Twenty fourth lecture, given by the Master Beinsa Douno at the Youth Occult Class on the 11th of April 1923, Sofia
Only the bright path of Wisdom leads to Truth.
Summaries of the seventh and eighth lectures of the first year were read.
The topic “The benefit of sleep” was read.
Figure 1.
Imagine that point C (Fig. 1) is a seed, a result of something. This seed can be of any fruit, of a grain of wheat or something else. What should you do with this seed? You should give it conditions to develop. How many elements are necessary for the manifestation of the forces hidden in the seed? The first element is soil shown by the straight line AB. Soil, for its part, is a result – it is a substance that has fallen behind in its development, it has not finished its evolution. According to some occultists substance represents sleeping spirits in Nature. In the present case, the job of the seed consists in waking up these spirits. In terms of science, the job of the seed is to convert the potential forces of soil into kinetic. The second element, which is necessary for the development of the seed, is light. When falling onto the seed, the light forms the angle nmp. In order to develop, the seed should simply take in the sunbeams which fall onto it. The third element which is necessary for the development of the seed is dampness which falls on it in the form of vapour or in the form of rain. Once these three conditions exist, the seed can begin to develop. The first movement which the seed will make is branching downwards, towards the centre of the Earth; after that it will direct upwards, towards the centre of the Sun. At this bifurcation of the seed in two directions – downwards and upwards – certain parity is noted between the roots and the branches: a certain branch corresponds to every root, just as a large branch corresponds to every large root; a small branch corresponds to a small root. Thence, when a root or rootlet withers, the corresponding branch or twig withers together with it.
If we trace back the development of man from the primary cell, we will see that he has been created from the division of this cell in two parts in the form of two seeds. Human brain has been formed from a seed – the roots of the nervous system are in it. The second seed has formed the stomach brain, from which the sympathetic nervous system has come1. The roots of this system are in the stomach brain. The sympathetic nervous system includes the feelings of man mostly. You should study these two systems well, should get acquainted with their functions to know how to cope with them. For example, at times you feel heaviness in the stomach but you do not know the reason for that; if you are acquainted with the functions of the sympathetic nervous system, you will see that this heaviness, this indisposition in the region of the stomach is connected with your feelings, with the sympathetic nervous system. You have eaten a certain food with vibrations that do not correspond with the vibrations of your sympathetic nervous system, resulting in a certain disharmony. When this distressing state passes in a way you start feeling mental indisposition. This means that the pain has crossed into the head, to the temples, where you feel great tension. This indisposition may last a day or two or more, until you clean your brain in some way. For this reason man should be careful what he eats; he should know what food is necessary to his organism.
As disciples, you should work hard on yourselves without seeking the easy way. You should know that the easy way is the hardiest way in Life. The easy way brings great dangers for man, the hard way is safe. Therefore, if you want to succeed in your life, do seek the hard way. Once you seek the easy way, you will have great surprises and trials.
Imagine that the grain of wheat has the consciousness of man and says: “I want to find the easy way and to set off for it, I do not want to be earthed up deep down, it is enough to be put at a depth of one centimetre in the ground and to be soiled a little from above”. What would happen with the grain of wheat under these conditions? It will wither at the smallest drought. Such is the situation with everyone, who seeks the easy way. He may say that sufferings are not necessary in life, that difficulties should be avoided, etc. Whatever he says, in whatever way he tries to persuade others, this man is wrong. You meet high school students who say that mathematics is not necessary in life; why is mathematics not necessary? They seek the easy way; that is why. Then what do they need? In their opinion they need history, geography, music. They think that it is easy to study music. On the whole, every subject is important for the student. He should study the subject in a way that his mind becomes deeply imbued with it. In order to be a musician, first of all the student has to be musical. In order to know to what extent you are musical, do go visit a sick man and start singing to him – if the state of the sick man improves, you are really musical. Music cures, harmonizes the forces in human organism. Therefore, everyone should be musical, no matter whether he plays music or sings. Man should be internally musical – this is especially necessary for the disciple. Without music, no harmonizing can take place between the disciples of the School. To be in harmony with each other, this means to strike your roots deeply into the Earth, in order to acquire greater stability, on the one hand, and to extract as much sap as possible from the Earth and to send them to the branches, on the other hand.
And so, you should know that the stability, the strength of your ideas depends on the depth to which the roots of these ideas have penetrated in the Earth. The deeper the roots of your ideas go down into the Earth, the higher their branches penetrate in your mind, i.e. the higher towards God you have gone. For this purpose you should know how to transform the forces of your organisms. To transform your forces means to know what element you should bring into your mind and into your heart. Once you find this element and bring it into yourselves, then beautiful thoughts will be generated in your mind as well as high-minded and noble sentiments – in your heart. These elements are similar to the injections which contemporary doctors give sick people. However, before you perceive these thoughts and feelings, you experience the same states that a sick man experiences when he is given injections. What does a sick man feel? To start with, the place in which the injection was given swells, after that temperature, and fever appears. Almost a week later the sick is indisposed and he swears not to undergo injections a second time. However, in a month the distressing state goes and he begins to feel the benefits of the injection. There are two kinds of injections: physical and psychical. After every severe suffering, where one’s mind has been troubled and life makes no sense, bright and elevated ideas are being born in his mind. In this case the suffering represents the injection. That is how it was with all great people, that is how it was with all inventors, that is how it was with all poets, writers, scientists and preachers, that is how it was with all musicians and artists – the law is true for all times and epochs, for all people without any exceptions. The hardest way is the right one.
Consequently, when you come up against a difficulty in you life, you will know that this is in the course of the great laws of Nature. The right way infers the good, the conscious Life, that should be understood properly. For example, not all positive has a good effect on man and not all negative has a bad effect. Understanding is needed from the disciples. The word bad is not positive. Someone tells you: “You are not so bad”; this means that you are not as bad as you think, you are not as bad as other people are. Once it is said in that way, you cheer up, you feel refreshed. This shows that there are negative words with an ascending effect on man; there are positive words with a descending effect. For example, someone tells you: “You are not better than others; this means that the other people are good but you are not better than them. The word good is positive but in this case you feel hurt, you lose heart, this word does not cheer you up. Why does this word, used in the sentence “you are not better than the others” hurt you? Because you have had a high opinion of yourselves, you have considered yourselves something special and suddenly you are compared with all people. What should you understand from the word good? A good person is that one, who has a right thought, right feelings, and right actions. This means that three elements define Goodness: that one who does not have a right thought, right feelings and right actions cannot be good. The Good is a result. The good person solves his tasks easily, and works out the difficulties of his life easily. He knows the reasons of things; he has knowledge at his disposal.
If someone comes to you and calls you a know-nothing, you feel hurt right away and say: “What, I am a know-nothing, do you know that I have read Decart in French, Kant in German, and Bacon in English?” If the erudition is the judge of a person with this knowledge, then indeed this person is not a know-nothing. However, the same person falls ill and does not know the reason for his disease; therefore, he is not able to help himself. He has a headache; he is asked: “What is the reason for your headache?” – “I do not know.” – “Can you help yourself?” – “I cannot.” He has stomach ache – he does not know the reason for his disease, he cannot help himself and he looks for a doctor. I ask: “Is that one an erudite, who does not know the reason for his disease, nor can he help himself? This person is a champion know-nothing. A doctor will come, will see whether the tongue is white, the eye – yellowish, the pulse of the heart – quickened and will judge that he is ill, he has a stomach upset accompanied by a headache; after that he will make out a prescription and will go away. This is only a conclusion, but not a determination of the reasons of the disease.
Everyone who has a headache does not like speaking the Truth. A person, who has a toothache has broken a certain law of nature and should suffer the consequences of this breach. Knowing this, do not avoid diseases; do not be afraid of them. They come to restore the breach that you once caused in Nature. They come to restore the breached balance of your organism. What do people do nowadays? When they have a toothache they hurry to have the tooth pulled out, however the pain continues after the tooth is out. The esoteric disciple should see pain through. Once he has a toothache, he should apply his will and should not groan. If friends come to him at that time he should talk with them freely, calmly, as if he has no pain at all. It does not matter that the side of his face is swollen. You should absolutely disregard your pain. Nature examines man as to how courageous he is, and how much he is able to withstand sufferings.
As disciples, you should know that sufferings are inevitable on your path. There is not a being in the world which does not suffer. Do you think that the grain of wheat does not suffer? Great are the sufferings of the grain of wheat! Planted in the ground, covered up with soil, it feels dreadful sufferings, as if it is bursting, as if it dies. It is in great sufferings until its outer skin cracks. As soon as this husk cracks apart, it sprouts, shoots up and starts a new life - a life of liberation. Therefore you will know that you will not avoid sufferings, but you should seek the reason for sufferings. The point is not to extract the bad tooth, but to find the reason for the pain. Once you have a stomachache you are in a hurry to take a purgative; today the pain will pass but tomorrow it will appear again. It is important to find the reason for all diseases, of all difficulties which you come across. There is nothing bad in having had a headache, or you have been heartsick, or felt certain soul emptiness, however, it is important to know the reasons for things. What is wrong that you feel certain emptiness in you? What is wrong about a bottle being empty? Today it is empty, tomorrow it will be filled. In order to be filled with new content, it simply has to be emptied. When your head, your mind is emptied, do know that some new idea will replace this emptiness.
Therefore, as disciples of occultism you should know the laws so that you can utilize the esoteric sciences, can make use of them. You are still young now, but if you do not study the laws of Nature and do not live in compliance with them, then the contradictions of Life will come and you will not be able to manage with them. You will be under the burden of these contradictions every day, while, imperceptibly your spine will bend gradually – one day you will see yourselves bent like a question mark. Seeing yourselves in this situation you will say: “I already got old, it is all up to me.” Why have you come to this situation? What did you do when you were young? Do you know why you were young? You do not. Do you know why you got old? You do not know that, either. What do you know, then? You know that you used to walk upright when you were young and you stooped as you became old. The esoteric disciple should be upright – no matter what his age is, he should stay upright. Bending is a symbol of getting old. Stand up straight! No humps, you should not stoop.
When you get up in the morning, do not be in a hurry to start working; wash yourselves, stand up straight and concentrate your thought towards the centre of the Earth in order to perceive its energies; then direct these energies towards the centre of the Sun; then again direct your thought towards the centre of the Earth and so on. After doing this exercise several times, move a little up and down. Finally, stay quiet and calm, and send your prayer of thanks to the One, who has sent you to the Earth and has given you all conditions for growth and development. Get in touch with His consciousness and thank Him – not in words only, but from the depth of your soul. Then get in touch with the consciousness of the good and sensible Beings in the world, who work for your elevation. Thank these Beings, thank the great powers in the world, who, along with their great task to guide the fortunes of the whole humankind, have spared time for you as well, for the creation of good and favourable conditions for your development.
So do flowers: blooming of flowers is nothing else but thankfulness, gratitude which they send towards the Sun for the favours done by it. The condition of the seeds of flowers is not easy while they are earthed into the soil. However, after they sprout, after they appear on the surface of the earth and start growing up, blooming and giving fruit, they speak out their thankfulness to the Sun, to the humidity, to the air for the assistance in their development. While looking at the flowers, the Sun smiles and continuously promises to send them its energy. Therefore every thought, every feeling and every action in man should be as the blossoms of plants are – they should express the thankfulness of man to God, to all bright and elevated Beings for the goods which they have given to them. As long as the flower thanks, it has opportunity to bloom; once it stops thanking, its job is finished. As long as it blooms it has opportunity to make use of the energies of Nature. The same could be said about man as well: as long as man thanks, he thinks; as soon as he stops thanking he stops thinking. Since he does not think, man is doomed to withering. Without thought, without feelings and without actions man is doomed to death – he is a fruitless plant. The disciple should have bright, elevated thought, noble feelings and actions. In his thoughts he should be an optimist, should look brightly on things, and should not lose heart. The disciple should not think that he is incapable. If the small flower is capable to bloom and to give fruit, how much more can man do? Everyone can do something, at least as much as the flower does. The thoughts, the feelings and the actions of the disciple should be outstanding.
Now, do not think that you will do without difficulties and sufferings. It is a delusion to think that you will do without sufferings. It is not the same if you have a living, blooming flower or a painted flower; also it is not the same if your thoughts have been experienced, have come out from the depth of your soul, have gone through the bending of the heart and shaking of the mind or have been only read and spoken about. In the first case you have gone through the process of blooming resulting in feeling, an inner renovation, and liveliness. It is preferable for man to go through sufferings rather than spend an easy, luxurious life; it is preferable for man to stay all the day round at the vineyard, to get blisters on his hands and to get his face sunburned rather than have no blisters and his face remain fair, not touched by the Sun. One, who works at the Divine vineyard, will always have a share in it. Nature likes hard-working, diligent people while it turns its back on lazy people. Man should be fair internally not externally. Externally he may be fair or sunburned – this is not important. Work is required from everyone – nothing more. If you work Nature will help you and God will assist you. It is said in the Scriptures: “Do pray for one another”; this means “Do help one another”. When you see someone who is sorrowful you should come to his assistance – do stare at his state, see what he needs and help him by joint efforts. If he needs some money you may help him with money as well. By his thought, man can help his fellow men in the three worlds – the physical, the Heart and the Mental. The joint thoughts are a great power. In order to take part in this thought, man should control his thoughts and feelings. Once he achieves this, he will be able to contribute something to the collective, the general thought of the entire humankind as well. In order to develop his heart and to obtain a right thought, man passes through a number of sufferings and trials.
Hence, you should know that the sufferings you go through rest on certain laws. They are strictly determined and foreseen. Through sufferings, man learns, acquires knowledge. Without sufferings he will not make use of anything even if he would have finished four faculties. That knowledge would be on paper only without putting it into practice. A true knowledge is that by which man foresees everything that could happen to him. And if something happens to him, a disease for example, he would easily cope with it. That is why a strong will is required from him – in order to overcome the hindrances that he will meet on his way.
For the next time write on the topic: “The distinctive features of strong will”. Will represents the manifested man. Man manifests himself in his actions but not in his thoughts and feelings – this means that the will represents man. By what means will you recognize a writer or a poet? By his works. By what will you recognize an artist? By his pictures. By what will you recognize a musician? By what he plays and composes. Without will man is not manifested. Will is a materialized expression of the human mind and the human heart – it is a spokesman of two worlds: the world of mind and the world of heart. Contemporary people as well as esoteric disciples lack strong will. All people should work on strengthening, on steeling their will. There are energies that have accumulated in man for years that could be used for work, and for strengthening of the will. For example, someone was insulted by someone else and he has kept this insult in himself for decades. An insult is nothing else but an energy that stays still. Will should be made to work, to remake this energy, to use it wisely. A person, who has a strongly developed ambition, easily gets insulted. The place of ambition is in the back part of the head. When somebody insults you a heating appears at the place of this centre – by this you will know the place of ambition in you. When you become frightened you will feel a certain tension above, in both sides of the head – by this you will know where the centre of fear is in man. When an outer reason awakens you to mercy, you will feel a certain tension in the upper part of your head, where the centre of mercy is.
Generally speaking, all energies of nature go through man as well, in that each of them has a strictly determined role. As disciples, you should study these energies, should know their places. One of the methods to study these energies is to examine through self-analysis. In this direction, various methods of work are given in the School. You will work with acids, with bases and with salts. Acids represent negative forces in Nature. In the laboratory of Nature they are as necessary as bases and salts are. In contemporary chemical laboratories, acids are used for dissolving, for cleaning of different metal oxides. If you want to clean something from someone tell him an insulting word – insulting words are a kind of acids. Insulting words are a wealth – every insulting word has a certain value for the one who comprehends their sense. There are adepts who would give millions for a single insulting word but there is no one to say such to them. If you, who do not comprehend the significance of insulting words would be told such a word you would get insulted. When you are told an insulting word, put it into a bottle, then close the bottle, put a notice when that word was said to you and keep it until you find someone to buy it. Whereas, if you bring the insult from a person to person, if you complain about it, this means misunderstanding of Life. Every insult costs ten million leva2. So, if you are told an insulting word give thanks for the wealth that you acquired. Hence, negative thoughts and feelings are acids that clean human character and give stimulus, impulse in the life of man.
So, no matter what you do you will not get rid of the difficulties and sufferings easily. They are necessary. Sufferings smooth human character. And insulting words raise man. We can make the following experiment: we will put one of the disciples under conditions where every other day he will be told an insulting word. Another disciple will be put under conditions where every other day he will be told a pleasant word. The experiment will last three months; after that we will study which one of the two has raised. That one to whom insulting words are directed will at first be aggrieved, then he will be angry, will start finding a way to answer those who have insulted him. After that, he will start thinking what every insulting word contains until at last he will aspire to some great thought and will rise above the ordinary conditions of life. The second disciple, who is told pleasant, sweet words all the time, will start contemplating his position until he decides that he does not have to work. He will see that his father is rich and will decide to live on his means. And, instead of raising higher this disciple will regress more and more. Knowing this, do take advantage of insulting words wherever they come from – from outside or from inside. Their saps are hidden deep in the Earth – strike your roots into the Earth to suck its saps and to send them up to the branches of your Life. Do thank that the tongue of your friend that has made a slip and told you an insulting word. Religious people, not comprehending this law, fight amongst themselves for having been insulted. They say: “How is that we, religious people, tell one another insulting words instead of living well together.” I say: There is nothing bad in insulting words, they are great wealth – manure for human soul. Once you are told an insulting word put it into a bottle right away, and wait until someone comes to buy it. This is what a religious person should understand: when he has been insulted, he should feel that he has acquired some wealth. This means for man to comprehend the main laws in Nature. Speaking about negative forces in Nature we do not mean the destroying, dead forces, but we mean the forces that build up, and create. Nature removes, throws away the former for being useless and makes the latter work.
And so, always keep in your mind the idea of the grain of wheat. When you come across a difficulty, imagine the state of the grain of wheat. Follow its footsteps in your thoughts, get down with its roots into the earth; after that rise to the surface of the earth where you will grow a stem and leaves; and after a time you will come into bloom, you will bear fruit and you will become ripe. Only in this way you will solve the difficulty that has crossed your path. Having eaten the ripe grain of wheat your difficulty will disappear. If you are hurt, if you are sorrowful, attempt to do this in your thoughts and do not be afraid.
Imagine that a friend of yours has insulted you. How? He has told you that you are a champion know-nothing. Now I will set a task for you; for a week, to transform the energy that this insult contains and to overcome it. For this purpose make the following imaginary attempt: take a pip of an orange and put it imaginarily into a large container with soil. Then start following with your mind the entire process of growth of this pip: go down into the ground with it until it strikes its rootlets; after that come above the ground and keep its process of growth – along its stem, along its leaves; then imagine that a blossom puts forth, ripens and bears a nice orange; when you see this beautiful fruit, do eat it. Thereby the attempt is over. Attempt this for several minutes every evening as far as you can go with your thought. The next evening continue from the point you left off. On the first evening the pip may only sprout, on the second evening it may give stem and leaves, on the third it may bloom and so on. Keep at it an entire week. If someone’s pip fails to set and bear a ripe fruit, let him not be confused. In this way everyone will check to what extent he can concentrate his mind, how strong his will is and so on.
This attempt is in the Mental world. After a time when you progress more you will be able to make it in the physical world as well. For the present however, until you have not come to this high development, make the attempt in your thought at every difficulty, at every insult from close or distant people. In this way you will strengthen your mind, your heart and your will.
When you run against negative thoughts or experience negative states, be careful not to keep them in your organism for a long time because they bring poisons to the blood that you will have to free yourself from. These poisons are similar to the poisons which bacilli make at their reproduction. In order for the organism to come to its normal state, doctors recommend various medicines which aim at combining those poisons in a compound harmless for the organism and excreting them later. In such cases we recommend drinking hot water: the sick should drink up several glasses of hot water to dilute the serum in which bacilli reproduce. In this way their reproduction strength abates and the organism returns to its normal state.
An exercise: move your hands out in front of the chest and touch the tips of the thumb and the little finger of the one hand, and the thumb and the little finger of the other hand so that the hands with the flats downwards form a straight line parallel to the shoulders. At this position, the thumbs and the little fingers remain without moving, touching at their tips and the three middle fingers are movable, and then you put those of the right hand upon the three free fingers of the left hand and slide over them until they touch one another with their tips. Then you slide the same fingers but from the lower side, and imagine that you are surmounting a certain obstacle with an apparent effort. Slowly, let the hands down as much as possible but in a way that the little fingers and the thumbs remain fixed without moving and the flats stay parallel to the body plane, i.e. thumbs showing upwards and the little fingers – downwards. At this position the three free fingers of the left hand slide upon the three free fingers of the right hand – first from above and after that from below without making any effort in your thought, as it was in the first exercise. Raise hands in the first position, parallel to the shoulders, with the right fingers upon the left. The exercise is continued in the same way. While the exercise lasts, your mind should be concentrated on the hands and fingers.
Do this exercise for ten days in succession – five minutes every evening, before you go to bed. Right after it you will do the exercise with the orange pip, which lasts fifteen minutes. This means that every evening before going to bed you will use twenty minutes for both exercises. When things go wrong man holds his thumbs downwards; once things begin getting better he holds the thumbs of his hands upwards.
- Only the bright path of Wisdom leads to Truth.
- It makes us merry all the time.
1 A vegetative /autonomous/ nervous system, consisting of sympathetic and parasympathetic parts; the stomach /solar/ plexus, called also stomach brain, is anatomically the largest nervous plexus of the sympathetic part
2 Bulgarian currency
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