He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. Proverbs 10:10
This month I want you to read all of Solomon’s proverbs and to learn by heart the ones that impress you the most. I will tell you later on why you have to learn these by heart.
Please note that out of all the human senses the eyesight is one of the most highly regarded. The eye responds to light and we get in touch with various objects through light. Certain vibrations in the air make the ear sensitive. With the sense of smell, it is again certain vibrations of air particles through which the smell is transmitted. But when it comes to taste and touch, we have to use purely physical means – touching with the tongue or feeling with the fingers. Hence, the eye is of significance purely to the mind.
There are two instances in winking: the one when the eye is closing, and the other one when it is opening. The opening is the day – this is just one moment. When one closes one’s eyes, a period of twenty-four hours passes. It is exactly when you close your eyes when all the crime in the world takes place. All of you do this winking. When a bad thought enters you, you should wink. Somebody is in the wrong – so such a person often winks. A girl winks at a boy and a boy winks at a girl. This expresses an improper movement of the human mind. Winking indicates lowering down by one degree. The eyes of winking people get smaller, and people with small eyes are known to be cunning and wily. This is the impact of winking. Your mind will also degrade under the same principle. As soon as your eyes become smaller, your mind degrades too; all noble thoughts and feelings fade away. This shows that your world and mind get narrower and the knowledge you have also shrinks in scope.
Solomon, who compiled these proverbs, says, "He that winks with the eye causes sorrow." To whom does he cause sorrow? To one’s soul. Because its windows are getting smaller and less Light penetrates, but it is Life that enters through the windows as well. If a Divine thought comes to you and you tell yourself, "Now is not the time," this indicates that you have winked. You are asked to do some work, but you say, "Now is not the time,'' – you have winked. You wink today, you wink tomorrow, you wink the day after tomorrow; you wink at a lad, at two lads, at three lads, and shortly after they might set out after you; this is already a scandal. If a maid is serious, nobody will be chasing her. There are many such lads in life; do not think they exist only on the physical level – some of them are in the heart and in the mind too. By a winking person, we understand a person who does not want to learn the Divine principles.
We, Bulgarians, are in the habit of motioning agreement or disagreement with our head. When Bulgarians confirm something they move their heads downwards, and when they deny something, they move their heads upwards. You will notice that horses also move their heads like this. This movement is meaningful: when horses move their heads, they mean to say, "Master, the path you, your wife, and children have started along, will not take you to a good end." On the physical level, horses symbolise intelligence. If a horse moves his head when you pass by, this has the following meaning, "My friend, things will not take a better turn until you throw this thought out of your head." Correct your behaviour and go to see this horse again and you will see that the horse will no longer make movements with the head. When your mind makes movements like a pendulum of a clock, this indicates that you will hardly make any progress in your work. Make sure your mind does not make pendulum-like movements; it should keep in its place and should keep working. This is relevant to certain psychic situations: people, who are very nervous, keep winking. When one starts losing one’s spiritual equilibrium, one starts shaking one’s head, winking with one’s eyes, and shuffling one’s feet, but these movements are not right, they are like a whirl, which can only make dust. The principle of sorrow can be explained along the same lines. Somebody says, "I am sad." Fine, keep your eyes open! "But my soul finds it so difficult." Keep your eyes open! "My back aches." Bask in the Sun! Keep your mind vigilant and alert and open your eyes to God! You say, "Why should I be thinking of God of all things right now when I’m in such a plight?" With these words, you have closed your eyes. A maid falls in love with a lad and she closes her eyes to her mother, to her father, to everybody at home, and she can see only the lad. In the same way, we also close our eyes, our souls, and our hearts and start thinking of transient things only. Human beings have three types of eyes: one pair on the physical level, another pair for the soul, and a third pair for the mind. If you find this hard to believe, do an experiment: when you get up very tired in the morning, stop for a while and tell yourselves, "I shall not wink!" Channel your mind to God; start thinking of God, of everything nice, and of the angels. Allow yourselves not more than five to ten minutes to think about this and you will immediately recover the equilibrium of your soul. Well, now, how do you cure yourselves? – You get up in the morning, you feel tired, you place your rucksack on your back and start visiting and complaining to neighbours, "Do you know how heavy it is for me?" The other one replies, "Well, do you know what happened to me?" Afterwards, the two go together to a third neighbour and tell her of their difficulties. She, in turn, complains about her difficulties, and what can come out of it? Everybody carries his or her rucksacks. Not like this! You three sisters get together, take a seat each, make sure you face East, think for a short while, for about ten to fifteen minutes and your mind will immediately brighten up and a certain Light will penetrate it. At that moment even if the smallest thought comes to you, you should apply it.
"But a prating fool shall fall." This Proverb has the symbols of the eyes and of the mouth. He, who winks, causes sorrow, and the prating fool is the one who has been winking for a long time. His mind, due to continual winking, has grown feeble, which is to say that he speaks about what should and should not be spoken. All contemporary people suffer from this. Your husband has done something, has said something offensive to you and you immediately start going from one house to another telling others what your husband is like. By repeating the same stuff, you dip in the same basket, "My husband is cruel, a vagabond, and I thought he was a decent man!" While the other one responds, "Yours is a blessing, you should know what mine is like!" Whose fault is it? Your husband has winked and you are trying to wink right now. Your husband has winked and you open your big mouth. The thing that corrupts the world most, that causes the worst sufferings, is exactly these non-harmonic non-beautiful images. For example, you speak to somebody, but that person makes wry faces to you. What is the meaning of this wry image?
If you slip, you will fall. So, those who wink will burden their souls; while slipping is nothing else but falling. Say you fall from a bridge during a car accident – this is slipping. Falling always entails loss of equilibrium of the soul. During such falling the greatest misfortunes happen. Most important of all is to keep your mind vigilant and alert. Another important rule is to think carefully about what it is that you want to say. Consider whether what you want to say will be of benefit to you or to somebody else. If what you will say will not be of benefit to anyone, then keep your mouth busy doing something else. The mouth is not a drainpipe. The mouth should give vent to all things supreme and pure, to everything that can ennoble people. However, the bad words coming at times out of your mouth should be channelled in another direction, designated especially for refuse. I will show this principle to you, to make it clear what effect a physical thought has: if you do not keep your thoughts open, i.e. if you do not control your thoughts, these impurities will spill out of your mouth and it will not be long before you also suffer and you will have to have an enema administered. You say about somebody that he or she is constipated. I say, that person must have winked, that person has not watched his or her tongue. Each thought has a physiological impact upon us; therefore, your mouth should only let pure things out. Otherwise, you will have to call the doctor. You need no doctors, what you need is to find the reason for each disease. You will say, "I have made my mouth into a drain-pipe and I have to clean it!" Everyone has made his or her mouth like a drainpipe and want to live happily. Your mouth should be like a fresh water tap. If you are constipated, you are not into science. The intestines and the stomach should be free.
Later on, I shall talk to you about the relation between the head and the stomach. There is a very close relation between the soul and the spirit in the body. Bear in mind that the stomach is the head of the soul. The stomach is male. There is a close relation between this man and the head; they get along very well, as they are men. The lungs are the wives of the mind, and the heart is their child. The stomach also has a wife and a child. I only want to bring to your attention the fact that each thought, passing through you, will have a certain impact upon your organism and this impact will manifest itself either now or in a later life of yours. If you do not correct your thoughts now, they will remain like this for a thousand years to come. Some may say, "By blessing I am saved." How? When you fall into the water and when I take you out, you may be saved by blessing, but after getting out of the water, you will have to get down to work.
I dwell on the quoted line, because I know that you deal one another many blows with your mouths. Do you know that the human mouth is one of fastest shooting weapons; an awful gun it is. So far, it has been under somebody else’s control, and we have to free it. A person, who cannot think well, beats one’s head against the wall. I put people into two groups according to the shape of their heads: some have sensible heads; others have heads like gourds. If your head is gourd-like, you have no chance of succeeding. You have to make your mind work - to do the work it has to.
I do not want you to lose heart and not to work. When you find out a certain mistake, be sure it was planted from outside; it is not a feature of the soul. You have a rucksack on your back – this is not an intrinsic feature of yours, do not think that you were born with the rucksack. A bad thought has entered you; it is not yours, get rid of it. When I tell you that there is a bad thought in you, I mean no offence to you, but I want to make you complete internally. The very thought, while residing in you, will offend you. In order for these thoughts to settle, you have to find thoughts opposite to them. Do not wink, but keep your thoughts open. It does not matter who will come to you, let anybody come, what matters, however, is not to wink at that person. Because Christ says, "Whoever enters through the fence are thieves and rogues." Each thought should enter through your eyes and mind. Each thought coming through your heart is a rogue. Such a thought should not disturb you, but such a thought should be kept outside the fence.
There are three compartments within the human being. There are three compartments in the Orthodox Church as well, which have been determined for thousands of years. These show the human development. The first compartment is for the guests, the other one – for the believers, and the third one for the priest, who officiates and who understands how to serve God. The Priest is the Teacher. The altar is the Teacher’s place, from which the Teacher goes out, places fire and incense in the censer and burns it. If contemporary priests wink, why should they do this, why should they burn incense? They do not know why. I know why they do. You also often do this: you place incense in the censers and you start chasing the devil. Devils are not chased away with incense; incense is merely a disinfectant. Burning incense shows that your heart should be equally warm. Nice thoughts should stream out of your hearts to refresh the atmosphere, where you live. If you burn incense in this way, you understand the symbol of incense very well. But if you carry your book under your arm without reading it, it will be of no use to you. This is why God has given you eyes, which are the windows of the soul. Hence, all the time when there is light, we should keep our eyes open and should receive as much light as we need. Sometimes you say, "It’s very light," other times you say, "It’s dark." Well then, open your eyes wider! There are people who travel at night and it is dark for them, but in the evenings, there is also light. Only that it takes more sensitive organs to receive it. This is the light used by clairvoyants. True clairvoyants see better at night than in daytime, but they do not wink. They keep their eyes open. You should always keep in mind that your eyes should be open! Some people are said to have "died with their eyes open" and people hurry to close the eyes of the departed person. Now all teachers and priest do their best to close the eyes of the people. Open the eyes of the people! For example, somebody is parading in life, and you tell such a person, "And you believe that you will become a Christian! You are too late; we have learnt so many things already!" This is what I call closing of one’s eyes. What do you know?! This should not be done, never, never! Tell this brother of yours, "My brother, you’ve done very well, you have started all right!" It is not important when he arrives. When I go out for a walk, I walk slowly, I examine carefully all the bugs, everything I meet on my way, and finally I get there. There is no need to hurry, in order to get sooner to Cherni Vrah1. When you set off to Cherni Vrah, pay attention to the springs on your way, watch what bugs, what butterflies there are; and if your mind is continually vigilant, you will see how God works. I would like all of you to open your eyes in this way.
You ask, "What shall we do to save ourselves? How can we save our souls?" Everybody who does not wink is saved, and those who do wink, they are drowning. Therefore, do not discourage anybody. Now, looking at your faces, I can see that they appear to be strict, but they are not strict because of real seriousness, but because of sorrow for the wasted youth. You keep saying, "There was a time when I was young and beautiful!" You are not old; do not fool yourselves! The thoughts you have within, the thoughts are old, your clothes are old, but your soul is always young. When your body gets old, it is no longer capable of transmitting your thoughts and God tells the angels "Go, undress this child of mine, whose clothes are quite impure and cannot be washed!" I say, "My brother, they will undress you." Or put in your language, you have to depart and to come back again.
When I speak about open eyes, I want you to keep your physical body always clean. I will tell you what influence good thoughts have upon your physical body. A saint, who has lived a pure life for a long time, has a specific pleasant smell, a sort of very nice internal fragrance, called nux. When you are in a very fine spiritual condition, when you have been thinking about something, you can feel such a fine fragrance that belongs to a supreme spirit, which has visited you. Take fasting for example, during fasting one can have such thoughts and can see such things, which other people cannot. There are religious people who pray a lot, but see nothing, they only think of how to save themselves. Dispose of such thoughts! There are sufferings in the other world, but there are worse sufferings in this world. When you commit a crime, you feel a great hell burning within. Everybody has experienced this hell within one’s soul, why should you be looking for another hell? The other hell is a toy. This one, the internal one, is formidable and then you say, "This worm will not stop gnawing; there is no end to it!" It is like a tapeworm, against which you take medicines, you throw it out, but its head remains. You say, "How did this tapeworm get in?" Because your eyes were closed. An impure spirit got into this tapeworm, which constantly sucks from you. This tapeworm will get out on its own accord if you learn how to keep your eyes open, and your mouth under control. You can train your will in such a way that you will get rid of the tapeworm within one minute.
So now, we, contemporary people, who can cure ourselves on our own, need no doctor. You have to strengthen yourselves! In order to find out whether you have strong thoughts or not, you have to do the following: you suffer from rheumatism, which no medicines can cure; find out first what food rheumatism needs and after this, start moving the rheumatism with the strength of your will from one place to another place in your body. The moment it starts moving from one place to another, you should tell the rheumatism, "Mister, you have entered my organism, when my eyes were closed, but now, please, make your way to the back door!" And we have many back doors. When someone gets a cold, doctors prescribe aspirin, which causes people to sweat. The pores, through which sweat goes out, are the back doors. I do not say that you have to sweat, but I say that one thought allowed to enter your physical body, has to leave the body through these pores. The pores sacrifice themselves for our eyes and say, "We are ready to serve our master." Through them, all impurities go out. When one makes a mistake in the moral world, one feels the dregs settling. Do not dispose of this sorrow, but have the courage to study the cause of it. Some say, "I want to be a saint!" If you want to be a saint, start along the Path where saints have walked. But your backbone starts aching, so you promptly find your way to me. Pain, sorrow, and sufferings are necessary; don't be sorry about it, but find a way to utilise them. The devil has entered you, but we shall not throw the devil out, we shall make the devil work for us and we shall tell the devil, "We have worked for you for eight thousand years, it is now your turn to work for us for so many years!" Devils are intelligent creatures and because of this, we have to make devils get down to work.
The main exercise for you this month is the following: strengthening of the will. Not the will we have, but the wise will, the Divine will. While developing your will, your thoughts should be strictly defined. You should not be dwelling on two thoughts simultaneously. You will first understand one thought; you will first do one job, and only then should you move to another. Everything within you is linked in a chain. I shall clarify what I mean – we follow a Divine plan and each one has different work to do. Let’s assume that one of you is a weaver, another one is a clerk, a third one – a vineyard farmer etc. Tradesmen will apply their thoughts in trade, weavers – in the weaving business, farmers – in farming; altogether everybody in his or her individual callings. Weavers will weave hard and steady; their yarn should be strong, the thread should also be strong, not irregular. Because each thought is actually spun from the thoughts and desires dwelling in your minds. This is how the entire thought is formed. This thread should be strong and made according to all rules. This thread, thus spun, will penetrate your Will in the form of a Force, because human will, must always be applied in the material world.
We shall encounter obstacles and challenges where we want to apply our thoughts. Such a world is a puzzle for us. For example, you marry a man and you want to be happy, but the two of you can’t agree. Whose mistake is it? Something is missing in the man, but something is missing in you too. Both of you have entered with eyes closed. If his head is slanted or flat at the back, if his eyes are rather small, and his lips are very thin, what do you expect from such a man? This shows you are not meant for each other. Well, what else can you do then? To make your lips fuller, to develop your heart! In order to develop your heart, you have to put your will into action. Phrenologists argue that contemporary people have forty-one doors through which they receive visitors. You try one of the doors – no entry, try another door and you will finally find the door, which will let you in. So, there are many ways to influence people. Even children are aware of this principle and please note that when children want something, they start with these words, "Mummy, give me this!" – No way! The child starts caressing and kissing you and finally you agree. The child has opened one of your doors and has entered. These are smart children and thus children apply their will. But you may say, "I do not want to be a hypocrite." You have no choice, you will caress, you will fondle and you will indulge this man! His hand is soiled – you will wash it, you will bandage it too. You have to study the human soul; this is not an easy art to study. I mean the relations between healthy people, but if the two of you are sick, then you will ask a person close to you to help you. Sometimes a child is born – the child will cure the father and the mother. Each individual member can save the whole family.
Open your eyes to God! You will remember that there is no Creature brighter, kinder, more sensitive, and more responsive than God is. No angel, cherubim, seraphim can be compared to God. Some say, "Do you think God will have time for me?" By not having faith in God, you cause Him suffering. Philosophers say, "Do you think God will have time to spare for you? You are nothing more than a low pigmy!" Remember that God spares time for the smallest creatures in the ocean; he can hear even them! Don’t you believe He will hear you? And what you, the people of the 20th century, do is keep your eyes closed and deprive yourselves of the Divine Light. If we live in a cellar for decades on end, we will have many diseases. I assert this is true not only for the physical level, but also for the Spiritual world, where the same causes are at work. We pray to God, but we wouldn’t get out of our cellars. The first thing for you to do is to open your eyes to God! Well, you may say, "I do not know what God is." This is not important. I may not know the elements of the Sun, but I bask my back in the Sun and I enjoy the sunrays. While educated people say, "Do not enjoy the sunrays, as you do not know what they are!" A person having started on the way to God, no matter how little one thinks of Him, is a saved person, no matter how bad such a human being may be. Remember that no human being can perish in the Teaching I preach to you. Even if you lose your hands, your legs, your eyes, your ears whatever, you won’t perish. You say that someone was "ordered to leave". It is all right a person is ordered to leave the school for a year or two, but later on, they will admit the same person again to study with them. Those who disturb the others are ordered to leave. If you do not follow what you are taught, you will be ordered to leave, so that others, who want to listen and follow, can come.
Now, from a spiritual point of view, I often hear you beat the desks. Science is not learnt like this. Beating the desks at school is of no help. Those of you, who have will, should not practice it on the desks, but on their rheumatism or when one has a stomach-ache. Embrace pure thoughts and you will find out what strength pure influence has. If you make progress of one hundred millionth of the millimetre, this is a success. Do not think that by starting with this Teaching you will accomplish a lot. I will consider it a great success if you make progress of only one hundred millionth of the millimetre. This is a kind of progress too. Knowledge progresses uninterruptedly in the entire Eternity. This is the speed I progress at; do not lose heart! Any scientist, who wants to observe life, progresses slowly. But you want to finish quickly and to say afterwards, "I am fit for professorship." This one hundred millionth part of the millimetre is an eternal and accurate measure. I will present to you a figure: imagine the projection of the centre of infinity and assume that it has to make a complete circle for 24 hours. Do you know what speed it will need to be able to travel one hundred millionth part of the kilometre? It moves so slowly here, but the speed it develops travelling above is very high. Movement is very slow at the centre, but it is very fast above. If the matter of your heart starts moving at such a speed, your heart and mind would melt. Therefore, we have to move warily down here, so that the movement above can be harmonic. Do not lose heart!
In order to be able to practice your will, you should always replace one unpleasant state with another pleasant one. I will give you a method to strengthen your will; for example, you experience a very unpleasant feeling and you can’t get rid of it. Stand up, spare an hour and go visit a family, which is in a much worse situation than yours. Do not say, "I am at my wit’s end and do not know which way to turn, why should I go visit other people?" Go to a family that has neither fire-wood, nor bread, has nothing at all, stay for about ten to fifteen minutes and see if there are any protests in there. Come back home and compare their situation with yours.
I want you to build up your edifice. Implement whatever noble thought comes to your mind. You will not implement it by the book, but by the way your heart tells you to. You will implement it, not because you have to, but by following the principle of the Divine Will. You may say, "Well, first, I will repair my home." Look, aren’t all people homes of God? If we manage to help one person, it will all go to the home of God! Do not trespass the law of your father and mother, let your will be in agreement with theirs and you will be saved. Do not go to excess in strengthening your will. It is enough if you do an infinitesimal job every day. For example, it would be enough, indeed, if you give somebody a glass of water. You may say, "Well, so small a job!", This is also something accomplished after all. Another rule: do not go visit various houses and families, when you are very sad or aggrieved, in order to relieve yourselves. Do not take your rubbish to the people close to you. This is not scientific. This is not the way to relieve oneself! Thus, you will go there in order to take advantage of them, but unwittingly, you will allow others to take advantage of you. If you visit other houses to relieve yourselves, to leave your rubbish there, everybody will get to know about this and nobody will let you in. I want all of you to be clean, not to have anything under your nails. Clean your clothes, wash your hands, and then you can go to God! Because the very thought to be clean, is a will, the very thought to go to God clean, influences your mind. If you are not clean, take off your clothes, wash your hands and go to God, go and pray! Students who are not clean are not admitted. This is not to say that you should be pedantic and scrutinise other people whether they are clean or not. Everybody should see for oneself. Those, who pay attention to other people’s impurities, become corrupted.
So, we shall start moving from the physical to the Spiritual. I like secular people because they go down very well; they pay attention to physical cleanliness. It takes just a step for them to enter God’s Kingdom. If they possess this art – physical purity, they will move on to spiritual purity. These things are useful to create a favourable atmosphere for the human thought. The impurities set up a sort of unpleasant atmosphere, where students get demagnetised. It takes Purity to get the mind working; it takes a clear night to be able to see the sky. When Christ says that those pure at heart will see God, He points out that Purity is a necessary condition for seeing. So, you will look upon Purity as a condition for the strengthening of your will. This can only be acquired through studentship. This is a religion! The goal of religion is to cultivate the heart, but we should not stop there. God should be revered in Spirit, in Truth, and in understanding.
We have to know how to manage the strengths that God has given us. There is a sort of constipation in the soul and in the heart, which has to be used wisely. You say about something, "Let's have it like an ox on a lead." You can’t do this! What does lead mean? The lead is a principle, which can rule the thoughts of your soul, mind, and heart. Do not pay attention whether you are in the mood or not. Read a little bit today, and when the day is gone try to understand what you have learnt. Put this down in a notebook. So far, you have lived a promiscuous life at random: you get up in the morning and until noon you are in the kitchen, in the afternoon, you again have various chores to do here and there and in the evening, you go to bed tired. You think the following day has the same promise for you and you ask, ''When shall we get free?" You will not get free, because you acquire knowledge while working; you strengthen your will in these difficulties. Do not judge others; leave them to their mistakes, but the stronger should help the weaker. There is no better prayer than the one to help your brother. God, to whom you pray, is wise and says, ''Listen, don’t go against your conscience before Me, go out and get this job done!" But you will say, "God, I am not in good humour." You are not in good humour, because you have placed a bigger burden upon your shoulders than you can carry. This is as if a child has taken an algebra book and peruses it, though the child can only do the sums. The situation is similar to your thoughts: sometimes you have very nice thoughts and feelings and you say, "I’m in a very good mood." This mood you have from a friend of yours who visited you and treated you. Do not fool yourselves about these treats, because tomorrow you will be left without any treats. The important thing for you is to work and to remember that every day you should perform a job necessary for you. The heart should beat neat, the soul – fresh, the mind – alert, and the spirit – strong!
Help one another during this month. Do not scare each other that the Master said this or that. I have said everything on the spot, but you interpret things in the wrong way. Those who study are always ahead, while those who do not, always lag behind. Many human souls have risen so high that they have reached the angels; however, there are also many angels, who have fallen. Keep in mind that you have all the possibilities to study and if you do not study, this is a sin to your soul. You should not say that you have grown old. Only the devil is old. Keep in mind that you are young for this Divine knowledge and apply your will in the knowledge!
Some are rich; others are poor. Poverty is work; wealth is a rest. Look here; there is a good poverty and there is a bad poverty, i.e. bad work and good work. Work is good when you know how to do the job, while it is bad when you do not know how to do the job. Similarly, there is a bad wealth, and there is a good wealth. But at some other time these conditions will change roles. Today you are poor, you should say, "Thank God, I have a job," and start working. Tomorrow you are rich, you should say, "Today I will take a rest."
Now I say we will move the world by one hundred millionth part of the millimetre, but all of us have to work together. When I tell you to transform hatred into love, you find it incredible, but hatred can always be taken out, because it is within us. How can it be taken out? If you want to purify water, leave it to settle or put some alum in it, so it can clarify. Bear in mind that you are in a School and you will follow the lessons taught. Those who listen to me, but do not follow, do you know what they look like? It is as if these people are taken around an inn and allowed only to smell the dishes and then asked to leave the place, while these people, are very hungry at that. Smelling will not sustain you through life. In the same way by a lot of smelling they only serve Christianity and say, "It is excellent, it is delicious!" Those of you who want to enter Christianity through knowledge, should understand that you can be saved, can be cured, can be dressed, but knowledge cannot be imparted by blessing. This is human. Paul says, "Partly we know, party we study." It’s not only thinking that counts. To think is a duty of yours. Praying indicates that you have to pay back your debt. You say, "I breathe." You must breathe; this is not a job for your spirit. Knowledge originated from the Freedom of the human spirit, from the understanding of the Divine Will. I want you to be free, to reason; your mood is not of importance. Teachers cannot give marks to students by blessing; if the students do not study, they cannot be given excellent marks. The excellent mark must be within you. I have no excellent marks, I give nothing by blessing; excellent marks I give only to those who know how to work. What is the meaning of the excellent mark? This is a matter of progress, of development. When I give you one grade above excellent, this is a matter of perfection. You want to start with great deeds, but you have to go back. When Christ came from the other world, God sent him into the lowest position, to school. He studied for thirty-three years, although he came from most noble roots, he humiliated himself, he was diligent, he got into carpentry and made chairs. He made chairs for you, who now argue about chairs all the time. Chairs symbolise a certain position, which a human being has to have in the world. Both at home and outside – people argue all the time about chairs. Christ studied the art of making chairs, so that you feel comfortable when you sit in one of them. Christ also wanted to save people. What does this mean? He taught them to eat healthy food. You have to feed your soul with healthy food, your mind – with healthy thoughts, and your heart – with healthy feelings.
Master’s lecture,
Delivered on 7 November 1918
1 The summit of the Vitosha mountain near Sofia, 2 290m.
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