Monday, October 22, 2007
Staying the Course
When you choose to undertake a task, whether it is for learning a new skill, or as simple as cleaning the attic, you must choose and resolve to finish what you have started. To start a task and to leave it unfinished will cause the result that is crying out for completion to haunt you.
How can you know if there is a little work ahead or a great deal? We cannot know; nor is it important to know. If you should take up the task merely because you think there is little to do, then you will certainly fail. The very fact that you would not venture upon the undertaking if you thought the task a difficult one is evidence that you do not have the qualifications necessary for the success. Unless you are filled with a longing to possess greater power to be used in the service of humanity, and fired with an enthusiasm that would hesitate at no difficulties, you have not yet reached the point in evolution where you await only the final steps that will make you a success.
However even the absence of the keen desire for spiritual and mental progress, which is the best evidence of the probability of success, should not deter you from entering into the systematic study of theosophy and devoting to it all the time and energy you can; nor should the thought that many years might pass without producing any very remarkable results lead you to conclude that the undertaking would not be a profitable one.
The time will come with each human being when you will step out of the great throng that drifts with the tide, and enter upon the course of conscious evolution, assisting nature instead of ignoring her beneficent plan; and since it is but a question of time the sooner a beginning is made the better, for the sooner will suffering cease.
There should be a word of warning about the folly of trying to reach spiritual illumination by artificial methods. For two reasons such methods should be avoided: One is that any powers thus gained can not be permanent, and the other is that they may be more or less dangerous. Many people have made physical wrecks of them selves or have become insane by some of these methods. Until you are firmly upon sound moral ground, you are much better off without any powers, the selfish use of which would lead to certain disaster.
There are those who advertise to quickly teach a skill, for a fee, as though spiritual powers could really be conferred instead of evolved! It is true that efforts toward the evolution of such powers may be enormously aided by teachers, but such instruction can not be bought. Those who teach this ancient wisdom select their own pupils from the morally fit, and tuition can be paid only in devotion to truth and service to humanity. Yes sometimes the teacher requires a sum, but it is usually a maintenance fee, but there is always more work than fees. That is the only road that leads to instruction worth having.
Now you ask “But how shall the pupil find the teacher?” you need not find the teacher, the teacher finds the pupil long before the pupil suspects that the teacher exists; and since it is the pupil who has the limited consciousness it is quite natural that it should be so. Thus it is inevitable that all who enter upon the way that leads to spiritual illumination must long remain ignorant of the fact that any teachers are interested in them or that anybody is giving the slightest attention to them.
So then the question arises “But what leads to the selection of the pupil?” there are many qualifications to consider, for example their earnestness, their unselfishness, their devotion, their spiritual aspirations, and so on. There is an old maxim to the effect that when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear.
Those masters have need of many more than are ready to be taught. Those who lead and enlighten watch eagerly for all who will qualify themselves to enter upon the upward way. Every human being gets exactly what they fit themselves to receive. You cannot possibly be overlooked. By your spiritual aspiration you light the lamp in the window of your soul, and to the watchers from the heights, that light against the background of the overwhelming materiality of our times appears as the sun in a cloudless sky. Other things come later but to realize the necessity for conscious evolution, to comprehend the method of soul development, to take full control of the mind and the physical body, to resolutely curb the grosser desires and to give free rein to the higher aspirations are the first infant steps in the self-development that leads to illumination.
Then we begin to discover that this very desire for greater spiritual power is generating a force that carries us forward and upward. We soon begin to observe actual progress. The brain becomes clearer, the intellect keener. Our sphere of influence grows wider, our friendships become warmer. Aspiration lifts us into a new and radiant life, and the wondrous powers of the soul begin to become a conscious possession. Then to this soul growth there is no limit.
You will go on and on in this life, it is not by the outward acquirement of facts that people become wise and great. It is by developing the soul from within until it illuminates the brain with that flood of light called genius. Then and when, through the strife and storm, we finally reach the tranquility of the inner peace we shall comprehend the great fact that life really is joy when lived in the possession of spiritual power and in perfect harmony with the laws of the universe.
With even these first steps of achievement you enter upon a higher and more satisfactory life than you have ever known. Literally you become a new person, gradually the old desires and impulses fade away and new and nobler aspirations take their place. Once you have learned obedience to law you will find that obedience was the road to conquest.
Once you have risen above the gross baseness of the corporal world, by the power of your conscious evolution; and, looking back upon what you were with neither regret nor apology, you will comprehend that your life is a journey, and to cease to evolve is to cease to exist.
Be Blessed
How can you know if there is a little work ahead or a great deal? We cannot know; nor is it important to know. If you should take up the task merely because you think there is little to do, then you will certainly fail. The very fact that you would not venture upon the undertaking if you thought the task a difficult one is evidence that you do not have the qualifications necessary for the success. Unless you are filled with a longing to possess greater power to be used in the service of humanity, and fired with an enthusiasm that would hesitate at no difficulties, you have not yet reached the point in evolution where you await only the final steps that will make you a success.
However even the absence of the keen desire for spiritual and mental progress, which is the best evidence of the probability of success, should not deter you from entering into the systematic study of theosophy and devoting to it all the time and energy you can; nor should the thought that many years might pass without producing any very remarkable results lead you to conclude that the undertaking would not be a profitable one.
The time will come with each human being when you will step out of the great throng that drifts with the tide, and enter upon the course of conscious evolution, assisting nature instead of ignoring her beneficent plan; and since it is but a question of time the sooner a beginning is made the better, for the sooner will suffering cease.
There should be a word of warning about the folly of trying to reach spiritual illumination by artificial methods. For two reasons such methods should be avoided: One is that any powers thus gained can not be permanent, and the other is that they may be more or less dangerous. Many people have made physical wrecks of them selves or have become insane by some of these methods. Until you are firmly upon sound moral ground, you are much better off without any powers, the selfish use of which would lead to certain disaster.
There are those who advertise to quickly teach a skill, for a fee, as though spiritual powers could really be conferred instead of evolved! It is true that efforts toward the evolution of such powers may be enormously aided by teachers, but such instruction can not be bought. Those who teach this ancient wisdom select their own pupils from the morally fit, and tuition can be paid only in devotion to truth and service to humanity. Yes sometimes the teacher requires a sum, but it is usually a maintenance fee, but there is always more work than fees. That is the only road that leads to instruction worth having.
Now you ask “But how shall the pupil find the teacher?” you need not find the teacher, the teacher finds the pupil long before the pupil suspects that the teacher exists; and since it is the pupil who has the limited consciousness it is quite natural that it should be so. Thus it is inevitable that all who enter upon the way that leads to spiritual illumination must long remain ignorant of the fact that any teachers are interested in them or that anybody is giving the slightest attention to them.
So then the question arises “But what leads to the selection of the pupil?” there are many qualifications to consider, for example their earnestness, their unselfishness, their devotion, their spiritual aspirations, and so on. There is an old maxim to the effect that when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear.
Those masters have need of many more than are ready to be taught. Those who lead and enlighten watch eagerly for all who will qualify themselves to enter upon the upward way. Every human being gets exactly what they fit themselves to receive. You cannot possibly be overlooked. By your spiritual aspiration you light the lamp in the window of your soul, and to the watchers from the heights, that light against the background of the overwhelming materiality of our times appears as the sun in a cloudless sky. Other things come later but to realize the necessity for conscious evolution, to comprehend the method of soul development, to take full control of the mind and the physical body, to resolutely curb the grosser desires and to give free rein to the higher aspirations are the first infant steps in the self-development that leads to illumination.
Then we begin to discover that this very desire for greater spiritual power is generating a force that carries us forward and upward. We soon begin to observe actual progress. The brain becomes clearer, the intellect keener. Our sphere of influence grows wider, our friendships become warmer. Aspiration lifts us into a new and radiant life, and the wondrous powers of the soul begin to become a conscious possession. Then to this soul growth there is no limit.
You will go on and on in this life, it is not by the outward acquirement of facts that people become wise and great. It is by developing the soul from within until it illuminates the brain with that flood of light called genius. Then and when, through the strife and storm, we finally reach the tranquility of the inner peace we shall comprehend the great fact that life really is joy when lived in the possession of spiritual power and in perfect harmony with the laws of the universe.
With even these first steps of achievement you enter upon a higher and more satisfactory life than you have ever known. Literally you become a new person, gradually the old desires and impulses fade away and new and nobler aspirations take their place. Once you have learned obedience to law you will find that obedience was the road to conquest.
Once you have risen above the gross baseness of the corporal world, by the power of your conscious evolution; and, looking back upon what you were with neither regret nor apology, you will comprehend that your life is a journey, and to cease to evolve is to cease to exist.
Be Blessed
Labels: life, Manifesting, self improvement
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