you do not wish to live like this, no one can impose it on you forcibly. Only with your good will can you live this way. And I know that you all want to live, you wish for your lives to be harmonious and for yourselves to be happy. You, the disciples have tested me do you understand? You acted as a teacher, and as you become teachers, I am prepared to leave the school. I am ready to accept from you each thought, your every feeling, all of this and no more. If the Divine Spirit speaks through you, and expresses certain Divine thoughts, then I will accept them, the source is still the same. Our desire is for the Love of God to be manifested among us in all its completeness - this is the only way to succeed. If we do not apply this principle, there will be no success but only constant misunderstandings. Sometimes when I join you I feel a heavy and disharmonious atmosphere, do you understand? Just as smoke renders breathing hard in a café, it feels the same when I am among you. You do not want this either; you suffer from it but do not know how to liberate yourselves. And I want to show you a method you can use to release this weight. This will not happen at once but I will show you a principle and you will work on it. Now I do not judge you; such was the old teaching. I want you to apply to yourselves the principle of the great Divine Love; thus, young and old have to respect each other, to honour and forgive each other. Now, for instance, when I leave you will start looking for the one to blame. If someone always has to be pointed at as guilty, the world will never change for the better. For finding somebody to blame shall not set things right - even if we hang or imprison him, someone else will take his place and there will always be someone guilty. All right then, are you ready to accept what I am going to tell you now? (Everyone replies: Yes, we are.) Now ask your inner selves this question - if you accept it and apply it in accordance with the principle of Love, this shall be a blessing for you. Sing the song “Bless my soul, dear God”. Look at living Nature around us - it is a Divine abode, a Divine home. And all the energies that are stored in it have different directions; each energy has its own channel through which to flow. When we need energy for our stomach, it comes through food, when we need energy for our lungs, it comes through the air we breathe, when we need energy for our eyes, it comes through light; when we need energy from the spoken word, it comes through our sense of hearing, when we need the energy of the aroma of flowers, we can receive it through our sense of smell. Now you have accepted a philosophy; you want to receive all of these various energies through your mouth. We are talking about Love but Love can be accepted through your mouth, your eyes, ears, nose – anywhere. When Love is accepted through the mouth, it will have one effect if it is accepted through the nose - another and so on. It depends on how we accept Divine Love. Now, you speak of Love; you still have not loved. I will conduct a microscopic experiment, I want to ask you what Love is, how you have felt it, if you have had one vivid experience of Divine Love. You have small experiences of Love, but how long did this Love last for? Tell me now, was there such an experience in your lives when Love took over your soul, your mind, your heart for a whole year, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a whole month, do you have the experience when Love overwhelmed your soul for a month, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a day? If Love swept over you at once, you would not reason at all, you would decide on the spot and your decision would not be the silliest, but the wisest one. When Divine Love operates in the world, it operates through the best methods. And you should all keep in mind that in order for Divine Love to inhabit us, the Spirit has to work on our physical and Spiritual bodies for a very long time to prepare them to accept the energy. If the intensive energy of Love were to pass through our bodies now, then it would have the effect of melting us. Therefore, Divine Love constantly adapts in accordance with the condition of our spiritual bodies and the level of development we have achieved; our Spirit works incessantly. If you hinder the Spirit, who works inside you whom will you harm? And it keeps working, conducting a sort of installation. If progress is made but you unscrew the whole installation, whom do you harm? – No one but yourselves. Say, for instance, you have a bad thought, whom do you harm? -Yourselves. You have doubts; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. You fear; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. Now fear has taken its place in the modern world. Why does doubt appear? For we know both fear and doubt. Fear is only a trait, a feature of our hearts. If you could only know how negative fear is! For instance, you fear losing your life. Someone promised to give you money, you doubt it; doubt, on the other hand, is a negative feature of the mind. So, if you can doubt that someone will pay you back, then you doubt the possibility of this happening. Thus, you transfer your doubt from men onto God. Sometimes you doubt me, I can read your thoughts: “Maybe you do not speak on behalf of God but on your own behalf”. But I always distinguish between my own thoughts and Divine thoughts. Inside me, my thoughts and God’s thoughts are strictly determined; I can then direct each of my own thoughts to the left and every Divine thought to the right, i. e. I say, ”This is Divine, and this is human”. And now were my actions inspired by Divinity or by my purely human side? They caused you to fear that you would lose something. Now, fear implies that your Love is on the outside and fear has taken Love’s place - on the inside, do you understand? And the reason why you cannot live in harmony with yourselves is because fear lives within you. If I came to your house and said, “Lend me two thousand leva,” and you have three thousand, you would say you needed it while in fact you did not. And yet you claim to be a man who believes in God and has Love. You have no Love but merely fear. If I came and asked you a favour – you would state clearly, “I am not inclined to give you anything even though I have money in my safe.” This is what an evangelist said in Varna when someone asked to borrow some money, “I have money in my safe, but I cannot lend any to you, for I do not trust you”. Why should I lend you money and then only fight over it; if you want me to give you money, as I would to a brother, then I will. Fear - this state shows that Divine Love is not working. It begins to work and then you hinder it. For example, if a sister of yours erred in some way, how many of you would gather in the evening and pray for her, saying: “God, fill the heart of our sister, let her know”? Instead of this when you see her, when you go out you would only criticize her. When you go out, do not talk about her. You do not have the courage to speak up and tell the Truth – you are not brave, you are faint-hearted, and yet you claim to be righteous. When I say brave, I do not mean you should be rude. Brave is the one who can speak the Truth – no more, no less. So, Truth in Love itself would say, “Brother, you are going one way but this method is not the right one”. (A dog barks at a cow) Now, take this Cow. The cow represents the Good inside you, and the dogs represent the lower passions – the inferior intellect, which is chasing away the cow. It is not her fault that she is here and the dogs interfere with a type of work, which is beyond them - for no one has appointed them to guard; nevertheless, to show that they are righteous, they will chase the cow away. I will tell you a truth: Life through exposing others’ mistakes will never be reformed. If we expose each other, we will never improve. Now you shall have patience. I had given you an assignment for today - to write about your biggest shortcoming, did you write? (-Yes.) Collect the papers and read them. Well, will you sell your deficiencies to me? I want to buy them, how much money do you want? No, no, I will pay (Brother Stoychev: So that you can take us for an outing for one month a year, to teach us; one month in Turnovo - for everyone, and then one month - only for those of us who are here.) It shall be done when you apply the principle of Love, it shall be done. You will experience God; we will apply the principle of Love. God’s word is law; if we abide by it, we shall see what we are capable of doing. Now, I will take these shortcomings of yours and when we enter the Spiritual School we will work without them. I will only grant you half a credit now, as I do not have much money. I have half of the sum at my disposal, I can pay it over a month and a half, but I do not have enough for three months - to be honest, I can only pay half. How do you want it - in cash or another form? I can pay one thousand leva, ten thousand leva, or thirty thousand leva. (-We do not want money.) This is what can be done. Once you fall in love with your shortcomings, you will improve. This is a separate topic and we will reach it in due course, there are methods you will use. These defects are at the same time virtues: to be selfish is not bad in itself, but to be as selfish as to harm yourself - this is bad; to have the kind of impatience that makes you run for your life when in danger is correct. But when you have taken on important work, then impatience is misplaced. When someone or something threatens you, you have to be impatient. You should be aware already how to employ some of these qualities. Now, what you wish for shall be done. What we have set out to do we can do in two days or in a month, in two months or three months - the principle remains the same, we can do it, the Scripture says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible”. And you have very rightly raised the issue of the need for you to spend one month close to Nature - you shall be patient. (Brother Stoychev: We will be here, in the woods, if the Master decides to escape we will outstrip him, otherwise if he were in the city, how would we find him? Everyone laughs and so does the Master.) Now use your intuition to choose a commission of seven people from the Brotherhood that will see to the observance of order. They shall be selected for the duration of one year, when this year ends, others shall be chosen. (-May the first be chosen by the Master, the second one - by the first, the third – by the second and so forth.) All right, I select Nacho Petrov. (The latter chooses Stoyan Rousev, he chooses Elena Ivanova, she- Cohen, he- Iliya Stoychev, Zdravka Popova and Theresa Keremidchieva.) Do they agree? (-Yes.) (Brother Tolev: Let us never again speak of the aforementioned accident, as if nothing happened at all. Brother Grablashev: If it is useful, let us speak of it.) Listen to me now, I will decide the matter: you have the right to talk about my mistakes but if you decide to speak about your own mistakes, I shall punish you. You may speak about my mistake, you may say, “Our Master made a mistake!” You may speak but say nothing but the Truth, make no exaggerations. When you speak, do so quietly and calmly, first of all address your minds to God, ask him: “God I wish to tell about this incident, may I do so?” If God allows you to speak about it, do so but if he does not - remain silent. And if something is gnawing at your mind that may be merely a worm and a worm can be of no use to you whatsoever. Now I will explain why you cannot talk about certain things when you are located at six hundred metres altitude. Imagine you are a hundred meters deep in water; will you be able to speak? - No, you will not. When you emerge a hundred metres above the water, the conditions enable you to speak - there is air. Consequently, at six hundred metres in depth, the conditions are not favourable - you will swallow water, at two thousand meters you can speak, as there is enough air. In our Spiritual School, when I inform you of an outing, it is as if we use our keys to unlock a door – you then become connected to the Invisible world. For instance, I assigned the sisters a task but you never completed correctly even one of my orders. This is exactly what happened earlier, I told you: over the period of one year, you shall all go to Vitosha but absolutely no one has to know, you can only tell me. I did not instruct you to retail it to the whole city. Consequently, you should have waited and told others about it only once the test was finished; while it was in progress, you should have remained silent. As a result, some undesired accidents occurred. So, when you are given a task, I want you to follow my instructions strictly. If we have decided on twelve o’clock - twelve is definitive! You, as you come, will judge by the results. Before you have done something you shall not draw any conclusions, the test has to be entirely carried out. Moreover, when you are being tested, you should not insist on the smallest details. One says, “We shall choose Full Moon”; no, you will choose a dark night, as only then will you see God. You should trust in God; when you look for Full Moon, this means you do not confide in him, the task is only carried out half way through. The task is that this must be done on a dark night - when it is stormy and rainy and there is thunder, then you shall go out, you shall pray and God will speak to you. Then again, you will think, “I may catch a cold.” when Divine matters are concerned, you will not catch a cold. I serve as example: I have sat by my room’s window in wintertime so many years to give talks. Had it been someone else - a professor - he would have come down with pneumonia in no more than a month. Then, how many of those who stayed outside got a cold? These are minute experiments but they are true experiments. Let someone else come and speak for an hour and a half in the cold, we will see what will become of him. You need to strengthen your faith for this principle to work. I told you: do not expect much, the results will be small, microscopic, as the present conditions do not favour big achievements. But from these small experiences we will achieve very good results in our own time. I congratulate you; you carried out this experiment with great zeal. I told you to think it over for a whole year and instead you finished it in two weeks. It can be repeated but in a new variation. Now, this test will be slightly harder but it will bring better results. The trials I give you will chase the fear away from your hearts; you will learn to trust in God. And then when you go out in a dark night, the eyes, the sight will be toned, your every nerve will be strained, your mind is present in every part of your body - this is good. When you go out in Vitosha, it will seem that many dangers await you; you might think you see a bear or a wolf, your hearts will leap. I know, for some of you, your hearts leaped twenty times. And anyone in the city, who hears that you went out to Vitosha on a dark night, will say: “He is out of his mind - to discredit a man or a woman like this.” This is why I am telling you, no one should know. If a man or woman goes, this is something you should remain silent about; once you have tried it yourselves you can speak from your own experience. We will experience more. We will create the necessary conditions for those brothers who do not have the possibility of completing the task, so long as they have Love in their hearts. I will find favourable conditions for them but they need to get in touch with Nature within themselves - according to the principle of Love. Then I may work together with them as a teacher can only work with able students. When you are alone we cannot do all the work. You need to do the work and so do I. For there will be outings, tests, which I will be the first to carry out and then I will say, “You may start now, the way is clear.” For instance, you have caused me great apprehension: during these two weeks, I could not sleep as there was such disharmony and anything could have happened. There were villains in town that had made up their minds to follow you and I had to apply/focus/ my mind to dissuade them. You think God will guard you; we have to be clever, only then will God guard us. You shall not pass a second time through Dragalevtsi, you will not take the road but shall walk out of the village; and you will enter the darkest woods - they will be the safest. So, you will achieve excellent results, these tests will give you greater decisiveness, you will become healthier, your minds will be sharper and your thoughts - more vivid. And when you come back from such a test you will think clearer. I have noticed that those who have completed the task after they return reason very well a person, who is brave, can reason very well. But now we will all decide. One thing that the Universal Brotherhood requires is for us to be completely faithful to the principles it teaches us. Faithful, faithful! These principles are absolute and cannot change. And once they set a task we have to complete it with no mistakes - once, twice, until they are satisfied; then you will see. You want tests, trials, then let us carry out this experiment: the sky is cloudy, we shall say: “May these clouds disappear at once!” the second day the skies are clear, we then say “May there be clouds!” on the third day the barometer points it will be dry, we say “Let it rain!” and it will rain. I call all these experiments microscopic and they can be completed for you to see that there are principles in the world, which we can use. In Nature, there are friends who can help us. However, this is not a matter of curiosity but a way to reinforce your faith, to demonstrate that when one loves God, one is capable of anything. Then I will not choose just any day, I will choose a day when there is great drought, when people need rain - this is when we will carry out the experiment. So, it will rain not to satisfy your curiosity but to use this Divine energy. Let us say there is drought, it is clear; we will carry out the experiment to bring about clouds, to prove to these people that we will use everything in the name of Good. A Teacher is never allowed to waste the Divine energy and neither is a disciple. This is why we will start researching all forms of Life in Nature – we will study the plant kingdom. These are features that Nature has given us. All forms save their energy. From plants, we learn how to use energy - to do a lot of work quickly. Now I will say one thing: I am truly satisfied with you. You see I am satisfied with you because you do all you can. I cannot ask for more. Sometimes you even do more than is required and this is where your mistakes come from - from excessive zeal. For instance, I instructed someone to go to the plateau; instead, he went to Black peak. This is good as well, the task is to the plateau but you insist on more. I tell you to go out of town to arrive to the destination in four hours; he did this over two and a half-hours. But you will only hurt yourself like this, take your time, do not hurry! But you are very expeditious, wishing to do it quicker. No, you will take your time. For each task you are given, you will take the necessary time – you will not shorten the time you need, you will use it to carry out your tasks successfully. You need to take account of these remarks. If you get there, in two hours and a half, this is not bad but it will result in a misfortune, you will lose more energy than you need. You may fall ill in two weeks and then you will say, “I went and so now I am unwell.” Then, when we speak of brotherhood and equality, this does not infer a depreciation of the human soul. No, we understand them as a manifestation of human individuality - if possible, the manifestation of the spiritual conscience in a superior form. Initially, you have the conscience of a child, you expect to be helped and you cry. So, the mother and the father of this child take care of it and provide it with milk. But the child then grows up, its conscience broadens and it is fully emancipated, and has become free and independent. This is why I say that our conscience has to broaden. We can achieve this and this is God’s will. When a sister has a good wish, do not obstruct her but wish her good even if she does not do well - she will do better the second time. We are faced with a big dilemma: you have one great task, but you have a past that is so interwoven that as you are gathered most of you are positively charged elements. This is why it is hard; you do not attract but repel one another. You have some energies inside you but do you know how much harm these energies have caused the world? Now we say: watermills help the world but when we eat the ground product we take in the idea of the stone’s role and we want to crush, to bring people down as the energy of this stone has been transmitted to the bread and the bread in turn has instilled it in us. This is the esoteric knowledge on the matter. Most of you are positive, so now we need to make you half positive, half negative and then our work will be successful. We will show you the principle of how to become positive or negative - we will give you the rules. Here, in the midst of Nature is where you will study this; you cannot do this in the city - only in the midst of Nature. Let us say you are feeling unwell one day; we will tell you a rule, after you work on it for four hours you will feel an expansion, a change within yourself and will be ready to make concessions. You will see the results for yourself. But this will not take place now - before we come to these trials we have to practice minor ones. As I said: you will save your time, I do not want the time you need to put into your other affairs - I only want you to dedicate your spare time, when you have nothing to do. I do not want you to say I take up much of your time - I only want your free time, one hour a day to devote to the school. This is one of the best rules. If I required ten hours of each of you, that would be something else. No, one hour. This is something any of you can do. Now let each disciple note what she wants from me - the most important things that you need, whatever each of you wants. Express it as a short suggestion. You need a Bible or a Gospel, a pen, an inkpot, or a room. You should ask for significant things, those you need - the most significant things you need. (A question is posed, “Should we remain anonymous or should we sign?”) Let them know who you are at the top but not at the bottom. Downstairs you remain anonymous, with pseudonyms. May your requests be of materialistic, spiritual or mental nature. Now, the test to Vitosha will be repeated in a different form. Those of you, who have not gone, carry out your task as a group because next week I will give a second task and we will complete this task in a week, we will carry it out in a night. I will be with you and will tell you what the task will consist of; it will not be difficult. We shall use the present weather, as it is the most favourable. Two or three weeks from now, we will still have the necessary conditions. But in a month or two there will not be favourable conditions. But now it is favourable to complete the task I will give you. Thank you for giving me a free hand so that I could speak to you. As if the disciples bind the Master and say: “Speak, Master!” how could I speak? The Good prayer Source
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Infinite Love The Twelfth Lecture of The Master before the General Spiritual Class held on 18 May 1922, Thursday, 8.30-9.30 in Sofia Secret Prayer The homework on a much-loved word or a much-loved sentence has been read. Next time you will write down the greatest imperfection that you have. Just one, yet the greatest one. You can write it anyway you like. Now, I say, he who has no courage to admit his imperfection can never know Love. Love is not for the righteous, neither is it for the loving, Love on its own cannot love. If it could love, then who would be able to love? It is marvellous to love because you are loved. Love is Love by itself. If we think in spiritual terms, when you want to love then there is something that you miss, and if you want to be loved then again there is something that you miss. Therefore, whether you love or you are loved, indicates an imperfection. You love because you are not perfect and you say that The Lord also loves. But The Lord has never said He loves anyone. Can you tell me where he said that, where is it written, have you ever seen it said anywhere that God loves? People say – some prophet came and said that God is Love. Have you ever met The Lord in person? You are funny – the prophet said so; yes, but that is on his account. One should not conclude from that that The Lord loves. Now, you have a critical mind, haven’t you? Loving means having an imperfection. Now I am talking about Love in the way it manifests on the physical field. What way does it manifest itself on Earth? How can you talk to me about that great Love – have you seen that Love? Can you tell me how Love appeared? You can philosophically say, "What is the Master talking about, this is not right.” Show me two people on Earth who love each other to the extent that they have always lived in peace in their lifetime; let’s not just talk. There are saints who loved once yet they happened to act rude just as well, only the books do not say anything about that. Many saints thrashed around the same way anyone else did. At that time people did not say they were saints; that came later. Yes, they were saints but only after they died. Of course, what I say is concrete – it is not about what is up, it is rather about what is down, amongst you as that is the way Love manifests. And we should start learning this Love the way it manifests amongst us rather than the love we know. Now, you say that you love someone, don’t you? But if the one you love ignores your love, what will be brought forth inside you? – First, embitterment will be brought forth, is that right? Then animosity will be brought forth after the embitterment, and after that animosity, you will turn your back and say, "Come what may,” and that will be it. Paul says that Love does not fall away, is that right? So I am asking if your Love falls away, then was it really Love? It is Love only if it can endure all sins in the world, all the endless sins of people – then it is the Love of Angels and God; that is Love. While love that cannot endure people’s sins is slops. This is my definition of Love, do you understand? Because a righteous man needs no Love. I am righteous, what need of Love have I? What need of Love can God have? He does not need Love but it is because of those weak beings, which wanted God to give them Life and are begging Him, forcing Him to love them. He has many important things to deal with but since they keep knocking and knocking at the door, He will finally get up; He will disturb his peace to see what they want. They say, “You have given us Life, now you will guide us.” – “I will guide you.” So, if you want to cope with your mistakes in the spiritual aspect you will have to bear yourselves sometimes. Sometimes, as you cannot stand yourselves, find someone guiltier than you are so that you can bear yourselves. No, no, when you bring out all your sins you should love yourself anyway. When things are nice it is normal to love yourself, when you are sinning, it requires substantial courage. Now, many are talking about Love. If I criticise your love, that is not Love. Someone is talking about Love, he expects me to praise him, and he says he loves me. I know why he loves me. He says, “I love The Master.”- I am a pear tree full of pears, what will he feel but love me. If I were an idiot, or a sweeper in the street you would not love me then. So I do not believe in your love, there is nothing more to it. I do not believe in your love; I believe in your love as much as this; while I have this wealth, you will love me, and tomorrow when I lose it, you will discard me. And whoever replaces me that Love will go to him. This is for religious people who only talk about Love, about God they talk; they have seen Heaven and say: “What will we be there?” That is just entertainment. I have noticed that sometimes some people analyse the way I am watching, thinking how I might see them in the same way as a clairvoyant. While what I see is them building their long-term plans and wanting to be traitors in the future. It makes no difference for a man – be he a traitor, that is also courage, he does that out of love too. I am asking you, students of the spiritual, how was evil born in the world? – When Love came down, evil was born alongside it. But is God not perfect; has man not come out of God? Now you will say, “Don’t we have Love?” I refer to Love from a different viewpoint. That root, the bitter one that is emerging inside your soul, where does it come from? I will explain Love in the first degree to you: Love that cannot be understood is hatred. And when does great Love turn into hatred? A mother has half a dozen children but she loves one of them more, hence, this beloved child becomes the reason for hatred to appear at home. The love of one of them will generate the hatred of the others – isn’t that the actual situation in that home? That is fine, but how can we reconcile those energies? I speak of Love as of energy. Now, we are in the world of contrasts – where there is hatred, likewise there is Love. Love with shadows within it is imperfect, while perfect Love has no shadows. And when you come into perfect Love you will find you are in the boundless Light – you will be all alone there, without any images around nor any Angels whatsoever, you will live in infinite Light and you will have no image of your own, either. I am asking will any hatred then appear in your soul? – No. You will be serene and peaceful, there you will feel the presence of that eternal Freedom, there you will feel Love, and bygone cosmoses will not appear. And if you want to create a cosmos, you will call hatred and Love. Consequently, when a man wants to create an image, evil is born in the world at that very moment – it is a visible image. The root of evil is the aspirations to have images. While an image is a trap – to catch a Divine soul, to limit it, to put a halter on it, to put a goad to that and to torture it as much as we like. So, love on Earth is nothing but a limitation. That is what people are doing now; they do not love each other, they just torture each other – this is what I know of them. And some people will say that they love each other. You should treat those you love with the utmost care, as your smallest mistake will bring in the greatest misfortune – that is gunpowder, it will have bad consequences. You will love, but you will be extremely careful, while should you want to be loved, you should again be extremely careful about your words and about anything in any aspect. Because forms have evil inherent in them. Therefore, some people speak about others, they comment that someone said something, but you should know when you create such forms they will come to a collision, there will be an explosion and you, who are on the Earth, will be walking in the air. So, when you come to dealing with the images of Love, you should be careful. You should be extremely delicate with Love that has images. You have, for example, someone whom you love; for you that person is attractive, is that right; while for others your attractive person is ugly. Therefore, the things that we find ugly or disgusting and bad are not an absolute rule. In spiritual terms, we do not know the measure of absolute evil in the world. There is absolute evil in the world, there is also relative evil in the world, but we do not know what measure we use. Let us take, for example, animals: a wolf’s teeth are made to protect it - if you tease it, it will protect itself, so it will bite you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have teeth”; an ox, when you touch it, it will butt you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have horns”; a horse, if you touch it, will kick you with its hoof, thus saying: “I have legs.” So all creatures have a way to protect themselves – with arms, with legs, with mouth, and not only with teeth, but also with the tongue, with anything. They have learned all the methods of protection. Now, to be able to understand the depths of this spiritual doctrine you should be able to cope with all contradictions. You should first of all conceive Love as a boundless principle that contains no evil at all – you should conceive it free of any contents and free of any meaning. Because if you recognize that there is any meaning in Love then there is content; if there is any content, there is a form; if there is a form, there is evil. Or, as we say, when the eternal gets limited, evil gets born. Now, if I leave you with this situation, I will create some evil for you, i.e. the way I am speaking to you now I will create some evil for you and many of you will suffer. Now you are saying, “Let us love each other, let us love God.” For thousands of years, we have been saying that we should love each other and we keep failing to love each other, that we should have mercy and we still don't have it, that we should be careful and we keep being careless. We keep promising and promising and promising every day and there is always something in our way. What is it that is in our way? – It is because we do not want to admit our imperfections. While our imperfection is the following: any time man finds himself limited in a certain form that is an imperfection. For example, you are limited in a body like what we are. We say that we have been created in the image and likeness of God, but if we would look at that human body as it is, we would run three hundred kilometres away from it. It is perfect to say about man that he has been created in the image and likeness of God but that by no means implies the body that you have now; when I speak of that mind, that by no means implies the mind that you have now; when I speak of that heart, I by no means imply the heart that you have now. Sometimes you have an experience like this: you feel Love as something abstract, but it only lasts five to ten seconds. It is a Divine condition – you feel as if the whole world has become reconciled, but then this condition vanishes and the old, common, gloomy condition replaces it. Then, your mind is somehow enlightened – as if everything is Divine, you can understand everything, and then that common mind comes back. We have to distinguish those conditions. That is precisely the question now: the spiritual science provides methods on the basis of which we have to transform our consciousness; our existing consciousness has to undergo certain changes. The way you are now, with your present consciousness, even if you go to Heaven you will sink anyway, no one can understand what the law is. If you place a stone on the sea surface, it will sink; the moment they place you in the Garden of Eden, you will sink through the floor – you are so heavy that the floors of Heaven will not bear your weight. Well, I am asking you, how are you going to stay in Heaven then? Now in the Spiritual School, what are you thinking about? One of you feels miserable and is trying to find a way to get healed, another one wants to become a scholar, the third one wants to become rich – everybody is thinking of material things. And you spiritualise those material things and claim that you are thinking about the Lord. But people think very little about God, very little. Do not think now that I want to smear you with my brush. No, I have not yet revealed all your imperfections, I am not smearing you but this Light shall be cast so that things can be perceived the way they are in their own reality in order that we can see what we are. Do you know how many evolutions the matter which our brains are made of, which we use now, has served, do you know how many evolutions our existing body has served and do you know that namely in this matter all the infirmities and imperfections of those who have departed have been incorporated? It is manure and we have to process this manure the way plants process all impurities. Consequently, we feel some depression within us all the time. Were that matter virgin and pure we would not feel such conditions. Even present doctors say that whenever there are such dregs in your blood they make you feel some malaise within and they have to be purged away. This means that the matter is impure. Now, I don't want you to have a weak Angel – your Angel shall not be weak. You should, like a merchant, know precisely, mathematically how much money you have; how many golden coins you have in your safe, nothing more, nothing less. You should just as well know how much debt corresponds to that money. You have gold but you also have something that is not pure. You can have one hundred thousand levs1 and make a turnover of five-six million, and then people will say about you: “He is a merchant with millions”; others may think that all you have is capital. And all virtuous people of today figure with little effective money while at the same time everyone is seen as a man of a capital of ten million. Someone is seen as a saint, another one is seen as prominent while some are seen as big fools. The latter are better, since they have courage, they speak the whole Truth the way it is: “I have that much in my safe.” Therefore, if you want to make progress in spiritual knowledge, to pass this cycle and get into the next one, you should leave your present mind, and if you do not, if you do not leave your present concepts, if you want to be delighted, you will all stay like the frogs inside this slough and will be croaking for at least another ten thousand years. You will say, “Oh, gracious Christ,” but do you know what grace is? No man who tried to force Love, to force God, has prospered2. There is nothing more disgusting in the world than a man forcing God. Can you understand this? If we say that we are an actual image and likeness of God, if we force ourselves then we can always force our neighbour or God. We force God, even when we force ourselves; it is God that we are forcing. I am asking, what objections will The Lord make to you? And you know, sometimes you keep bending the bowstring, keep bending it, keep bending it and you come to a certain point but you cannot bend it any further as it will not resist and you break it, do you know what that will cause? Now, some of you do not realise how misfortunes come. Imagine you live on the second floor and assume you are moving a treasure to the first floor. You carry ten kilograms of gold every night. What will happen to that floor in a year or two? Do you think it will resist? – It will not resist, those timbers will get cracked, the floor will collapse soon and you and the gold will fall through it. You, modern people, modern disciples have so much gold placed in your minds that the timbers are cracking and the building will soon collapse. And where will you go – to the bottom of the sea. In the same way, the world, before long, will collapse. That is why the Brotherhood of Light prepares the members of the New Culture to leave that floor. You can take it all very literally. I will give you an example. You say, “We are faithful”; enemies attack a city, you take in the facts, leave your wealth and your records and say, “Hey, brother, let us take in the facts,” and the poor man thinks that you have forgiven him. However, when the enemy withdraws, you bring your records back and say, “You still owe me.” Now you similarly turn to God, you pray, you repent, but when you find your old records …I am asking what is that love, is it perfect? Love that has no power to smooth out sins is not Love. That is the first thing, the first quality of Love. And God says: “I will erase all their sins and will dry their tears, I will wipe them.” – Therefore, that is the primary quality of Love. Where does Strength stay? If your Love is capable of erasing within you our mistakes and the mistakes of your neighbours, that is Love – that is the way I define Love. Peace will only come if Love can erase mistakes; if it cannot erase them, you should know that it is not Love. And when Christ pronounced the great rule - when your brother turns to you, you should forgive him, He must have meant something in that sense. And that is the hardest thing – it is so hard to forgive, and not only to forgive, but to forget; and not only to forget, but not have a trace left on that spot and to replace the most bitter words with the most beautiful words about the one you hated. Now, I am speaking to you as students of the Spiritual School, I am not talking to strangers. To strangers I will speak about grace, about mercy, about Love, and about why they should love each other. What I am saying to you is: if your Love is incapable of erasing your transgressions within you, do you know how disgusting it is to have a transgression from the past or from the present pestering you? You keep praying, and the Lord does not hear you. Why can’t He hear you? – Because you want to lie to Him: “Cluck-cluck, cluck-cluck.” Like that village woman throwing grains to her hens: “Cluck-cluck.” She gets one: “Oh, my chick, cluck-cluck” – she puts it in the stew pan. “Cluck-cluck”, until she eats it up. Well, what do you think, do you think that I can fit into your stew pan? Never – neither you nor I can. Cluck-cluck does not work. And then an occultist will come, some cluck-cluck occultist. We are all surrounded by cluck-cluck. And I will ask you now – to which kind do you belong, to the cluck-cluck one? I call all old occultists cluck-cluck. While for the new ones I will give you another formula – when I speak to you next time, I will tell you what that rule is. We should be openhearted, sincere to ourselves. It is time that we said: “My Love can erase my transgressions.” The question is not whether it is capable of doing that or not, no doubts whatsoever! I erase any other rules given by occultism; Love does not work according to rules. When it comes, it erases everything – it is all done. When that Love comes, you are immortal, you are infinite – that is the first thing. And there will no longer be any foes in your home, there will only be friends. Now, I want you to let this idea remain within you, do not take it out. The idea, which I told you this evening, shall not be taken out of this room and if anyone dares to disclose it outside I will inflict on him one of the greatest punishments anyone has ever seen – yes, one of the greatest punishments, one of the greatest troubles, one of the greatest sufferings. And then I will ask him if he wants to disclose this Truth again. Do not speak of Love before it is inside you, it is a shame. That is the most sacred name! Remember where it says: “We shall not utter the name of God in vain”. The name of Love shall not be uttered in vain – that is what I know. Love is one of the most sacred names with which the world was created. Because if you utter this name and you are not ready, you will create much wretchedness in your karma, many generations will be wretched. It is said: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” In vain for what? – Only when you are ready for Love, you will call it. And then you will create a world of Beauty around you, a world solely of Love, a world solely of Peace, a world solely of Joy, of Rejoicing, of Harmony, a world of Bliss. That is what you will create when you utter its name. Some of you will say now: “Do you know what our Master said?” You do not know your Master – where is your Master, have you seen him? You will say, “Yes, he is by the table”. At what table, he is not there. You think that there is a Master by the table, by you – you are so wrong. You will say: “But don’t we see you?” – No, you do not. “Aren’t you talking to us, aren’t we talking.” – We are not talking. We are talking in some non-understandable language: you do not understand even a millesimal of what we are talking about neither do I understand a millesimal of what you are prattling. You can understand your Master only when you are related to that great Love and only then does your soul communicate with him. When you find your Master and when He finds you, your Master will be blind to all your mistakes, and you will be blind to all the mistakes of your Master. The Master gets as smeared on the Earth as his disciple. The Masters also get smeared – here, on the Earth, everybody gets smeared. And do you think that those with the softest hands are the most righteous ones? Do you think that the maidens clad with the best clothes are the most pure while those in the kitchen, the poorly dressed ones, are the most sinful? Or that those working in the field are sinful? I think the opposite – the ones who are busy with dancing are the biggest sinners; the ones who are busy with praying in the church are the biggest sinners. The one working in his vineyard or working in the field, what can his sin be – he is more righteous. For example, a man will go to church and will say, “My Lord, my Lord,” his hands pressed one against the other. Who has taught you to pray this way? – “Well, my mother taught me this way, The Lord said it should be this way.” Who has taught your mother, then? The power of your Wisdom and your Love should come into your soul and erase your sins. Instead of clasping your hands, you should take your records into account in order to erase your sins. When a man wants to conceal something, he brings his hands together and raises them for a prayer, but there is something concealed between them. Then, he opens them and says, “Lord, everything is open to You, as You can see,” and then he brings them together again and says, “One day I can put something between my hands again.” A spiritual disciple using such manoeuvres can make no progress because any thought he has will produce such vibrations in the other world that will make anybody keep him thousands of kilometres away. And when the Angel approaches such a man he will take all precautions for that bomb not to explode because if it does, it can cause harm. This applies to the physical life. We have been following this life for twenty years but with the forms it has, the world cannot be corrected, no religious forms are capable of modifying human nature. And then it is said that there is a thought that is right: “When the Spirit comes.” What Spirit? – The Spirit of that great Love that will erase everything. And we will believe in God, that He has erased our sins, He has forgotten them. Someone will say, “But our sins are so many that God cannot erase them.” Then, if God cannot erase them, His Love is too weak. But if God has erased your sins and you go and commit new sins, then your karma will be multiplied ten times. So, I am leaving you in the first situation. Do not think that I want to influence you, no. I say, if you want to be followers of this Great Universal Brotherhood, your Love in the future shall be like that. I am telling thou3 all; for us to be able to make progress, by all means the Love not only of one of you, but of all of you shall be like this – the Love of each of you shall erase the mistakes. Each of you shall do that within himself rather than having others do it for him – each of you shall erase them in your mind, in your heart. And when you erase them, then the Lord will come to write. The Lord needs a clean book in which He will write his Word. And the prophet says, "I will take away their hearts of stone and will write my law.” Some people interpret that the Lord will do that – yes, the Lord will do that. Do not say now that you will do this tomorrow, or say you will do it in one year, or now, but say within yourselves, “It will be this way!” If you say, “I will do it now,” you will not do it – that is the way it has been and the way it will be. Therefore, that is Maya. And this present delusion is a delusion of the Black Lodge – a delusion of the devil, in the religious sense. He is the greatest hypnotiser – he will put you into a hypnotic sleep, then he will hypnotise you and after he commits thousands of crimes, he will say, “These are the crimes that you have committed.” And all those advertisements are devil’s advertisements. No, no, we do not carry anyone else’s advertisements. So, first of all, Love should erase all your mistakes so that you can start. For example, some of you should get harmonised so that we can apply another test. I will give you a test, a bit bigger than this one yet it will be microscopic again. And do you know what will follow next? I will give you a third test. Because if I give you the hardest test now, there will hardly remain ten of you. I will tell you, I will be open with you; if I tell you, the disciples who are here, “You will give three quarters of your wealth to the Brotherhood tonight, you will give it right now,” you will say, “We will think a little.” And at that instant you will think whether the Lord said so or there is something else concealed here. No, no, are you going to give three quarters of your wealth, or not? Now you will say, “It is easy to go to Vitosha4, but this!” You should know that this will come, too. Now, this test is nothing, it is like a song, there is a harder one, I will not tell you what it is. You should know that you will be tested – you will be sifted. Tests will come – we will see now who will stand to the end, who will feel no doubt. You are saying that you have Love, and I will try your Love. You say, “The Master says that we have no Love,” how come you have no Love, I have come to test your Love and as soon as I find that you have Love, I will swallow my words. And if you fail, you will swallow your words. We will be sincere in the test, won’t we? So, I will put you to a test and eventually, after I take you through all tests and you pass them, I will say, “Put me as well now to any test that you like.” I will allow you to put me to any test you like in turn, but it will be you first and me afterwards. Then we will finish the Spiritual School and we will enter the New Era, where, the way it is said there, “They neither get married nor will they go for a man but they are like Angels.” And this era will be. This can happen; it is in the transformation of consciousness. I do not mean human flesh; it is in the transformation of man’s consciousness. Secret prayer 1 Lev is the currency of the Republic of Bulgaria – translator’s note 2 The Master has used a verb of Greek origin that means prosper, succeed, flourish /“харосвам“/ – note of the Bulgarian editor 3 The pronoun in the Bulgarian text is obsolete - translator’s note 4 Vitosha is a mountain in Bulgaria – translator’s note Source
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One’s Place in Nature The eleventh lecture of the Master Petar Deunov, delivered at the General Esoteric Class on 11 May 1922, Thursday, 7:30-9:00h, Sofia Secret Prayer Silence For next time write down your favourite word or favourite sentence. So, you will write down either one word, or one sentence, which impressed you most. When the Infinite World or The Infinite confined itself, the Objective Divine World was formed. So it is from the Infinite, from the Objective Divine World, that one’s subjective, internal world was formed. It is from one’s subjective internal world that the present objective external world was created. Or put in other words, what is visible to God, is invisible to us; what is known to God, is unknown to us. So now, when someone, in an esoteric school, says “I don’t know”, this means that one is aware that one does not know. The implication, however, is that what one does not know, is known to elevated Creatures who know it. Therefore you could appeal to these Creatures who are aware of the knowledge to teach you what you don’t know at any specific moment. The same law operates when one says one has a bad, uncultivated character. So if it is bad, there are Creatures who are good, and they are in a position to rectify one’s bad character. One’s badness can be explained in two ways. If a master has made the parts of a violin and leaves his apprentice to assemble it, and if the apprentice did not assemble the parts properly, then this is a bad violin. Therefore it cannot produce the sound that is required. What can be done? This violin should be examined by the master and its parts should be re-assembled, as it is meant to be. And in the present life of the contemporary intelligent beings, who passed before us and who will come after us, there are many parts in their organisms that are not placed properly. It’s not that any of you are deficient, but there is something out of place. As long as something is not in its proper place, the qualities, the forces needed in any given case to create a character, cannot be acquired. Then such a violin should be disassembled in parts and should be re-assembled again by the master – thus it becomes a proper violin. The esoteric school should re-assemble you; this is the objective of the Esoteric School. You will be taken apart in this School – not everything, but there will be certain things, which have to be taken apart and re-assembled again. This is what is called internal harmonization. This cannot be done against your will; no esoteric school does anything against one’s will. You will knock ten times on the door of the master who has to re-assemble the parts, and you will be waiting outside at the doorstep, until the master comes and you are admitted in. In Christianity this master is called the Holy Spirit. And then when He enters in, He won’t transform the human being overnight, He shall first start with disassembling the parts. And while parts are being taken apart you will feel an internal pain, this knife of his shall start working there. There is a story about a distinguished violinist who had an excellent Stradivarius violin. It had a small defect, so he took it to a well-known famous master in Italy to have it repaired. He invited him to take a seat and he himself started disassembling the parts with a knife, but every time when he stabbed the knife into the violin, the violinist gave a moan and when the violin was re-assembled the master noticed that the violinist had fainted. At present, the human soul is similarly intertwined with the body – within this instrument, that when the Great Spirit comes to work and drives the knife through it, you would inevitably feel internal pains. If you are sick and if there is a master, then this knife by all means would be exactly what you need, so that the various misplaced parts are properly re-assembled. After repairing this part, one will feel an internal lightness, one will experience an internal enlightenment. Many times certain issues have been discussed, many speak about the Spirit, but this is an obscure concept. How many of you have a clear understanding of what the Spirit is like? Moreover, how many of you know the situation a Master is in – not by the form in which He appears, but the internal aspect of the Spiritual Teacher? How many of you have such a clear understanding of Love? All of you have had your small experiences of it, but the clear concept that generates great experiences, that engenders an entire revolution within the soul and transforms all bodily particles, so that one, after coming out of this Divine fire, feels like a newly born baby, because one steps into a new world, a world of different understanding – such an experience you haven’t had. Many times we have spoken about Love, about God, and nonetheless when it comes to taking an exam, we always manifest our old habits. We should not fool ourselves about the training we have passed, because many people are trained, but are not raised well. Many people are still in the process of transformation, but are not transformed. If you reach your hand to a tamed tiger, it can keep licking it for a long time, but just one drop of blood would immediately arouse his old instincts. You can make that old wolf behave like a dog, but it’s out of the question that wolves will grow out of their old habits. Then, if we want to get closer to God, to acquire this knowledge, which brings future happiness, i.e. this Prudent life, we shall inevitably have to observe the great laws upon which the proper structure of our present development rests. So none of you should give in to self-blaming, but should instead monitor oneself and should one notice any internal shortcoming, any part which is not in its proper place, then one should call this great master – the Spirit, to help one rise to one’s feet and to rectify it. Now, such rectification can be done either here or in the other world. This is inevitable; postponing things is not a way out. You might say “This may happen under more favourable conditions, when the circumstances are most favourable.” If a thought has crossed your mind just now, is this moment not the most favourable moment? If it is the Spirit speaking within you right now, is this not the most favourable moment? Every thought is important at a certain moment; such a thought may come and go. So, those of you who walk along this path, should develop such senses, should be so sensitive, so quick of apprehension and so delicate, because being sensitive and delicate is for your own sake. If you are delicate, if you are sensitive, if you are quick to apprehend, the nobleness of your heart, the strengths of your mind shall be useful to you and shall in turn be useful to the people close to you. Then you will have the right relationship. Two able spiritual students can easily understand each other, two noble persons can easily settle their accounts, can easily correct their mistakes, but two stupid persons cannot – one would insist on having it one’s own way and the other would insist on having it their way. So, where is one’s place in Nature? Nature under the present conditions is just one opportunity. Nature – this is the objective Divine world, it is the primary world. From this world we should create our internal subjective world. This entire Divine world that we can see externally and that is real, we shall perceive it and shall then project it externally and shall thus create our objective world. And only having created it, can we shape the character within us. God manifests Himself within all of us; we are objects to God. He works within all of us and there is no way we can escape His influence. He has commissioned you to work and you will accomplish His Will – voluntarily or through coercion, either way you shall accomplish His Will, there is no other way out. A person who believes that one can oppose God, such a person is fooling oneself – all the same such a person shall accomplish the objective Divine will. You may keep opposing and at the same time God will see to it that His work is being done. Your refusal to go along with Him shall not produce disharmony in His path. And now that we have such an understanding of the laws that form your subjective world, we realize that the objective Divine world, which descended from God, is ideal and we should not think that there are defects in it. Nature cannot have defects; there are no defects in nature. The defects, which seem to manifest themselves in Nature, are only results from these beings that manifest themselves individually. Take for example a lioness, which is so cruel to others, and then consider how loving she is to her children – this is Divine substance. She can strangle the lamb, can eat it, can be very cruel to it, but her child she would lick, she would fondle – this is the Divine manifesting itself within her. If this lamb comes to be delivered through her, she would be equally good to the lamb. Why? – Because this lamb would have come along the Divine path – and the lioness would know this by the lion’s form, which she recognizes as Divine. She has got that far to believe that only what has come out of her is Divine, while everything else which is different from her, she would consider not to be Divine. This law operates in all human beings. Now, when you enter the Spiritual School, you believe that only what your mind generates is good – again the same law. When someone writes a certain good sentence, that person likes it. Why so? – Because it came out of him or her. Had, however, this sentence come out of someone else, then the first person is bound to find fault with it. But if the writer of the sentence is in harmony with the first person or it comes from within one’s relatives, the first person would again like it. Therefore, in order to be able to understand each other your thoughts should, without doubt, flow in the same direction. You should be convinced that the Divine Spirit in any certain case acts in a particular special way in all of you. This is true – there is diversity in Spirit – each single person, or each single spiritual student has unique vocation. I am now saying that the vocation of the human being in Nature is to learn from this objective Divine world, so that one can create one’s own subjective world. Thus one can draw on these materials. Say for example you want to be good; where can you obtain materials for the Good? You have a friend of yours, who is hungry; you want to prove your noble heart, to help him – you cannot cut off your flesh to feed him; it will not be wise to take your clothes off, as you will have nothing on, while he will be clad. If two persons have only one suit, this is good, if you are naked. Because if you take it off and put it on your friend, then this is good and bad at the same time – these counter-balance themselves, so you would have achieved nothing. Therefore we shall have to obtain such materials from nature, from the Divine world, which are needed, and shall have to put them to use for the sake of the people close to us. This is to say that in certain instances God uses us as a means, in order to show our internal desires. Someone could have been asking for knowledge for a long time; and finally He would send a Spiritual Teacher to that person, and He would implant the Spirit in this Teacher, so that He could manifest Himself, to deliver what is needed. This is to say; everything given to you in a particular instance requires you to be so prudent – to discern whether it comes from God and, without opposing or contradicting it, to immediately receive it. If it does not come from God, i.e. from this real, objective, Divine world, do not receive it. Let’s assume that I bring a live pot plant to you and also an artificial false plant, I am asking you, if you cannot tell the difference, if you do not know the different features of these plants, will you not be deceiving yourselves? I give you the two pots, but keep in mind these are so skilfully made that you could go for the false one; my question is, what will you gain? No changes can take place in this artificial plant. If an idea does not develop and cannot grow, it is a false idea. The same with you: when you become so good that no change can take place within you, you are on the wrong path, you are an artificial plant. And currently the danger in the present day world is that it has become a false substitute world. Falsehood is rooted in the fact that we do not want to experience any suffering; we want to be facilitated in everything - anyone else can suffer, to us, however, life should be a bed of roses. The student of the Esoteric School should know that suffering is what results from the transformation process of any energy. It is always the case when a human being moves from one state into another, that one experiences particular internal suffering. If there is suffering there is progress, if there is no suffering, one remains in the same place. Therefore you should remember that the changes taking place within you reveal that you are walking along the path. Now, in this Esoteric School where you are, you should analyze your thoughts. This analysis consists of the following: there are a lot of lurking thoughts from the past lying low in your consciousness or sub-consciousness. In a certain situation these thoughts will come to the surface and start talking to you like a record-player and you will say, “Some spirit is telling me something.” you will know, by everything you have been told, that this spirit has been saying the same thing for years. The spirit will tell you to be good, to be chaste, and to be honest. What is exactly new about it? – “You have to improve your life, so that the Lord could love you.” What is new about it, is this something new? This is just a reflection of your thoughts. Well, how can you recognize them? – If there is an external reality, i.e. one always knows when God speaks in the objective world. It is easy to distinguish when we speak and when He does. If an internal voice tells me that within ten days I will have ten thousand leva – and there I keep waiting and waiting, and no money comes; and then another voice suggesting, “You will get married in two years, you will marry an excellent maiden” – and in two years there is no maiden; “In four years you will be admitted to a University and you will have the best of professors” – time passes, no professors whatsoever; “In six or seven years you will be Prime Minister of Bulgaria” – time passes, I do not become the Minister. Someone might say, “The spirit said this, said that, this was what came to my mind” – these are purely subjective, distorted misinterpretations of the very person. Sometimes there can be such misrepresentations that you can believe you are gifted, “I have brains, no one else has brains like mine.” But before two or three months elapse, you are given a task – you cannot solve it. You think that you are very talented, while you cannot resolve a simple difficulty; what is so unusual about you? Sometimes you think that you are a mighty hero and that you can fight the whole world, but in the evenings a lad walks a girl home, and no sooner had two other lads made advances at him, than he leaves the girl and runs away. He is strong to fight the whole world but two persons can scare the wits out of him. The student of an Esoteric School should not entertain any illusions; one should know how many people one can fight, let’s say one, two, one should also know whether one can run well – one should be aware of everything, and not be a coward. Only if one is capable of understanding, only then can one investigate the objective Divine world. Subsequently, due to these shortcomings in us, we cannot understand and cannot apply the good we have within. Why? These old thoughts, old feelings are constantly undermining the good within us. These are like a sea wave – we scribble the Good on the shore, a wave comes over and washes it away. Then we say again, “God is Love, God is Truth” – then comes a wave and washes it away. We keep writing – it keeps washing it away; we fight against the sea. And then I shall ask you who is going to win. The sea, in the end it is going to be the sea. You should not be fighting the sea. And I would now let you know a rule: a gourd entering the sea should be empty and well sealed at that; if it is full it will sink to the bottom. Empty it should be, so that it could float on the waters; this gourd, when inland, has to be full. So when you go to God, your gourd has to be empty so that you can cross this immense sea – the astral sea. If you are full of your ideas, you will sink, you will never reach God. When you reach firm ground, you are bound, by all means, to be full – this is again a symbol, this symbol you are to keep in mind. When you get to God, you shall be empty, when you leave God, you shall have to be full. If you go to God full, you shall come back empty, and having come back empty what is going to happen to you? – You are bound to experience suffering. You will start reasoning now: these are principles; you will start building upon them. Because in an Esoteric School you will investigate Life, learn about ways and methods to transform the energies circulating within your physical bodies. Do you have any idea how much energy has accumulated in you? This energy should be put to use on time. And provided you do not put to use every single energy, implanted in your bodies, others will. So, when you look upon external Nature in the capacity of an Esoteric student, you will realize that Nature was meant to create your subjective world, i.e. all these principles which underpin it, so that you could grasp it on principle. You should have very good understanding about everything. Your measure of Truth, your attitude to people, and how to judge – you should have all of these correct. Someone wants to show me that I have made a mistake. I can unmask a person in several ways. I can unmask that person so powerfully, that it would be an operation. If the bad doctor, who cuts off the furuncle, cuts twice as much healthy flesh as sick flesh, this operation is no good. One has to be a master – to tell the Truth in such a way that no single cell of healthy flesh would be cut off; no single cell of the Divine organism should be wasted, i.e. by telling the Truth one should not damage any Divine flower. And finally, no unmasking is allowed in the Esoteric School; the Truth you may say, but to unmask someone - you may not. If one unmasks someone else, one is to be expelled; anyone who dares unmask someone else will be expelled and it may take thousands of years staying outside – a severe punishment this is. And whenever you want to unmask someone, you should stop and tell yourself, “If it is to tell the Truth, the Truth I shall tell” – neither more nor less. This is a great Divine law and I am warning you about it, not to put yourselves through needless suffering. So far, you have been walking along the road of unmasking. If unmasking could remedy the world, the world would have been rectified already. One should only be told the Truth, and shown the ways, methods and paths, as to how one can rectify one’s mistakes. Well, I shall explain the principle: I go to a brother, let’s say he is a trader, has a certain business, has borrowed money from other brothers, has accumulated a debt of twenty thousand leva, then he does not return the loan, he has no money to return, and he occasionally lies to avoid paying. But no, why should he be lying, why shouldn't he tell the Truth? You will suggest that we call him to unmask him – this is the wrong path. We shall ask him to come and we shall tell him, “Brother, is it not better for you to pay these debts, can't you repay? We shall help you, and you keep working and little by little you will repay the debts.” But we say, “You must get the money whatever it takes, but repay your debt!” – This is unmasking. We shall help him. And when the Lord wanted to rectify the world, He sent Christ, He placed a lot of credit in Christ and Christ said, “I came to give you new life and with this capital you will repay your old debts.” I want absolutely no unmasking among the students of the Esoteric School. The Truth you will speak – you will call each other and you will speak the Truth in a gentle way. You will keep improving, helping each other, creating your internal world, and to gradually elevate yourselves. You know how gradually a student in music trains one’s hand. What difficulties the student encounters in the beginning, until one’s hand becomes flexible enough to play the music, until one’s fingers finally seem to become conscious of the music and only then can the musician play without any effort. Why? One’s fingers have learnt how to play, these fingers understand how playing takes place. We also should nourish such habits and should be aware of how to comply with certain virtues. One has to necessarily develop a habit, a right thought. Now, where does one belong in Nature? In order to appear, one human being has to necessarily have a will. And in order to show your will, you will start with the smallest attempt, with the smallest things, do not make great efforts. In order to get to know whether your will is strong, you will experiment with small things. Set yourself a task in your mind; let’s say to get up at 12 o’clock sharp at midnight and starting from here, from Sofia, go to the Vitosha Mountain. So, what does it take to go to the Vitosha Mountain; what difficulties might you encounter? There are no difficulties facing you on your way to Vitosha. First, you will think that it is dark, that you may lose your way; secondly, that you may come across villains, there might be bears or wolves – these are the pictures flooding your imagination. You, after making the decision to go to the mountain, will go out, but then you will come back and say. “I will go to the mountain in more favourable conditions, when the Moon is shining.” If you leave it for later, your will is weak. The Moon shining or not, you have to go. If you say you are going to do something and if you postpone it, your will is weak. If someone has insulted you, you experience a desire and you say, “I will put up with this person” – do it. You have decided on going to Vitosha and at this moment someone comes along and tells you what the weather is like and you say, “Come on, I will do it in a month’s time.” A month is gone, two, three, four are gone – you do not go. If you do not have sufficient will to acquiesce, how can you then accomplish God’s Will and what kind of disciple will you be? At first, when you enter any Esoteric School you will be put to great tests – some will be told “Your father and your mother you will leave!” Someone will say, “This is not for now.” Don’t you take my words wrongly? There will come a time when you will leave your father and mother, you will renounce your brothers and sisters – you will go. You will then think – either of the two: if you do not renounce them, you will stay at home, while if you renounce them, you will enter the Esoteric School. You now want to be entrusted with things from the Divine world. How can such things be entrusted to you – to use them for your own sake, to keep them at home? And the Lord knows that if He gives these to you under the present conditions, when your subjective world is not formed, you cannot form your objective world and all of these Divine Goods will be wasted – you will fall into your old habits. And if the Lord grants to you a small gift, all your life you will write stupid poems, dramas, novels; you may write dozens of volumes, but in ten years time these volumes will be forgotten and no one will remember of them. Yet this Divine energy has to be applied properly, it ought to generate specific results. And now you all want to be good, to be welcomed by the Lord, to see Angels etc. But in order to see Angels, you must have the predisposition of one Angel – when you love someone, that someone is ready to meet you. Angels like to make new acquaintances very much, but when they see the disciples in the present situation, they do not like to talk a lot. What can an Angel tell you when the Angel comes down from Heavens? An Angel steps in your house and there you go telling him about your misfortunes. To the Angel these misfortunes mean nothing; he will stay, will look at you, will listen to you and will leave. And you know what happens sometimes? – Just like that, the Angel will disappear before your eyes; and these Angels of yours often disappear like this. You will ask, “How do they disappear?” I can tell you how they disappear: Let’s say you are in such a frame of mind that you feel like a master of the world, you have a feeling so delightful, so noble, you have an impulse to accomplish God’s Will – the Angel has come. But that day a small reason will get you out of this frame of mind and your Angel will melt, will disappear and you will say, “Gone is this delightful state of mind.” Why? – Perhaps because someone did not pay you, someone who had to give you back a hundred leva – because of these hundred leva you spoil all your happiness. And then you will say, “I understand what Esotericism is, I have a grasp of esoteric science, I have read about it, I have done certain things.” You have read nothing, you have done nothing. If a hundred leva can knock you out, if an ordinary dish of food can knock you out, if the bad attitudes of people can knock you out, then you will be a loser, then your will is weak. The disciple after entering the Spiritual School has to be prepared to be spat upon – the disciple may be told, “You are ignorant, you are stupid.” Well, if I go to the blackboard and solve the problem well, shall I trust myself or shall I trust them? If I, after taking back my seat start playing the violin, and I enjoy myself, while someone else can say, “Your playing is no good”, shall I trust their ear or shall I trust my ear? Similarly we can experiment: I shall not invite, in this particular case, expert violinists, I shall invite simple violinists, shall take them to a menagerie or to the woods, where there are tigers, and I shall tell them, “My music is so enchanting, that it could tame animals.” If all of them listen to me and if I tame them, then I am asking you whether or not I am a violinist? – I am a violinist. My playing is worth it, because when I play, all people may walk their way at ease. This is the way – if we, in Life, can tame all those tigers, bears, wolves with our playing, there is an internal art within us. This is to say that we have an understanding for the objective Divine world, we have applied it to our internal subjective world and we can now project the external objective one. So, I want you to have a proper grasp. Goods shall not come on their own accord, shall not drop into you laps like ripe pears; these may come and go. If you want one Divine good to remain with you not only for one, five or ten years, but forever, as a companion of yours, you shall have to receive it only under the rules of Truth. Now that I am talking to you, I do not want my disciples to think that I have someone particular in mind. No, I am speaking on principle. When we talk and mean someone particularly, we mean what the Divine world is like. I believe that all of you are willing to make progress. None of you is willing to be bad or stupid – you all want to be good and smart. It is not that you are not smart, smart you are, but if you implant the brain of the smartest monkey in a child, not even once will the child be able to turn the wheel. Therefore with your present intelligence, your strength; if placed in the intelligence of an esoteric student, not once will the esoteric student be able to turn the wheel. Moreover, do you think that such intelligence is enough? No, this intelligence has to be increased thousands of times, because it has to turn a big Divine wheel. And so Paul says that natural persons have to be transformed into spiritual persons, because natural persons cannot understand spiritual stuff. And you, being disciples, have to transform your present state. You will agree that certain things, which you find delightful, you are prepared to listen to, while about things you do not find agreeable you will say, “These are out of place.” For example if a creditor of yours wants his or her money back, you say, “Now is not the right time.” Why? – You have no cash. No, no, this is the right time. You may say that a certain action of someone is not timely, but that person may also say that your action is not timely, but whether any action is timely or not, can be decided only from the Divine world’s point of view. So, now the first thing for you to do is to put your will to a small trial. Let’s see how many of you would do this. I would put to you the following task. What do you say? Shall I go ahead with the task? I am not imposing the task on you, you may do it only if your feel absolutely free and if you have a strong desire and Love within. You will think it over carefully within one year, and this is only externally, but this is a task for you to accomplish within one year. The task consists of the following: When you get up at 12 o’clock at night, climb to the Vitosha Mountain and come back. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like – it could be in winter, or in May, but you have to comprehend the task at complete consciousness, you have to be thoroughly convinced. This is the only way for you to do it; you should not be making silly attempts. This should be a conscious effort in order for you to benefit from it. If you do it unaware, don’t go at all, but if you have awareness within, you will learn something, I shall not tell you what. You will leave Sofia at 12 o’clock and will go to Vitosha, up there on the flat ground, each one individually. I am telling you, you should be absolutely free – this is absolutely up to your free will and according to the law of Love, from that it takes a deep conviction; otherwise you will not benefit. Let’s see how many of you will do it, this is a trial test – at 12 o’clock sharp you will start, whatever it may cost you. I do not know what the difficulties are for you along the road – whoever starts the journey, will get to know. You are not obliged to do it, let’s state this clearly, only these of you who are willing. No one will contact anyone on leaving and no one would know this – each one will start on one’s own, because you may not do it. Only I shall have to know who is going to start. If two of you meet along the way – this is good, this is excellent. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like. You will leave at night and come back in daytime, i.e. you will go in the evening, and you will return in daytime. You will need a good stick. You will reach above the meadow up there near the stone, above the snowline. This experiment will be done by the bravest of you, not by the cowards. Cowards should not try this experience. It is up to you personally to decide whether to do it or not. This is only a task, one of the minute tasks. It looks like I am giving you a task which scares you, doesn’t it? What if a Spiritual Teacher comes to you and takes you to the centre of the Earth? A disciple, who cannot make it on one’s own to Vitosha, will not be able to reach the centre of the Earth even if led by a Master. Those who go to Vitosha alone, if they understand, they may be with a Master. But if they keep asking themselves “Why should I go?” such questions are not answered – when you go, you will get to know. Things are never told in advance; why so? – You may or may not get to know. Chances are you may or may not get to know, but you will still learn something. One thing is for sure, you will learn how strong your will is. If your heart sinks at every step, when you return, you will have had a real experience of how far you can go. There will be another task, a more difficult one. Now you will choose the time, while I am giving you absolute freedom. The Moon shining or not – complete freedom; whatever time you choose – it is up to you to make up your mind. If I have to resolve this problem – I shall choose the worst of weather, the biggest obstacles, the most difficult methods. I shall choose the best road, but the most difficult methods. For you the road now is difficult, and I shall leave you to choose the easiest methods. I can also make it easier for you by giving you an option – you may go and you may not go, you will be free to decide, no one will know who has started, absolutely no one will know. You may say, “How can we go after 12 o’clock, we may be stopped.” At 12 o’clock sharp you will start, no one will know about it – you will leave, absolutely no one will know about this and when you return, again no one will know of this. Only your family will know, but they have to keep it an absolute secret. If two or three of you meet, this is good, but they have to keep it an absolute secret as well. (At this point a student asks: “Is it not dangerous for women?”) – There are no men or women in these deeds, there are disciples only, this is a task only for disciples. If you, after getting up, look upon yourself as a woman or a man, do not start on the road at all. After you start, if you look upon yourself as a disciple, then this is good. But if it crosses your mind that you are a woman or a man, it’s not worth going. I know that there are certain men among you, who will manage perfectly well. There are some among the men, there are some among the women as well – not all, but some. Some of the women may if they so wish, dress as men. Please note what interest this task has stirred in you, how it transformed you, what excitement it provoked. Secret prayer Source
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Symbolic Occult Rules and Measures Tenth lection of the Teacher delivered at the Common occult class on the 2nd of May, Tuesday, 7.30-9.00 a.m., Sofia Secret prayer This, what I shall say, is just one definition, do not write. I shall go straight to the object, this is only one notice. We leave the ordinary understanding of Life, do you understand? When you enter into one boat you will not walk around inside but will sit and when you go out, then there is the other way. When you enter into the Divine World, you will leave your ways of walking on the Earth – the earth moral is amorality in Heaven, and the earthly right is the absence of rights in Heaven. And when all of our Justice on the Earth collects, it can not make even one virtue of one Angel. We have to be humbled people, to know that we are not virtuous. From now on, this is way we will be virtuous – Virtue is something that will be created by the law of Love; on this law we still haven’t lived sensibly. Some will retort, “We live and move in God.” The occult science doesn’t deny it but you have to know that you are at one with God and to reply as He would and to think in the way He thinks. As far as the Heaven is from the Earth, so is God far from us. But how far is Heaven from the Earth? And so the title was “Symbolic occult rules and measures. Dissonances and consonance.” We will use one foreign word: so one consonance we may transform to one dissonance. This is how: you are an intelligent man with mind, heart, and will; one violinist appears before you and starts to play. It is pleasant for you to listen to his music, you say, “You played excellently.” and then this violinist has faith in you. You are the public and he already counts on your word, he says, “When I play he understands my music, my music is something!” Then, before even half an hour has passed a violinist who plays better than the first, starts to play too; you start to praise the second and then in the first violinist dissonance appears. Why? – You will look to him with mistrust. But the unhappiness doesn’t stop there – a third violinist who plays better than the first and the second comes along, you praise the third one and then they both become dissonant; but the evil doesn’t stop there – then along comes the fourth, he plays better; the three become dissonant – people don’t evaluate them. Then the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth come along; I’ll stop myself at the tenth. All nine sit as downcast hens, and one of them, says, “You have to know, I am the one who plays.” Good, the opposite process – the tenth leaves, the ninth takes his place; he says, “You, the eighth, have to know that I exceed you.” The ninth leaves, the eighth stays; the eighth leaves, the seventh stays; the seventh leaves, the sixth stays etc.; the second leaves, the first stays. When he remains, he tells you, “We understand each other now.” This law acts constantly and in you, here in the meeting, we may verify it. Therefore, what does the first one have to do? – When the second violinist, who plays better, comes along, he has to study his methods – that way he will not lose but will have one plus; when the third comes along, the first and the second will learn from him – they will not lose anything, i.e. till the tenth comes they have to master their methods. There is no reason to get angry. Now, these rules, this law, you may acquire in all religious communities, the law works everywhere. Some people say, “Don’t they preach in our church?” it is the same law – it means: “Don’t we play like the first?” – You play like the first but like the second – no; you play like the second but like the third – no. – “But like the fourth, the fifth?” You play like the fifth but like the sixth – no and etc., till we come to this which is perfect – to the tenth. We stopped there, this number we take as a law of perfection. Upon this law you will work, I shall not explain more. The second symbol: you are a young man of twenty-one years, well built, muscular; the first master appears, he is stronger than you, and says, “You will serve me, you will plough in the field.” But you say, “There is no way, I shall serve this master.” But the second master comes along, stronger than the first, and says, “You will leave this field, you will come to my field.” – There is no way you will go to the second. But it doesn’t stop there – the third master comes along and these masters start to string to ten and you say: “There is no way I shall serve.” After that the opposite process comes. The last example is clearly connected to the physical world, and the first example – to the Astral world because it touches our feelings; the first example touches also the Mental world but we will leave it for now. The third symbol touches the Angel’s world: one eloquent man appears who speaks only one word, but his word is so strong that it may resurrect one dead man. But he may say just one word, but there are ten dead men. The first comes, says the word and the first is resurrected but the others don’t move; the second comes and he says the word – the second dead man is resurrected; the third comes, he says his word – the third is resurrected; and all the ten men, when they each say a word they resurrect ten dead men. I ask who exceeds the other. Here you have only a law of harmony and agreement. The spoken word is good only when it can resurrect one dead man. Now, where this law is applied: we take the expression dead man in spiritual relation. Some man is so sad, so sorrowful, he doesn’t want to live, he has thought to step over the Divine law and to take the wrong way; you come along and tell him just one word and he will survive – you did your duties. As many dead men as there are do not strive to resurrect them, it is already vanity; the other nine men leave. Because you will learn, in every occult school the work for every one is exactly defined, there is no reason to intervene in somebody else’s work, we will do our work. If you are first, you will resurrect the first; if you are second, you will resurrect the second; if you are third – the third; if you are fourth – the fourth, etc. And when you finish your work in this way you will turn your heart to God and with Love you will express your gratitude to Him that you succeeded to say one word in place. When you resurrect this brother you don’t need a better advertisement from him; it is enough for you. If he lives forty years, when he goes around the whole world, he will be one advertisement for you and will say, “Once I was dead but one man came, he said one word to me and I revived.” The others, when they come, will ask you how it happened. – “One word he said to me, only one, he is a special man.” And people will start to think that he could resurrect others. He will go around the whole world and will talk for you and the world will think that you are a great man. Yes, a great man! The psalm singer says, “The speech of God will not go back to God without bringing its fruit.” Every speech has to bring its fruit: one seed – one fruit. Therefore, you have three symbolic examples now: the first is the young man who serves the masters, the second one is the violinist, and the third is the tenth man who says only one word. And I desire for you, as disciples of this School, to say only one word. And I meet you and you tell me: “I was dead, do you know, and so and so said one word to me and I was resurrected.” But now the desire of all disciples in the Occult school is to eat all the cream and for the others, only buttermilk remains. When you go, you will take only one spoon of cream, so when the others come to take one too – everyone has the right to take a bit of this cream. Every man who eats the cream of this Divine drink, his word is not powerful. Therefore, one act is done well only when it may enter Life. These three rules you may use. With the third example, you will harmonize the first two; the second generates all the emulations. I shall give you one theme to develop them. And so, the three themes: for the young man, for the violinist, and for the man who speaks only one word – three themes for three weeks. From them you will develop in the School one short theme for the three of them – to compare them to something, to see what resemblance it will give. Now, you may not write anything but when thinking upon these three objects, they always will remain in your mind at least one light. And my aim is not so much to write something in the book but for something to remain in the heart, in the mind, and in your will, this is. And when it remains there, it always can be understood and noted in a book, – you will say it once, will say it twice and at the end you will write something. (Some of the tasks were read – one personal sentence.) If you could apply some of these rules, you could have excellent results. Now I shall give you one exercise, it will be the following: all these one hundred and sixty rules from your works, which we read this evening, you will rewrite and in the morning, you will draw one rule, at lunch – a second and in the evening, before you lay down – a third. You will come here one day, will sit, one will dictate, the others will write. And do you know when – on Sunday you will come, you will not put it off. You will start at 3 p.m. and will write to 4, 5, 6, 7, it may be up until 8 p.m. If you tire, we may make one exception – to come on the next Sunday. But all this will happened with Love – one little wrinkling of the eyebrows will spoil the whole effect. Everyone will write absolutely alone – what you apply alone, it will be used from you, you will see how the Spirit works. Now, we will give you one more similar exercise in which the sentences will be from just one sentence1. It is one attempt. When you drive the works through your mind, everyone will correct and keep only the essence. In this School you will learn that sentence of Solomon: “There is time for every thing.” In the Divine school it is showing the time for all the things which you have to do. We have to know when to do them, every thing has its time. You will keep yourself in the School not to break the harmony. You will keep yourself because everyone may exit from the trend temporarily. Every single thought, every single desire in one given case might move you from the rails. And when you are in front of the face of God (we are not always in front of his face), you have to be careful to ensure your mind is concentrated, your heart and will too, you don’t have to see anything else. These things are important for you; in this way, you will acquire one inner experience that could be the strongest evidence for you. I want, when the Divine Spirit comes, to produce those results which are necessary for you. He knows what is necessary for you in the present conditions; what you need. Everyone needs only from one thing, from one, these things are not many. And when the Spirit comes he will bring this, the one, in you and you will revive. Now let’s get this straight – on Sunday, at 3 p.m. Can you do this work with Love? Do not think that this is an order; if you think that this is an order then don’t come. Because, if you can’t work by the law of Love then we will enter in the old law. Secret prayer 1 In original the Russian word was used (ed. note) Source
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Occult Principles Lecture nine read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 27 of April, Thursday, 7.30-9.00 p.m., Sofia Secret Prayer Some writings on the purpose of water were read. For the next time all the disciples should write a single sentence of their own. You should not write someone else's thought – each of you should compose one sentence only. You should not rewrite what Tolstoy or some of the Evangelists said, but compose a single sentence. If you cannot compose at least one sentence then you do not belong in this class. Here we don’t need persons who use somebody else’s capital. You should set your mind to work, because such things as this one said this, that one said that, or this, or that – we don’t need them. In this school there is a requirement to think. You should note two things: two opposite poles are needed for a man to think, but if you burden these poles with negative energy this will produce within you the process of stupidity or the process of forgetfulness. Let’s assume that you hate somebody. What is the object of your hatred? The hatred has to have an object, that is, within the realms of Nature’s economy this object has to fulfil some purpose – there should be a reason for your hatred. If you hate this man without reason, then you yourself are the reason of this hatred and in such case you harm yourself because all the energy returns to its sender. So these two poles should be there in your mind. You should be free of all the thoughts that are not in harmony with your striving. Suppose this: a tradesman wants to get rich and he buys one hundred pigs when their meat is expensive; like it is at present, and after he feeds them for a while the pigs get ill and all of them die, I am asking you now what would the profit be for such a tradesman. Within the realms of the spiritual world you are not allowed to keep pigs, i.e. thoughts, which get infected and die – in no pigsty can you sustain such thoughts. If you do sustain them, you are wasting your time, you will waste your capital and you will lose your mood. Well, let’s take as an example the following comparison: let’s say that tonight in our class I am telling you some philosophic or scientific study; let’s suppose that some of the disciples are hungry, that they haven’t eaten for two days, that other disciples are thirsty, and that still other disciples have rheumatism in their legs and in the meantime I begin to speak about this scientific study. I might talk in a very scientific way, but the one who is starving will constantly think about bread and will say: “All this is not important now – the bread is the most important thing for me. No matter what scientific study I am telling him – for the starving man the bread will be the most important thing. The thirsty man would say: “The most important thing now is the water, the water only”; another man will say: “I need sleep – then only can a man think”, while still another man would think about his illnesses and consider the way it should be treated. I am asking you – what can you attain in such a class? And if you ask the disciples: “What did your Master say?”, they will tell you: “I was a bit hungry, my mind was preoccupied with a very important question within me – the question for the economic improvement of the people”. Another will tell you that his mind has been preoccupied with the thought of water, the third will tell you that he has been speculating on the role of sleep, while the fourth will tell you that he has been speculating upon illnesses. And if you ask me why the various schools so often fail and contemporary society does not improve, I will tell you that this is due to the simple reason that within them there are a lot of weaknesses with which their minds are preoccupied. An Evangelistic preacher is preaching in a church; a beautiful young lady sits there, a young man comes and also sits at the desk, then she gives him a Gospel and shows him where to read from: “God is Love”. He answers her: “Let us love each other”, “Love each other” – and they start to turn over the pages of the Bible – she shows him a certain line, he shows her another line and thus they start a conversation. After both of them return, the others ask them: “What was the sermon of the preacher about?” – “We don’t know” we know what we were talking about, but we don’t know what the preacher was talking about. While the Divine is speaking within us, our minds (and likewise the minds of these disciples) are often preoccupied by something else – food, water, sleep, illnesses, verses, sentences. For all of you these things are necessary, because a man should first of all be fed, have enough water, rested and be in good health, i.e. a disciple who is hungry should not come to our class; a disciple who is thirsty should not come; a disciple who has not had enough sleep should not come; a disciple who is ill should not come. And when two persons discuss the Bible they should do this at their home. Now, this talk is held within each soul and I want you to think while I am talking. You should act properly because the laws according to which we are living are not personal but impersonal. And what you know before God – it is for you only – whatever knowledge you have, whatever social position you have, no matter if you are a minister in Bulgaria or the king of Bulgaria, it is of no importance to Him. Have in mind that the Invisible world does not care what you are – the only thing which concerns the Invisible world is what you are as a soul, that is, what your character is like. When a member of the Invisible world descends he is just looking for a soul and is interested if this soul is inhabited by the Truth; when he comes here he wants to know if your mind is filled by the Light; when he descends in your heart he wants to know what feelings preoccupy your heart. If these three elements – Light, Truth and Purity - are present, he might stop and have a talk with you. For the Invisible world all these situations are funny. When you occupy a higher position or you are some learned professor and you solve some mathematical problem, these scientists of the other worlds consider all this a theatrical amusement. Our science here is a child’s play to them – in your terms it is such a child’s play to them that they would burst out laughing while they are watching how easily we are solving the questions of what immortality is, what God is, what the Angels are. These moments are so funny like for instance it was yesterday when I was watching with the help of a small magnifier a bunch of ants in the garden of Tsar Boris. They thought that there was a fire and they were trying to put it out. I focused the magnifier on the straw and it started to smoke, they started to secrete; to spit out their essence in order to put out the fire. I took away the magnifier and they were delighted, they said to themselves: “We managed to put the fire out.” I focused it at another spot and again they started to secrete and they finally said: “We put out this fire also.” But any form of acid cannot extinguish this fire. The essential, the Divine in man cannot be put out by anyone. But this essential, this Divine thing has its own time and we should use this time to evolve it. You cannot always think, you cannot always feel, you cannot always act – you can do such things periodically in the course of the year. The time for the thought is fixed – sometimes you can think, but sometimes you cannot think – the thoughts come to you periodically. The same is with the feelings, for instance you say: “It definitely is Love – he is so emotional.” The feelings also come at intervals. The awakening of the human will comes at intervals too. The disciples of the Occult school should study the law of this periodic influx from the Mental, i.e. Intellectual world, the world of the ideas; then there comes the influx from the emotional world or from the Astral world and also the influx from the Causal world – the world of will. And the person who understands the law makes use of it. Now, the influx of this energy, the influx of the mental energy, for instance, causes some damage likewise water can cause damages. But when does water cause damage? If people who live near by forests want to have rivers and they clear the forests in this region and meanwhile the year happens to be snowy, with heavier rainfalls and as a result there will be heavy floods. But if all the region is afforested these floods will not happen. Well, you must know that there are such forests around your mental rivers too and sometimes you can eradicate all these harmonious thoughts - the forests. And then within you arises something about which you say: “I can’t refrain myself.” What do you mean with the phrase to refrain yourself – if you were a wise man you would have preserved your forests, because if you leave the stony ground only, you will need at least thirty years until these forests grow again. In order to abstain, certain conditions should be met. But this abstention is not like the abstention in the materialistic teachings. You should dwell especially upon this great law of the human thought which comes. There is a stream of feelings and this stream floods periodically. Sometimes these two streams – the mental and the emotional – coincide and this is a happy occasion, while sometimes they do not coincide. I want you to make use of all this. I perceive that all of you have habits from your past – restrain them. You should say: “There is still another way to do that.” There are things that can only take place in certain conditions. I have often been asked: “Why don’t you read us such a lecture at such and such a time?” I tell them: this lecture cannot be read then – each lecture can only be read upon a certain opportunity. And each truth in this world can be told only at certain conditions. If within a certain society a desire arises to like music, this society will create musicians but if the music in this society has been neglected, then all the musicians will perish. First of all certain conditions must exist so that a special talent can appear in someone. Well, you want to be talented, don’t you? The talents are not being created at once – the talent is an accumulation of the energy within the human soul for thousands of years. And it might happen so that not a single gram from this energy has come to your present life. So if you don’t add this very gram in order to attain this active ability and if you don’t apply in practice the energy that amounts to one gram, your whole life will be lived in vain. Then you might think: “Mister so and so is talented, disciple so and so is talented.” He is talented because he has worked in the past – nothing in this world is without a cause. The talented people in whatever field they are talented, have worked in the past and what they have now is what they deserve. So you should evolve what had been stored within you. You discuss this problem and you say: “Can’t this period be reduced? – Yes, it can be reduced. One of the rules for action that you should have in mind is: if you lead, walk fast and if you follow behind, i.e. if you are last – walk slowly! If you invert this law – if you are in front but you walk slowly and if you follow behind but you walk fast, then you might cause an accident. And nowadays the world is suffering from the fact that the father and the mother who are the heads of the family walk slowly while the son and the daughter who are from the rear walk fast. And that is why a crash occurs. The masters walk slowly while the disciples walk fast – again a crash occurs; the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast – also a crash occurs; and all the people are asking themselves what the reason is. I say: the reason is that the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast. An American cowboy (the American cowboys differ from the Bulgarian herdsman in this that they pasture their herds on horses) rode through the steppes of West America and he saw a large buffalo herd approaching. They ran and he galloped also. As the Turks say: “Run without stopping.” And he ran ahead of the buffalo herd. If you ask him why he ran he will tell you: “Because the buffalo herd was also running.” If he stopped running the herd will not stop – it will drag away the cowboy with all his cattle. The forces in Nature resemble this buffalo herd. When you come across a Natural force you should gallop on your horse. What is this horse – it is your mind. If you can gallop you will be saved; if you lag behind you will be dragged away. This is the first rule. Well, Christ tells this in his proverb in a slightly different way: when you are invited somewhere – take the last place. Why? If you don’t trust in yourself to move quickly, then stay last in line. Let me interpret these words that are symbols or quantities: what does the movement mean? – If you are at the head, if you are in front, then move quickly; if you are at the back – then move slowly. This is a symbol; this is a conversion of these quantities. If you are in the lead, you should be good, you should work with the Virtue and as for everything you have taken into your head, don’t postpone but do it; if you are at the end of the line and you get angry, and you want to do something bad, then stop yourself, be in no hurry – that’s what this means – nothing more. Only the man, who is good and wise, moves with a great speed. Only Love, Truth, Wisdom, Virtue, Justice – all the virtues are moving with a great speed while all the wickedness, all the weaknesses are moving at the lowest speed. So if you have these weaknesses you better not come forward because you will be dragged away by the buffalo herd. Well, in this respect you have to overcome great difficulties. Because when the human mind and the human heart begin to work properly, great obstacles will emerge. And the more difficulties emerge the more you should know that you are on the Way and so you should not stop. If you are in a hurry and you stop to sit as the tired traveller would stop to take a rest, you will by all means catch cold and you will lag in your way. The traveller should never stop under any tree. No occult disciple is allowed to sit in the shadows – we do not recommend the shadows. You should always be in the Sun, i.e. your thoughts should be bright and sharp. You should know that having come to live in Nature you should first of all repay your coming here. How can you pay Nature? – You should by all means pay a small tax – don’t think that everything is free of charge. At least Nature will make you pay rent for the house you lived in. If you have incarnated several times and if you have lived about one hundred years without paying this rent you will have to pay a pretty large sum. And this rent means that every day we should do something for Nature. For instance, if while you are a disciple you get up in the morning and say to yourself: “At least today I shall invest within myself a positive thought.” and if for a period of ten years each day you invest a good, an essential thought, all these thoughts could become a whole garden in which a lot of fruitful plants grow. Take for example the noblest feeling that we have – Love – the noblest feeling that exists in the Bulgarian schools nowadays – if the most talented disciple somehow insults his master, this disciple will get it – he will become good-for-nothing; and if the master insults the disciple, he will become good-for-nothing also. If you convey this law all over your life you will see that it is the same everywhere – the Love of today cannot pass her exam. For example let’s say you are listening to a talk, a lecture: the master, let’s say, is telling you about the creation of the world or about the origin of the sexes, or he is telling you about the origin of karma. Each person can consider these questions from a different point of view – each person can examine them in three different ways. If the professor is explaining about the creation of the world, we must have in mind that this professor has not been there with God while the world has been created, so he is only speculating; if he explains the karma and its origin – he has not been present from the very beginning when karma evolved; when he is explaining about the origin of sexes he also has not been there. There are things in the world that have been born but we have not been present at that specific place. Someone might say: “I have existed.” You might have existed, but you have slept in your room. We may exist but at a certain moment, when some manifestations in Nature take place, we most probably have been in a sleep state. And all the people have such a sleep state. You might be a disciple in some occult school and when you are being told these things there, you might start thinking in what way can these forces be evolved so that you can make use of them and improve your condition – if you do this it is good. Otherwise you should have the knowledge to elevate your mind or your heart in order to refine yourself. But the meaning of life is still not in this. You might have a brilliant mind and nevertheless die as a wreck, you might have a noble heart and nevertheless die; you might have a strong will and nevertheless die. Now the contemporary occultists say that one can achieve anything by his will. Just twenty five percent of this is true, but you are not the only one who believes this. Let’s say that there are about five hundred million Christians in Europe and that each of them has a will; all their wills, however, do not function in one and the same direction. Suppose that one hundred of you are applicants for some professor’s department and that all of you have an iron will; how many people with an iron will might sit in this chair? Each one might say: “I can do anything by my will.” Okay, then, what will you do? Well, let’s say that you have a strong will and you strain your will while someone else has a weaker will, but he has gold instead and he loads the will of the minister with money and thus wins the right to sit in this chair. It is very easy – you will gild the minister’s will and he will seat you in this chair. All contemporary societies have observed this law – they nail their will now with iron, now with gold, but people have not yet nailed their will with Love. You still don’t have a will of Love. For twenty years I have been testing the disciples here in Bulgaria but I have not found a single disciple with a will nailed with Love. I have found many Bulgarians but in this respect not one of them have proved reliable and they had not withstood. That is why I say that as disciples in the Occult school the Bulgarians are very unreliable and that they do not endure. And for this reason alone in the past not a single school has remained here in the Balkans - all of them moved to the West. You can repeat this mistake even now, but then this teaching will go to the West or to the North and if it leaves, then this place here will be devoid of occult meaning. And if you do not make your aim to strengthen your will now, then the Balkan Peninsula will have the same fate that Palestine had. But let’s leave that aside. You only think of yourself, but if you would like to be disciples of this School you should think about what the Divine Will is and about what the will of the Great Nature is that let you in its home. What is the very first thing? – It is as follows: what is the Divine Will or what is the will of Love, because there is one Love will in Nature and there is one Love will in God. And when this one will come you should forget everything – you should leave all the negative thoughts last in line while you in front should move with greatest speed. Now when I say such things you might understand the question quite individually. Because you are patriots you might say: “What will happen to Bulgaria?” – In the Invisible world they are not interested in nations – such is the law. You should always know that an occult stream, which comes from space, is a prerequisite for this nation to evolve properly. Due to the great struggle in the Astral world if you do not amalgamate your will with this stream you might divert it. Consequently it will be used by those towards whom you divert it while those from whom the stream was diverted – will suffer. Then I contend that the river Nile is diverted from the central part of Africa – it is diverted from the present culture and in future if people from the central part of Africa come and divert it again it will start to flow in its original bed. Consequently you as disciples should take care not to divert the stream in which you live. Sometimes you say: “I don’t want to study; I can manage without any School.” Without any School the man is fit for nothing, i.e. you should have in mind that in case some of you think they can enter the Heavens without a School – this could never happen! The Earth is a school and those who do not study and think that they can enter the Heavens without studies are deceiving themselves. So, no matter how we look at it, you are required to learn. The law in the Invisible world is so strict that you will not be allowed to enter there as fools, no way. For millions, for billions of years they will keep you on Earth but certainly they will make you learn. And after millions of years, with maximum persistence, they will make you learn, they will make you! If you learn earlier - it will be good. Someone might say: “I will not learn.” – You will. – “I can’t transform my heart.” If you do not transform your heart, then they will transform it. If you don’t transform your heart yourself then this transformation will come from somewhere else. There are two ways to set things right: either you set yourself right or they will set you right. For I perceive that some of you are slacking off. Now we shall put into practice one law – I am beginning with the practical trials. We shall start with minor trials, don’t be angry later on – we shall put these trials into practice. Then we shall say to the one who is weak: “Queue up last”, while those who are strong – they will queue up in front so that a crash does not occur. I am warning you: all of you should move slowly – some of you will walk behind while others will lead the way – you should go rightly. Now, if you want to progress, if you want to learn something, you should by all means be true to yourself. Thus you will free yourself from your outside thoughts. I want at first to awaken you, because most of you here are hypnotized. You are hypnotized, do you see what I mean – you are hypnotized! Some of you do not realize that you are hypnotized. There exists such a kind of hypnosis – I can hypnotize a person and tell him: “You will fall asleep after ten hours.” For the next ten hours he is awake, he walks, he talks, but when the tenth hour strikes, he falls asleep. Some of you are hypnotized to fall asleep after ten days, others – after ten years, while still others – to fall asleep after one hour. Now you think that you are masters but in fact those from the Black lodge who understand the laws hypnotize you. They have hypnotized you, they know that when your opportunity to get something new comes they will hypnotize you at that very moment. During the moment of your greatest opportunity they will perturb your consciousness. And very often you say: “When such hour comes I’ll pray”, but as soon as you are about to pray you fall asleep or quarrel and everything fails. The disciple should have in mind that he himself will also start along this way. I lengthened the lecture by one hour… You should keep these laws and you should know that a still more strenuous struggle is in store. Now an awakening should come into effect – an awakening, and each one of you should pray in his heart that God awakens him right on time, so that he doesn’t miss the opportunity. The psalm singer says: “God, put a guardian from behind and in front, put a guardian to my mouth.” Let us explain the phrase “put a guardian to my mouth”: the mouth is a symbol of Love so that we, upon a suitable opportunity, can make use of this Love that comes out of our soul. The Word is a herald of the Divine Love. Why is the Word necessary? The Word is necessary in order to enable us to herald this Love, so that the Divine Name should be glorified in the name of Love. As soon as the Divine Name is glorified – the culture will come, for only with the Divine Word will a culture come in the world. And when we acquire knowledge about these laws then we will start to work wisely. We will work wisely indeed! Now, one of the two weeks passed and only one week remains. The exercise does not pass very successfully, to tell you the truth, you do not execute it very successfully. Some of you are skipping, especially the lunch – many of you have skipped this lunch, you do not observe the twelfth hour, but the twelfth hour is a very important thing. Take care not to skip the twelfth hour during the second week. Well, someone might say: “I didn’t skip it.” – I am glad that you didn’t skip it but I insist that no one skips it because we don’t like people who skip – no skipping of any kind is allowed. Some of you do not take these things seriously and you say: “It’s all right; everything is fine without it as well.” In this respect those disciples who are Bulgarians need a lot of punctuality and accuracy – a presence of will is required. If there is some weak point in the Bulgarians it is their will. I would like that you become as punctual as the Germans and Englishmen are – to be punctual on the dot, not to be a single minute late, to attain this character of punctuality. So the least possible thing now, the most important thing: I want that all of you will be punctual. I also notice that when you come here to the classes you also come a bit later and those of you who are late usually knock at the door. Then some of you enter through the window. I praise those of you who enter through the window – it is a form of bravery and I praise them – this thing is good, this thing is not bad at all, but you will not be able to enter through the window every time. When the window is opened the disciple will manage to jump over – he wants to get educated, but sometimes the window is closed and then he will fail. As a last resort I permit you to enter even through the window, but I prefer that you enter through the door. Each disciple should be at his place five minutes before the Master enters. So for the next time you should occupy the places according to the following plan: the first row of chairs should be occupied by women, the next row – by men, one row of women then one row of men. Did you understand me – you shall sit in this order. And if I come and find you disorganized we will keep silence for three hours. I’ll keep silent and you will keep silent also – you will speculate deeply, do you understand me - we won’t talk at all. The only punishment which I’ll impose on you when you make some mistake will be that you will get a gathering of silence, of contemplation for a whole hour – this is good. And I wish you’d make some mistake – then we shall contemplate for one hour, we shall convey in spirit to the Invisible world, we will contemplate; how pleasant it will be. So, one row of sisters, one row of brothers, disciples-brothers, disciples-sisters – up till the end; and those sidelong will sit in such order. This will be valid for the next Thursday only – we will make a change in the regular course of the things. A secret prayer.
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The purpose of music Eighth lecture by the Master, given to the disciples from general occult class on 20.04.1922, Sofia A secret prayer Tonight I am going to speak about the purpose of music. Entering into an occult school will completely change your inner world. After attending an occult school you will not be able to recognize yourself. You will not be the same personality. You will not be the same man, who entered it. You will go into it as a worm, with many legs and you will go out as a butterfly. That is the reason why cowards were never allowed to attend this kind of school in ancient times. As this transformation would scare anybody and a person would lose his previous personality. It is the biggest mistake to teach a man to sacrifice himself, if one thinks only of how to keep his wealth. If he does not love knowledge, to teach him how to sacrifice himself, is a big absurdity. He says, “Money is signification of my life. If a man has money one’s life is full. If a man has no money there is no sense in one’s life.” Contemporary men say, "For us life is in our present shape, when we lose it everything will finish.” This is just an introduction, a preparation for the next step, because in every disciple a desire to go faster exists. After becoming a member of an occult class, he starts asking, “Isn’t it possible to take two classes in one year?” They want to leave secondary school for 3-4 years, to become clerks as soon as possible, once they have their wages to proceed faster in their careers and to receive their pensions till the end of their life. In doing this, they think that they have done everything. Religious people do the same. They want to become moral as soon as possible, to be rich in ethics and when they go to the invisible world to say, “We differ from other people.” But in this school you do not have to go so fast. One can attend it for 100, 200, 300, 500, 1000 years - it is nothing, these years are like one day. One, who enters the school and cannot stay in it for 1000 years, then he is not a disciple, and he can do nothing. 1000 years – this is for the disciples, I do not say anything about you, because you are not yet disciples, you are just listeners. For you, the law is changing. But one day, when you become disciples, you will need these rules. First of all, you must learn how to control your mind. To conduct your mind, to conduct all your feelings, power, and skills - you must conduct all of them. If you cannot do that, you cannot be a disciple. You will attend the school, but you will learn nothing. This evening I am not going to explain why it should be this way, just it is necessary for it to be this way. All the rules and methods of conducting the mind start from here. Indians have their own methods, Egyptians had theirs, people from Babylon - theirs, Asian and Jewish – theirs, but all those methods were different. Western occultists had a variety of diverse methods, too. If you want to do research on all these methods, it will take you a hundred years to make a decision - which one to choose. Because the brain itself is an organ of the mind, you must learn how to conduct single organs, organs of particular skills. Those, who are not familiar with this fact, can consider the brain just as grey matter. Just from the physiological point of view blood is the main part of cerebral vessel, there is a flow and ebb that create thoughts. But it is not just the flow and ebb of blood. If you stare at the human brain you will notice thousands of fibres that come from it and flow in all directions of the body and there are certain circuits of current in them. Some people can observe this using a microscope thin skin of a frog’s leg and see a lot of streams, up and down. Others, who observe the brain, can notice similar streams, providing thoughts. For example, if you have a religious thought or feeling, these streams are different from the ones, connected with scientific thought. And all these streams are connected with the blood. When a stream enters into the particular centre it awakens and blood flows into it. And now where is the problem that can appear when we study the occultism. Because, the back part of the brain conducts a purely physical reaction in a human body, this way the blood, flowing into it, first of all wakes up primary feelings. And the streams from the spinal cord wake these primary feelings. It can be a problem for all occult disciples, if these hostile feelings and thoughts attack them – because some have never been thought of before - but they exist in them. Some will say: “I do not need this - all the devils attacked me since I have entered this school.” This is the place where the devils are settled - these devils are residents of the back part of human brain, whole tribes live there and when human thought passes through, they influence it. There are various methods of conducting the human’s brain and those, who want to do this, should study them. Now, you think that it can be achieved in one, two, three days, in a week or in a year. No. If you, after practicing it for three or four years, can conduct you mind, it will be a huge achievement. If you have this power, you will control your temperament - you will be able to polarize and to transform the energy of the brain from one place to another. It is said, that these people have huge self-control. And an occult disciple does not need just huge self-control. He has to understand some laws, to find out which buttons to operate and how to do this. Now, first of all: do not be choosy. You know what does it mean to be choosy - for example, when you do a very small job, but you think that it is very important and that a great idea will come from it. Thinking this way you provoke your brain. For this small job you do not have to stimulate your brain too much. For the small job you need small efforts. If you have acquired something, do not exaggerate it. Do not think that you are a big talent or vice versa - that you do not have any capability. If you think that you are a big talent, at the end of your life you will become very disappointed - you will find that you have been wrong. There are people who do not think that they have some talents, but at the end of their life they realize that they had a great talent that was not developed. So, first thing that is required from you is to realize for yourself what your obligation is, and what you have to do. In an occult school it is made very clear to everybody what to do. The disciple there does not attend the class using their feelings, he has to understand the purpose, like a student at secondary school or university has a schedule for each day on what to do. And everything must be defined. He can not say: “Whatever God has given to me”. Not what God has given us, but What God required from us when He created the world, we must do that. He established everything. To conduct your brain you do not need to be choosy, vain, proud, coward, and angry - these are worms, destroying your ability to think correctly. Vanity is a perverted form of a previous idea. Initially, it was the following idea: to have your friends’ good opinion, to have your relatives’ good opinion, to have good people’s opinion, to have God’s good opinion - this was the initial thought. Later on, man, losing his primary state, turned this good idea into vanity - he did not want to have this good opinion, but to show it off. For example, if somebody visits that kind of person, and if the visitor is a king and the man is a teacher, the vain man will show him his office and will say, “This office is very special, there is no other like it, and these bottles are unique, and you cannot find this stuff anywhere else". If the vain man is a farmer, he will show his fields and will say, “Look at them, how well they are ploughed," and so on, if this is a vain woman, she will say, "You can not find a dress like mine anywhere, and my tailor is the best." This is vanity. We must say “This is a simple dress and it was made by a good tailor, it suits me well, but to say that it is something very special, no, it is not.” And if somebody is a priest how will this vanity be shown? He will say, "I read the Bible on Sunday, but nobody else can read this holy book the way I read it – I gave such a unique sermon that the audience was so charmed, and will remember it forever." This is the way I describe vanity. Now, pride presents itself in a different way. The haughty man will present himself like a modest one, but his real thought is that there is nobody like him. And he wants other people to admire him. He will get dressed very simple, not in rags, but anyway to attract people’s attention. The haughty one behaves as a modest person, but you will recognize him when you put somebody else on his place - then he will show his pride. The haughty man is the most jealous man in the world. He can not stand it when people admire somebody else. If somebody says, "That is a very clever man." Somewhere in the world, the haughty one will reply, “Is he so clever, maybe he is not, do not tell me, please, that he is.” If people say that somebody is a very virtuous person, he will say, "Well, is he? Do not say that, nobody on the Earth can be so virtuous.” Even if you speak about God, he will say, “Even God makes mistakes.” The pride in him speaks in all similar situations. Most of all, this feeling exist in religious people. There are not haughtier people than the religious ones, in this matter they are followed by scholars. The most dangerous pride that exists is among the religious and scholars, and the biggest danger in an occult school is from pride. And for that devil we have put a special sieve at the door and it will be impossible for him and a proud disciple to come in. And in this way pride is one of the dangerous qualities in men. As a result of this a man, who develops this quality, like it is said in mythology, he will start eating his own offspring. When someone is overconfident, he himself eats his children: when he sees that somebody is a scholar – he goes back home and eats his children; if he sees, that somebody is religious - he goes back home and eats his children. He wishes he had the opportunity to cut off all people’s heads. And he wants just his head to stay on its place. Now you will analyze yourself. I want each of you to know your dealings - you must not just be strict, but be fair to yourself. An advantage for each disciple consists in this fact. To set up harmony among us we need a key word. And I will tell you what this word is - this word is Love. There are two keys in music - violin key sol and bas key - fa, just using this key you can read the piece of music. And so, the disciples must have this key and the teacher must have it. Sometimes a disciple comes to me and asks me, "What to do?” I reply. “You can do nothing.” - “Why?”- “You do not have a key.” All your thoughts, desires, and actions must obey the Law that God established, it cannot be changed. Now, pay attention to this - there are two influences in the world. If you do not obey the Sacred Influence, if do not obey the sensible life then there will come from the centre of the earth influences such as magnetism, and electricity, the lowest influences from animals. The lowest creatures will influence you, and because, when somebody enters an occult school, sensitivity develops and you will be in condition to accept thoughts from the lowest creatures, from the animal kingdom. There is the possibility that each disciple can be affected from his past low state. When all instructors warn their disciples, they warn them about these states until the disciples start to understand their own mentality, to have power over these streams from the Sun and from the centre of the Earth, and after that to recognize those keys and streams from the animal kingdom. For example, you are angry with somebody and you think, ”I wish I had a rope to hang him, to strangle him.” Where did this thought come from? This thought comes from a spider - when it finds a butterfly, it enlaces this butterfly. Therefore, you have entered the kingdom of spiders. Sometimes, another thought appears in your mind. “I want to stab him, to give him a poison, to poison him.” Where did this thought come from? It is from the snake, from the scorpion - all these creatures want to poison their prey. You will accept these thoughts and after that your mind will go into this stream, and eventually, you will commit a crime. Now I can analyze all your thoughts, all the lower and higher thoughts that you have and I can tell you where they come from. You can say: “God rules this way”. No, God has ruled everything very well in the life, the Great instructors or the Great Master of Life have put everything in order very well. When you enter this system the Great instructors will show you exactly the right direction to go. Now religious people say, “We do not need the Truth.” Why do we have to know it? From an occult point of view there is another explanation. The Sensible world needs Truth the same way as the Physical world needs Light. Truth has two kinds of beams - the white and the black, and if you are not prepared for them, you can easily be affected from the negative side of Truth. Now, this fact is a bit low-key to your mind. Why? What are the reasons? An occult science answers this question. What are reasons for separation of both brotherhoods - The White and The Black? Initially, they were one brotherhood; they went together in one direction. But when they came to a certain point, they differed from each other - one turned left, at the same time the other went to the right. Why? – Some accepted the black beams of Truth, whilst the others - the white ones. These beams exist in the Sun - even in sun light there are white and black beams. There is a so called white and black Sun - from the white and from the black sun simultaneous come two streams that join together. When I say black streams, I mean that the vibrations of these black streams are not so smooth. All evils and all wicked actions and negative qualities are the result of these vibrations that come from the black beams. What actions do these beams have? - If you cannot control your mind, in each moment of irritation, hopelessness or whatever quality that irritates and distracts your mind, you are a conductor of the black beams. This is why it is recommended to be positive when we are studying the Bible. In occultism you cannot say, “If God says, I will believe in it.” If you believe, you are on the right; if you do not believe, you are on the left, because unfaithfulness in one thing is at the same time a belief in another. Now all these energies that are coming, these two streams, go through the human brain. Therefore, you will constantly research the methods that you are passing through. For example, when a religious thought comes to you, it will not appear in the front part of your head, but in its upper part, perpendicularly. When a scientific thought comes it will stand not horizontally in your head, but it will moves in a circle. If you take the rays, coming from your eyes, and place them on one surface, all these energies that come from one angle, from above, act in a straight way, and all those, coming from other angles influence negatively, they are the energies from the black rays. If anger comes, it will appear in the area around the ears. If you get angry very often, you will have a pressing feeling in your ears or you will have earache. If your pride increases too much, you will feel a painful stagnation in the back part of your head, in your brain - this is an overload. Now what I am saying is that Nature does not like disharmony. All these energies, going into the brain, have a purpose. But we can transform these centres in our brain; they can be positive or negative. When a centre in our brain becomes positive, it accepts the white beams of Light the positive side of Truth - and then you have an advanced state, a positive mood to God and your brain wakes up. When the religious feeling is negative, you will have an inner ambition to serve God, without realizing why it is necessary. You say: “Man must serve God.” Why, how - you do not know. In this case religious extremism appears and you will stick to form and rituals: you will go to church, will light a candle, and consider it a big offence for that man, who does not light a candle. You can steal a sheep tomorrow, but it is not considered as a crime, because you can light candles; if you think that lighting a candle is the right way to serve God then it does not bother you when you do other offences. Occult science does not accept this moral. Now, these energies, which accumulate in your brain, can be a set back for your development, because, do not think that you can feel free from them. This brain, that acts here, on the Earth, on a physical level, has its mirror image in an Astral level and when you go there, these energies that are stored in this world, will be experienced again in backward way - all the things that are happening to you here you will experience again there. Now, the first thing you must do is to conduct your brain. What does it mean? It is not easy, because we have a lot of habits. The disciple, who wants to attend the school, must manage these habits. You say: “One has to be patient.” Sometimes, a man can be patient and he can have negative results. In the occult school we want positive results for those who are patient. On the other hand, when he keeps giving in he will become a weak person and will not develop his mind; patience cannot be the basis for weakening the mind, but for strengthening it, for developing it. Even I sometimes get worried about it, because there is a danger in an occult school for reducing one’s mind, because that way other negative streams are stimulated. For example, somebody read a book somewhere, but he did not check the results of this method, which were described there. And vice versa, a lot of eastern methods have been used in England and America, but the results have been negative. Now western occultists want to discover a native method. We will follow this natural, innate method - the best and safest. It means the following: please, pay attention to the following matter; you are not going to imagine where God is sitting and what His personality is, but you will always think that God is a sensible being that organizes everything without any mistake. And having this thought in your mind it will develop and it will balance it. For example, you can do an exercise: get up in the morning, read a prayer and think that God is Love and that no anger, no revenge, nor unhappiness exists in God. Then you will place in your mind positive qualities about God, Who is Wisdom, and all the mistakes existing in our world are men’s mistakes, and that everything God created is good. You can say: “But we know that”. No, even though you know it, you must do it for practicing to control your mind - this is the simplest, the most expedient, one of the best methods. And the scripture says: “You will become the same person, like your friends”. Notice, that God has this kind of mates. When you think this way you will challenge all streams, coming from God and passing through many areas - they will break into your mind and will create your thoughts. This stream from God will not come straight to you, it will first pass other people’s minds and after that it will come to you. This thought will pass all the minds - from noble people to primitive - and after that it will come to you. Then your Spirit will start working on following the laws, it will start finding streams of these minds and will practice. It is like a gardener, who has dug a lot of small ditches to water his plants. This way your mind will practice. Well, Indians have their own method, but I am not going to speak about it now. I am speaking about one of the simplest, but the most effective method. Everybody can use it, without any danger, and the result will be at least 75%. I will repeat: you need this harmony between each other. It does not exist now. And I want this harmony in this School. Harmony exists in the following: to respect each other, to know that you are sensible spirits, who God provided with an intellect and you can operate it. Some soul can be dirty, but the one who understands the laws will not see the soil. Consequently, an occult disciple does not have the right to judge others. He will say: “My brother, you have become a bit dirty, let me clean you up.” And he will not say: “You are this and that”, he must not say that. I do not have the right to judge you. The Great Master, always keep silent, he does not say anything, he does not speak about the faults of others - he sees all of them, but he does not speak about them, and does not judge them. When people see the results of their faults, he says: “This is not the way.” And you, Bulgarian, can be sent to become critics in the other world. Bulgarian people are the biggest critics. I have never met others like you - you criticize everywhere. It is an outstanding feature of all Bulgarian people. And it is because Bulgarians have a very weak religious belief, since the time of the first sin. Bulgarians suffer, because this belief is very weak. Among all the cultures in the world, the weakest religious feeling exists in Bulgarian people. This is a fact, that I estimated measuring with the centimetre. When it comes to determination and firmness, everywhere I put 7 cm; when it comes to religion, it goes down with 2.3 cm, and when it comes to mercifulness, it goes up a little. I say, here it is a sin - because one does not have gratitude, he becomes a critic. Bulgarian people get disappointed very quickly; there is not any holy thing for him. Go to any café in Bulgaria and you will see – the Bulgarian man will never speak about his wife with respect, not one woman will speak with respect about her husband. When a woman comes, she will talk about all the negative features of her husband; when a man comes he will do the same. Not only they do that, it is the same among you. This way you cannot be occult disciples, I am telling you that. If you enter here like men and women, I will tell you the truth, you cannot be occult disciples. If in the future you feel like men and women, you can stay outside, but not inside the School. A disciple man and a disciple woman, when they enter the School and are wife and husband, they have to respect each other. If they start saying: “My husband, my wife is this and that,” they are not disciples. If you are brother and sister and you start talking about each other: “My brother or my sister is this and that,” you will be sent out of the School. I am saying: the person who attends the School must be a model for others. At School I will say nothing about your faults. I will put on other glasses - there are different glasses at an occult School, they are called love glasses. They are invented this way: we see the good side of your faults. And we judge the results this way: if for example I take an adze in my hand and cut wood in two, three, four, five, six or more pieces and if from these pieces we make a cart that people will use this adze has done its job - we judge from the results. But when I have cut the wood and nothing good comes out of it, I say the purpose has not been fulfilled. We can say at the end what the consequences will be. I want everybody to be very attentive. We will start from cutting wood, to see what will happen. Now I see in your minds a question:” Is it not possible that it can be easier, can somebody influence us by hypnotherapy?” No, the safest method is when you think in the morning, that God is Love, Wise, and Kind - this is the first prayer. Every morning, when you get up think about God, that He is Love, He is Wise, and Kind, and you will immediately feel better, you will activate your mind. After doing this, there are other methods. We will start other special methods, we will start like the Angel, who went to Kornelij, and brought him the essential thing - it brought that Light in his mind and said to him: “Call Peter, he will teach you the essential thing”. When a man learns the essential thing, there will come an occult Master, whoever he is, it does not matter, to teach him basic rules, which he has to follow. Now, I want this first rule to be done by all of you in the duration of two weeks. You will take a notebook and in the morning, after getting up, think about this Sensible Being. Write in your notebook the date you started and after doing the exercise whether there is any difference or not, and what you felt. Do it three times per day, in the morning, in the evening, and in the afternoon. In two weeks time we will see the result of it. And, you have to take a notebook. Somebody can say: “Is not is possible without a notebook?” - No, it is not. Take a small notebook, put it in your pocket and you will make notes in it. If you miss an exercise, be honest and write in your notebook that you have missed it - do not avoid this. If somebody misses it and after that does not make a note, if he forgets to make a note, it is dangerous. If you miss an exercise, make a note about your fault, this means nothing. Be honest in all your exercises, if you want to have results. Do these exercises for two weeks. You have some old beliefs that are hard to change. Somebody can say: “Is not it better when I get up in the morning to say a good prayer?” There is no better prayer in the world than this, to say that God is Love, God is Wise, God is Kind; a better prayer than this I do not know. When you have thought about God, that He is Love, your heart will have warmth; when you think that God is Wise, Light will come to your mind, there is no better thing. And I have said, Light in your minds, cleanness in your hearts, Truth in your souls. Light will give you Knowledge; Cleanness will give you Strength and striving, whilst Truth in your souls will give you Freedom. This is my rule, which I have already given to you. And so, whoever wants to have Light in one’s mind, when he is thinking about God Who is Wise, immediately Light will come into his mind; when one thinks that God is Love, warmth will come in one’s heart, and when warmth comes, immediately Cleanness will come. You wash your clothes using hot water, don't you? Without warmness, it is not possible to receive Cleanness, do not forget that. When you get up in the morning your old teachers will come and say to you: “It is not the time, you can sleep a bit more”. No, when you wake up in the morning first say this pray. But when? – When you have gone to bed on time and when you have slept very well. When you first wake up do this exercise. If you have woken up and then gone to sleep again, the law is different: after you first wake up do not go to sleep again, get up and do this exercise; after doing it do not go to bed. You will say: “But if it is 1 o’clock?”- At 1 o’clock you will not wake up, you will wake up at 3, 3.30 or at 4 o’clock. When you do not sleep well you will wake up at 1 o’clock, or 2 o’clock. Whoever sleeps well will wake at 3, or 3.30 o’clock, and aristocrats will wake up at 6, 7, 8 or 9 o’clock and will say, ”We have overslept.” And so you will do this exercise early in the morning, at noon before 12 o’clock a.m., do not do it after 12 a. m. This exercise can be done everywhere; you can stop whatever you are doing for one, two, five minutes. It does not matter how strict your boss is, you can get your pen to work and you can concentrate your mind on the upper world that God is Love. Nobody will notice that you are doing this; there are no circumstances that can obstruct you. Even a woman, while cooking can do it, she can stop stirring in the pan, the meal will not overcook in this time. If it burns I will pay for it - but it will not. And so, I want your help for restoring the harmony. If you do not restore this harmony, it still will be restored, because it is coming. It is the same with violinists, those, who are good musicians know how to tune their violin. And for the others, who are not good, somebody else tunes their violin. And if you leave this, somebody else will do it. We, at least, must find out how to tune our violins. Now, have you understood the first rule? In the evening, 5 minutes before going to bed, do this exercise. Now, let no one at this School say that he has a special opinion about it. Here everybody has a special opinion about this. Whoever wants a special opinion, it means the following: "I will get what I need from this School, and I will have a special opinion of the things that I do not need.” Whoever wants to have a special opinion about this exercise - he is out. Any disciple, who is not ready for this exercise, is not ready to become a disciple. Now, I want to help you do this exercise, and it does not matter that I have done it so many times. I will do it with you for two weeks. Some of you might hesitate that a disciple must do it, but the Master does not. I will do it with you. (Some disciples asked: “When shall we start?”) - From tonight. In your notebook you will write what time you have done it during the day, you will write three times during the day. If you do not have a watch, you will write that you have started it. Write in your notebook just one letter to describe the feeling after doing it. If you feel Love, put the letter L; if you feel Strength, put just the letter S. Write just your experience, and just with letters, if you do it in another way you will deviate. Doing this exercise you will have new thoughts that you have forgotten, new feelings, something noble and gentle will appear and you will go into these streams. I am giving you this exercise, because you are entering the School now. You cannot have this exercise every time you want, you must know that. The next time, even you are ready to pay 1000 leva, you will not have it, do not think that you always can have it. This is a very special exercise and if you do it properly… Well, you can say: "Next time!” No, everything in Nature has its own time, if you do not do them on time - the door is closed for you. If you do not do it on time, the door is closed, you have to wait; if you start knocking, they will reply, ”We do not know you,” you are too late for this knowledge. You have to be grateful that you have this exercise for two weeks, for two weeks only. In two weeks you will stop, do not use it any more. If you want it after two weeks, it will not be available to you any more. You can say: “But we know all this”. You do not know it. - “We have thought about it.”-You have not thought about it yet. There is a big difference in accepting the Light, coming directly from the Sun, or if it comes through ten mirrors and you accept just its reflection. If you accept it directly or through first reflection(Unclear. This part of the sentence seems to be in contradiction to the previous sentence), this Light will come from the heaven to you. Well, do not simulate, that you will stay in special opinion. (UNCLEAR) Do not exaggerate! This is going to be an introduction to the exercises that we are going to do regularly. We will have a lot of exercises. Well, for this idea to grow up we need water, don't we? Let's read about water then. There were twenty lectures given about the topic of “Purpose of Water”. Secret Prayer Translator Maria Ivanova
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Methods Through Nature Seventh lecture given by the Teacher before General Esoteric class on the 13th April 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret Prayer First I’ll start with a few notes. When a young shoot grows out of the ground, it is vulnerable but Nature sends him subtle swaying and motions on the air. The work of air currents make plants strong, the human mind does the same thing for the Spiritual body of the human being. And when you enter the Esoteric School, you will be exposed to different winds from different directions. Bear that in mind, this is the law but do not fear it. Anyone who enters this School and fears some cracks not wanting to feel the draught does not understand the law. To winds you will be aware of from all directions, from east, from west, from north, from south, from everywhere. And to other winds we will be exposed and sometimes these winds we’ll be warm, sometimes cold, sometimes they will be accompanied by mild rains, sometimes with sleet, sometimes with hail. In all these situations you will find yourself; that we have to bear in mind. What happens in Nature, will happen in your soul also. If does not happen, you are not on the right path. If someone preaches you a teaching without hardships, without winds, without sleet, without hail and rain, this is not the Teaching of God; this is not the Teaching of Universal White Brotherhood. These are principles; these are states, which you have to keep in mind and to try. If one of you doubts this, you have the time to try them but you will note this fact, because we are coming closer to carrying out research in one positive science; laws don’t resemble the laws in modern science. This science, to which we introduce you, there are no exceptions to the rule, everything is defined there. When I say precisely defined, I mean, that it is limited. No, there are two contradicting opinions in the occult science, in the Occult School: the Infinite includes the finite in itself and the finite includes the Infinite in itself. And then I say that the situation is such: only the Infinite can appear and this, which is finite can not appear: only the strong person can make themselves known, the weak can not; only the strong light can show itself, but light whose vibrations are weak, can’t show itself. Therefore I want you to be strong people, not hesitating, do you realize this? It is expected of us to be the strongest, the brightest, the most gifted, the most talented. The one, who is not capable of working on purpose as to acquire abilities, as to show his or her talent and the incapable to waken his or her ability. You don’t have to discourage yourself because of this, it is only one situation. So each one of you will bear in mind the thought that you have to be strong but not to force yourself, to uplift yourself. Therefore each person, who has the force to uplift himself or herself, will have force to lift his peer but everyone who forces himself or herself, forces his peer also. This the laws of the White Brotherhood say. They watch how what we do towards ourselves and thus they are aware what our situation towards others will be. If I force myself I can talk in a very pleasant, very sweet way but it will be of no use – the law is true. Therefore you will have strength not to force yourself but to uplift yourself. This means moral – to uplift the contemporary moral in the world, to uplift ourselves. That something was said by this scientist, that prophet or saint that the world was made in such and such way, you have to rise up the general status, upon the common view. Let us not misrepresent Christ's true words! I ask all those contemporary people, did they live in Christ's time, did they hear what did He spoke, what did He say? They say: “We didn't hear but it was delivered to us.” This thing, which was written by this apostle, does it seem likely to be true to you?” - “This man there said that.” No, this is not the case, we have other proof for what was said by Jesus, we have an archive, where all words of the Christ are written in golden letters. Do you know in what grand book on what sheets are written Jesus words? There all words are written, all followers, initiated into the Occult school read from this great Gospel – this is a Gospel. And now they want to convince us that the Gospel is sacred, given to us by the Holy Ghost. No, it is not, the Gospel, which Jesus preached is from the Holy Ghost. The Gospel, which Jesus preached printed itself on the sheets of this great book. What Jesus spoke, all his great teachings are printed on this book, word by word, as each word spoken before a phonograph* is rendered. [* Phonograph – the original term for the gramophone, discovered by Thomas Edison in 1878 (editor's note)]. This Gospel I can understand! And how many words, how many parables, how many things are recorded on the sheets of this book for which the world is thoroughly unaware of. So, firstly in the Gospel it is said: “Be strong because God lives in you!” But why is that? Such is the law. People are so weird. - “But – someone would say – apostle Paul said that when we are weak, then we are strong.” Yes, naturally, apostle Paul was an occultist and do you know what he did want to tell you with this? It means: When I think as a human, I am weak, but God, who lives in me, makes me strong. When someone is strong, he is conscious that God lives in him. I am Weak as a human but because of God, who lives in me, I am strong. When I say that God lives in me, this word is again not understood. God can not live in me or inside you. You have not yet revealed yourself, how will God live in you? In the Scriptures somewhere apostle Paul says: ”You are a Temple of God.” What is God's temple? - Your soul. Your soul is something great and therefore we are now building these little temples in which the soul will lesen itself. This, which is eternal, the boundless will smaller so that it will enter in this small temple of Love. The soul knows the laws of growing smaller, this little soul can become finite and infinite at the same time. For God it is easy to be boundless and infinite, so it is easy for him to become boundary and finite, for us. When they tell me that one being is finite, I understand much – I understand that the greatness, the Intelligence and the God's Love are that large that He reduces himself in that small being as to try from all his or her joys and sorrows to uplift him or her as they can understand His greatness. This is the greatest, the most wonderful miracle of God. Thus I understand God, this God I recommend you -God, who can descend to your plane, from there He would lift you up and could make you like Himself. In what sense will you be like Him? - You would be like Him powerful, you could understand life and the other beings and you could uplift them also. This is what Jesus has taught. Now, what we have is not morality. We leave aside the current morality and give you new principles, which you ought to have so that you can develop. When you work on the principles inside your soul, we will become strong and powerful – strong and powerful as to overcome anything. Now, I am going to explain the word patience from the esoteric point of view. Each follower of the School of Universal White Brotherhood has to be patient. But how? Some, for instance, restrain themselves and say:” I was patient enough, I restrained my rage.” Restraining your rage is not being patient. Patient person is the one that constantly pays his or her debt to those who came to him or her – he has strength in himself. To restrain your rage is not patience but torture. Now the preachers want to convince us that the silent are patient. Such person is not patient. When someone else is glad and joyful, he thinks of something totally different. When someone comes to a patient person, this person asks him or her: “What do you want from me?” “You owe me.” “How much?”- And they pay. They constantly sing their songs. And now, when someone comes to him or her, they say: “You are dishonest.” They keep silent, pay nothing, restrain themselves and say: “They called me names, so what? I am a very patient person.” This is not patience at all, you are a person of torment. But here, in this School, there is no torture. Before you enter this School, before we are initiated, there will be torture but when you are in, you have to be patient, glad, to master all the world. Thus you will understand patience as followers. When someone comes to me, I ask him: “Are you patient?” This means that he or she has to give me. Someone says:” You have insulted me.” “What does insult means?” You have debt, you owe me, ask how much. - “That much.” Immediately you ask how much is the interest. “Ten or twenty percent.” I won’t utter a word, right away I will open my purse and say: ”Here you are. Are you content?” “I am content.” I will shake hands with him. Someone else will come by you; you will open your purse, you will pay and the matter will be settled. All followers will settle in such way the matter between yourselves – you will open the purse and you will pay. When the time comes, you will pay – this is the teaching, which Jesus has taught. And if this teaching has been applied, the Christian world would have risen, would have been righteous. And what are you doing now? You are still dealing with the question whether God saved us or not. Since he has sent us Saviour to the Earth, we are saved, we are saved since we have been created by God. Therefore Jesus has foreseen everything. Jesus is manifestation of this Love, He sends Love to those He has initially saved. But because they are not yet ready to comprehend this Love, they are in conception(???). These people don't reason over this philosophy. When the mother breastfeeds her child, and what when this child is in her womb, does he or her suck from her breasts? No, the milk will stay for the mother, she keeps it for the time when her child will come. Therefore during the time of our embryo condition, until we were born, God has waited upon us to show his Love towards us. For those of us, that are born there is milk, for others – there is stale food. The more you go further, more goods you will try. Therefore we are in this period when God's love has been shown to the followers; this means we are in the most wonderful state, when God show his will to be perceived by the followers. What is better than that when the father says to his son: “Son, take your pouch and go to school.” And Cosmos with all its suns and planets is create as one initial school. And all of you will ride to all planets, suns and the Moon: everywhere you will go to study, different directions you will take during these excursions and then you'll meet again. But you will ask: “How many years are we going to meet after? ”No, it may not take years: one journey that amounts to ten million years we can shorten to one or half hour, another journey that amounts to half an hour can be prolonged up to hundred million years. It is a matter of motion, of quickness -it depends on what train we'll take with what speed, with what quickness. That is the question: what train will you choose- if you take a train with a great speed, the suns will pass by you too quickly, we won't be able to look at all the beauties and you'll tell yourself: ”We have passed around the Universe and we have seen nothing”; but if we take a train, which travels at a low speed, you will stop at one place, at other you will stop, each planet you will see. Among the spaces between these planets there are such worlds which the contemporary people don't even suspect - they think that all is what they see and that's it. No, there are other worlds that can' t be seen with contemporary telescopes. Einstein says that there is no time and space; I understand his language: there is no time and space but there are states. So, the first stage for the follower is to be strong. You will have in your mind the thought to be possess Strength. Then for acquiring this Strength we already have methods, there are laws how to acquire such Strength. We will put you through a test and we will see whether this Strength, which you will acquire, is for your uplifting or for your constraint. If you use it for your constraint, then an usual force will be given to you, however if you use it for your uplifting, Godlike force will be given to you. When I speak of love, I mean that only the Godlike Love is the one and only, the greatest law in the world, which can guarantee this Force. If you have such Love, this Force will be guaranteed to you, if we have an ordinary love, an ordinary force will be given to you, and such force all of you have. Now these are the items you have to include in your mind. This is the teaching that Jesus has taught. It is the simplest teaching, which Jesus has taught to the people then. Now have you understood which person is strong and who is weak? Strong and weak. Everyone, who doesn't use his or her force, which they possess, becomes weak. Since you don't use your Godlike force for your uplifting, you are weak and the weak, when he or she uses a little Force, which they have, becomes strong. This is the same law, which you require when you give conditions for the development of a grain of wheat and then his force enhances and increases. According to the laws of mathematics, on Earth, the part can not be equal to the whole. In the occult science, in the occult mathematics, however, there is another statement: each part is equal to its own whole and the whole is equal to its own part. Then, how are you going to equalize these contradictions? Therefore the relations of this kind of mathematics are not mechanical but are organic and psychological – then the process is therefore inward. Now, how can this be mathematically expressed? If we decide to prove this, we need a number of lectures, a number of formulas of this complex mathematics and after all processes have occurred, the question is again unresolved. This is only a statement, which in present conditions of Life can not be explained. And the truth is as follows: the weak, the microscopic person in the world, if he or she follows the great Godlike laws, one day can be strong. This is necessary for us – to be strong. And so Strength is one of the qualities of the God 's Mind, therefore the Force is motion. All these motions have to be mastered by humans. (The works on the theme “The purpose of the Five Senses” were read. A commission by three persons was selected, men, who will extract the most important from the works read). By men I mean intelligence at work, Wisdom at work because for Love there is not yet place. Now, when Love comes in the world, we cry when we have to think. You will make a good conclusion because when students do their best, can say some good things, can't they? I will give you another theme and this is: The use of water. Write down the themes, even those of you, who don't write because they are in connection to each other. Secret Prayer
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Negative and Positive Features Of The Disciple Sixth Lecture of the Master, read before the General Occult Class on April 4th, 1922, Tuesday, in Sofia Secret Prayer Before we finish reading what is written, I shall make a few notes. You know how tin plating of pots is done, you have seen how tinsmiths tin-plate – they stand in the pot and clean it out so that the tin can fix well. Without cleaning out the pots, one cannot apply tin. When you enter the occult school, thus, they will step onto you, they will turn you around and unless you are thoroughly cleaned, you will not be fit for tin plating. There are some traits in you, and some views that you should part with. One of them is conceit. This is an animal side of human nature. You will find conceit in all animals, it is found in birds, dogs, horses, and oxen. When the dog is conceited, it raises up its tail, saying: "I don’t care". When the peacock wants to show off, it spreads its tail, ‘tr-r, tr-t, tr-r’ – this is an animal’s act. Conceit is an animal itself. So if a disciple entering the occult school holds that animal feeling inside, then great suffering is in store for him. He will clash with reality where people, observing his weakness, will start mocking him. Modern people suffer too most of them are neurasthenics. The neurasthenia marching through the world today is mostly the result of human conceit. If somebody is a tradesman, and his business is going down, he begins to worry – how can people think he is a poor man! Everyone wants to be what one is not. Religious people too, conceit has made them what they are not. Conceit has brought hypocrisy into religion. Hypocrisy is born from conceit. A conceited man striving to prove he is unlike others is a hypocritical man. Now you enter an Occult School where Light is so great that all your shortcomings will come out on top leaving you feeling like a scalded fowl. As disciples, you must know what scalded fowl is. Not by me will you be scalded but by the White Brothers who are very good. One, who has conceit, will be thus fleeced and left to wonder how that happened. And so you will give up conceit. But if your love for it is great, when you enter the School, you will leave it outside like a piece of luggage. You will pay a storage fee when you finish the School and then you can put it on again. For the outer world, you may need it, but there is no need of it in the School. And so conceit is displayed by the disciples. You may start asking, for example, "What do you think, that you have reached success in the Occult School?" This is pure conceit. Whether you have succeeded or not, we might as well know right now. Step in front, hand him the violin, give him a hard piece, come on, play it! If you can play it, you have succeeded. – "But I know music." You might know the theory of music but you don’t know how to play. Sometimes it’s better to play than just know the theory. It’s good to know both, though. Therefore, if you know how to play, you will play. Then, there are others who ask: "Do you think we have mastered Love?" I can right now very easily examine how much your Love is worth. Someone says, "My heart is burning in Love." But tell him to give this brother a thousand leva now – that’s it! He bows his head – that’s it – he does not know how to love, so much for that. A thousand more leva and a thousand more, and when his pocket is empty, he asks, "Well, what’s left for me?" If you want to have something left for you, stay outside. We want you to enter this Divine School with empty chests so that we can fill them up. If you come with full chests what can we put in? We do not want people with full purses. The world asks for full purses but we ask for the opposite. If your purses are empty come, and if not, then we say, "You are wrong." And so you will keep away from the feelings of conceit and hypocrisy as from fire because not only will they give you nothing but they also will bring you down to the level of animals that only know how to snarl at each other. Two people, as they meet, snap at each other: "Beware, I am not one of those weak heroes but a great one!" The same with the fowl – having seen a bull, there it hops - this is the feeling of conceit. The bull rams it with its horns - that is the end of the fowl. The fowl doesn’t understand, it thinks it can fight a bull. But to fight a bull you need knowledge. And so, you come into this Occult School to learn how to fight the bull by the horns because you will meet spirits from the Black Lodge who have great knowledge. Do you know what knowledge this is? Sometimes the White Brothers go to their schools to learn. "The sons of this century are smarter that the sons of Light". And the sons of Light must learn from the sons of darkness. The knowledge and principles are the same in both schools, only differently applied. The acting forces are the same, there is no duality, but the way they are applied matters: some forces can be applied in one way – to the left, and others – another way – to the right. Yet we may as well draw a lesson, we may learn from a Black brother, even from the church. This is now said here in this hall. If you talk about it outside, you will be cursed by every church, do you understand that? This is not a symbol. You still don’t know the origin of the Black brothers, do you? And why are they black? – Because they shifted to the left, and the others to the right. I will not explain this. A person has a left hand and a right hand. Why, aren’t both hands in place? We use our right hand today but there was a time when the left hand was at work. Is it a sin, then, that a person has one left and one right hand? No sin, these hands are just in place. It’s only that the left way passes through the centre of the Earth while the right one – through the centre of the Sun, they differ in that. Walking the left way you will go down into the deepest matter, in the greatest contradiction of Life, you’ll have to fight, the Light will fade, while taking the right way you will go through the thinnest matter, you’ll cross the centre of the Sun. You will not be afraid, because you will be protected. There must be no curiosity in the Occult School, no curiosity is allowed there. Curiosity is for the outer world, it is allowed only there. To have a deep desire to learn, the keenest desire that is burning in your heart – that yes, but simple curiosity is not allowed. Curiosity is born from conceit, too. So you will have a burning desire to learn, and as for curiosity, conceit, hypocrisy and others of the same kind, features of animal nature or coming from lower cultures, such features we need not. Now you may say: "These things have been told to us." Yes, but you still don’t know the perturbations conceit causes in the human body. You still don’t know the consequences of hypocrisy – what perturbations it causes in the human heart. You still don’t know what curiosity produces. If you knew the consequences that are produced in the body, you wouldn’t even smell them (unclear). Now I do not want to be in contradiction with your feelings. Religious feelings you will keep apart. I am now talking to your minds – not the lower, but the higher minds. You must think and feel. I am not talking to your hearts either, this is not my intention. You hearts are for you and for God, aren’t they? You need Light, you need Knowledge, and having the Knowledge you will acquire Wisdom. When you have Wisdom, you will know how to work your hearts. Now, you know that line from the Old Testament, "My son, give me your heart." This is an internal process of the Existence, a process to be realized in the future. It has no objective application yet, but a purely subjective application and to work this heart we need knowledge – great knowledge I should say, in order to be able to prepare the forces that are inborn in our hearts for the future culture. And for the present all religions are generally dealing with the man’s heart. All preachers are seeking to bring about certain effects, they threaten with hell – that there is hell, and pain. But this is kid’s stuff. We do not shake the big stick at a disciple entering the Occult School; we just say, "If you do things this way; these are the consequences. Since you have this body with these substances and compounds, if you act like this, here are the consequences for your body; if you enjoy this you can do it." The disciple will know the reasons and the consequences, and will examine diligently his body and his heart. So, you must all have a burning desire to learn. And coming into this School you will lay aside, if possible, all your views – whatever you have read in books, whatever I might have once said. I want you to pass all this through your own minds, do you understand? And you will. Do you know why? – Because sometimes you may pass my words through the dense medium of your lower minds and you will comprehend them one way, but then you might pass them through your higher minds and then you will obtain a different comprehension. Further on, you will have to apply each comprehension immediately, not in the future. As you apply, you test – small tests from which we shall judge. I am not saying you don’t have application – you do, but not these occult applications. You will find a special application. In this Occult School you will have ways, and methods to remedy some of your weaknesses that exist as a remnant of the past. Now, you might sometimes place a bet: "This is what a man of science said." But what has been said shall be tried in this School, shall be put to the test. In the School, you will always verify these things and will judge what is said by the results you can achieve. If you don’t have this disposition, then hypocrisy and conceit will be born. Then, a common weakness of all disciples is the following: sometimes a disciple thinks he knows more than his Master. The rule in the White Occult School is: A disciple may never know more than his Master. This is a law of the White Occult School. Jesus said: "The disciple never stands higher than his Master". Should he begin to think he knows more than his Master, then he is to the left; should the Master begin to think he is not like his disciples, he is to the left too. The first one uses the knowledge for himself, and the other one does the same. But in the School of the Worldwide White Brotherhood everything is used for the Lord’s Kingdom – for bringing the Lord’s Kingdom on Earth. And once the Lord’s Kingdom comes to Earth then everyone, masters and disciples will have the best opportunities to show their knowledge and create something better in this world. And then, there’s another thing that I want: those who come to the School now, will test their will. There will be insults but once you enter the School, you must step up higher; you must lay aside all your feelings of insult for an hour. Someone comes in, the others give him a bad look, and he says, "This man insulted me." No, no, you must test your will. If you cannot subdue this feeling from the insult, which is an animal feeling, then your will is weak, you won’t succeed. You shall capture this feeling – the insult – as a creditor, and you’ll say, "Pray wait for me outside for an hour, outside the entrance hall, and once I am out, I’ll pay you." Now, we don’t want you to reform your lives in an instant, but just to keep one disposition of yours out in your entrance hall for an hour. If you can keep it out for an hour, then you will be able to keep it out for two, three, four, five hours; if you cannot keep it out for one hour, you can do nothing. And when you enter a school if you do not take this into consideration, the others will always lay these obstacles before you, using the law of suggestion. Between men and women, for example, an argument might arise, and they come hurt to the School; but you should know that on entering the School you are no longer men or women. We have no men or women around here, we have disciples. You are men and women outside, but in here you are souls. We don't recognize men or women, young or old, we only recognize disciples who desire to acquire the Divine knowledge and to use it for the improvement of their souls, for the advancement of the Lord’s Kingdom on Earth – that’s what we recognize. Now, you may say: "This has been said many times". I am telling you again, and as for those who would not believe my words, we shall start the tests and he’ll be persuaded. You have to know this, it is not a threat but there are laws that must be observed. I am not saying this place is a School. No, this is your meeting. From here you will step into another place, and as for the School, we could move it to another room, or a third, or a fourth, or a fifth one. This hall is not an occult school. Even if we were to build a special place it still wouldn’t be an occult school. Now, you are going to say: "We have now formed the School, for we have closed the door." We might close the door ten times, it still wouldn’t be enough. I can see – many of you always have their doors open. The outer door here is closed, but the doors of your houses are open and there’s constant movement in and out. Each of you must close his own door, and you must say: "For one hour you will wait for us, we are busy now but in an hour we’ll be back, and we’ll be at your disposal". I want you to do the first test now. Thus, when you come on Sunday to the School, you should be able to fight. It takes fighting, heavy fighting, but you must overcome. Don’t think that by just coming here you will change this condition all at once. We want you to fight and to win in this fight. Someone says: "Let’s get this over with, let’s banish this devil". But you shared your table with this devil in the past, he is your friend. As a friend, tell him: "My friend, we shared one table once, but I have come to know feasts spoil Life, I have taken another way, and being my friend can you now join me on this new way?" – "I can’t." - "Then wait for me outside for an hour, and then we’ll talk again." And, being your friend, he’ll listen to you. So you shall learn in the Occult School not to insult anyone. You do not say to a man: "You are such and such". No. No. I shall give you this example; it’s from the age of Christianity: one of the great Masters, well acquainted with occultism, after having taught his disciples for a long time, sent them to town to preach. Two of these disciples met two pagan priests and on seeing them, said, "Well, children of the devil, sons of Satan, you who corrupt the world …" They approached them with their walking sticks and cracked their heads. The disciples came back with heads cracked. These priests went to the Master of the two disciples; he came out and asked, "My friends, where have you been?" – "Why friends, how’s that? An hour ago we beat two of your disciples." – "You have done well." Disciples I call them, for they are sons of the White Brotherhood. And when Archangel Michael was sent for the body of Moses, he never said an evil insulting word to the devil but said, "Let God forbid you." And you now have the weakness sometimes to bristle up at the devil and speak evil of him. No, no, you must be noble. Say to him: "You are an excellent worker – you do things the way you understand". He is convinced, believes in his understanding and wants to persuade you in some way or another, and gives you proof. Each bad spirit, as it comes to you, says: "Don’t be so stupid, not all shall become good". And it gives you proof. Then you become convinced and say: "You are right". In the White Brotherhood, however, there is other evidence and we must prove it. There shall be perfect harmony in the School, no bad spirits should disturb you - they know the law. Both the first ones and the second ones learn – this is the law in the occult science. Once the disciples go out into the world, there is a dispute among them, but in the School, as long as they are learning, there is no dispute. But these are things we know so we place them where they belong. That’s what they said about the pious Jehovah; the representative of the Black Brotherhood appeared at the God’s council and said to God, "Have you noticed the way Jehovah walks?" Then, he was also present at this council in the School, and God asked him, "What about you, have you noticed the way Jehovah applies this teaching?" Hence, there is absolutely no dispute among the Black and the White Brothers in the School. A Black or a White Brother – they love each other. They love each other at School, but once they are out in the world, their interests collide and each one works for his own interest, so much for love! We shall prove which principle is right. Both these and the others believe, but the faith of the former differs in many ways from the faith of the latter. So, as disciples of this School, you shall be broad-minded rather than bigoted. A Black Brother is also an advanced spirit, these are real things. In School you must think that everything in this world exists because it is necessary. And what is necessary is useful for the development of the entire Cosmos. Therefore, for knowledge to exist in the world there must be two processes – some pots are made for glory and others for infamy. If you make a pot and you put your slops in it, and the other pot you fill with milk, then I’m asking, are the pots guilty? The pot with the slops is the black Brother, and the pot with the milk is the White Brother. Whose fault is it? Is it the pots’ fault? No. And the one who uses the pots is equally pleased to have a pot for slops and another pot for milk. He finds them very useful, for he needs one place to put the slops and one place to put the milk. But if we don’t have slops we throw away the pot, and if we don’t need milk, we throw away the second pot, so we have no more pots. The same goes for the good and bad people in Life; these are only ideological views at the present stage of development of human life. Now, those of you who wrote about the purpose of the human’s/man’s tongue may read (are welcome to read). Next in turn, write something about the purpose of the present five senses. This will be a common topic for all who can write. What do you think; did the organ appear first or the sense? – The senses appeared first. Therefore, each sense corresponds to a certain idea. At present, man has only touched the five senses and has reached the field of Truth. So he has reached the lowest field of the Divine World. Man needs another two senses. Then those of you who volunteered, let them write, let’s say, which world touching corresponds to; the taste, the sense of smell, the hearing, the eyesight – determine which worlds, and which fields they pertain to. You may read some theosophical, some occult literature, see what is written there, then express your own understanding, what it is that you think. Write briefly, as briefly as you can. When you write on these topics, don’t we say: "No fear and no darkness!" Furthermore, don’t write long, for too much writing is conceit. Don’t use redundant words, because they come from the devil, or if said in the occult language, redundant words shift to the left, to the School of the Black Brothers. They enjoy talking a lot and everyone who talks a lot helps the Black Brothers. Both the one who talks a lot and the one who doesn’t talk at all – both of them help the Black Brothers. And the one who talks less but wisely, helps the White Brothers. Less means the essence, it’s the essence we need. You may say, for example, "I love you a lot," – so you commence to speak like lovers do – and "I am ready to do this for you and that for you." You will do nothing. "I love you and can do anything for you." – Test me, nothing more. When you test, you’ll know. Only I can love. Should ‘I’ be said? – You will say 'I' and you will understand the Divine side of you. You may not mention the ‘I’ but mean it in your minds. In English you have to say ‘I love’, while in Bulgarian just ‘love you’ is enough; in English you must use the ‘I’. In School you shall endeavour to be determined and always speak your mind. Now, we have tried the results of not speaking one’s mind. Every senseless speech is a shape where you allow space for a bad spirit to inhabit you. That is why every shape you form must be full of Divine matter. Empty words themselves always draw great misfortune. When you pronounce an empty word, something pins you in your heart and you start thinking: "I shouldn’t have said that". Why do I want you to write on this topic? – That you may advance, that conscience may awaken in you. I want to convince you of one thing: you are not such fools and so ignorant as you may think you are, there are many truths inborn in you from the past. And if you are true to yourselves, as you sit down and think, some inspiration may come upon you. Then you may say: "The Spirit inspired this in me," as if the Spirit has some special regard for you. Do not deceive yourselves, the Spirit has an equal regard for everyone, but what the Spirit suggests, you cannot perceive. But you may say, "The Spirit did not will" No, no. The Spirit wills but you shall work your soil, you shall plant it, cultivate it and then the Spirit will will. So, I’m saying that in all of you there are some inborn truths that have to rise up – there are noble thoughts and features from the past. These features can be created today as well. Even the smallest effort that you can do is in your favour. In several lectures, I shall talk about and show you the weaknesses you should be aware of. Not that these are your weakness – they are common for the entire White race but you should constantly strive to keep away from them. And as you become able to control these weaknesses we can proceed to the microscopic truths – to the small truths with which we shall start doing our observations and our trials. Then each of you will be given small tasks to solve on your own and to examine things by yourself. But I am still warning you now – don’t expect that Heaven will open, don’t expect to find the answers to all the great secrets of Nature. No, others may expect this. When a master is tempted by a disciple offering him a big salary to teach him, then the master is unworthy of his position. There may appear a master in the Occult School, he may be offered one or two or ten million leva to teach – nobody is going to say anything to him but if he decides to teach for money, he’s done with. And if such thought enters a disciple’s head, if he is tempted to acquire the Knowledge in order to use it for himself alone, he is done with too. Thus, you will be completely unselfish! First rule: be sincere with yourselves, do not deceive yourselves. You can deceive me, but I don’t want you to deceive yourselves that’s why I am going to be very strict. Never deceive yourselves. Apply this law – be utterly true to yourselves, no exceptions allowed. You must admit in your minds the Truth such as it is, don’t change it in any way just consider things as they are, neither more nor less. True to yourself - this is the first law of the School. If you can apply this law, the rest will be easy. This law lays a basis on which to build up further. Now, why am I often so strict? – I am sorry that I have opened this School, to tell you the truth. Do you know why? – When I come here I experience a painful feeling. These desires you have accumulated cause me the worst suffering. And now I have to make an effort to talk to you. To tell you the truth! And if you do not observe this rule then I’m leaving you to learn as well as you can, I am determined. I don’t want to torment myself in future nor do I intend to let my disciples torment me. Two rules: neither do I want to torment myself, nor for you to torment me. I have completed my evolution; I need not be tormented any more. What I know I can teach you but your thoughts and your experiences are being transferred upon me – I accept all your thoughts and I experience them inside of me. I don’t want, though, to experience your thoughts. If you are sinners, I have nothing to do with your sins. I could endure your good will, better, but you are judging me in your minds and telling me this or that, I don’t want to hear, my soul is fed up with reproach and ungratefulness. The one who is grateful – good for him, and the one who is ungrateful – good for him too, I still have nothing to do with it. You know why? – I serve a different law. I am answering you now: I don’t want to grieve in any way the One who lives in me, I am not letting this happen! The One who taught me, the One who lives in me, I do not allow any reproach on him. I can bear anything for Him; where His name is concerned, I am ready to give up anything. "But what in thousand years – will circumstances be allowed?" (UNCLEAR) All the same, as for His name, I don’t allow it. I notice everything and I’m telling you: in the School I absolutely don’t want you to criticize me, or have doubts, just try out things! As I have said before: If I have hurt anyone let him come to me without criticizing me - I will pay him ten times his worth and get this over with once and for all. All matters must be settled between you and me, nothing more. Tell you what, should anyone do otherwise in future, I will turn my back on him and never speak to him any more. This is a rule of the White Brotherhood. Why? – This is an internal law. The One, who lives in us, the Lord, has a way that He follows and He will not wait for us. The Sun rises, the Earth turns around and everything follows its destined way, we cannot change the laws of Existence. – "But that’s what I think!" Yes, but the Lord thought millions of years ago when He created the world, so we shall act as He intended us to and as He acts. You ask me sometimes to teach you how to act. I am not doing as I please, I am following God’s ways and I want you to do so too. I am not the one to change God’s laws, neither you, nor the Angles or any other creature in the world will be able to change them in any possible way – they are inalterable. You can react somehow but to reverse them is impossible. Then you will stumble in yourselves. If you want to be a disciple, this is one of the rules of this School to follow. The School was opened several times around Europe but closed down again in wait of better times, because disputes arose. It was opened and closed down several times and may be closed down again now. But if I do it now, you shall teach yourselves, I am not teaching a second time! That’s why I want you to be upright at such a time when those above you have decided and have will to teach you. Mind you, I am not talking to you on my behalf; I am talking on behalf of the Worldwide White Brotherhood. If they are well disposed to you, then you must be loyal to them too. You must learn these great truths from their point of view. Exercise your minds, test everything. Now, from these words of mine do not conclude that I’m talking about a certain person, individually. No, what I’m saying is: it is from lack of knowledge, from ignorance that you do things, which are not allowed. And I want now to give you the first rules, the same way they are given in music. First of all, when the master comes in, he shows you how to hold the violin – horizontally, then he places the bow in the correct position and finally you play the G tone and hold it for a long time until you learn to move the bow properly. The bow represents the will. Then you start studying the tones, then the positions and when you have learnt them, you go on to playing a certain piece. Now, your minds and your hearts can advance only under such proper guidance. Only then you can perceive those great thoughts that God created, only in this way can you learn to think and feel correctly. Have a will. You have a will, you all do, but you must guide your will to work for your advancement. Now, don’t think we don’t have laws through which to get free from certain things. We have laws; I can get free of your thoughts in another way too. Do you know why I am referring to this? There is a wish in me that you don’t suffer, for I don’t want to cause you more suffering in Life. First rule: since you suffer a lot, I don’t want to increase your sufferings. If I put on a shield to repulse your thoughts back, we shall not get to the point. It’s better in such cases to close down the School than to cause rows. So, the first rule is: you’ll harmonize your thoughts and feelings for at least one hour. For an hour, I ask for no more – one hour in a week, do you understand that? Seven days, twenty-four hours a day – a hundred and sixty-eight hours. If you can’t do this, what else can you do? From a hundred and sixty-eight hours weekly you are required to spend a single hour in harmony – as true disciples you must. This is not much; this is a very short time – who will not allow himself an hour? And when I enter the class I want to feel a pleasant atmosphere, to feel good, and I want you to feel good too. If I am to come in and become dissatisfied then you will be dissatisfied too. Two feelings of dissatisfaction make a positive figure – both sides lose. Then all truths you may have said will lose their effect. Now, you may say: "Who could have insulted the Master?" No one has insulted me but I’m telling you, in your ignorance you have the weakness to incline sometimes to the left side rather than to the right one. Not knowing it yourselves, you sometimes walk to the left. You may say: "I do not know". No, you don’t, but you have to learn. You as disciples have to know which way you are on – the left or the right one, and not to wait for others to tell you that. Every day, the merchant has to know what he earns and what he loses – by reviewing his records, he must know if he made a profit today or he lost; and at the end of the year he sums up the profit and the loss. Every day we have to know whether we are more to the left or to the right, where God is. If you know this, you win – you will straighten up your thoughts, because there are many good things from the past inborn in you. I don’t find you incapable, I find you wayward. You are capable but also wayward, and waywardness is a feature of animals, not of humans. This waywardness of yours is an animal feature. Every man whose mind, heart, and will have started working properly can no longer be wayward, all his acts and deeds are based on the law of reason – he will know what to do. No waywardness shall be allowed in this School. So now, you are capable, and as for your waywardness – leave it outside. I am telling you now some negative features, and in the second lecture I’ll tell you more. I’ve told you by now four negative features: conceit, hypocrisy, curiosity, and waywardness – they are animal features. You need them in the world, but in the School you have no need, absolutely no need of them. And after attending our School for a year, I shall want you to be distinguished. We shall come, and decide, and mark the beginning – this is a School now. Someone says: "Show us the shortcomings". Fine, I’ll show you a lot of things. And when you get over them, then I shall show you some more negative features – not now, next time. Keep these features. Don’t fight conceit, and I’ll tell you what to put in its place, and in the place of the waywardness, hypocrisy, curiosity – I’ll tell you how to replace them. For I want you to be…I’m not saying good disciples, but I do not know which word to use now. Upright? – But are you all well-behaved? – You are all well-behaved. I am telling you, I am calling you the disciples of Love, do you understand that? Therefore, as disciples of Love, as I name you, (as disciples of Love, with this name I baptize you) – you shall follow the law of the great Divine Love. You may say: "I am the disciple of Love, I do not need conceit, I do not need hypocrisy, I do not need waywardness." Now, keep these four features and when one of them comes to you tell it: "My friend, I am the disciple of Love". When conceit starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love", when hypocrisy starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love", when curiosity starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love". Thus you will speak in a friendly tone: "I am the disciple of Love", and nothing beyond it. So as they keep coming to you, let your answer be such – they come, you say: "I am the disciple of Love". Until they tell you one day: "We are, too, the disciples of Love", and it will be over, the victory will be yours. These are living creatures that you were connected to in your past lives. But as you abide by the Law of Love, they will say: "Since you are the disciples of Love, we shall become ones, too". It just occurred to me, let me not be misunderstood. By saying that I shall close the School I mean that I shall talk and preach with symbols, and not the way I’m doing now. The method is different in the School but I shall not use that method. We are going to work by the old method, follow the old path – we are going to hoe, we are going to plough, we are going to make a path and thus things will go. Now, I believe, the next time I will find you two degrees up. You are below zero today, the second time I want to find you at zero, the third time – at plus one degree, at two degrees, at three degrees and every time up by one degree. Little by little I want you to advance; it’s not much that I want. Now, I am greeting you with the words: No fear! And you answer me: No darkness! And thus we shall work; on my arrival I shall greet you: No fear! And you shall answer me: No darkness! Source
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THREE KINDS OF DISCIPLES Fifth lecture given by the Master Beinsa Douno in the General Esoteric class at 7:30pm, on Thursday, March 30, 1922, in Sofia. Secret Prayer There are three categories of disciples in the Spiritual School: listeners, believers, and students. What is specific about the listeners? – Listening. What is specific about the believers? – Faith. And about the students? – Studying. Therefore, these three attributes are the making of a disciple. The disciple starts with listening – this is the first step; the second step is faith; and the third step is studying. Nevertheless, the disciple does not stop at these. Consequently, you have to learn to listen – for this is one of the first attributes. The Esoteric describes, “listening” as the state of concentration of the mind, or the focusing of the mind in one direction without interruption. The second attribute of the disciple is faith – not doubting what one studies and listens to. Once the disciple is in doubt, the corresponding learning process is stopped. This principle is valid regardless of the direction of the studies – faith accepts no doubt. You could have misconceptions, but these are outside of faith. Then, the disciple stands out with a desire for learning, i.e. the disciple wants to have Knowledge, which comes from Wisdom. Consequently, the disciple cannot doubt this Knowledge, which differs from the commonplace knowledge you have now. Now, these are introductory notes, which you have heard many times, but you should now apply them in the Spiritual School. Telling someone that they are listeners might offend them, but they should know that listening is one of the great traits of a person. To pay attention and to listen, and to know how to listen, this is most pleasant in Life; it is the art of the ear. Once we get to faith, we will deal with the upper part of the brain. With these three attributes of the disciple, you touch the brain in three ways, the centre of faith is situated on the surface of the human brain, studying is located in the front and listening in the back, thus forming an equilateral triangle. Listening is located in the back of the brain, from where all the troubles in Life come. Now, we asked the first question, what is the purpose of the disciple in a Spiritual School? Only the Spiritual School can give a correct and positive answer. What is the purpose of a person? Only the Spiritual School will give you an answer, which can satisfy you. Once you get this satisfaction, there will not be indifference in you, and you will not think that now you know, instead you will get a new impulse to work for your advancement. There are many obstacles in your life that makes it hard for you to grasp the great truths in the knowledge, which you can get from a Spiritual School. For example, right now some of you are sleep-deprived, as they have not slept well last night; others have not had good food, so they have not eaten enough; the third have had some unsuccessful business deals. Overall, all of you always have some obstacles, and if you do not yet know the law of how to free yourselves from such temporary disturbances, then the Truth cannot touch you as genuinely as it should. The purpose of the Spiritual School is to prepare your minds and your hearts, so that you can understand and apply the Truth. This is also one experiential school. I am talking about the Spiritual School of the Universal Brotherhood of Light, which will show you the spiritual path to applying the Truth to Life – not finding it, but applying it. Now, these are general statements. In one of my previous lectures, I defined the life of a person into three categories – sleeping, eating, and working. The first task of the disciple is to understand these correctly. Sleeping applies to the astral or the corporeal life of the person, i.e. to their spiritual side. A person learns spiritually only in their sleep – this is how it is – you can learn spiritually only while you are sleeping. Therefore, if you do not know how to sleep, you will never be able to learn spiritually, you cannot be knowledgeable people, and you cannot be disciples. And when I say that you have to learn how to sleep, I mean to say that you have to put your body in such state that, when your soul, your double leaves the body at night, you can find your Teacher. For the knowledge is taught in the Spiritual world, not on Earth. Here we have a repeat on what is taught there. This is why I say that first, you have to learn how to sleep relaxed. You have to apply your will power. Maybe you cannot sleep that well for a night, then another, and a third one, but you should try to learn to sleep well in the period of one year. If you cannot apply your will power to sleep, then what type of heroes will you be? First thing, you will have to accustom your body, so that it knows how to rest. We will give you exercises, so that you learn how to relax. You want to listen to me now, but you are tight – your legs are tight, your mind is tight, you are in a painful state. This tightness of your muscles will always stimulate your lower centres. It will bring the astral powers to the lower layers of your brain and this will give birth to negative, most low-minded thoughts and feelings. For instance, the faces of some of you are so serious, because this is how you have become accustomed, but this is just something you have learnt. In the Spiritual School, you will learn to have your face quiet and calm, clean, and natural, very natural. Imagine that you are satisfied with everything, as if you have everything that you want – how will your face look? This is what the face of the esoteric person should be. Imagine that you are expecting a friend of yours, whom you have loved for years – your heart is trembling, you are expecting your friend. The opposite state: imagine that you have received a death sentence and they will hang you tomorrow. What will your state be then? Now, you apply this death sentence in yourselves once almost every week, and thus sometimes you commit suicide. Well, what will the look on your face be? You kill most of your most noble feelings and thoughts. You hang them for nothing, as if these feelings or these thoughts are responsible for some of your bad circumstances. In this School, you are absolutely not allowed to hang any thought or wish of yours. No, it is not allowed – everything will grow and develop as God wants it to or as His laws dictate. If you pass a single death sentence, you will definitely have mischief. You will sit down calmly for five or ten minutes and in a most comfortable position, and you will start picturing the most beautiful images. Relax your arm freely, then lift it, and then again let it drop freely. All your muscles have to be relaxed. You have to start to control all of your muscles, all of your nerves. You will also have to learn to walk – there is a correct way of walking in the Spiritual School. Some of you hit their heels hard when they walk, like the military. The heels of their shoes are almost worn off, is not this true? Those, who walk like this, are the disciples that smash stones. In the same way, these heels of yours will smash the most beautiful thoughts and wishes that you have in your brain. Others among you step on the front side of the shoes, where their shoes wear off, which shows their enhanced caution. They are sly like a fox. There is no need to be afraid of the world, as it is created so that there are no ambushes awaiting you. If you walk according to the Divine law, you can walk calmly, for there is no danger. The Brotherhood of Light knows each of you once you get in the Spiritual School, and respectively takes care of you – you can walk everywhere safely. As the Psalm singer says, “I will be under God’s wings,” – under His wings. They insist that there is Divine Providence, but once we come here to apply it, we do not believe in any Providence. I will make an attempt to show you that you do not believe in the Divine Providence, not that you do not want to believe, but you are not ready for this Absolute faith. Imagine that we create an artificial fire in this room. If you cannot concentrate, there will be such a hassle – you will forget that you are disciples, and everyone will try to leave the room as soon as possible. Therefore, we will try to free ourselves from those most instinctive feelings. Sometimes we tremble and get scared for no reason. In the Varna high school, one of the teachers liked to remain in the classroom long after the bell rang; he did not leave immediately. One day the students devised a plan on how to get rid of him. They investigated and found out that he is very afraid of frogs. One day they brought ten or twenty frogs and put them in the desk in the classroom. When the teacher opened the desk to take out the class book to note who was absent, the frogs came out. He left the room immediately and went right away to the director’s office trembling. Why? – He said, “Director, frogs.” – “What frogs?” – “Frogs!” Well, there is nothing dangerous about frogs. This story is to illustrate that many of our misfortunes in life are due to frogs. If it were a snake or a scorpion, I will understand, but what will a frog do? It will jump. It is the fear that does the rest. Therefore, you will try to be fearless. This is a habit that we have to acquire – to be fearless. Not that there are no dangers in Life, there are, but these dangers come only if we break the laws of Living Nature. If we are living in harmony with these laws, there is absolutely no danger. Back to the first thing – sleep, it is one important factor for the disciple in the Spiritual School. If you cannot sleep peacefully, you cannot be a good disciple; i.e. you can be a disciple, but not a good disciple of the Spiritual School. Now, regarding sleeping, you will make as many attempts as possible. For example, you will attempt to fall asleep five minutes after you have got into bed. This is not training – this is will power – to be able to fall asleep in five, or ten to fifteen minutes at the most. Today, some of you go to bed excited and start making plans about what they are going to do the following day. So, half an hour to an hour passes by. In addition, this surrounds you with an unhealthy aura. You get up around 2 o’clock in the morning, walk around and say, “It is not working!” In the morning when you get up, you feel indisposed, those hostile feelings overwhelm you, and you look for someone to fight with, so that you can let the feelings out and feel better. If through your will power you manage to fall asleep in five minutes or ten to fifteen at the most, you will get up refreshed and cheerful the following morning, ready to start your work. Sleeping right is the most difficult art – I have experienced it – it is one of the most intricate arts. You may take some sleep medicines, but the goal is to learn to sleep correctly without them. It is an art to still find yourself lying on your right side when you get up if you have fallen asleep on your right side; or, if you have fallen asleep on your left side, to find yourself on your left side in the morning. These days everyone is beginning with the broad aspects of the esoteric science, with the great powers of Nature – we want to have this, we want to have that, with a magic stick like in the fairy tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.” But no one gives a magic stick to those, who have not learned how to sleep. This stick is not in the physical realm; it is up there, in the other world. This stick is your will power, but not the current, common will power that you have. I say, a person, who can hold back their tongue at a given moment, who can hold back their hand at all times, who can hold back their heart or direct their mind from one state to another, this person is stronger than the army general, who has won the biggest battle on the battlefield. As you read the Scripture, you find the same law there. The Brotherhood of Light, the Brothers of Light always pay attention to our acts of self-restraint[*]. Not self-restraint because of fear, no, no, but self-restraint because of Love. Self-restraint because of fear of the law is not a science. You may have self-restraint and you may have it for other reasons, but true self-restraint and patience come when you have self-restraint in accordance with the law of Love. Now, we will learn of course, we have time. I will not talk to you about Love. You will explore this Love in new colours, and new shapes. And maybe these Brothers will give you the opportunity to make a few experiments. Tonight I was walking down the street with a friend of mine. I told him, “I will make an experiment.” I stepped on the sidewalk. There was an officer coming right towards me. There are two ways of passing people in the Esoteric. The first way: I can order him to turn off the road and so he does. The other way is for me to decide for myself, “I will step off the sidewalk.” And so I did to make way for him. At that moment, he stepped off the sidewalk too. I said, this is the right way. Then I stepped back on the sidewalk to let him pass. You will learn to yield according to the law of Love. If someone walks towards you – you will yield, the sacrifice will be on your behalf. The disciple will yield the way – this is a rule in the positive sense of the word. The disciples will yield in the name of Love they will make way. If they make way, their way will be open too. “How you measure others is how you will be measured.” If you measure with the law of Love, this is the measure with which those, who watch from the Invisible world, will reward you. Still, you can achieve this only with good sleep. I do not know how many of you sleep well. Sleeping well will improve your heart’s condition. Sleeping will not improve your body – it will first affect your heart, and your feelings. Food is necessary too. Eating correctly is what provides the material for building up your body. So, if your sleep is normal and correct, eating shall definitely be such as well – it follows the same law. Now, contemporary science makes the following correct conclusions. Science has made the following experiment: people with pure blood, who differ from people with impure blood by the absence of waste deposits and sludge, can withstand whatever microbial organisms they are exposed to; such people do not get sick and do not catch a cold, while people with impure blood get infected very easily. In the Spiritual School, the law is the same: in order for you to be healthy, the flow of your Astral[†] body has to be correct. Jesus has said, “If you do not eat my flesh, and if you do not drink my blood, you do not have life in you.” This flesh and this blood are indeed the rational Word. If the rational Word does not permeate deep through your body, you cannot be good. I have said this before and I will say it again, the power of the rational Word is mighty. I do not remember the author, but there are many things written in English, which present facts about will power. Some of them come from readings from the Gospel and give examples of how people have cured themselves through will power. A woman, who has been sick since she was twelve, read one of these books and the parts talking about how to cure oneself through will power. She said, “Starting today, I am healthy!” She said so, got off her bed, and began working. This is to make an internal change with your Astral body and in your heart. This will power has to be really strong and absolutely without any doubt. In the outside world today, in order to strengthen people’s faith, you have to first present arguments and facts, which have been logically substantiated. In the Spiritual School, the process is reversed; you have to believe first, in order to get clarity on the facts. Consequently, you will apply your faith, and through that faith you will question, explore, and clarify facts. Hence, you will undertake the re-evaluation of all of your old thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions – you will prioritise all of these. You will not discard all of your old thoughts, but you will preserve in yourselves only those thoughts, on which you can always count – thoughts acquired through your life experience. A friend of mine was saying, “I,” he said, “may doubt anything, but I have one such experience that I cannot disown even if they cut me into pieces.” You have to have a central thought; and if you cannot find this central thought now, you cannot be disciples. If you want to acquire this central thought and then become disciples, you will not be able to. I am telling you: each of you has this experience. You will find this thought hidden some place within, and through that central place, you will begin to explain every occurrence in your life. And this, which you acquire now, will be in agreement with that central thought, which will shape your future. But the truths that I will tell you are so simple, that if you make that bargain we discussed, you will look like that rooster, who was digging a pile, dug out a big precious stone, and said, “Was not there one grain instead?” He kicked it, “Was this what I managed to dig out? Was there not something to eat?” For this rooster did not know that if he would sell that precious stone, he could turn it into power, which could render his life with happiness, and supply millions of roosters like him with food. These esoteric truths, which you will be told, are so simple that you will say, “Is there not something more substantial?” Well, I am asking, what is it that is more substantial than Love in Life? There is nothing more substantial than Love, nothing more resilient than Love, and nothing more pleasant and happier than Love. “But we do not know the laws that Love follows.” These pleasant feelings, which you have, appear and disappear; the bright thoughts, which come up in your brain, appear and disappear; why? You think that this is the law. This is not the law, but there are other beings in this world that play with your brain – they push it here and there, play with it, and sometimes when they push it, there comes darkness. You are in a nice mood, a friend of yours comes along and whispers in your ear, “You are so ugly today, you have grown ugly!” Before you know it, it feels as if something pierced through you. So you are walking along, but you feel indisposed. “What is the matter with you? Is someone sick at home – your husband?” “No, no,” you are ashamed to say. “You have grown ugly,” so you believed it. You must have at least one mirror to see if this is a fact. Some even think that they are heroes. Here are what big heroes they are: here, in Sofia, three administrative workers were making a joke with a colleague. They decided to send him on a sick leave, saying, “Today we will make him not work.” The first one met the colleague downstairs and said, “You are so pale. Are you sick?” “No,” but he almost believed it. He just got to the first floor and the second one met him, “You seem very sick to me? What is wrong?” When he climbed the stairs, the third one told him, “You will faint as you are walking.” He then went to his boss and asked for a sick leave. The boss let him go, but when the former figured out what happened, he punished the three people to work on behalf of their colleague. These are facts. For example, you have a thought and you say, “Nothing good will come out of me.” This is like the first one who meets you downstairs. “Nothing good will come out of me. Why am I going this way? Science is not for me.” Both the second and the third one are capable of making you leave school. Once you are walking on the path of God, you might also meet three people, who tell you, “You becoming a religious man – this is not for you!” And then you might drop it. Do not succumb to these temptations! The disciples in the Spiritual School have to know the very Truth, the great Truth, as it is; they have to know the facts as they are in Nature; they have to know the laws, the principles, neither less nor more – to neither exaggerate nor understate them. I want all of you to be valiant, but not ruthless – not to exaggerate or understate your mistakes. You have to note every single mistake as a mistake, and the opposite – every virtue, whatever it is, as a virtue, and we have to all rejoice when we see a virtue regardless in whom we see it. Because Good is Divine, while it is those mistakes that mutilate people’s thoughts. A mistake, regardless of how small it is, has to be noted as such. Another rule in the Spiritual School is that no one has the right to remind a disciple of their past mistakes – this is a crime, notice it! If Nature has once erased it and turned the page, do not go back to that page saying, “Do you know what you did once?” Today the Brotherhood of Light requires this from you as disciples. If God says[‡], “I will erase your sins, I will forget them,” you will not remind others of them. Today disciples often say to each other, “Do you know how much you offended me five years ago?” “And you? Do you know what you told me ten years ago?” Tonight I am talking to you as disciples about what disciples in this School should be like. What you are in the outside world is another thing, for there everything is allowed. In the outside world everything may be allowed, but in this School, in this life, not everything is allowed. So before we go forward, you have to know that if you make these mistakes, you will not achieve huge success. You will be able to achieve success knowing that in the School of the Brotherhood of Light you are not allowed to give promises without fulfilling them. Not promises – once you say it, you do it! You will say, “I will live by the law of Truth,” and you will live by it. At one given point, you say and you do, nothing more. But there is no promise in the future, there is a promise in the current moment – if you say it, you do it, nothing more! The disciples are also not allowed to say what they will do – say it and do it! The Scripture also says[§], “God said and so it was. He said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Everyone will follow this law – once you say, you do! Now, we do not want any promises. We want only one thing from you – to apply the great law of Love, to apply the great law of Truth. Then, every day based on the situation, say it – do it, say it – do it. Do not give any promises! We will not keep you to your word. We do not want to remind you what you have promised, but if you have promised, do it. In the outside world, you can give promises, but we do not want any promises in the School. Promises give only to those people who do not have Love; promises give only to those people who do not have Truth; there is nothing more to it. No promises – this is what distinguishes the School of the Brotherhood of Light, for it has Absolute faith in its disciples, do you understand? Since the School’s existence, there has never been a time when a disciple has been able to lie to their Teacher. There has not been a single case when a disciple has lied to their Teachers. Not a single disciple has allowed himself to lie to the Teachers, but the Teachers have also never allowed the disciple to lie to them. Now you may ask me, “If I get into this School…?” There is not a single case in the history of this School when a disciple, who got in, turned back. Why? For where Love is the principle, there can be no turning back, without any exceptions. All exceptions result from the lack of the first principle – Love, and of the second principle – Truth. If these two principles are not applied, the Wisdom becomes distorted, the human mind becomes distorted, the human heart becomes distorted, and these are now people or individuals outside of the School. Then, as Paul says in that chapter[**], “Whom God called, those he chose.” In other words, there can be no exception. And I do not see the reason why exactly a human would give up walking on this great path of Life, where one can find one’s happiness. You will drop your old concepts. The concept of growing old, the concept of dying, becoming poor, the concept that we are stupid people, that human essence is such and such; you will put these away, close them in your closets and put a sign, “Do not touch.” Those of you, who want to be disciples, will do that. Some ask me, “I am old. Will I be able to do it?” Well, since when have you become old? Some say, “I am young. Will I be able to do it?” Everyone, who has lived in Love, is young; everyone, who has lived in Truth, is young. Everyone, who has lived in Love, is smart; everyone, who has lived in Truth, is smart – this is how it is. The moment you leave Love, you are old – you will feel an internal weakness, no meaning in Life; you will not have a purpose and you will become a pessimist; you will say to yourselves, “There is only death, but…” These are all initial notes. I want you to test them, and then to comprehend them. We will walk on a positive path without exception. You will say, “I cannot go without exception.” Yes, you can, and this is how it will be! This is a great Divine school, where there are absolutely no exceptions, not even one in a million do you understand? The only School, in which there are no exceptions in the world – none. Once you get in, all the Brothers believe in you – their life is like God’s life. When I say “like”, I mean to say that God’s life penetrates through all of them in its Fullness. Moreover, it is without rules or compulsions – everyone knows their roles and everyone adjusts according to them. They have absolutely no written rules, but they all know their roles so well, as if they have established the best organization and the best rules. And if you get in this Brotherhood of Light, you will never know who is who – the first or the last, a master or a servant. If you are among them, you may live together for years and say, “Who is your leader? Who is first among you?” Today, if you walk in a school anywhere in the world, you would know who the leader is. Thus, have in mind: do not think that in the School, where you learn the truths, there is a department and a teacher like me sitting on a table, surrounded by disciples, as you are surrounding me now. It is one thing here, but it is another thing there. You will say, “How so?” When you learn to sleep, you will know how. However, when these truths come to Earth according to the conditions of our current life, we have to look for the ways, methods, and formulas to express these truths, which are currently inaccessible to our minds. Well, they are inaccessible under the current conditions, but they will become accessible. You will have to study Light and its influence over your body system. You will also study the influence of colours and living centres. Let’s take sunlight: everyday at certain hours of the day, at noon, but mostly in the morning, certain waves periodically come from the Sun. They bring positive thoughts – intelligent thoughts from the Sun. There are negative events from the Sun too, which, however, do not bring negative thoughts. I brought to your attention the other day that if you fall asleep in the Sun, your body will definitely attract these negative waves, the so called black light, and you will feel indisposed when you get up. That is why the Esoteric disciple is never allowed to sleep in the daylight – no sleep during the day – you should sleep at night without Sun. You can warm yourselves in the Sun, but your mind will be present at all times, so that you can attract the positive waves of the sun energy. If you start to train your concentration as disciples, the spirits that play with you and make you fall asleep will visit you. You will concentrate without falling asleep. During the concentration, you will do the following: when something says “phoo” like a wave while you are sitting, you will resist it and will not allow yourselves to doze off. This “phoo” is a wave, a black wave that passes through the centre of the Earth, surrounds you and you fall asleep. Once you doze off (in the Sun), you learn nothing. You will not let these waves seize your brain. We will begin to study Light and the days of the year – which days and which hours we can use for work, the ways and methods for strengthening the activity of our brains, for enhancing our breathing energy, for fixing our digestion, etc. We have to start somewhere because you are now impoverished – every person, who is dissatisfied with life is impoverished. The first thing is the disciple has to be satisfied. These here are rules to apply to temperaments. You will practice them. Some of these rules you will practice here, but most of the work we will do in the other world – you will do the work while you sleep. The Scripture says[††], “God speaks during dreams one, two or three times.” He always speaks in dreams – He spoke to Joseph in his dream, to the prophets and people with revelations, and to John when he ascended[‡‡]. If you want to improve your situation, or to know how to fix your life, you need to have one such dream and you will immediately get the best advice on how to improve your life. Now, you can read some of the papers. (Two papers were read.) You will not have enough patience to listen to all of these papers. Some of you have become quite excited about following the School. You should know one thing: those of you, who do not show up three Thursdays, will not be allowed to attend the School in the future – this is for everyone, who is absent three times. Now you will say, “There could be exceptional cases.” Those, who are absent three consecutive times, are the ones who lose their right to attend. Do you now get the inner meaning? It means that if a disciple has forgotten three times that there is School, if that thought has escaped one three times, one is banned from attending. You will have in mind that in this School there is no room for exceptions or benevolence – without exception. This has not been imposed, but once each of you decides, you have to faithfully follow. There is one important law – what you have decided within yourselves, you have to be able to accomplish it. Not what we impose on you, but what you have decided to accomplish; accomplish it! You have to accomplish it; otherwise, all of the science in the world will be useless to you. A person, who promises without carrying it out, is like a leaky container – you can pour in as much as you like, but soon or later, it will all leak outside. We do not want any commitments from you, but once you decide to serve Love, you will be heroes and will say, “You might crucify me, but there is no turning back from this path.” Once you say so, once you are walking on this path, God is with you. The slightest hesitation and you are lost. Do not then be upset with anyone and do not say, “Why has God abandoned me?” In the Spiritual School, things are set the following way: it is not God, who has abandoned us, but it is us, who have abandoned God. And He says[§§], “Since you have abandoned me, I will not be occupied with you.” Of course, I do not consider your presence on Thursdays your only time in the Spiritual School. No, for your whole life is one Spiritual School. If you think that you are in the Spiritual School only on Thursdays, you are wrong. No, no – your whole life is one Spiritual School. Consequently, you will be in agreement with the Spiritual School that you serve – this way you will have results. From this point of view, you will resolve all other matters, regardless of what they are – individual, family, social, or national; you will resolve all matters by yourself, always from this point of view. Now, I will present for voting whether you want us to read through all the sheets. Will you have enough patience for all of the papers to be read? Since they have been written, we have to read them. Then, we will read them all next time. You will learn to have patience, so that you learn to have benevolence. There are valuable and smart things in here. And understandably so, when someone has invested their heart and mind, this is something beautiful. When we love someone, even if they say stupid things, we say, “This is so beautiful!” And when we do not love someone, even if they wrote smart things, we say, “I do not want to listen!” But these here are all smart papers. Now, for next time I want ten of you, who apply voluntarily, to write something on the topic “The Purpose of the Human Language.” So, ten people will write on this topic – five brothers and five sisters. They will start with this evident language – it is the topic. This language was born, and came from some kind of an idea. Let those of you, who will write, raise your hands. (Five brothers and five sisters respond) You will write succinct, one page. Do not be afraid – the moment you start writing you will get on an esoteric wave, for you will get inspiration. No one should be forcing themselves. Everyone should write as much as their inspiration gives them. If the inspiration lasts for ten lines, this is how long you will write. Have in mind that the Spirit in the Spiritual School speaks only the most relevant things. These Brothers do not like to talk too much. Let someone take the initiative to be a secretary or a record keeper – to keep these sheets of papers. Secret Prayer [*] “Vuzdurjanie” in Bulgarian [†] “Astralno tyalo” in Bulgarian – what is meant exactly in English: “Astral body” or “Ethereal body”? It is astral body. (ed) [‡] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [§] Same as the previous note [**] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [††] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [‡‡] The translator is uncertain if “ascended” corresponds to the specific situation with John [§§] Please note: uncertainty with the translation of God’s words
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The First Obligation of the Disciples (4th Lecture of the General occult class, March 15, 1922, Sofia) Before we proceed to read that which you have written, I wish to make a few short remarks. The knowledge which you can receive in a school of the occult will affect not only your present but also your future lives, for thousands of years to come. Every school of the occult or Great divine school of the occult is accompanied with great difficulties. It is not easy to become a disciple of such a school. You may go along in such a school as ascatechunen. A disciple is only he who can deal with the problems of this school as a mathematician who fully understanding the rules of mathematics uses then to solves his problems, or, as a musician knowing the technique and the theory of music; is able to cope correctly with the exercises of his instrument. The disciple must be aware always about his position in the school. He should not keep any illusions. The first rule of the school of the occult is: the disciple must have great humility, not submissiveness, but meekness, realizing the great idea that the eternal, the boundless cannot be contained in that which is limited. He should not be tempted to think that in such a small head, in such a snail brain he can collect all the secret knowledge. Tor the present this is impossible. Comparison has been made that the human brain has a great capacity to collect much knowledge. This comparison is the following: if we collect all the present knowledge it may be contained in 90 volumes as large as the bible and print it in the human brain, there will remain still space for 900 more of such volumes. Thus, calculate 90x900 and you will have the proportion 1:10. This indicates that man has not achieved half of the knowledge for which his brain has the capacity. The disciple of the school of the occult must realize where his place is. He must know that the disciples of the lowest grades are different than those of the highest in the knowledge, i.e. that their knowledge and power are nothing compared with that of the advanced disciples. In one respect man may know much and in another may be ignored. This should discourage you but he who wants to learn must be aware of it. I will repeat again the idea, that people become old only when they think that they know much. He who wants to become old this is the easiest thing. On the day (when) you come to think that you have finished learning everything you have aged. In order to rejuvenate you must think that you know very little and like a child you will become receptive. Such an aging I call premature. For this reason I wish that all in this school are young. In order to be young you must think that only now you begin to study the great divine teaching. The teaching which the world gives is an introduction to the divine teaching. Then you finish all schools of the world: elementary school, junior high, high school, after that college, and even after that you get your master’s degree and become the most educated man, this is only an introduction to the divine knowledge, which you must start learning. Therefore, if you have acquired this introduction you can become a good student of the divine school. For this reason I recommend you to gain of the worldly knowledge as much as possible. Some people say that they do not need worldly knowledge. If you lack this knowledge you cannot achieve the divine knowledge. If the worldly knowledge is difficult for you, the divine knowledge is thousand times more difficult. The fee for one of the modern colleges is $4,000/yn. yet to study in one of the divine schools you may not be able to enroll even if you would pay $8,000 or $10,000 or $20,000 or $100,000 or one million or even 100 million dollars. Do you understand that? If the question is about money this cannot be achieved with paying any amount. In a divine school you will pawn your heart, your mind and your will. Then you will pay for you heart and your mind in order to show what a hero you are. You will keep your will but your heart and your mind you will pawn. This is the reason why in Scripture it is said: "My son, give me your heart." You ought to pawn your heart Naturally this is not pawning as it is understood in worldly life, any school of the occult you must approach with respect and reverence. It is an inner process. You cannot be undisciplined there. If one enters there he must do this with all the nobility of his heart and mind. One must be aware that this is the greatest and most noble work. Upon the knowledge, that is the building materials which he will gain, will rest his happiness, because upon this knowledge, he will build his future life, his future home. One may ask, "Is this not possible without this knowledge." No, it is not. You may enter it with awareness or not, yet all will pass through this divine school and will finish it. Some are aware that they have entered the school and others have entered without being aware of it, without knowing. The religious people say "We do not need much knowledge, we can go by without this school." This indicates that they will go through this school without awareness. Those who have fear will be lead over a bridge by night so that they may not be afraid. Those without fear will pass the bridge by day. The fearful need to have their eyes covered. If someone asks "Is this not possible without this school?" I say it is possible with covered ayes, and also without this cover. One of the rules says we do not require much. True, very little is required. Each disciple is expected to give one hour of his time each day. Seven days, one hour a day, is seven hours work, and this time which you would otherwise waste is the time which you will dedicate for study. This hour you will dedicate consciously for love’s sake. Again I wish to repeat that if you work without love you cannot profit. The rule in the divine school says that the knowledge must be acquired according to the laws of love. If you acquire knowledge without love it will not bring you any profit. Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians says: "Whatever I do if it is without love I gain nothing." If we do it with love we gain. In this school of the occult you will become acquainted with all the religious systems, situations, laws, why did the religions appear, by what conditions, etc. This tray there will be no misunderstanding: if we are on the right or on the wrong side. From the occult point of view we think about right and wrong differently. According to the understanding of the occult school contemporary law is lawlessness. Someone may say: Isn't there law? Law! Your law from the viewpoint of the occult is lawlessness, Therefore, in order to have a correct understanding of the great divine evolution of things, we must have that true knowledge, true understanding and only then we will be able to examine the questions philosophically. We are not afraid of questions. Some questions we can solve very easy, others will have to remain without answers. Why? Because in every school of the occult each question must be treated at its proper time and not when the time is not right. There are questions which have not been asked at the proper time. There has been asked: "Is there a God or isn’t there?" This, too, is a question not asked at the proper time, because for me, since I live at the same time in this and in the other worlds, and commute with all these angels, if I am asked: "Are there any angels?" I keep quiet. Someone will try to convince me that this is nonsense, I keep quiet again, because I can see what is the nonsense. Then someone may ask if I can see all this. As much as he has the right of doubting I too have the right to be doubtful about his understanding (concepts, comprehension). Two equal quantities with opposite directions do invalidate each other (mathematics). In a different question is if someone asks how one should live, how life may be improved; such questions the school of the occult can answer. How to renew our life, how to improve our mind, how to purify our hearts, how to develop our spiritual powers, all this can be answered, and the proper methods be given. Those who enter the school of the occult must realize that they are disciples and the disciple must be without prejudice. He must be pure like a clean garment. Only the old people who have lived long on earth say: A man must not be naive. From the viewpoint of the occult we prefer to be naive in certain respects. And thus everyone of you must part with his prejudices. And of that which has been taught does not give the proper results, he may make his own conclusion. Only small, microscopic experiments will be made, we don’t need to do great things. I will tell you to plant one grain of wheat and then I will ask you if it has come out. Yes, it has. Then, how much did it yield, has it ripened? Is this seed real? Because what happens with one seed happens also with 10 million such seeds. Yet we will not expect immediate results. Someone, when he enters the school of the occult may think that he will draw aside the curtain, and at once everything will improve. He who thinks that the curtain will be opened at once, I would want to warn him not to waste his time. This must be understood. I don’t want anyone to become disillusioned. If you expect great things I may advise you where to go. There you can achieve the great things. First, we will proceed to study basically modern man such as he is to learn about his present state with the powers which develop in his organism which reveal themselves in his mind, work in his heart and become realized in his will. After we have studied man in this way we will proceed in a different field, which is wider and more pleasant. The study of man is in one respect pleasant and in another unpleasant. When we study the positive properties of man it is pleasant, yet when we study the negative ones it is very unpleasant. It is difficult to come to know man. You will find yourself in a school of the occult where all positive and negative sides of your character will be disclosed to you as in a mirror, to see your own thoughts. At such an examination your temperature will fall to 35 centigrades below zero, you will freeze completely; you will lose all the desire to live. For this reason in old times many disciples have lost their minds. Yet we will not do this. In a school where much is given one may come out either with a great mind or he will lose his mind, it is like gambling. The method which we will apply here is one of the least dangerous. Yet when I say it is not dangerous don't think that you may pass easily. Here, too, you will pawn your heart and your mind. There are all kinds of cupboards and keys, and every day when you say "I want back my heart," you will be able to pen them yourselves, when you would want and take your mind and your heart; the other way, where one has made great achievements, it would be indifferent. Then, when you complete the school, the Great Master will come and He Himself will open. And, if you ask me about all these modern men who are mentally sick why they are in such a state, I would answer: they are pupils of such schools which they have not completed. At the beginning you will, implant in your mind the idea that you must complete the school, in whatever way. Religions say: "We must fulfill the will of God." We say: "The earth is a school and we must finish this school in anyway." Silent Prayer. Source
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The Four Rules Third lecture of the General Occult Class, given by the Master Beinsa Douno on the 9th of March 1922, Thursday, 7.10-8.00 pm, in Sofia The song “Bless, my soul, the Lord” was sung quietly Secret prayer Order, system, and discipline are needed from all of you, but not imposed by me. I want each of you to impose your own discipline on your thoughts and feelings. And those, who cannot impose it on themselves, don’t let them come. If you cannot impose such discipline on yourselves, do not come. And if someone allows himself to come without this discipline, then I do not answer. I want Absolute harmony! Outside you may find fault with me, but here I do not answer for the consequences for one who criticizes me. When a person enters the House of God, he should know that this is a church; when he comes to the school, he should know that this is a school. If you come here to compare your knowledge, to see how much you know, you need not come. You want to be friends with me, don’t you? But we can be friends only when we observe the law of the Absolute Love, when we observe the law of Wisdom, the law of Justice. They are equal for everyone, no one is excluded; the law is absolute there. Love is absolute and relative; there is Absolute Wisdom and relative wisdom, Absolute Truth and relative truth, Absolute Justice and relative justice, Absolute Good and relative good. We follow the Absolute not the relative; the relative is outside in the world, let’s make that clear. Because in the Absolute there is one opinion only, while in the relative there are many opinions. And you should know: only in this way can you have the assistance of Heaven. Heaven is a place of order and system, a place of discipline. In Heaven, there are no such orders and such policemen as on Earth. There are no written laws there; everyone has the laws written within – either in his mind or in his heart or in his Spirit, in accordance with the degree of growth of the being. Now, my wish is to free you from unnecessary sufferings and difficulties. If a pupil, who goes to school, has a corn, scrofula in his leg or a stomach ache; will he be able to learn? He should be free. If this pupil is hungry, if he has not eaten for three or four days, will he be able to learn? That means that there should be food, there should be clothes, and there should be everything he needs. So, if you come with your worries here, we have no need of you – this is not an orphanage, this is not a place of refuge. Your coming here on Sundays may be considered as coming to a place of refuge, but at present it is a school – healthy people are needed. A person who is ill should stay outside and a person who is healthy should come. So, all of you can be healthy. If you are ill, there is an excuse but the ill should stay outside. In a spiritual school people become ill by themselves and recover their health by themselves. Now I will answer this question outright. Were you ill when you left God? – You were healthy. Therefore, what is the reason that you are ill? Were you uneducated or educated when you left God? You were educated, not uneducated. Your present ignorance is due to you having eaten and drunk everything. And in eating and drinking everything, you have become impoverished on the physical field. Now we will address ourselves to the positive Life. Let us leave the remote past and the distant future and take up the present. When a contemporary author decides to write a book in the form of a short story or of a novel, he has two subjects – a male character and a female character. The male character is a man and the female character is a woman and the author allocates all other characters round those two and makes his story interesting. Now I am asking: why does he need these two characters? The male character presupposes the female character and the female character presupposes the male character. Once you take away one of the characters, the other disappears without saying. People also have two characters inside them; what are they? I will tell you: the first character is the mind and the second character is the heart. The author, that is to say the Spirit allocates the rest of the characters round these two. The Spirit, the author, is who selects the two characters - the mind and the heart - and on them he builds up his story; all other characters are arranged round them. Now, this author selects his characters; he defines exactly what the heroism of both characters will be and he endues them with certain moral qualities. For example, he will give the male character power, courage, resolution to win and he will give the female character greatest sufferings in order to withstand; he will put her into the greatest temptations and she will endure them; he gives her a negative part. Well, then what should the qualities of your mind be, what should the male character be? Your mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute. Should the mind say: “This is not for me”, it would be deprived of its heroism. Once your mind looks for the easy way in the world, only a star-fish or a sea mushroom may come of you, nothing more. And when an Angel comes down to Earth to take a look at people, He recognizes what each one wants through his mind. If a disciple, who enters the School, seeks the easiest way, nothing will come of this disciple. If he comes to the difficult problems and he gets round them or gives them to be solved by others and he enters with someone else’s solution of the problem, we know what would come of him. And all those now ruling the world, who are at the head, have come out of such schools, where they have only solved easy problems. And then, what should be the qualities of the heart? They correspond with the female character. The mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute and in the heart there should be plasticity, endurance, and patience. These are the qualities that the disciple should acquire. No one was born with them, everyone acquires them. There are conditions for this and you should acquire them in order to be able to comprehend the Great Nature. Now, what do you think; if this male character has hesitated five or six times and departs from his vocation, what is in store for him? Once and for all, he has lost the good will of the female character and he is finished. The reverse is true also – when the female character departs from her principle, from her vocation, she has lost her heroism, too. Do not be in error and say: “Is there not a blessing?” This is another question. In mathematics, problems are solved in one way only, no exclusion is allowed. “But it is only one unit, one mistake!” This unit, this mistake does much harm when it concerns a great number which is reiterated in the calculations. And so, you will study your male character, i.e. your mind and your female character – the heart. And then you will ask me: “Where is the human will?” In my opinion, the human will is a child of the mind and of the heart. Therefore, if a person has will, I understand that the mind and the heart are productive, that they have worked in compliance with the Divine law. If there is will, this shows that the mind and the heart have been going the new way; if there is no will, this shows that they are childless; these people have lived a wrong life – this is the interpretation. In the Spiritual life, a person without will is degenerating. This is the definition of will, but it is not like the definition of contemporary philosophers. Now, in order to be able to understand your mind, in order to be able to understand your heart and your will, you need four other elements. These are the so called temperaments. There is a nervous or mental temperament, which belongs to the brain; there is a sanguine temperament, which belongs to the lungs and to the respiratory system; a choleric temperament, which belongs to the muscular and bone systems; and a phlegmatic temperament, which belongs to the stomach. When the nervous or mental temperament is of high quality in the display of the forces which form it, the thought flows plastically, fluently, the mind is productive, no darkness is ever noticed in it – it will work always, you will be quick and deep in your thought. This is only when the mental temperament is of high quality. All temperaments can be of high quality, of middle quality and of poor quality. Once the temperament of the mind is of poor quality, you will have to work for a long time. Since the main role in this temperament is played by the brain and the nerves, hence you will have to learn to regulate your electricity. The brain is a place of electricity. Sometime we can make a trial, as this is a wide field. The different regions of the brain accumulate and collect various types of energy. Even an experiment could be made to show that if certain energies are taken away or transmitted, your mental mood will change at once. Let us presume that you are afraid of something, you cannot live at home, and you want to leave. If someone, more courageous than you, puts his hand on a certain part of your head, where the centre of fear is, he will take away the respective energy at once and your fear will disappear; and vice versa, if a coward puts his hand on that place of someone’s head, that one will become cowardly. So, fear can be transmitted and can be taken away from you. These are currents within the brain; when we come to these currents, they can cause certain movements in the corresponding centres and a moving in the consciousness will appear, accompanied with danger. Also, let us say that someone is merciful or compassionate; this energy is also located in a certain part of the brain. If you decide to do a good deed and a person with negative qualities who is not merciful, comes to you and puts his hands on the centre of mercy, the same wish not to give anything will be generated in you too; and the reverse, if someone does not want to give alms and someone else, who is very merciful puts his hand on that centre, a wish to give alms will be generated at once in that person. So, someone says: “I am not in mood to do this thing”. I am asking: has it come out of your mind, is it yours? You should know whether a thought is yours or someone else’s. “I am not in mood” – he says. Yes, but this not any kind of philosophy. This indisposition may be someone else’s and if everyday you live someone else’s frame of mind, what experience could you have? The answer is none. The Bulgarians say: “Someone else’s is always someone else’s; it can be taken away even on Easter”. No, you will keep only that which is inside you; only yours, only this, which has passed through your mind, has been ascertained by your heart and has been applied by your will – you might work on it. I wish that what you learn in the School, to pass through your mind, through your heart and through your will. I do not aim at persuading you to do this; this thought is far away from me. In this Great esoteric school the experience plays the whole role. Food recommends itself, does it not? I do not recommend it, I say: “Taste this food!” You will judge the food by the results. From what you are taught, I want you to form an opinion as to whether it is helpful or not, by yourselves. I call the first temperament - the mental one, dynamic. Therefore the head is dangerous, it is a dynamo. It is like a mace and one who has a strong head, if he is not good, he can do great harm to someone with this mace. The second temperament, the sanguine one - I call it gaseous, it has the property to expand. And hence it is necessary, because when a person possesses this sanguine temperament, he gives expansiveness to his dynamic force – the head, its form becomes larger. This temperament develops as well, that is why we should use breathing as a means of its development. In those who have weak breathing, who are narrow-chested, whose lungs are not developed, whose blood vessels are weak; in them this temperament is of poor quality and consequently their mental system will not function properly as well. There is a relation between the temperaments. And so, first, you will try to develop your lungs in compliance with your nervous system. The lungs and the circulatory system are included in the sanguine temperament – they form it. Next to the first two temperaments comes the phlegmatic temperament or as some call it, the vital or the life temperament. I call it an accumulative temperament - which thickens. It is the temperament of the stomach. When a person has a normally developed stomach, eating is done correctly – neither too much hunger nor too much overeating. Therefore this temperament is necessary to accumulate energy. And those who are denied the vital temperament often wither like flowers; they are short of soil around and begin drying up. It is said: “It is no use being fat”, but also it is no use if the stomach is quite small. In the case of this temperament the size is not the important thing but the structure of the stomach and it has the quality of good eating. If you want to reorganize your stomach, you should eat on time and should not overeat. And last is the choleric temperament; the temperament of the muscular and bone systems, the temperament of physical man. I call it executive. It bears the executive side of human life. Everything that has to be done in the world is always done through this temperament. Those, in whom this temperament predominates, have sinewy muscles; their bones are sound, somewhat coarse; their tongue is slightly unbridled; they do not argue by words but by hands and legs. Now, each temperament has its own field of action. When the choleric temperament is predominant, the relative centres in the brain – around the ears – are developed. Because each outside centre has its representative up, in the brain, these parts are well developed there. The upper part – the imagination, is well developed in the case of the sanguine temperament. In the case of the phlegmatic temperament, the temporal parts are developed, and this shows that when such a person smells a dish, he conceives the pleasant desire to enjoy his food. When the mental system is predominant, the entire structure of the front part of the forehead has a nice shape. You should study the temperaments and should start developing them. If you cannot build a certain temperament, cannot carry its inherent properties, you will remain with a shortage. An enduring person can be one who has vital or phlegmatic temperament. Even the well developed person may not be enduring, if he loses the qualities of the vital temperament. He cannot be nippy if the sanguine temperament is not developed in him. Also, his mind may not be bright, may not be quick to grasp, if the nervous temperament is not developed. First of all you will start cultivating your temperaments. Now, there is a certain measuring regarding the temperaments, but if I give you the combination, you may mix up your conceptions, being not acquainted with these laws. For example, the width of the nose in its lower part and in the temporal fields will show to what extent your vital temperament is developed, because there is proportionality between all parts. The width of the nostrils is in correlation with the width of the hand as well as with the face. Also, your fingers will be organized according to how your stomach is organized; your entire hand as well as the soft parts of the fingers, which correspond with the lungs, will be organized according to how your lungs are organized. One, who comprehends this, will know in what shape your stomach is, will know everything just by looking at the parts of the hand; in this respect it is open and above board. And you, as disciples, are faced with a very serious work. Now, I want to specify the following: in this school you will use for work only your spare time – the time which you do not know for what to use. I do not want you to leave your homes. How many hours can you spare: one hour, half an hour or more? You need at least one hour and it will be better still if you can spare one and a half up to two hours per day, but not to leave your work and to cause rows, I do not want any rows. The capable disciple needs a little time as does the assiduous one. You know the saying, don’t you, about the tortoise1 and the rabbit that were racing? The rabbit was running very fast but it slept at many places while the tortoise was going slowly but did not have any rest and left the rabbit behind. So, sometimes fast people are late more than slow ones. It is also true that the most talented pupils at school, who are very promising, in Life give nothing. It is not that they could not give but they get complacent from praises. Now, many say: “Let us be praised!” No, praising is very dangerous. You should speak favourably of someone once per year, on Easter only, but to speak favourably of him every day is very dangerous. On Earth, it is very dangerous for man to be praised. It is dangerous also to blame, there is no need to blame. The one thing is as dangerous as the other. Both blaming and praising are egoistically motivated. Why do we speak favourably about someone? In order to bribe him – our motive is not because he is high-minded but because we want to bribe him. Sometimes we say: “You are very bad”; thus we want to influence him. But he says: “I am not so bad”. In the Esoteric school, neither methods are used – it is not allowed either to be praised or to be blamed. Now, we have abilities, put into us and everyone is ever so rich in them. These abilities should be developed. Some have more conditions for this and others have less. In the present circumstances you cannot be all alike and cannot achieve the same results. Even, from among ten persons only one or two are capable, they can achieve a great deal; only they are the stars, the rest have supporting parts. If we do not achieve much in this life, we will achieve a lot in the next one, but we should not lose heart from this. When you have your term, then you will be ready – this is how a disciple should look at it. He should use the present for the sake of those distant purposes of his life. One day we will be called and will be told: “Play your part!” If we are prepared, we will play it. Then you will have your turn. And so, in order that you could develop your mental or nervous temperament, you have to learn to control your thoughts by all means. It has been spoken many times about self-control. Self-control is mastery for the disciple. Worries will come, trials will come and they are a matter of course. They will come but when all these disturbances appear and you obtain a certain good, you will have succeeded in controlling your thoughts. Each of you should have a note-book, this is a must. Once you yield to temptation or sometimes get anxious, note how many minutes you needed to calm down. Once you start getting angry, say to yourself: “At 10:30 a storm arose in me and after five-ten-fifteen minutes, half hour or one hour this storm blew over”. Someone says: “This anger will pass by itself”. Right, the anger will pass in itself but it can carry everything away and then it is dangerous; but if you set it to work, everything will stay. It is not bad for anger to come, but it is dangerous when it gets away with everything. You should set this energy to work. Or, once a good thought comes to you, note how much time you needed to attain it. Do not note all thoughts; one thought per day is enough. If it is negative, note how much time you need to transform this state, to achieve a pleasant mood inside and to say: “Thanks, I learnt my lesson well”. This means to solve your problem by yourself, does it not? And it is remarkable, that as soon as a person enters the spiritual Path, troubles begin to happen at once. Take your child, who has been calm and has played; you send it to school and teachers cause it trouble at once. Returning home, it cannot play, it starts thinking about the subjects he has to study and you say: “My child studies a lot”. And the mother worries that her child studies too much. It is not dangerous to study a lot. Now, you may think that this is a simple work. No, this a fundamental work! Tolstoy2 gives a story. I am not going to give you the whole story but only a part, clarifying my thought. It is the following: a person wanted to become clairvoyant and he thought that in becoming clairvoyant he will be able to use it. And he did have such a moment indeed. He saw that a thief was going into a house of a rich man with the intention to rob him. And the clairvoyant decided to do a good deed. He went to the rich man and poked him to stand up and see the thief; the rich man stood up and killed the thief. Another instance: the clairvoyant saw that two young people love each other; at one time another young man came nearer to the girl; the clairvoyant went to her beloved telling him to save her; the young man went quickly, they quarrelled and killed each other. The clairvoyant wanted to arrange their lives. A third instance he saw that someone was going to steal shocks from a field. The one who possessed this field was poor, so the clairvoyant went to him and told him: “Do you know that your sheaves are being stolen?” The poor man went, caught the thief but they quarrelled and killed each other. This is not any science. That is why it is said in the Scriptures; “If someone is going to commit a crime, let him do it while the disciple should go his way.” I like the example from the novel of Victor Hugo “Les Miserables” with Jean Valjean, who was caught with the candlestick in hand and was brought to the bishop. The latter said: “He did not steal it, I gave it to him”. This is a high-minded example! The error of all esoteric disciples is in your delving into a small error of others and saying: “Why should they do it?” We do not look into errors; in an esoteric school it is never allowed to look into the negative qualities of others. And if someone comes to complain to you that he was robbed, take money out from your pocket and pay him. Say: “How much was taken?” – “I lost five hundred leva3. “I will pay”. And the matter is settled. I want the disciples in this School to correct the errors of others by doing so. “How would I correct the errors of others?” How? – Do not allow these negative qualities in you. Never think of the errors of others, if you want to ennoble yourselves. Do not think of people ever, absolutely never! Now, this is for the disciples in the School, not for the outside world. The rule for the world is different, do not apply this rule in the world, the law there is different. But the one, who wants to be a disciple in the Christ’s school, he should never dwell on the errors of people. They will appear but never dwell on them. God also does not dwells on our sins – everyday He creates new things; creates the new. Now, there are many people who are dwell on the errors of others and say: “Is this right or not?” In Absolute right there is only one rule and I wish that you all apply this rule: always to bring into yourselves something new, something good. You will not become perfect disciples at once, I do not want this from you, but you should know how to solve your tasks, how to be accurate. Under this rule, you will have as much as you are allowed, never postpone, and never put off. Do not have a bad opinion of yourselves; but have the same opinion which God has of you. If you say: “I am very bad” and you mean that God has made you bad, you are very wrong. And if you mean that you are very lazy, this is another question. Say: “I am capable of doing it, I am capable.” So, you will work on your temperaments: on the temperament of your head, the nervous one; on the sanguine temperament; on the phlegmatic temperament, as well as on the motive or the choleric temperament. And you always will distribute your energies evenly. In this way your face will start taking on a regular form. In those, whose temperaments are distorted, asymmetry appears: fingers bend, hands and legs are crooked, and disharmony appears in the display of energies. And so, mind, heart and will have four elements and you should work with them. You will put dynamism in every thought, that is electricity. After that you will expand this thought, then you will give it weight and last you will give it strength of motion or, as I call it, growth. Once your temperaments function in this way, you will be able to do everything. It is necessary that these things should not just be sown but should be raised to bear fruit. Some writers write well because they have put into their thought all these qualities. The mind is the male character, the heart is the female character and the child born by these characters is similar to the father and the mother. When I speak about the will, I mean the child of the mind and the heart. Often after my Sunday talks, after preaching a fine lecture, I have noticed that two people argue, they quarrel about something and I say: this is how they have understood the lecture – both are offended. And at once they say: “Excellent lecture!” and they do not quarrel; they have understood it well then. But once they quarrel, the lecture has not been excellent. If people quarrel the lecture is not first-rate. So, the path you will go on is a path of work and perseverance. I will be punctual; I have only five minutes more. Then you will relate both talks - the previous one was about sleeping, eating and working and the present one is about your mind, your heart, your will and the temperaments. Now, I will give you a task. Let each of you write ten lines on the topic: Which is the best mind. Let each one write what it means according to him. And then I will let you, the disciples, review it by yourselves. There will be one or two meetings – the disciples will review what they have written. And so, the topic is: Which is the best mind or what are the qualities of the best mind. It is very clear; we likened the mind to the male character. You will describe as an author describes the main qualities of the character – the mind and the character are similar. Now, next time those of you, who can write this, will bring their sheets of paper and from what you will have written we will extract the essence – what you think of the mind – and will figure out certain rules: how the mind should be cultivated. Everyone will write without reading what is written to anyone else. You will write half a sheet, ten lines, not putting your names on the paper. We will read who thinks what of the best mind. We will have one exercise and then we will engage one of you, who is most capable, to extract the essence from all these thoughts and to make an overall description, a summary about the best mind. Secret prayer The song “Love is spring” was sung 1 Originally in the lecture is about frog-rabbit race. 2 The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy 3 Bulgarian currency