Master’s Twenty-third Lecture delivered at the Youth Esoteric Class on 4 April 1923 – Sofia
Only the light path of Wisdom leads to Truth
Reflection
Summaries of lectures five and six from year one were read.
Write on the topics of Usefulness of Sleep, The Difference between Conscience and Self-Conscience, The Difference between Sub-Conscience and Super-Conscience.
Contemporary scientists examine time- and space- related issues and offer various explanations on them. What is the significance of time in Life? Time chronicles and determines all manifestations, all phenomena taking place in Life and Nature. Time determines the length or duration of a certain phenomenon or work taking place in the conscience. Therefore time is a clock used by Life and Nature. Space, however, represents the book of Life, of Nature, which chronicles all results taking place in human conscience. So, time relates to actions, while space – to results. Time and Space are within Life itself, not outside.
Sometimes a human being is transformed in time; how does this happen? Imagine, you expect your friend to visit you on a certain day, you keep waiting for a day, two days, three days, you are worried that something might have happened to prevent your friend from coming, you are anxious that your friend may be late, that he or she may forget to come etc. During this time you become apprehensive and excited – you think only of your friend. You go out, you come back, you keep an eye on the clock, and you see that the appointed time is yet to come, but still you are nervous. Why are you nervous? Your worries point at a lack of balance in human mind, heart and will. When you get to know the great principle in Nature by which everything happens when the right time comes, then you will no longer worry. Everything in Nature is measured and strictly determined. Imagine that though your friend has promised to come, he or she does not come at the appointed day and time, this is not accidental. The reason for this may be karmic, it is quite possible that a long time ago you might have promised to visit your friend and you might not have stood by your word; today, under the principle of revenge a similar experience comes back to you. If your friend does not fulfil his or her promise, do not blame him or her, do not say that your friend is unpredictable, but rather start looking for the mistake within you and you are bound to find it. As soon as you find your mistake, correct it. You should understand that whatever you may say about your friend, he or she has said the same about you – you are echoing his or her thoughts and feelings. What can you gain from this reverberation? You will gain nothing.
Someone walks in a forest and pronounces clearly and sonorously one word or one line from a poem; in a short while this word or line comes back1 returns to its original source. What do you gain from repeating this word or line? Say for example you have pronounced, ‘You forest, my green forest, you water, my cold water.’2 After a while you hear the echo of these words, as if they are coming particularly to you. What can you gain from this? You will gain nothing. What is reverberation or echo in Nature? Repetition – this is what it is. You say to somebody without seeing him or her that he or she is a good person; and he or she responds that you are a good person. So, if you praise someone, that person will praise you; if you reproach him or her, he or she will reproach you too. What is the situation with the one pronouncing something and with the other reverberating it? They are in situations opposite to each other. If the first one faces east and speaks from this position, the echo will come from the west. Have you ever considered the significance of the echo in Life? Can you know how far back an echo dates to – to this life of yours or to a previous life? You have to study these manifestations of Life and to account to yourselves how distant the echo reaching your ears is, and what it contains etc. You have to know how the echo in Life was created and if it is for Good, you have to benefit from it.
So, the broad sense of the word echo implies reflection. There is such an echo, i.e. such a reflection when one looks into the mirror. There one can see one’s reflection. We say a reflection of a given image, of a sound, a reflection of the light – these are all echoes. What makes one look into the mirror? The human desire to have an idea, a visualization of one’s image makes one look into the mirror. If a person can acquire an idea about oneself with one or several glances into the mirror, then the issue of getting to know oneself is settled. Some say that Nature, in order to see, to know itself, created the external world i.e. the world we see around us. This world is a reflection of the real world, of the Divine world. Where is the real world? If you assume that point A is in the external world, then the reflection of this world will be point B – so, the real world is in point B. Human conscience is, however, in point C, outside the straight line AB. Human conscience did not appear arbitrarily, but in a particular year, in a particular month, on a particular day, at a particular hour, minute and second; this conscience appears at a specific location in space. It is often the case that human misfortune is due to the fact that human conscience has, to some extent, deviated from the determined time and place of its manifestation.
Hence, the more sophisticated a person is, the more his or her conscience agrees with the time and place of its manifestation, determined by the principles of Nature. Thus one’s life is much more conscious and harmonic. When one’s life is in harmony, then one’s work progresses smoothly. Anyone can verify to what extent one’s conscience manifests itself at the exact determined time. So that you can find out the vigilance and accuracy of your conscience, you may perform the following experiment: all of you synchronise your watches and agree that on the following day, exactly at 4:32:05 you will be in Vitosha. Whoever is late or early will know that a certain deviation has occurred in his or her conscience. By the deviation of one’s conscience one can get to know how many and what mistakes one will commit during the day. The bigger the deviation of your conscience, the less people can rely upon you, and also the less you can rely on yourself. If you are late by one hour you will resemble a person who only breaks stones without achieving anything particular. If you are late by thirty-two minutes, you will resemble a person who has been eating and drinking and not working. If you are only 5 seconds late, you will resemble a person who has ploughed the soil, but has not sown the seeds. Only those of you, who observe time by the second, will sow and reap.
And so, through the manifestations of conscience one can rectify all of one’s mistakes. Why? Conscience is renovated every seven years. Therefore if you have missed the right moment during the first year of your conscience cycle, i.e. if you have made whatever mistake concerning time, during the following wakening or renovation of conscience after seven years, you have the chance to remedy your omission. This is to say that at the ages of seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-five, forty-two, and forty-nine years, one has the opportunity to rectify all of one’s mistakes. In order to succeed in correcting one’s mistakes, students have to stand by their promises, which they make either to themselves or to others. If you promise to meet someone at 4 o’clock in the morning, you have to be punctual: you will go to the agreed place at 4 o’clock – not a minute earlier or a minute later. If you arrive earlier or later, there is no excuse. No matter what happens, you must fulfil your promise. The strength of will resides in the fulfilment of one’s promises. Some may say, ‘It does not matter, I was late only by one minute or I was early by one minute.’ No, no minute can excuse you, a minute earlier or a minute later and there can be a road accident. Nature loves punctuality; in Nature things happen at the exact determined time – neither earlier, not later. Everything that happens earlier than the determined time is prematurely born; everything that happens later than the determined time is the rotten stuff in Life.
Being students you have to be punctual – be strict in fulfilling your promises, in bringing into effect your ideas. Among students there are often self-willed, obstinate ones. Do not forget: Nature breaks the heads, legs and arms of self-willed obstinate people. If you do not take care, yours will also be broken. Nature does not give in to anyone. Having arrived on Earth, you have to observe and comply to the fullest with the order of Nature. It is merciless to those who do not act according to its principles. At the same time Nature is absolutely fair: before applying the principles to any person, it will warn such a person three times and having done this, only then will it apply its principles. It will nudge one, it will tell one, ‘Come on, get up and go!’ – ‘Well, it’s too early yet, I do not feel like getting up.’ It will give a second nudge, ‘Get up and go!’ – ‘The Sun has not risen yet; moreover I have under-slept.” A third nudge, ‘Get up and go!’ – ‘I have no clothes, no hat, my coat and shoes are worn out.’ You will go hatless, in a worn coat and shoes. If you do not want to be in a worn coat and shoes you can go out barefooted with no coat on. – ‘But still I have no hat.’ Were you born in a hat? It is preferable that one is honest and diligent and keeps one’s promises, rather than being well dressed, but have compromised the promise given. One unfulfilled promise can decide one’s fortune for life. When a Great Spirit comes over and tells you, ‘Get up and go!’ this points out that the work is very important and cannot be postponed.
Therefore we are all required to be attentive and obedient – to listen to the faintest internal motives. Whatever you promised to do or whatever you are told to do, do it exactly on time. All obstacles in your Life are due to poor punctuality. Keep trying along these lines so that you become punctual for your own sake. Say for example, you decide to visit a friend of yours and to stay with this friend until 4 p.m.; you get there at 2 p.m. and at 4 p.m. you must be off on your way. At this point your friend will try to persuade you to stay a little longer, will offer various things to you, only to keep you longer at his or her place. However, once you have promised to yourself that you will be off at 4 p.m., you have to stick to your promise and to leave exactly at 4 p.m. You will tell your friend that you have some urgent work to see to and you will leave.
The first requirement for students is to be absolutely punctual in the fulfilment of their promises. Unpunctuality is the reason for all sins and crimes, for all unfinished work. It is true that all thefts, murders, crimes are committed in the evenings, in the dark. Why? Because in the evenings, in the dark, there is no punctuality at all. How can one determine, in the darkness, what one’s path should be? Unlike in daytime, when one can determine exactly what one’s acts are like, what one’s path should be like. Can one draw a picture or write a letter in the darkness? All noble elevated work can only be done in Light. Punctuality on its part is just one manifestation of Light – to be punctual means to use Light in one of its manifestations.
I shall now give you the following new thought: each ray of Light is a projection of the desires of one of the Elevated Beings. The ray coming from the Elevated being’s conscience is similar to the ray of sun, passing through you generating a pleasant feeling, a feeling of Joy and Cheer. This Being, which sends its ray into your eyes, into your brain, wants a proper reflection of its ray. What do some people do? They receive this ray, set their eyes to the ground and head toward a pub to have a glass of wine. What do we understand to be the meaning of the word wine? Wine stands for the wrong vicious thoughts and desires. Therefore when the Elevated beings project their thoughts, they spread like sun-rays and shine upon souls. Put in a word, Light is the projection of the thoughts, feelings and desires of Elevated Beings. Through their thoughts, feelings and desires the Elevated Beings are trying to elevate all of us human beings, all living creatures on Earth, who, from their point of view, are considered 3dead.
So, to renovate yourselves, you have to get up early every morning to be able to receive the first rays of sun. They carry within light and elevated thoughts. You may say that the rays of Light are nothing more than vibrations, oscillations of ether. It is true that Light is oscillations, vibrations, but these are Life-bearing vibrations. Only those who carry Light; only those whose conscience is vigilant can understand Life. Just like seeds cannot develop in ashes, persons whose conscience is asleep cannot understand the Life of Light. Similarly, just like seeds cannot grow in soil consisting predominantly of ashes and lime, Good cannot flourish under unfavourable conditions either.
For next time write upon the topic: What do Ashes and Lime Stand for? While reflecting upon the topic you will see that in order for the Good in human beings to grow and flourish, there must be a special environment, i.e. favourable soil. In this particular case a favourable environment is nothing else but a vigilant conscience. So being students you are required to have a vigilant conscience. This is the first condition for the construction of your life. Vigilant conscience of students can rectify their mistakes. Students will know what each small or big deviation in their lives is due to, and it will be easy to rectify them. When one’s conscience is vigilant, one will be punctual in all of one’s acts – such a person will not put things off, will not be idling around. What is the reason for laziness, idleness in people? When a desire to indulge oneself, to have an easy and opulent life is aroused, such a person has already given in to idleness and laziness. Laziness entails a number of crimes and sins. Laziness resides both in the hearts and minds of people. Teachers give problems to students to solve for the following day; students take a look at the problem, find out it is rather difficult and as they do not feel like thinking, they put it off for the following day. On the following day they take another look at the problem, still they do not feel like thinking and they go to school with the problem unsolved. No, whatever happens, students have to solve their problems, not to put it off for the following day. Only lazy people put things off. Those who put off the tasks given by the teacher, justify themselves with excuses that they had no inclination, no inspiration etc. No, whatever state you may be in, you have to perform your tasks.
Teachers give problems to students; they tell them to do good, but students start justifying themselves, why they cannot do this good, because they had no money, or were not inclined to, could not think of someone to do the good for etc. Resourcefulness is required with students. Students can do good at any moment. You have one poor friend; take a kilo of bread to his or her place exactly when your friend needs it. Well, your friend lived far away, you legs ached – there is no excuse whatsoever. There is no valid excuse for not doing good. As soon as you have delivered the bread on time, you have accomplished the task.
This is why students have to be vigilant – to be aware of their deeds at any moment, not to become slack, not to give in to laziness. Vigilant conscience makes achievements happen. You meet, for example a student who has finished primary school, but has missed one year, and could not enrol in grade one of secondary school. You give him or her, an impulse to enrol in secondary school, although he or she had missed a year. The student starts hesitating, thinking and finally puts enrolling off again. Why? Because having missed one year it will be very difficult for him or her to continue his or her studies. If this student decides on enrolling, he or she will overcome challenges and will make progress. There are students who are admitted to school with no problems at all but finish school with a lot of problems. Difficulties are inevitable; the issue is whether one will encounter difficulties at the beginning or at the end of the studies. Nobody has and nobody will evade difficulties. When you start certain work, whatever difficulty you may encounter, do not put the work off – each putting off entails bad consequences. Each Divine idea has to be sown exactly at the right time determined for it, no postponing. Having sown the idea, you will fence it, will water it, you will take care of it until it blossoms and sets. This, however, takes a lot of punctuality. Farmers sow each seed in their garden at an exactly determined time – neither earlier, nor later. This is how you should treat Divine ideas too.
Imagine that you are given a task to come to class exactly at 7:30 p.m.; this task will try your punctuality, you will see what deviation there is in your conscience. The success of students is a result of their punctuality. If the English people are a success, this is due to their punctuality. The English stick to their word; once you are told that you will meet at 4 o’clock, they will be at the agreed place exactly at the appointed time – not a minute earlier or later. The first requirement for students is to be punctual. Punctuality is a condition for the construction of one’s entire future life. Punctuality is a harmony, tact, and music in the Life of human beings.
Everything is strictly determined in Nature. Nature has determined the exact time for each of its acts. It has also determined precisely the time for our deeds. There is no time for bad deeds of human beings; these are not provided for in Nature’s agenda. This is exactly why these are committed between the periods of time determined for good human deeds. Hence each deed, not performed on time is a crime; each crime is a deviation from Nature’s punctuality. So, each deed not performed at its proper time, is a crime. In order not to commit crimes, observe the following rule in your life: each deed has to be performed at its right time. To this effect whatever difficulty you may encounter on your way, you have to overcome it. The moment you decide to overcome it, to be punctual to Nature, laziness will immediately appear and will try to talk you out of it, to take it slowly, ‘No hurry, take your time, you may postpone the solving of this problem.’ Laziness, idleness is a child born of many a sin. As soon as laziness appears as advisor, you should immediately close your door before it and not listen to what laziness has to tell you. We talk about laziness in the broad sense of the word: there is physical laziness, laziness of the heart, of the mind, and there is also a deliberate laziness; most dangerous of all is the laziness caused deliberately. Whatever you come across in your life, observe the principle of punctuality. If you comply with it, it will perform great reforms in your life, it will create conditions for the construction of your future life.
Exercise: stretch your right arm in front of you with the palm facing down and, in your mind, draw the principle of punctuality in each individual finger – in the thumb, the forefinger, the middle finger etc. Concentrate your thought into each finger for ten seconds. Afterwards take your right arm back to its place. Do the same exercise with the left arm as well.
This exercise is pleasant as it imprints the idea of punctuality in one’s mind. Nobody can hinder one’s desire and decisiveness to be punctual. The only hindrance can be the very person himself or herself. Therefore, let each one of you say to yourself, ‘I do not want to impede myself in the application of punctuality.’ Those who are not punctual cannot comply with the requirements for the study of the great natural forces. When you work with natural forces, you are required to be punctual and attentive, not to miss a single second of time. If you do not observe these, you will miss a lot.
The first requirement of students is to be punctual and attentive, not to miss the instructions which Nature provided in its deeds. The future of students rests on punctuality. Students’ happiness and unhappiness rest on punctuality.
Reflection
Only the light path of Wisdom leads to Truth
1 To Editor: no point using ‘return’ instead of ‘comes back’ – no difference in meaning, why the change? Moreover come back is more informal, i.e. closer to the style of the Master
2 A line from a popular song
3 To Editor: no need to add ‘to be’ as it is understood anyway – with or without ‘to be’ the meaning of the sentence is the same,i.e adding ‘to be’ is actually stating the obvious.
---------------
------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
------------------------------------------------------------
1
|
