(8th Lecture of the General Occult Class, 4/20/1933)
Tonight I will speak to you about the purpose of music.
Your entering an occult school will cause in you a complete metamorphosis, a complete rearranging. When you have been a student at an occult school you will be unrecognizable to yourself. You will no longer be the same person. It is as if you come to the school as a worm with many legs and leave at as a butterfly. In ancient times a cowardly person was never allowed to enter such a school, because he may get frightened and may consciously loose his form when he undergoes this metamorphosis. Consider the stingy person, who has gathered a fortune in his treasury and has no love for knowledge. If you try to teach him self-sacrifice, it will be a great nuisance. He will say, "To me, money gives meaning to my life. If you have money life has meaning; if you do not, life looses its meaning." Therefore, contemporary men say, "To us, life has meaning the way we are now. If we loose this form, everything is lost."
Now this is only introduction, because there exists in all pupils the tendency to rush things. When someone enters the school he asks, "Would it be possible to do the work of two years in one?" Pupils want to finish high school as soon as possible, to get a job and get raises right away, and at the end of their lives, to get a pension. At that they think they have done all there is to do.
Religious people want to become moral also as soon as possible, to become rich in moral sense, and when they enter the unseen world, to be able to say that they are not like the others. No, in this school, there is no speeding. You must stay in it 100 - 200 - 300 - 500 - 1000 years; this is nothing; it is like one day. He who enters the school and cannot wait 1000 years is not a pupil, he cannot accomplish anything. When I say 1000 years, I speak about the pupils and not about you. You are only listeners, for you the law is different. One day you will become pupils and this regulation may be useful to you.
First you must learn to master your mind. You must master your mind, your powers, your capabilities, and your feelings. They all must be controlled by your will. If you cannot achieve this, you cannot become pupils. You may attend the school, but you will be not able to learn anything. I will not stop to explain to you why this is so; I just say that it is true. Here start all rules and methods for the controlling of the mind. The Hindus have their methods; the Egyptians have theirs, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Jews have theirs; but all these methods are different.
Also, the Western mystics have their methods and these have been so diverse! If you try to study all these methods you will find yourselves in a labyrinth; at least 100 years will pass before you could decide which method to choose.
The brain is the organ of thought, of mind. As a pupil, you will learn to govern all the aspects of this organ, each associated with its particular capability. Now, those who are not educated may think that the brain is only gray matter, thinking of it from a purely physical point of view. They nay think that blood periodically flows in it and that there is a constant motion, an ebb and flow, which creates thoughts.
But there is more to the brain than ebb and floe of blood. When you look at the human brain with a clairvoyant eye, you will notice thousands of fibres which go in all directions, throughout the whole body, and through these fibres different kinds of current flows.
One can observe with a microscope the thin skin of the leg of a frog, and there one can see the current going up and down. Those who observe the brain can also see such currents, and these are from the forming of the thoughts. For example, when a religious thought, or a religious feeling, awakens in your mind, there is a particular kind of current. When a purely scientific thought awakens in your mind, there is a different kind of current. All these currents are connected with the blood. When the currents converge at a given centre, activating it, a swelling of blood in that centre always occurs.
Now, from purely physiological viewpoint, here is the danger in studying the occult. Because the back part of the brain is related to the purely physical activities of the human organism, the blood which circulates in this part of the brain first awakens the primitive feelings in man, also the currents from the spine awaken these feelings. There is a danger for all pupils of the occult in that they may be attacked first from am ambush by their enemies and such enemies, as they have never dreamed of before that exist inside. Someone may say, "I don't want to study this. From the time I came to this school, all the devils have been attacking me." The place where the devils dwell is the back of the brain, and when the currents of human thought pass through there, these devils influence it.
Self- mastery of the brain can be done in different ways, and those who seriously study occult science must know these ways. You think that this can be done in a day, or two, or three, or four, or in a week, or in a year. No. If, after you have been training for three or four years, you achieve control of your brain, you may call that a real success. If you possess this power you will always be able to regulate your temperament. Such conditions as excitement may be polarized so you can transfer the energy in the brain from one place to another. Of such people, one may say that they possess self-mastery. The student of the occult must not only possess great self-mastery, but also he must know the laws. He must know which keys to touch and how to touch them.
First, you must not be affected. You know what it means to be affected. For example, you do a small job, and at the same time think that it is a great accomplishment. With this, you start up a great activation in your brain, you stimulate it greatly. For such a small accomplishment you should not excite your brain so much. Only a small effort is required for so small a work. If you have a small achievement you must take it the way it is, as it is in nature, not more, not less. Don't think of yourself as very talented, but don't think you are without talent, either. If, at first, you think you are talented, at the end of your life you will be very disappointed to find out you have been wrong. There are also people who think they are not talented and, at the end of their lives, find out that they have wasted their talents.
The first thing that you are required to do is every day to know what your obligations are, and what you must do. In the occult school, that which must be done is precisely determined. A pupil does not proceed blindly; he sees where he goes. In the same way, a student in high school or college knows his daily program of studies. For him, too, everything is exactly determined, and he cannot say, "As God wishes."
No, not what God wishes, but what God arranged when He created the world; that we must fulfil. He has set everything in good order.
When you try to control your mind, you will find that being affected, or conceited, or proud, or fearful are faults which, like worms can damage the fruits of your mind. Conceit is a feeling which originally was different. First, the ides was to win for yourself the good opinion of your friends and of your neighbours, to win the good opinion of good people, to win the good opinion of God. This was the original idea. Gradually, as man departed from this first state, this feeling became what may be called vainglory, which is not so much the keeping of the good opinion of others as it is showing off.
Consider for instance, a vainglorious chemistry teacher, and the King comes to see his laboratory. He will guide him through his laboratory, and he will say, "This laboratory is made according to a special system. These flasks and bottles are unique; natural specimens cannot be seen anywhere except here." How about a vainglorious farmer? He will guide the King through his fields, and he will say, "See how well these fields are plowed," etc. And how a woman? She will say that there is no other dress as fine as hers, and that there is no other seamstress like the one who was made it for her." This is an example of vainglory. Ordinarily, people would say, "This is a plain dress made by a good seamstress; it fits well, but there is nothing special about it." If someone is a preacher, how will he show his vainglory? He will say, "Ah, I preached on Sunday, and I preached as no one can preach. I was so persuasive, and the people were enchanted. They will never forget my preaching." I illustrate vainglory this way, to distinguish it from conceit.
Now, pride can be defined differently. Where it exist as a fault, it can be called haughtiness. A haughty person pretends that he is humble, but inside, he wants to show that there is no one like him; he really expects the others to praise him. He will dress very simply, but not in rags, and this too; is to attract the attention of the others. This kind of person is very humble in his behaviour, but you will find out what he is when you put someone else in his place. Immediately, his pride will come to the surface, for he will be insulted.
But he does not boast, for from pride has come envy. A haughty person is also envious. He cannot bear to hear that someone else is being recognized. If, in front of him, you refer to someone as an excellent scientist, or a professor, he is apt to say, "Don't tell me that this man is learned!" And if you speak about the virtues of someone else he may say, "Don't be foolish, there are no virtuous men on earth!" Even if you speak about God, he may say, "Even God makes mistakes." It is pride which speaks up in all these cases. Beyond these cases is that of the learned men. It is among the learned and the religious people that the most dangerous pride exists. And the greatest danger of all is the pride in an occult school, which threatens us now. To bar this demon we have placed at the door such a screen that he can never squeeze through.
And so, pride is one of the most dangerous characteristics of man. In the end, a man who develops this feeling as mythology has recorded, will eat up his own children. When someone is haughty he eats his own children. If he could, he would cut off the heads of all people with one stroke, with the exception of his own head.
Now, you must analyze yourself. I want every one of you to be aware your actions and not to be severe but just with yourself. This is the privilege of being a pupil.
To be able to restore harmony among us we must possess a key. I will tell you which is the key. It is love. In music there are two keys or clefs; there is the G clef for violins and the F clef for bass. Only knowing the key or clef, can one read a piece of music. And so, the teacher must possess a key, and so must the pupils. And when someone comes to me without a key and asks me what he can do I answer, "Nothing." Why? - Because you have no key. All your thoughts, emotions, and actions must be according a great law, which God has instituted. This law cannot be changed.
Bear in mind that in the world there are two influences. If you do not submit yourself voluntarily to the influence of the divine and rational life, then will be affected by the influence of the earth, like magnetic and electrical forces, and the instincts of animals even the most primitive. The lowest animals will start influencing you. This is because with entering an occult school your sensitivity develops. You become receptive to the thoughts of the lower beings of the animal world. Therefore, there is a danger that each pupil may contaminate himself with his own past lower existences in Creation. When teachers warn their pupils, they do it to help them until they become able to understand their minds, to regulate the currents from the sun and from the centre of the earth, to know these currents and the keys of the lower animal kingdom.
For example, sometimes you become very angry with someone and wish to have a rope and be able to get it around his neck and tie it, so that you may strangle him. From what comes this thought? This is a thought of a spider. When a spider catches a butterfly he entangles it. So, you have entered the world of the spiders. It may occur to you sometimes to prick someone and inject in him a little poison. From what comes this idea? From the scorpion; from the serpent. All these creatures want to poison their victims. All these thoughts will pass through your mind, your mind will enter this current, and so you will commit a crime. I can analyze every thought, every lower or higher action. I know from where they come.
You may say, "God has made things this way." No, God made everything very well when He created the world. The Great Masters, or the Great Master of Creation, has made everything very well. When you enter this system, the Great Masters will tell you exactly and precisely in which direction to move.
Now the religious people may say they don't need Truth. Why would they need truth? From the occult viewpoint, it is obvious that they need truth. In the world of reason, truth is necessary, just as light is necessary for the physical world. Therefore, the rays of truth are also necessary. Truth has two kinds of rays, white and black rays. If you are not prepared you may become contaminated with the negative side of truth. Now this fact which I am presenting to you may be hard for your mind to digest. Why? What are the reasons? Occult science has the answer to the question of the reason for the separation of the White Brotherhood from the Black one. First, they existed as one brotherhood. They moved in one direction, but reached a point where a separation came about. From that point, one part turns to the left, and the other part turns to the right. Why? - One part accepts the black rays of truth and the others the white rays. These rays exist in the sun. Also, in the light of the sun, there are both the white and the black rays. There is a so-called black and white sun. From the white and black sun come simultaneously two currents merge. When I say black rays I mean that the vibrations of these "black rays" are less fine. All the evil, all these bad actions and negative characteristics are due to the vibrations which come from the black rays. What is the cause of the existence of these rays? If you cannot control your mind in each instance of irritation of disbelief, or of any similar situation you become a conductor of the black rays. This is the reason that when we read the Bible, we are always advised to have a positive attitude. According to the occult, you cannot say, "If God wants, I will believe." If you believe you are on the right side; if you do not believe you are on the left side. The disbelief in one sense is belief in the other sense.
Now, these energies which come, these two currents pass through the human brain. Therefore, it would be good to study the methods, know the regions you pass through. For example, when a religious thought comes to you it will not manifest itself in the front part of your head but in the upper part vertically. When a scientific thought comes, it will not manifest itself horizontally but will go at a certain angle in a circle. When you take the rays which come out of your eyes and place them on a surface all the powers which come down from above at a certain incline proceed straight ahead. All powers from other inclines act negatively, they are the energies of the black rays. When anger comes, it will manifest itself in the area of the ear. If you are very angry, there will be a painful tension around your ears. If pride grows immensely, you will feel, in the back of your head, in your brain, a painful tension.
This is unnecessary.
Nature does not like disharmony. All the powers which pass through the brain have their purpose. However, these centres of the brain can become positive or negative. When a center becomes positive, it receives the white rays of the light and the positive side of truth, and then you have a feeling of uplift, an aspiration towards God. Your mind awakens. When a religious feeling is negative, you will have an inner impulse without being able to understand why you must serve God. You say, "One must serve God." Why? How? - You don't know. This is how religious fanatism comes about. You tend to stick to religious forms and rituals. You go to church and, if you are eastern orthodox, you light a candle. If you do not light a candle, you may feel as if have comities a great crime. That the next day you may steal a sheep - this is a different matter. This does not interfere with your belief in God, or with your lighting of candles. It does not worry you to the point where you do other wrongs. The occult science does not accept such morality.
These powers which accumulate in your brain can create, in the future, an obstacle to your development. Because don't think that you may free yourselves from them. The brain which operates on earth has its double in the astral world, and when you go there the energies which have been accumulated by the double of your brain in that world, these you will experience in reverse. Everything from this world you will also experience there.
Now, it is of the first importance to master your mind. Of what does that consist? It is not an easy skill, because we have many habits. He who enters the school must be able to cope with the habits.
You say, "One must be patient." But someone may be patient sometimes, and still he may have negative results. In the occult school we require that, when a man is patient, he must have positive results. When one gives in or backs away again and again, he becomes weakened and cannot develop his mind. Patience should not be the base for weakening of the mind, but on the contrary - for improvement and strengthening. I am afraid that in the occult school there is a danger of weakening the mind because this way regressive currents may become stimulated. For example, someone reads a book on the occult but does not verify the methods recommended in it. Many Eastern methods have been applied in England and in America but have yielded negative results. The man of the occult in the West wants to establish a natural method, a natural way. We want to go according to this natural method, which is the least dangerous and is the best.
It consists in the following - listen carefully. You do not imagine in your mind where God is and what He is, but always imagine God as a wise being which guides everything without mistake. And, when you keep this thought in mind, it will come to ripen, it will regulate your brain. For example, we will have an exercise: when you wake up, don't only say a prayer but pause to think that God is Love, that in Him is no anger, nor revenge, nor any discontent. Then you will bring to your mind the positive qualities of God, that He is omniscient, that all the faults which exist in the world are human mistakes and that everything which He has created in this world is good. You may say that you know that. For the mastery of your mind you must remember this. This is the most simple, the most expedient, and one of the best methods.
In the Scripture it is said that you become like the people you associate with. Remember, God, too, has companions. When you think like this, you will challenge all the currents which come from God and pass through different spheres to enter your mind and form your thoughts. This current from God will not come to you at once. When you think like this, this thought will pass from God through the minds of all people and then on its way back it will pass through you. This thought will pass through all brains from the more noble people to the more primitive ones, and then it will come to you. Only then will your spirit start to work according to the laws. It will begin to find the current of these minds and your brain will start to exercise. As a gardener irrigates his land, making ditches and guiding the water, so you will train your mind.
The Hindus have a different method but I am not going to speak about it tonight. I am speaking to you about the most simple and yet the most expedient method. Everyone can apply it without fear, and it will always give at least seventy-five per cent effective.
I am repeating: harmony exists among you. At present, it has not yet begun to be manifested. Yet, I want to have harmony re-established in this school. By harmony I mean these things: You must respect each other. You must realize that you are intelligent souls in whom God has implanted minds with which you can work. If a soul is defiled, he who understands the laws will not look at the mind. Therefore, a pupil of the occult has not the right to judge. He can say, "Brother, you have defiled yourself somewhat. Wait, and I will clean you." He will not say to him" "You are such and such." He has not the right to do so. I have no right to judge you. He, the Great Master, always keeps silent; He speaks no word; He never speaks about mistakes. He sees all the wrongs, but keeps silent and does not judge. When people see the results of their misdoing, then He says, "This is not the way."
About you, Bulgarians, thank God; one can send you to the other world as critics. Bulgarians are especially good critics. I have not met any such critics as the Bulgarians. Shall we say you are people who shave without water? This is a typical characteristic of all Bulgarians. It is due to the fact that in Bulgarians religious feeling is little developed. Still even from the time of the Fall! And for this reason the Bulgarians suffer as much as they do. Among all culturally developed nations in the world the religious feeling is the least developed among the Bulgarians. This is a truth which I have stated when I was doing my phrenological measurements. When I studied the hardness and stubbornness of the Bulgarians, everywhere I wrote 7 cm. When I came to measure the religious feeling, the number came down to 2 - 3 cm. When I came to compassion, it rose a little bit. I say, from this derives the sin! This is why the Bulgarian is such a critic. He lacks reverence. The Bulgarian gets very easily disappointed. Nothing is sacred to him. Go to a coffee shop in a village and listen. You will hardly find one Bulgarian who speaks with respect about his wife. Nor will you find a wife who speaks with respect about her husband. When you speak with the wife, she will tell all the negative characteristics of her husband; the same is the case with the man. This is not true only in the village, but also among you. For this reason, you cannot become pupils of the occult. You must realize that. If you come here as husbands and wives, I have to tell you the truth that you can not become pupils. If you want in the future to think about yourselves as husbands and wives, your feet will never be able to enter the school. When a man and a woman enter the school as a couple, they must have respect for each other as pupils of the school. If they are brother and sister, again, they are not permitted to think of themselves except as pupils. Otherwise, they will have to leave the school. I say, he who enters the school must be an example. In the school I will never say a word about your crimes. I will put different glasses on my eyes; I call these glasses the glasses of love, and they are like this. Through them we see the good side of all your shortcomings.
We judge results in this way. If, for example, I take an adze and cut up a tree in two, three, four, five, six or more pieces, and if I can manage to make a wagon from these pieces which people can use, this adze has served its purpose. We judge according to the results. If I cut up the three and can make nothing of it, then I say the goal has not been achieved. We pronounce only at the end, what has been achieved. I expect all of you to be very careful. We will start with chopping wood and at the end we will see what will come of it.
Now, I can see that these thoughts are occurring to you. Would it not be easier if someone could influence us through hypnosis? No. The least dangerous method is this: to think in the morning about God, - that He is love, that He is omniscient and benign. This is the first prayer. Each morning when you rise, think one or two minutes that God is love, that God is omniscient and benign, and immediately you will be in a good mood. You will attune your brain. After this, there are other methods to be applied. We will proceed with special methods. We will proceed like the angel who, when he approached Cornelius, brought him what is essential; he brought light into his mind. And he said to him, "Call upon Peter. He will teach you that which is essential." When a man receives the essential then the Master of the occult will come, whoever he may be. The Master will teach him the basic rules he must follow.
Now, I want all of you to apply this first rule for two weeks. Find for yourself a notebook. In the morning when you get up, direct your mind to the wise Being. Mark down the time when you start and when you finish, and note if there was a change in you, and what you experienced. Do this three times a day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. After two weeks we will see what results there will be. And so, everyone will have a notebook. One of you may say, "May I do this without a notebook?"- No, you may not. You must write in it. If, at some time, you omit this exercise, it would be honest to write down that this has been the case. You should not try to avoid admitting such omissions and marking them down. It is dangerous when you do not mark it down. When you omit and mark down your mistake, there is nothing wrong with it. In all your exercises you must be honest, if you want to have good results. Do this experiment for two weeks. You have old attitudes and it is difficult to uproot them. Someone may say, "Wouldn't it be better to get up in the morning, and to say a nice prayer?" There is no better prayer in the world than to think that God is Love, that God is omniscient and God is benign. I don' t know of a better prayer. When you think about God - that He is love - your heart will become warmed up. When you think about God - that He is omniscient - light will enter your mind. There is nothing better than that. I have been speaking thus: light for your minds, purity for your hearts, and truth for your souls. Light will give you knowledge, purity will give you power and motivation, and truth in your soul will give you freedom. This is my rule. Have I not given it to you?
And so, he who wants to have light in his mind, as soon as he thinks about God - that He is omniscient - light will come at once into his mind. When he thinks that God is Love, warmth will come, and when warmth comes, purity will come together with it. Do you not wash your clothes with warm water? Without warmth there can be no purity. You ought to remember this.
When you get up in the morning your old teachers may come and say to you, "It is too early; you could sleep some more; there is enough time." No, first thing when you wake up you must say this prayer. But when? When you have gone to bed on time, slept restfully during the night, then when you first wake up do this exercise If you have been awake and then fallen asleep again the rule works differently. With the first awakening, do not go back to sleep; get up and do the exercise. After that don't go back to bed! You may say, "But what if we waken at 1 am? You will not wake at 1 am., but you may waken at 3, 3:30 or 4 am. Only when your sleep is restless, will you wake at 1 or 2 am. He who sleeps restfully will wake at 3 or 3:30, while the aristocrats who wake at 6, 7, 8 or 9 am., say, "We over slept."
And so, you do the exercise early in the morning and then at noon - before 12 am - and not after 12 am. You may be at work, but you can do this exercise at any place. You can stop for a few minutes. If your boss is very stern, keep holding the pencil in your hand, but direct your mind to the heights, thinking that God is Love. No one will notice what you are doing. There is no condition which could prevent you. Even a housewife, when she cooks, can stop for two or three minutes from stirring the onions in the frying pan. The food will not burn.
Now, I want you to help restore harmony. If you do not help restore harmony, it is coming soon to earth anyway, and it will enforce itself. Consider the violinists who are masters, now can tune for themselves their violins, and those who can not do so are not masters. Someone else must tune their violins. We must be able to tune our instruments for ourselves.
Have you understood the first rule? At night, five minutes before you go to bed you do your exercise. Now, in this school, no one should say that he has his own opinion. There are no different opinions. He who wants to have his own opinion means that he will take from the school what he needs and for the remaining concerns, he will keep his own opinion. This cannot exist. And pupil who is not ready to do the exercise is not worthy to be a pupil. To help you I will do this exercise with you for two weeks, even though I have done it many times, for someone may be tempted to think that the pupil must do the exercise, while the teacher does not need to. So, I will do it with you. The question has come up when to begin with the exercise? - From tonight. In your notebook write down the hour at which you do it...all three times a day. If you have no watch, you may at least write down that you have begun it. Note only with one letter what you have felt. If you have felt love, note L. If you felt power, note P. Write down only your experiences in the form of abbreviations. Otherwise, you may get distracted. By doing this exercise, you will have some new thoughts, some forgotten thoughts, some new feelings. Something noble will be revealed to you; you will enter these currents.
I am giving you this exercise because you are entering the school. You cannot always have this exercise; you must remember this. Another time you may want to pay 1000 leva, but you will not be able to have it. Don't think you can always have it. This is a special exercise, and if you take advantage of it, you will profit. You may say, "another time." No, everything in nature has its special time. If you don't do it at that time the door will be closed, and you will have to wait. If you try to knock, you will be told, "We don't know you", and you will remind behind. Be glad, that this exercise has been given to you for two weeks only. After two weeks discontinue it. After two weeks, even if you want it, it will not serve you. You may say that you know all this. No, you don't. You have not thought about it yet. It makes a big difference whether the sunlight has come to you after it has been reflected from ten mirrors or whether it has come directly. If it comes directly you will have the first reflection of the light which comes from above.
With this we are starting a series of exercises which we will do regularly. Now, since we want this idea to grow, we need to water it. Let us read about the water. (About twenty assignments on the special virtues of the water were read).
Silent prayer.
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