Today, I will speak about three words – combination, application, and implementation; these words have to remain in your minds forever. You say, “We will write these words down, so that we do not forget them.” It is not enough just to write them on paper; you have to open your minds and your hearts in order to understand them – your progress will depend on these three words.
I will now explain the meaning of these three words. Combination stands for the correct juxtaposition of all real things created by God – there can be a combination in the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of a person; there can be a combination among spirits, among people, among Angels, just as among gods; there can be a combination between two or more tones. The combination among tones has to happen not only theoretically, but practically as well. If you want the combination to turn out right, sing these tones one, two, three, or more times until they begin to sound harmonious. If you want to perform a certain musical piece, to play it or to sing it, repeat it in your mind many times until you perform it well inside you; once you perform it well, you will feel satisfied with yourselves, for you can sing or play correctly.
I say: when the combination, application and implementation among all the parts of the human body turn out right, the person feels healthy, joyful, and satisfied. If this harmony between the body parts is absent, the person loses their health, mood, and happiness. For example, you get up in the morning, but you feel pain in one of your legs – in this case the sick leg is an aristocrat telling the person, i.e. telling its servant: “Do you know that I am sick, that I want you to move me slowly, to massage me, in other words, to heal me – whatever I say, you will do it!” You will be telling the leg that you have a wife, children, work to do, that you are a merchant and cannot leave your business unattended. – “No, wife, children, business – you will leave everything aside except me, except my pain, nothing else should occupy your time – everything else is nonsense.” – “I want to pray, to talk some with God.” – “You will pray here by me, you will not go anywhere now!” So it is that if one of your legs hurts – you have one master, if both of your legs hurt – you have two masters. You say, “It is not easy to serve even just one master.” When the time comes to serve two masters, this equals slavery – you massage one leg, you flex and extend it, turn it left or right; then it is the same story with the other leg, and before you know it the whole day is over. Of course it will be over – it is not easy to serve two masters. What is the situation of a person with healthy legs? From the very morning the legs are ready for work – they go to the person, i.e. they go to their master, and say, “Master, what will you order?” The master goes to work – they go with him too; in this case the master is satisfied, and so are the two servants, i.e. the two legs are satisfied and happy – this means that the combination, application, and implementation are correct.
I say: many people in religion are also like the sick leg. Someone religious is sitting down, keeping quiet, thinking, being unsatisfied with something – why is he unsatisfied? He has a life – he is unsatisfied, he has a mind – he is unsatisfied, he has a heart – he is unsatisfied, he has wealth – he is unsatisfied, he has a wife, children, friends – he is still unsatisfied. Why? His leg hurts. What is the reason for the pain in the leg? – This is unimportant; what matters to you is the fact that your leg hurts and that the pain is making you have a particular point of view on everything around you. The cells in the sick leg are arguing with each other, splitting their wealth, fighting – anarchy has taken over their kingdom. Until an end is put to the war, the cells will keep fighting with each other and will tell their master, “You should know that now we are at war; once the war is over we will do whatever you want. Your happiness also depends on this war – if we win, you will benefit too; if we lose, you lose too.” The master observes carefully, follows who is winning the war – the victory is represented by the healing of the leg. Once the leg is healed, the cells are now free; they come back from the battlefield and say to their master, “We won, and from this moment on you can rely on all the strengths of your body.”
Consequently, the real victory comes with the correct combination of the thoughts and feelings put in a person. People have to combine correctly only that, which God has put in them, and should not accept anything external. Until when? Until the war within them ends. Once people end that war, once they give way to the Divine within them, they will be able to accept external things, which are created by the other people and the gods. Until people have not developed the Divine within them, they will not have a point of support in Life, because people by themselves are egoists – they think only about themselves. In this aspect egoists are like stones; if you sit down by a stone and you start crying, telling it about your suffering, there is no way that the stone will sympathize with you – you can beg it for a thousand years, but it will stay distant, closed to you, it will not understand you. Should you cry and beg, asking for money from a banker, who cannot and does not want to sympathize with you; should you go into a church and pray to the crosses and the icons? The crosses and the icons say, “We are not interested in what you want; we are only interested in what people can give us.” If you are hungry, go work – if you are working, you will be able to feed yourselves.
I am asking what the icons have given you so far. Despite that, everyone has at least one icon. Usually people have three icons – one in the mind, another in the heart, and a third one in the body. The only Reality, to which people can pray, and from which they can receive a response, is God, who manifests through the combination of things. God has put a certain wealth, a certain capital in every person – this capital is situated in the person’s head, in the person’s thoughts, which need to be developed. The implementation is put in the heart of a person; indeed, there needs to be a desire in the heart for something to be implemented. Someone says, “Where is God?” You will not find God where people want to show Him, but where He wants to manifest Himself. For example, someone goes on a trip to peak Damga and tells his friend, “If you want to meet me, you will find me at peak Damga exactly at seven in the morning.” Consequently, you will not look for me neither at peak Musala, nor at Belmeken, just at Damga, where God has determined. Sometimes you too look for God where He is not; no, you will look for Him in His combination – where He manifests Himself.
Today, many people want to see things clearly, but they cannot achieve this until they understand the law of combination. For example, you come to me, wanting to see what there is in my room, but it is dark in there, and you cannot tell the different objects from one another – your eyes are healthy, but the light is not enough, so you cannot see. I am holding a candle and a match in my hand, and if I want to, I can immediately light the candle, and make a clairvoyant out of you. If I am completely confident that you are an honest person and will not be tempted by the riches in the room, I will light the candle, so that you can take a look at them. If you are an honest person, you will be pleased by what you see in the room when I light the candle; however, if you are not honest, you will get the urge to steal something from what you have seen. Then I immediately blow the candle and you remain in the dark once again. The same thing happens in everyone’s life: once people find themselves in hardship, they begin to cry, to pray, to search for help from somewhere. I am holding a candle in my hand – I light the candle and they immediately find their way, see where they are. Once they have a little doubt, once a dark thought passes their minds, the candle immediately dies out – they start crying again, praying, and saying, “I do not know why things are not working out for me.”
Many are concerned; they worry about their situation and say, “What does the world think about the state of things?” The world thinks exactly what you think: “What will happen with us?” Go to the cemetery, there you will see what will happen to you – as long as you have the old way of thinking, what will happen to you is exactly what has happened to those before you. “Can we get rich?” Go to the bankers and ask them if you can get rich and how. “What will happen to us if we do not follow God’s Will?” Go to the poor neighbourhoods, to the hospitals, to the surgical rooms, go to the battlefields and you will see what will happen to you if you do not follow God’s Will – those people have reached that state because they all knew too much.
When I talk about combination, application, and implementation, I take these words in their broad sense. If people do not understand these words in their breadth, they should not be tough on themselves because they cannot do this or that. Those, who have not fulfilled some of their duties to the First Reason, are not completely healthy. Someone comes to me to have a talk, and all of a sudden starts complaining that his leg hurts; I bandage his leg, and he leaves. He comes again the next day – the same story. It goes like this for a week, two, three, and he keeps complaining that his leg hurts and he cannot do his job. It is said in the Scripture that Heaven is God’s throne, and Earth – Heaven’s pedestal. If Earth is Heaven’s pedestal, everyone has to learn the laws of combination, application, and implementation, which will take them to Heaven itself, i.e. to the Divine world, where Good reigns, where Love reigns. If you put effort in this direction, the sick leg will heal – it is impossible to study the law of combination and to have a sick leg.
Now relate this thought to people’s personal lives. Someone has a wish, but cannot make it happen – for example, he wants to visit his friend, but he cannot do it because his leg hurts. He tries to get out of bed today – he cannot, he tries to get out of bed tomorrow – he cannot. Finally, he becomes convinced that until his leg heals he can only write a letter to his friend, but not visit him. Consequently, one cannot go anywhere with a sick leg – neither to one’s friend, nor to God. If the mind of a person is sick, can they go to God? They cannot. If the heart of a person is sick, can they go to God? They cannot. In this case the mind and the heart represent the two legs of a person. And then, if a person goes to God with a sick leg, they will immediately start praying for the pain to go away. The pain in their leg can go away very easily. How? If they come to love God. You say, “How can I come to love God?” You know the answer on your own – this knowledge has been put in you. The knowledge of how to sing or play has been put in the musician. If the musician leaves it to his teacher to show him how to sing or play, he will not learn anything. The teacher only gives the right tone to the student and corrects him from time to time in his implementation, while the student sings or plays according to the true rules of music, which have been put in his soul – the student understands the combination of the tones and implements them by himself. The same applies to Good, to Love – they are similar to the musical feeling put in people; hence people know on their own how to love. When people do Good according to how it is written within them, their faces shine and their lives become worthwhile.
You say, “Should we love only God when it is said to love our fellowman like ourselves?” I say, the Love for God includes the Love for the fellowman, but not vice versa. Many love people but soon get disappointed by that love – their love lacks something. What is missing in that love? One essential element, mainly: when people love their fellowmen, they have to love the God in them. Tell me about a case in life when someone, who loved people, has won something; give me an example from the history of humankind when someone, who loved those like him, has achieved something substantial. Those, who loved their fellowmen first, have achieved nothing; a real achievement comes only to those, who love God and serve Him. There is nothing better than serving God; those, who serve God, will treat people correctly – such people are always rich, not poor. Why? Because by going to God, they always accept, enrich; and when going to the people, they always give, apply. Those, who take correctly and give correctly, they live by the law of combination – this law is expressed through the application and the implementation of the Good, which is put in the heart and the mind of a person. The law of application is expressed through the heart, and the law of implementation – through the mind.
So, if you give people from the wealth, which God has put in you, an inner connection will form among you and you will understand one another. By doing so, you will be rich – those who love are always rich. There is no poverty in the Divine world, for it is not allowed there; however, there is poverty on Earth. There is sin on Earth, but not in the Divine world; there is disease on Earth, but not in the Divine world; mistakes happen on Earth, but never in the Divine world; there are negative things on Earth, but such things are not allowed in the Divine world. Those, who think this way, are getting closer to the Divine world; those, who do not think this way, remain to live on Earth. If a person lives on Earth and complains that their leg hurts, they cannot fulfil any promises they make; once their leg is healed, they can fulfil anything. If someone does not keep their promise to do something, their leg hurts. You are a student and school is not going well for you – why? Your leg hurts. You are a merchant, and your deals are not going well – why? Your leg hurts. You cannot live in agreement with yourself, with people – why? Your leg hurts. I use the sick leg as a symbol of a sick mind and a sick heart.
Someone tells a friend:
- I will do anything for you, any favour, any sacrifice.
- If you say so, could you come to my house tomorrow to help me with something?
- Of course I can.
- Is that so? Will you really come?
I say: if the latter man asks his friend whether the friend will really come to his house, this shows that he already doubts his friend – some doubt has entered his mind, which can lead to a bigger misfortune later on. Why? Because the smallest doubt, which enters a person’s mind in regards to the Divine, is able to postpone God’s blessing with a day at the least.
Many complain of disease, of suffering, and say, “Is it not possible without disease and suffering?” In light of the way contemporary people live, it is not possible to go without disease and suffering. Today the diseases and the suffering represent particular experiences in the lives of people. People have come to Earth to learn, consequently they will learn from suffering as well. You say, “Those, who have not experienced disease and suffering, know nothing.” Who has not experienced those masters on themselves, who has not had bandages on their legs? On top of all this, you will see how aristocratically the man with the crutches walks: he walks a little, then stops, starts again, and stops soon after – his walk is solemn, like the walk of a bishop. Whoever meets him, says, “Is this man praying when he stops like that – whispering something and then continuing on his way?” No, he does not pray; he gets out of breath and mutters to himself. You also get out of breath when you climb the steep mountaintops. Some say, “Could the Teacher not find a level place to gather, instead of making us climb these heights?” They walk and mutter to themselves, while others think they are praying. It is a law: when one walks on level ground, some organs develop, while others atrophy at their expense; however, when one climbs heights, the way is diverse, with both level and steep parts, which activates all organs, and people feel healthier as a result.
The same can be said about the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of people: the more diverse and higher the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of people, the healthier people are. This is a way to stimulate for work all the strengths, which one has, and a way to become very productive. By all means people have to make the effort to develop all the talents, which God has invested in them; they have to combine all their strengths and all their talents correctly. God has endowed each person with one key talent, which the person has to develop – their happiness depends on this talent. Someone says, “Once the world gets fixed, everything else will fall into place on its own.” No, you should not wait for the world to get fixed – you have to work in order to become happy before the world gets fixed. Our goal does not depend on waiting for the world to get better; we should not even depend on society, so there is no reason for us to wait for an improvement in the social system to bring improvements for us. Everyone has to solve their own problems, regardless of all other circumstances. If someone decides to wait for the bettering of all mankind, that requires a long period of time; if you wait for the Bulgarians to wake up, to reach this consciousness or combination, which many have already reached, that requires thousands of years more. The Bulgarians, for example, love very much to destroy: as they walk through a forest, they grab the ax without putting much thought into it, cut into this tree here, that tree there, and then continue on their way; and they often do this needlessly, just for the love of destruction.
These days a herdsman came to me to have a talk; as he looked around, he saw a couple of watermelons, which were brought to me from the city, and said:
- You have watermelons here!
- Yes, I have watermelons.
He acted nobly and did not ask for a piece of watermelon. He just noticed the watermelons. I am asking him:
- Have you had a watermelon before?
- Who will bring me a watermelon out here! I am also a poor man and cannot buy one by myself.
Then I take one watermelon, cut it, and give him three quarters of it.
- You give me too much.
- It is not just for you, for you will give to your friend too.
He sat by me and began cutting from the watermelon with his pocket knife – he cut himself a slice, ate it, and threw the peel four or five steps behind his back; he cut a second slice, ate it, and threw the peel behind his back once again. After he ate the two slices, he said:
- I will bring the rest to my friend.
As I observed how that herdsman was throwing the watermelon peels, I translated that example to myself into a higher world. I say: we have the right to use the goods, which God has given us, but we have to use them wisely. Should you, as you accept a nice thought, eat the good in it, and throw the peels randomly for someone else to pick up? When the herdsman threw the peels from the watermelon, I bent down, collected them, and put them aside. He should have collected them and brought them to his cattle. From his deed, I conclude that he is a stingy person, a miser, who also does not think about his cattle – the watermelon peel can be of use to them. This herdsman thinks only about his own good and not about the good of others – such a person can have no capital.
These are basic positions, principles, which you have to have in mind in life. From the outside they appear common, thus you think that you have understood them. For example, the thought enters your mind that you are independent, that you have found the Truth; a person can be independent only when they can play a musical piece of their own combination, application, and implementation – if a person can play for themselves in this manner, they will be able to play for others too. If the person strikes even just one wrong tone, they should not come out to play in public, to disgrace the music; if they come on the stage to play unprepared, they also discredit their teacher – for everyone will want to know who the teacher is. The same applies to people’s lives: until people learn to live well, God does not give them the opportunity to express themselves; once they learn to live well, once they could play God’s musical pieces correctly, then they will be able to bring forth God’s great goods.
Now, as you have gathered here, you are waiting for the fire to be built, for the water to be boiled, and for the food to be cooked. I say: take out your magic wand and tap with it for the food to come to you. You will probably say that your turn has not come yet to be able to use the magic wand. When will your turn come? If you could tap with your magic wand and have your food come here, that would mean you are strong people. As I speak to you this way, I want from you to do the possible – in general, the Teacher can never demand from the students to do what the Teacher himself or herself cannot do. However, you can do the following: to go to your tents and to bring the food here, on the hill. If you can do this, your legs are healthy; if you cannot go down and bring the food, your legs are sick. If a person can order their legs, this means that the legs are healthy; if a person cannot order their legs, the legs are sick.
You can arrive at the same conclusion also regarding your mind and your heart: if your mind and your heart are not healthy, you cannot implement what you say that you will. Every word you say has to be understood in its deep meaning, and then to be applied, to be lived. For example, you say, “God is Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, Sanctity, Purity, and so on.” If you say so, you have to be deeply convinced in those words; is it so in reality? You say that God is just, while at the same time you say that so and so enjoys privileges in front of God and is in God’s good graces. Only those, who follow God’s will, enjoy privileges in front of God; to be in God’s good graces means to have God manifested through you – in this aspect everyone can be a channel and have God manifested through them.
You say, “God will teach us what we need to do.” Such teaching comes from the inside, and it comes when God manifests in the person. This can happen any time, not just now. God has sent you on Earth for a little experiment – to see how He can be manifested through you. One day, when you get back to Him, He will again put something in you for further development. If you cannot become channels for God, you will grow old prematurely; you will lean on your crutches; your sons, daughters, friends, and close ones will leave you, until finally your life too becomes completely meaningless. Once a person reaches such a state, they have to do as the prodigal son did and return to the father to be of service to him; this is in order to acquire new friends, new sons and daughters. One cannot have sons and daughters, nor friends or close ones, if one does not know God – who wants to have sons and daughters, has to be a father. Someone says, “I gave birth to sons and daughters, I created them.” You gave birth to them, but you did not create them – a human being cannot create a human being, which means that no human being can create a human soul. If the potter makes a nice pot and fills it with water, has he created that water? No, he just fills the pot with water, but the water has not been created by him.
And so, the first thing for everyone to do is to develop correct relationships with God. This is achieved when one has bright thoughts in mind, noble feelings in heart, and beautiful deeds at will. People can do this by themselves, or someone can help them from outside. Listen to all, who carry bright, unblemished thoughts within themselves and can spread them; do not listen to all those, who carry impure, blemished thoughts within themselves. The same applies to Love, Virtue, and Knowledge: love, virtue, or knowledge, which is superficial and fools people without giving them anything substantial, has to be avoided. People need Love that brings eternal Life; people need Virtues that can make them strong, and mighty; people need Knowledge that frees them. You say, “This is a difficult job.” It is not difficult to walk when one’s legs are healthy – there is a thrill within, a strong desire to walk, to move. There is nothing better than having healthy legs; the mind and the heart have to be healthy as well!
Now, as I am observing you, I see many crutches among you. Do not take this as a reproach, I am speaking the Truth. Many will object, “It has been many years now that we have been serving God, are we still with crutches?” I am asking who among you is perfectly healthy. Anyone you meet will complain that their stomach hurts, or the lungs, or the brain. I would like for all people to be completely healthy, but this requires following the three basic laws in Life – the combination, the application, and the implementation. If a person applies these laws within themselves, their mind will never be clouded, their heart will never run into contradictions, and their will, will never be shaken. For instance, a student wants to learn to play the violin and goes to a great violin player, but the violin player does not accept the student. If the student has within himself combination, application, and implementation, he will stand in front of the door of that violin player a year, two, three, ten, until the violin player finally says, “You have a great desire to learn. Take your violin and come to me, you will be my student.” The renowned violin players are special people, unlike the common people. When a student comes to such a violin player, the latter does not explain to the student how he has to play; the violin player only points to where the student does not strike the tone right, and then lets the student figure things out on his own and leaves him to correct himself from then on. If the student comprehends easily, the teacher is satisfied; if the student does not comprehend, the teacher knits his eyebrows and wonders how it is possible that the student has not developed his talent yet. What do many students do? They take their violin, scrape a little, and say, “I will play again some other time, I am not lucky now.” The next day they take the violin again, scrape again, and throw it aside. No, this is not the way to learn – playing in this manner is like learning “Dear flower, pretty flower”* and playing it every day; it is the same if the sinner tells himself each day, “I am a sinner”; it is the same if a person tells themselves, “I am weak. There is nothing I can do.” I say: a person can play many things, not just “Dear flower, pretty flower”. How? By exercising. A person can be righteous, not just sinful. How? By working, by moving. While people have bandaged legs, they will keep serving the devil, singing one and the same song, sinning; once their legs are healthy, they will be strong and will carry out God’s Will.
Consequently, people should not be occupied by thoughts of what they have been in the past, for people’s past is made of externally imposed thoughts. If you dress someone in a prisoner’s clothes and put shackles on his feet, what would his state be? He will walk back and forth, the shackles will rattle and bother him, but he will know that both the clothes and the shackles are imposed on him externally – he is not in the clothes and the shackles. People are outside the clothes, outside the shackles; those, who know this, will be infused with a deep desire to set themselves free. Those, who know the laws of liberation, will create in their minds bright, pure thoughts, and the shackles will immediately fall off their feet. Once the shackles fall off, the clothes will fall off too, and the people will find themselves out of the prison – how will that happen? Through their thoughts – their thoughts will become so strong that they will be able to put to sleep those guarding them. Then at their suggestion the guards will unlock the door and take the shackles off their feet. The people will throw the clothes off by themselves and will walk out of the prison, breathing fresh air, freedom. After that, again at the people’s suggestion, the guards will put the shackles and the clothes back in their places and will lock the door; the guards will do all this in a sleeping state, and when they wake up, they will ask, “What has happened here? Where are the criminals? How did they get out through the locked door?” When they investigate the matter, they will realize that those criminals were unusual people. Those, who know the laws, will be able to put to sleep and invisibly pass an entire posse if chased by one. Until people learn how to put to sleep the posse chasing them, they will keep serving time in prison. The prison is represented by Life’s limiting conditions; once people go to prison, everyone orders them around and they obey whatever they are ordered to do.
You say, “How can we leave the prison we are in?” Today, even if people leave the prison, they will go back to it – why? Because they cannot yet live in the new way – they begin with the new and end with the old. In this aspect, people are like a bird that lived in a cage for a long time – once it is set free, it goes back to its cage soon after. Here is why you all have to be strong, independent, if you want to free yourselves from the limiting conditions, internal or external, which impede your development. You all have to have a clear idea of yourselves, of the abilities hidden within you; then you will know that whatever you wish for in the Name of God, you will achieve. It is said in the Scripture†, “Those, who love God and follow His Will, will receive what they wish even before they wish for it.” In such a case your legs and your arms will be healthy, your minds – bright, your hearts – pure and truthful. Once you have all this, you will not live by rules and laws; you will live by freedom and consciousness. There is nothing worse for people than setting rules to one another on how to live; everyone knows on their own how to live. If you want some rules, I will give you the following words to contemplate: Justice, Purity, Faith, Hope, and Love. Those, who have a faithful mind and a faithful heart, know how to live. The sick ones will unintentionally walk astray, for they cannot walk straight. For example, someone has taken the right path, has found a teacher to lead him, but at the same time he is also looking for other teachers to learn from. He can look for other teachers, but he will not go far this way – such a student will only live in lies and deceit; and lying will cause a painful state within him. So remember: do not lie either to yourselves, or to others. If you are lying to yourselves and to the others, how will you be different from the people of the old teaching?
Now, I am talking about those of you, whom God has already tested in the past. God wants you to develop your gifts, the talents He has put in you. Those, who consciously work on themselves, will develop their gifts; developing their gifts means that they now know to play well. What greater wealth for a person than having developed at least one of their gifts properly? Today I meet gifted, talented people, who despite their inner wealth, keep turning to God to beg. So far I almost have not met a person, with such great wealth as represented by their talents, who goes to God and says, “God, you have put millions at my disposal, but I do not know what to do with them; please tell me how to use them wisely.” I say: if we are not ready to invest our wealth for God, to work for Him and in His name, we are not going to achieve anything. If we do not put our mind, heart, and will to work for God, nothing is achieved. Some say, “Once I get my matters settled, it will be easy afterwards” – no, until people work for settling God’s matters, their matters will never be settled. If you want to have your matters settled, work for God first – why? When you work for God, you put your capital in the Divine bank, where it earns its interest annually. So it is that God settles the matters of those who work in His name.
I say: talking to you in this manner is not to say that you have not worked for God already – all of you have made and make efforts in this aspect, but you have to know how to work. The sick also make efforts to get out of bed, but the results are tiny; they make big efforts with small results – they struggle to get out of bed, but soon get exhausted and return to bed. They have to know how make efforts. Some say, “If a person wants to serve God, they have to give up their life” – this idea is misunderstood. “We have to be good, to love one another” – this is good, but you have to know how to make these efforts. You have to have the correct methods of application for everything that you wish to achieve.
As I observe contemporary people, I see that they all strive for superiority. If someone has a certain status in society, he wants to be number one; if someone is a student, he also wants to be number one, to be close to his teacher. This is a nice aspiration, but only the student who plays together with the teacher can be number one – such a student can also play first violin; those, who do not play well, determine their own position. This does not mean that the teacher has favourites because the gifted, virtuous student always takes first place effortlessly – it is the gifts and talents that determine his position. Those, who have a lighted candle in hand, who carry Love in them, take first place – to light up the path for their fellowmen, to show them the way. Such is the law in both the Spiritual and the physical worlds. Consequently, it is not important what the teacher can give the student, but how the student works to develop that rich material, which God has put in the student’s soul. The student has to work with the three laws – combination, application, and implementation.
I tell you too: if you understand these laws correctly, you will take advantage of them; if you do not understand them correctly, regardless of the efforts you make, you cannot achieve anything. These efforts will exhaust you, without you having any real results; these efforts will create fatigue within you, which will make you feel unsatisfied with yourselves. For example, these days we went to chop some wood, and I noticed how one brother was chopping the wood – he slammed the ax with such power that could have soon made him exhausted. Indeed, in a little while he placed the ax on the ground and said, “I am already tired!” I took the ax and showed him how to chop wood without getting exhausted – there are special methods, which one should know. Then I saw a group of brothers who were struggling to lift the tree stumps – this method is good for developing physical endurance, but I advised them to use a lever instead. They took a lever and the work got done easily, pleasantly, without much effort. I say: if people do not want to get tired, let them use levers – they are necessary in everything in Life.
So, remember the three words: combination, application, and implementation. The combination represents the Divine capital put in a person – this capital has to definitely be developed. The combination is followed by the application and the implementation. Some put the implementation first. The music student will first learn a set of rules, which he will combine; then the student will correctly apply what was learned, and the implementation comes in the end. The implementation is in the end, when the student finishes the music course. The implementation infers true Knowledge, which is talked about in the Scripture‡, “And the earth will be filled with knowledge about God.”
Many say, “When we read the Holy Scripture, we find a series of contrasts, of analogies, which make us think.” I say: the contrasts and analogies are necessary for clarifying the symbols and some of the philosophical thoughts; otherwise, the analogies on their own do not represent anything. For example, if you combine two analogous examples without them having any common application or implementation, they remain unused. However, there is a secret in the application and the implementation of things that has to be known. If people are not strong in the application, they cannot achieve anything; the implementation comes after the application – those, who apply, can implement. For example, if you apply the Good in your life, you will have implementation, an achievement of something. Imagine that I tell you to cross the lake – can you do that? Some can, while others cannot because they are not prepared, and if they attempt to cross it, they will drown. The same happens in Life: if you put the unprepared at work, they will drown in it. If people want to be successful in Life and not to drown, they have to follow God’s laws, and not God’s laws to follow them.
A saint was travelling from one village to another. On his way he met a Turk with his horse and cart, and with his wife in the cart. The Turk signalled the saint from far away to turn off the road, not to look in the cart – the Turks are very particular about keeping their wives away from other men’s eyes. Then the saint told himself, “I will give you a good lesson, so that you know what to do next time.” The saint found a way to frighten the horse, which started running away, almost falling into the precipice. The Turk started begging the saint, “For goodness’ sake, help me!” The saint held the horse, and the falling of the cart in the precipice was avoided. The Turk thanked the saint and continued his way. It was a small price that he paid, for this Turk and his wife could have fallen into the precipice and remained there – the Turk learned the lesson that the saint gave him. The saint should not have had to turn off the road, but the Turk should have passed a little sideways with his cart, and the adventure would have been avoided. When the saint passes by the wife of a Turk, let the wife put her veil on her face, so that nobody can see it. The saints are not interested in your wives; let the one, who does not want a saint to see his wife, turn off the road, not the saint. It is a law: a saint cannot turn off the road for the wife of this one or that one. In translation this law means: God’s laws cannot submit to people, but people have to voluntarily submit to them – not to subordinate God, but to submit to God. This is the right position – if you think in this manner, you will be successful in everything; if you are fulfilling God’s Will, then you will have good results.
So, I wish all of you to work in accordance with the laws of combination, application, and implementation. If you work this way, you will acquire new methods; the new methods will justify your efforts. I wish you to throw the bandages off your legs – it has been so many years that you have been walking with bandaged legs, but starting today I wish you all to throw the bandages off your legs! If a person has walked with bandages and crutches for ten years, it is now time to throw them away. I tell you too: free your legs from the bandages and your arms from the crutches and walk freely, without any obstacles!
You say, “Can we free ourselves from the crutches?” Those, who have will, can throw the crutches away and be free – those living by the law of combination can free themselves from anything that hinders their development. Throw away everything unnecessary, everything negative. You have some tumour in your body – throw it out, you do not need it! You have some negative thought, some negative feeling – throw them out, they are parasites just sucking out the juices of your body without giving you anything in return! These negative thoughts and feelings could beg you to not throw them out, but you should not listen to them – as you are throwing them out of yourselves, tell them, “Every morning I can leave a little food for you at a certain place, so that you do not starve to death, but I do not allow you to remain, live and multiply in my mind and in my heart.”
Consequently, every impure thought and every impure desire are parasites, and everyone has to definitely free themselves from these parasites. You could say that this impure thought and that impure desire are from a noble descent; regardless of their descent, regardless of their label, if they are negative – out! I understand if a negative thought can carry a person, but I do not understand if the person carries that negative thought; I understand if the horse carries the person, but I do not understand if the person carries the horse; I understand if God carries the person, but I do not understand if the person carries God – we live and we move in God, thus it is Him who has to carry us. Someone says, “I carry God’s thoughts within me.” It is one thing to carry God’s thoughts within, and it is another thing to carry God within. No one can carry God within themselves, and no one can carry the Teacher within themselves. When I say that you have to be free, I mean to say that God, in whom you live, is absolutely free; if God is free, you also have to be free. God has created the world for us to learn, to know God’s manifestation, and to serve Him – and if we serve God, then the world, for which you say that it is not fixed, will be fixed.
I am asking: what is it that you acquired through this morning’s exercise? The laws of combination, application, and implementation were given as a result from this morning’s reflection; nonetheless, there needs to be much more reflection on these laws, on these ideas, so that they become clear in the consciousness of each of you. Some ideas are tiring; for example, there is not a more tiring, a more unpleasant idea than someone constantly repeating to you that you are a good, rich, and holy person – hearing this once is tolerable, but hearing it repeatedly is tiresome. Whoever talks like this can too become holy – how? By lighting them like a candle – then they will burn like I do. “But there is no one like you.” It is true that there is no one like me, but there is no one like you either.
Someone says, “I want God to love me.” God can love you, but you have to love Him too. Why do people want to be loved by God? People want and look for God’s Love in order to achieve what they want. I say: people can achieve what they want in two cases – when God loves them and when they love God. When God loves people, they see what God can do in them and for them; when people love God, God sees what people can do for Him. However, in both cases, to be loved and to love, people have to manifest something.
So, there are two positions to consider: for God to love us or for us to love God – this is the only way to know Him. When we know God, we will pass to the second law: Love for the fellowman. The relationship in this law is the same: for us to love our fellowmen or for our fellowmen to love us. Overall, people’s treatment of God and God’s treatment of people comprise a law of combination, application, and implementation. When God loves people, all their matters get settled in a magical way; and when people love God, again their matters get settled. You say, “When will we reach that state?” You are already in this state, but you still do not realize it. For example, someone has to pay a bill of a hundred thousand leva§, and he wonders from where to get the money for it. He walks back and forth deep in thought, worried, unable to find the money from anywhere. The day the bill is due he receives a message from the bank that the sum of a hundred thousand leva, which he owes, has been paid. He says, “How did this happen? Who paid my bill?”
Contemporary people are afraid of debts, of sins, and say, “What will happen with our sins? How will we free ourselves from them?” I say: your sins have long been paid for, just like the bill of a hundred thousand leva was paid – you will receive a message from the Divine bank that all of your debts, all of your sins have already been paid. Should you after that doubt whether God loves you or not? The health that you have shows that God loves you; the wealth that you have, represented by your mind, heart, and will, shows that God loves you. People have to see God’s Love even in the smallest things. What stronger proof of God’s Love do you need here, in the mountain – it has been a month already since we came and we have enjoyed the best of conditions. If God did not love us, He would have sent storm, wind, rain, snow, and hail, and we would not have been able to remain here even for a day. However, we are sitting here comfortably, reading, taking walks, keeping warm, and discussing various topics. How many dwarf pine trees fell victim to us? Still, they are satisfied because many beings, which were closed in them, were set free this way – this is the way to justify burning them. When you set someone free, everything is at the right time and in the right place; when you enslave someone, nothing is at the right time and in the right place. The same can be said about people themselves – when people are set free, everything is at the right time and in the right place.
Now I wish all of you to be joyous and cheerful, with hearts wide opened, realizing that God’s goods are given for you and you should use them wisely. However, we have to be carriers of God’s thoughts and have to work for His glory; for if we work for God, we will enjoy His blessing, and people will know us wherever we go. If you pass by people who quarrel, stop and look at them from a distance – wish deep inside yourselves that they stop quarrelling. In case they start fighting and hurting one another, knock them down on the ground, and then invite them to your house to cover their wounds. When you cover their wounds, talk to them about God’s Justice, about God’s Love. People have to speak about God’s teaching and to follow God’s will everywhere in life. If you meet someone, who talks about God, have in mind whether he listens to God and whether he follows His will. You can listen to those who listen to God and follow His will, and you should not listen to those who do not listen to Him and do not follow His will. We will serve those who serve God; we will love those who love God – this represents the implementation of the Divine teaching.
So, the combination represents Love, the application – Wisdom, the implementation – Truth. If people do not have Love within themselves, they cannot combine anything; if people are not wise, they cannot apply anything; if people do not carry Truth within themselves, they cannot implement anything. Consequently, if you want to combine things, call Love; if you want to apply things, call Wisdom; if you want to implement things, call Truth. The teacher cannot constantly show the students how to hold the bow and how to tune the strings of his violin – the student has to do this by himself. He has to practice all the time, until he begins to utilize the laws of combination, application, and implementation. Someone says, “What are the combination, the application, and the implementation in life?” When two reasonable souls come together, this is a combination; when two reasonable souls work together to achieve a certain purpose, this is an application; and lastly, when these two reasonable souls have achieved their purpose and now eat and drink, participating in the good thing they have achieved, this is an implementation. It should also be known that the combination, application, and implementation are not single in time, but repeated, eternal processes.
Now, I will present a few contrasts to clarify the idea. Imagine that someone comes to you and hits you a few times. They hit you once, and you say, “I hope there is not a second hit.” They hit you again, and you say, “I hope there is not a third hit,” and so on. Now imagine that after that someone comes to you and gives you a piece of bread. You are hungry and you say, “I hope there is another piece.” They give you a second piece and you say, “I hope there is a third piece,” and so on. Consequently, those, who hit, have the desire to hit again – hopefully they come to their senses. When they give bites of bread one after the other, they say, “I hope this piece is enough because my hand got tired of giving him pieces of bread.” So it is that those, who are hit, want to end the beating; those, who hit, say, “I will hit once again to bring this person to reason.” Those, who are fed, say, “I hope they give me one more piece of bread.” And those, who feed, say, “I hope this is the last piece because my hand hurts from breaking and handing out pieces.”
I will now give you another situation. You meet someone and begin hitting them. However, a whole handful of gold comes out of your hand each time you hit. Will the person you hit make you stop if they see that with each hit there is so much gold falling in front of them? On the contrary, they will be silent, will not say anything – even if they get fifty hits on their back, they will be silent. So I say: every suffering, about which we have realized that it brings a certain great good to our lives, is meaningful. This is why Paul says**, “Our suffering today cannot be compared with that great good that will come in the future.” One day, when people realize what their suffering has brought, they will say like Paul, “It was good that I felt hurt.”
Now, I talked, and you got tired of writing. If you have understood what I talked to you about, you will be able to tell the bread to come to you. Do you want to have breakfast here or down by the campsite? (-Here) Are you then going down yourselves to bring the breakfast or will you tap with the magic wand for the food to come by itself? Come on, throw your crutches away already, untie your bandages, and free yourselves from these obstacles, go down to bring your breakfast!
3 August 1931, 5:00 o’clock
* A simple Bulgarian tune
† A translated quote.
‡ A translated quote.
§ Leva – the multiple for the Bulgarian currency “Lev”
** A translated quote.
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