Thirteenth Lecture by Master Beinsa Douno, delivered to the Youth Esoteric Class
January 10, 1923, Sofia
Silent Prayer
Contemplation
One can keep every thought and every word in one’s mind or consciousness only when that thought or word is well understood. For example, how do you understand the word thirst? Thirst implies an internal condition. Thirst is not suffering like some may think, because as soon as one drinks water, one experiences a pleasant feeling. Therefore, thirst represents an introductory process to some pleasant feeling. How do you understand the word hunger? Is hunger directly related to the human being; does the word hunger contain any specific idea? Hunger also reflects a certain internal condition. When we say that there is hunger in a country, we mean that there is no wheat in this country. Starvation and hunger are two different concepts. Is there a relation between thirst and hunger?
Therefore, every word and every right thought manifests itself on the physical level. Thoughts move in lines that are wavy like light rays. These lines appear to be straight - that is how they are projected onto a plane, but, in fact, every thought is refracted multiple times, depending on the kind of media that it passes through. The denser the medium through which the thought passes, the larger the angles that result from the refraction of the thought. Consequently, the refraction of thoughts results in the formation of different kinds of angles: acute, right or obtuse. Similarly, angles were formed in the process of creating the human hand. This shows that the forces that have created the human hand have undergone certain refractions. Measuring the human hand reveals that thieves, i.e. those who like to touch, always have longer hands than good and honest people. How can you explain this fact? It is very simple: when these people desire to touch something, to feel inside somebody else’s pocket, they have their thought projected into this direction, and thus feed their hands’ cells more than the cells of their other extremities. They wish they could lengthen their hands so that they can use them more easily and so, in reality, their hands do become longer. If, during the course of a few generations, people project their thought in a certain direction with the intention to modify their body in a certain way, they will, eventually, fulfil their wish.
In my last lecture I talked on the topic of consciousness but you were not able to understand it fully. In your opinion, what will happen with the consciousness of an Angel if it gets projected towards the Earth? ( It will refract as it goes from thinner to denser matter.)1 Those familiar with the esoteric say that plants are children of Angels. It is not important if this statement is true or not. Here is my question, however: what kind of matter did the consciousness of plants go through to cause them to turn upside down? Did their consciousness pass through the centre of the Earth or did it pass through some other centre? (A member of the audience replies, “It did not go through the centre of the Earth”.) What would have been the shape of the plants and in what direction would they have been pointing if they had passed through the centre of the Earth? If the AB line represents the consciousness of plants, then the consciousness of animals will move in a perpendicular direction to the AB line, namely along the MN line. Then human consciousness will move upwards along the ND line. This diagram shows that there exists a certain similarity between plants and humans: both move along the same line but in different directions. Animals, on the other hand, represent a transitory phase that helps the elevation of human consciousness.
One needs to study and look for the cause of things in order to understand why the consciousness of plants goes straight down to Earth and why the human consciousness goes straight up towards the centre of the Sun. According to some occultists, plants are children of Angels and animals are children of Archangels. If one follows the development of human consciousness, one can see that it went through the centre of the Earth and continues to move upwards toward the centre of the Sun. Therefore, plants move from point A to point B and humans move from point C to point D. The CD line shows the direction in which the human consciousness moved when it descended into matter.
Now, when man evolves, his consciousness moves in the opposite direction - from point D to point C, towards the centre of the Sun, the Original centre, towards which it once moved. The two directions in which the consciousness of plants and that of humans move form the cross, which is in constant motion. There is a certain relationship between the consciousness of plants and the human consciousness: the plant’s head is planted in the Earth and the human head is free; a plant supports itself on its head, while a man uses his feet. Because the consciousness of plants and humans move in completely opposite directions, their understanding is completely opposite as well. The difference in their understanding is the following: plants know nothing about sin, crime nor shame as everything they do is out in the open; humans know sin and crime as they do everything secretly. Man acquired these things during the time when he was going through the centre of the Earth. It is only now that he is going back to his original state; it is only now that his consciousness is starting to turn towards the centre of the Sun. As man moves upwards he undergoes a process of cleaning, so that he can clean his consciousness from all the sediments of his past. It is only now that man has started to study the great mysteries of Life. On the other hand, it is only now that the consciousness of plants is going through the centre of the Earth, which is the reason it is free of those characteristics that man has acquired in his past.
No matter what is being said about consciousness and how it is being explained, there will always be questions. For as long as you are disciples there will always be things that you will not be able to understand. You say, “Why can’t we and shouldn’t we understand everything?” I will reply to this question with the following example: imagine that you have a big barn full of wheat. The human consciousness wants to measure the quantity of wheat in the barn: this means that all of the wheat will be eaten. When all the wheat is eaten, there will be nothing left to plant next year. What will man acquire in such a situation? Nothing. In this case, all man can do is relinquish his desire to research all the wheat. No matter how curious man is, he should leave some matters unexplored. It is in his best interest to leave part of the wheat unmeasured. Man should always leave something unexplored in his life so that it can serve as a foundation for his future life. This is how Nature works, too: it contains a lot of secrets which it slowly, little by little, reveals to those who truly want to learn.
Now I will give you an example which will help you see for yourselves how differently people value things. Picture two societies that have different understandings and different expectations: one society strives for and values only big things, while the other society, on the other hand, values the little things. One day, two athletes appear in front of these societies: one carries a 200-kilogram weight on his back and the other carries a 500-gram gemstone. As the two societies look at the athletes, the first society will applaud the first athlete and will say that he is the hero and will laugh at the second one. The second society will applaud and recognize the second athlete as a hero, but will also give the first athlete the attention he deserves. Why? Because by valuing the small things, the second society is able to appreciate and understand the big things as well. The first society neglects the small things. The athlete who carries the 200-kilogram weight on his back is physically strong; he has developed his muscular strength. The second athlete who carries a weight of five hundred grams is mentally strong, he has developed his mental skills. The gemstone that weighs only five hundred grams represents the knowledge that man has accumulated in his head. Therefore, the first athlete carries the weight on his back and the second one in his head. Therefore, when I say that Nature has hidden its secrets and is revealing them little by little, I have in mind the human head, which contains big treasures. These treasures are revealed gradually and little by little, and only to the wise, virtuous and diligent people who like to work.
Therefore, all knowledgeable people are athletes who carry a five hundred-gram gemstone in their head. They want to know how the world was created and work towards this knowledge. Originally, the world was created from a grain of wheat so little that even an ant could carry it. Today, however, the world has grown so big that even the Angels cannot carry it. In the course of centuries, whole worlds were created from this single grain of wheat. This shows that the living matter in the wheat grain has multiplied. Everything consists of living matter that can develop and change, as well as of inert, coarse matter, which is, in essence, sleeping, fallen beings. They are waiting for their time to wake up and start progressing. Therefore, one of every man’s tasks is to wake up this inert matter in oneself, to mould it, to organize it and make it suitable for conscientious Life. This inert matter is present even in the smallest grains of sand that people kick around unaware that there are beings in those grains who are awaiting the hour of their awakening. They say, “There was a time when we kicked just like you do but now we are learning not to kick.”
This is all philosophical speculation which will be helpful to you only if you can apply it to your life. Man’s knowledge, no matter how little it is, is only valuable if it can be applied to man’s current transient life. Man’s knowledge is only worth something if it can do something sensible for him, if it can lift him at least a millimetre higher than his usual condition. During each period of his life, man stashes in his subconscious mind some knowledge here and there, all of which, taken together, make up that true, positive Knowledge that everyone strives for. In its evolution, human consciousness goes through different phases and, as a result, he values things differently. In one phase of his evolution, man will value the athlete with the 200-kilogram weight on his back; in another phase of his evolution, man will value the athlete, who carries in his head a 500-gram gemstone. In a third phase of his evolution, man will value the grain of wheat. Based on this difference, we distinguish between several kinds of consciousness in Nature: the consciousness of minerals, of plants, of animals and of humans. There are another four kinds of consciousness in the invisible world that correspond to these four kinds of consciousness in Nature. It is said, for example, that plants are children of Angels. Then the following question comes up: why do the Angels need to assume the form of plants? This is an unknown matter; we will mark it with an x. Then the next question that comes up is: why did God create man from earth; couldn’t He make him from something else? This is a second unknown matter; we will mark it with y. Now you have an equation with two unknowns. You need to find a way to solve this equation.
The Angels connect with the consciousness of plants to help them develop their virtues. Plants lack virtues and that is why they have their heads pointing down. The solar energy affects mainly their extremities - their virtues - and helps their development. People, on the other hand, because they have already developed their virtues to a certain extent, have their heads pointing up so that they can further develop their thought. The Sun’s energy supplies people with the necessary materials for building the Causal body, which is the foundation of their thought. The human thought is compiled of images that have been created by the Causal body; there is no thought without image. Therefore, one cannot think unless one has some image in one’s mind. The images of things can be found in the Causal world. That is why the human head needs to be exposed to the sun’s energy. The sun’s rays, when shining on the human head, help develop in it those centres that are necessary for the building of the Causal body. Having descended to the physical world, man has a well-developed Physical body. Today, it serves as a foundation for the development of the other bodies: Astral, Mental and Causal. Indeed, we can see that, physically, man is well adjusted for life on Earth. It took thousands of years of work so that man could grow up and evolve independently on earth and use the conditions in the physical world.
Therefore, the physical body was created first in man so that it could serve as a foundation for the building of the other bodies. In some people, the physical body is completely developed, that is why they can move into the Astral world and can start the building of their Astral body. In other people, the physical body is not yet completely developed. For this reason, they will need to spend a lot more time in the physical world until they have completed the building of their physical body. Thus, the physical body provides the foundation for the Astral one; the Astral body provides the foundation for the Mental one; the Mental body provides the foundation for the Causal one and so on. There is one thing you should know: each body should be perfected so as to be able to grow freely and develop in the corresponding world. Now that you know this, you should not fool yourselves into thinking that you can achieve all of this in only one life. A child can play and live in a fantasy world, but an engineer is not allowed to play games, nor to fool himself with fantasies. He must understand people’s needs. Because you are building roads for the Divine trains, you are not allowed to play in the moral, nor in the physical aspect and simply act as you please. When you ask why you cannot live anyway you want, you should answer to yourselves: “We are engineers of the Divine roads, therefore we cannot and are not allowed to live as we please.”
Every Divine road serves a specific purpose. You are engineers only once; therefore, in order to meet the needs of thousands of people you will need to build roads for them according to all the rules of the new science. This is what I call morality. When you apply this morality, you cannot live as you wish, but will work as God wishes. If you do not work as God wishes, karma will come right away. The karmic law is strict and relentless! Once on Earth, every man is a worker, an engineer who builds roads. He is a worker for the state who receives a steady salary. Nothing else is required of him except to be conscientious and to do his job well. It is said in the Scriptures: “Make God’s ways straight!” Do not think that, being disciples, you are not liable for your work. It is because you are disciples that you are more liable than if you were not disciples. You are building your future life, your future morality. Your morality should be different from that of other people. The roads that people today walk on, are made of iron. What is the result of these iron roads? The result is that seventy-five out of a hundred people who walk on these roads, die, while only twenty-five survive. The Divine roads, which you are building today, need to have a completely different morality. The new morality that you can apply as beginner disciples in the Esoteric School needs to have a different percentage, namely, seventy-five out of a hundred should be able to pass the road successfully and only twenty-five out of a hundred should fail. The more advanced you become, the percentage of the good ones should increase and reach a hundred per cent, so there is not even one exception. This is Divine morality. There are no victims, no mistakes in the Divine ways; everything there is smooth and harmonious. When you have walked a Divine road of thirty years, there should not even be one injured traveller: this is what Divine morality means.
Keep in mind this idea: the road that you travel should be so correct, so harmonious that it should not even take one victim, not even one person should be injured. In other words, when you speak, think, feel or act, every word, thought and feeling of yours should be completely devoid of falseness; everything should be exactly in its place. Words, thoughts, feelings and deeds represent Divine roads that one needs to know how to blaze. When an engineer builds a house, he should be honest and conscientious and tell the person for whom he is building the house, “I will make you a house of this many bricks, roof tiles, shingles, beams and boards. You can count them to make sure I’m telling you the truth.” The person checks and sees that the engineer speaks the truth. You may object that it is impossible to count the roof tiles, the bricks, and the beams in a house that has already been built. Yet, it is possible. What you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven. In the Spiritual world, too, there are engineers and developers, who are building, calculating and checking things. That is why it is said that nothing remains hidden in the world. The engineers in the Spiritual world have special magnifying glasses that they point towards the completed house and look. All the bricks, roof tiles, beams and nails can be seen magnified and can easily be counted like in an unfinished house. Once they have made the calculations, they put away the magnifying glass and look at the house with a naked eye. In the Spiritual world every word, every thought, every feeling can easily be checked if it is true or not. Even the smallest disharmony, the smallest falseness is in plain view there.
Speaking about a change in consciousness, this change is easily accomplished with children but not with the parents themselves. For example, a mother with musical talent and a father with an inclination for stealing, have a son. If the son takes after his parents’ external form and puts into his consciousness his own meaning and content, his level of consciousness will be higher than that of his parents. However, if the son takes on his own form and assumes his parents’ consciousness content, he will be a musician, on the one hand, and a thief, on the other. When he plays and sings he will rob people. Therefore, when a child keeps its own external form, and takes from its parents the meaning and content of their consciousness, it will have their vices and virtues. If the child keeps its own content and its own meaning and takes on its parents’ external form, it will inherit their appearance. In the first case, the child has inherited something internal from its parents; in the second case the child resembles its parents only externally, in form, but in meaning and content it is foreign to them. So, if you want to get rid of some family weakness, you should assume only the form of this weakness but not its meaning and content. For example, the father enjoys drinking; the son can enjoy drinking, too, but not drinking wine like his father - the son should drink water instead. As soon as you take on the form of some of your parents’ weaknesses, empty out this form and put in it your own meaning and your own content.
Is this matter clear now? Or you might say that it is as clear as before. I think that some things became clearer and others became more obscure. This is the human philosophy: two steps forward, three steps backward. If all matters become clear, there will be nothing left for you to learn. It is not important whether you like this philosophy or not. Philosophy, too, has its own methods. For example, the contemporary naturalists claim that the number of elements in Nature is strictly determined and they neither increase, nor decrease in number. This is the modern understanding in philosophy. In fact, this is not so and every year there is a new element added in Nature. This element comes from somewhere outside and enters Space. Externally, in the physical world, this is not registered in the changes of human consciousness. There is something new added to human consciousness at every moment. When they solve a certain problem, some philosophers say, “We had solved this problem correctly, but a new element x entered our consciousness and it confused the whole thing.” They do a calculation and find out that x equals, let’s say, one. As soon as they solve the problem, the very next day yet another new element, y, enters their consciousness and confuses the whole thing. They calculate what y equals and find out that it equals, let’s say, two. Then a new element enters their consciousness and changes it constantly which leads to the differentiation of matter.
Modern chemistry talks about the atoms of elements. Let’s take gold for example: it is considered that this particular atom retains the same properties under all conditions. In reality this is not so. The atom of gold in the mineral kingdom is different from the atom of gold in plants; the latter is different from the atom of gold in animals. Finally, the atom of gold in animals is different from that in human blood. We distinguish four kinds of atoms of gold, all of which have different properties and behave differently. The higher the number of an element, the more varied properties it has. Modern chemists say that hydrogen is one of the lightest gasses. In claiming this, they do not take into consideration the density of the original matter from which the world was created. This original emanation is a substance a thousand times lighter, purer and finer than that of hydrogen. That is why when one talks about the state of matter, one should always start with its original state. The manifestation of our consciousness depends on that matter. The acting forces in the whole Universe depend on matter. Therefore, every day, every minute, every moment, something new is added to Life. If we assume only for a moment that this adding of new elements ceases, then this will be the end of the Universe. No matter how small it is, it brings joy, impulse, and impetus to all living creatures. Nobody knows what exactly that new element is. It will remain a variable forever and for eternity. Why? Because the new comes with every moment. No scientist, no saint, no Angel even knows what the future holds. The reason for this is that the original Divine force is boundless and unreachable; once it manifests itself, it becomes reachable. You should aspire towards the manifested consciousness while making sure, at the same time, that you observe the rule not to eat all the wheat in the barn.
Now I will ask you the following question: should you try everything? I will reply with the following example: imagine that you are sitting at one end of a very sensitive plank that is balanced on a triangular shaped prop. On the other end of the plank there is a basket with apples the weight of which is equal to your weight. In other words, you have something like two scales that are in equilibrium. At one point a philosopher comes up to you and says, “Why don’t you take a hook and take out some apples from the basket to try them?” You see a hook lying next to you, take it, reach for the basket with it, take out a few apples and try them. At this moment the equilibrium is disturbed, the plank leans towards point B where you are sitting and a semi circle is formed from point D to point Д. This disturbance in the equilibrium is the cause for certain misfortune that you come across. Those who understand the law of equilibrium know that they should move gradually towards point C; the basket, too, needs to be moved at the same time. As the weight gets lighter the arms of the lever need to be shortened in order to maintain equilibrium. Otherwise, if the equilibrium is disturbed you will find yourselves on the ground. Why do misfortunes come people’s way? Because people try the apples without knowing the law of equilibrium. This law is related to the correct movement in Life. Point A represents the place of your ideal. This ideal is dangerous if you want to reach it with a hook; ideals cannot be reached with a hook. You need to go to the place where the ideal is and when you are there you will partake in it. One may say, “I want to knock off this basket and take a few apples.” No, you will look at the basket from a distance and will not touch it until you have found a correct way of solving the problem. Consequently, if you do not want to lose your balance in life, do not touch the basket with the apples until you have found a correct way of knocking the apple basket and taking out some apples.
Now I wish you to think correctly, to acquire such Knowledge that you can apply in your life, and with the help of which you can always build. Without that Knowledge, you cannot create any morality in yourself.
1 Whenever the disciples in the audience respond to a question posed by the Master throughout the lecture, their comments are transcribed in italics and placed in parentheses.
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