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