All men use the word "attention." The teachers tell their students to pay attention to the lessons they are taught. The parents tell their children to pay attention and not to do any mischief. Therefore, everyone must understand the meaning of the word attention. Attention implies the idea of a wakening. Man cannot have any relations without attention. The relations man makes in his life depend upon his attention. At times man is attentive out of fear. He is like a child just learning to walk who is very careful not to fall and moves his feet very cautiously. The heart of that child is full of fear from falling. Such attention is similar to that of a thief, who walks slowly turning this and that way to see if anyone is watching him. At times, man is attentive not out of fear, but out of expectation. He is like a prisoner being condemned to death who is straining his ears to hear from which place his salvation will come. He is attentive, listens carefully with the hope that someone might come to bring him the good tidings of his acquittal.
Therefore, the best and most beautiful thing in life is attention. Man has come to earth to rejoice. About what? He must not rejoice at his clothes neither at the position he occupies, but rather rejoice that he has come into the world of God to expect the rising of the sun. All his attention must be concentrated upon the rising sun. The rising of the sun does not depend upon the clothes of man, neither upon his wealth and conceptions of life, nor upon his power and beauty. The rising of the sun is in power to comfort the human soul. The rising of the sun gives an impetus to the human spirit. One may be well-clothed, but of what use would his clothes be, if he were blind? Or if he were dumb, of what use would be his nice clothes? When the sun is rising, the most important thing for man is that which he can see. When nature is awaking, the most important thing for man is that which he can hear.
How I say to you: be careful how you see and what you see! Be careful of how you hear and what you hear! Make it a daily problem in your life to see only that which is beautiful and to hear the Word of God which is speaking to you from within. Whenever you come across something negative, put it away from you and give your attention only to the fine and beautiful in the world. This is the natural state of man. When you are entering a flower-garden or an orchard, upon what do you stop your attention? Upon the beautiful flowers and fruit. In the same way, the odorous flowers draw your attention. What more natural than that? This is a fact out of actual life, but it is not the truth. Why is it not the truth? Because the truth sets men free.
Every beautiful flower spreading its perfume far and wide can cause you joy but it can not change your life by any means. That flower says to man: You can also do what I do, but you must be careful in your life. What do people do today? When they see a flower which attracts their attention, they pick it. No, do hot pick the flowers, but see what they do. You may see a pure beautiful spring. Do not desire it to flow in your own garden! See what the spring does and you do the same. You see a fine book. Do not desire to have it in your own library, but read it and see what is written in it. The book says: Read me through and take for yourself only that which you can understand. The rest, which you do not understand, is not for you. You find a big treasure on your way. Stop carefully in front of it and take only one golden coin out of it. The rest of the gold is for the other people who will pass that way after you. This is the way the prudent man will act, while the foolish man will take all the money, after which he will be caught and proved guilty by the court that he has taken money which belongs to other people.
There are a number of cases which men have not thought about. You your selves have not thought about them either. You come across contradictions, sufferings, misfortunes and difficulties, which you explain in different ways, but all these explanations are of no profit to you. For thousands of years men have tried to give an explanation to these questions, but they always regain unexplained. For thousands of years people have tried to study these problems, but they always remain ignorant about them. What is the reason for that? They have the desire to find an explanation to these questions and are striving to study them, but their fault is that they have chosen a wrong method for that attainment. That is why up to this day, men have not had admittance to the great reality of things. The predestined purpose of this reality is to inaugurate man into the knowledge of the Truth. The acquirement of the Truth, on the other hand, determines the meaning of life. To attain to the Truth, is to enter into the Eternal life which we seek and strive after.
This morning I want to speak to you as to people in perfect health who have no contradictions in life. I shall not speak, at that, neither about sickness, nor about health. Illness is the contrary to health and inversely health is the contrary to illness. However, to speak about illness is to lose the good disposition of the spirit one has. If the healthy man speaks about illness, he admits that some day he may become ill. To think you can become ill speaks of a certain experience you must have had, in consequence of which you think that the same experience can be repeated. Illness takes from the human body certain elements, but does not add anything to it. He who has been ill, has always given something of his weight. After he becomes well again, he restores to his body that which he has lost. Therefore, he who gains is a healthy man; he who loses is a sick man. He who lives well is healthy; he who does not live well is ill. This is enough for you to know illness and health represent, so do not try to go further in your investigation about these two states in life. One of the qualities of health is cheerfulness. The healthy man is always cheerful, vigorous and ready for work. The ill person is indisposed, discontented and has no desire for work. When anyone asks him to work, he considers the weather, whether it is good or bad. To the sick man either the weather is not nice, or people are bad etc. His illness causes him to look negatively upon all things. The poor man is also like the sick person: for him also the weather is bad or the people are evil and cruel. It follows that poverty is illness, while wealth is health.
All people today are striving after the essential thing in life. What is the essential in life? Some people maintain that the essential thing lie in the reality of things. One of the qualities of reality is repetition. This repetition of things is characterized by an eternal diversity. In the world of reality, there is a repetition of phenomena and facts, which are never the same. Repetition in which there is monotony brings death. There is nothing more dangerous than monotony. Suppose that a friend of yours has given you a thousand leva and comes every day to your home to tell you that he has given you a thousand leva. He tells you that today, tomorrow, the next day and continues to do it for years on end. What would be your state? One day a village squire, a great miser, had bought a sheep's liver for a poor man. Everyone he met, he told him about the liver he had bought for the poor man. Each tine he met the poor man, he told him he had bought a liver for him, until the poor man became tired of that. He bought a liver one day and threw it into the face of the rich man, saying to him: - I do not want your liver or your help! I say: do not imitate either the squire or the poor man! This example is not for imitation, but for a lesson. When you give or say anything to a man, leave him free. He will think about it himself and learn his lesson. Do not ever cause a man to get out of patience. Leave him free to express his gratitude as he finds best.
Remember the following rule: Do not oppress people or your own spirit who guides you. It says in the Scripture: "Do not oppress, i.e. grieve the Spirit Who directs you!" How can you grieve the Spirit? Man grieves the Spirit by his constant discontentment and ingratitude. He is always discontented for not having this or that thing, or that he is not given the things he wants, as some rich men whom he sees have everything in life: meat, nice clothes etc. That is the state of the poor man for whom the rich squire had bought the sheep's liver. The rich man grumbles and the poor man grumbles: the rich man has a special way of grumbling for certain things and the poor man has his own day of grumbling for other things. When the poor man grumbles, some rich man will buy sheep's liver for him, but he will pay dearly for it. When the rich man grumbles, there, will come a poor man who will throw the liver into his face and thus express his ingratitude. A great self-control is required of both poor and rich. According to my opinion, the poor man must not envy the condition of the rich man, but when he sees him eat and drink, he must thank God for having given him the possibility to enjoy the blessing of life, while he should be grateful, at the same time that hi is deprived of them. In case he desires to have the goods of the rich man for himself, he would cripple his own life, his own soul.
Therefore, the great and beautiful in life lies in man's gratitude to God for that which God has given him. That which God has given to man is only temporary - for that given moment. It can never be repeated. Things are not repeated in the life of eternity. Knowing this, man must appreciate that which God has given him. This evaluation of things depends upon the understanding of man. The misfortunes and sufferings of people depend upon their ideas of life. Someone is unhappy, because such is his idea and comprehension of things. For instance, you give a nice pear to an old man, but he takes it, looks at it, turns it this way and that and sighs. Why does he sigh? Because he has no tooth and cannot chew. But since the pear is nice it tempts him. He cuts it up into pieces and swallows them up. After half an hour, he feels pains in his stomach and says: Am I the only one who always suffers from such pains? What suffering is that? He has received the best thing - a nice, ripe pear, but the cause of his suffering lies in another place. In order not to suffer, the old man should have acted in the following way: he should nave called a small child and asked him to pound the pear in a small mortars. Then he would have given half the soft pear to the child and eaten the other half himself. In that way the child would have been contented and the old man would not have suffered.
Therefore, every man must learn to share with his neighbour the blessings God has given him. In sharing their blessings, men must be prudent not to bore one another. There is nothing better in life than to do a good act on time, to say a kind word on time, or to cast a glance at the right place. There is no greater, science than this. What greater knowledge than to know when to speak and what to speak? Many of the sufferings of people are due to the very ignorance and disregard of this science. It is a great, Divine science! It is an art for man to know how to listen, what to listen and what not to listen to.
All people strive after riches. They are right in that. It is good for a man to be rich. God also has the desire to give riches to all people. Wealth has two sides: an external and an internal side. Thus, it is important for man to know what sort of wealth he desires, and seeks. The healthy man is rich; the enlightened man is rich; the good man is rich, etc. Man must pass through all the phases of wealth. He who chooses the material wealth expressed through money and possessions, will attain to the external side of life, such a rich man may, or may not be educated. However, these riches will, by all means, cause him trouble. Material wealth is a burden for man. If you load a horse with gold or precious things, he will perspire, at least, ten times before he takes it to its definite place. If you make the saddle, the reins and the shoes of the horse golden, he may look handsome, but he will say in the end: I do not want anything, but my freedom. Neither the golden load, nor the golden saddle and shoes make me happy. There is nothing, more beautiful, both for the horse and for his master, than liberty. And yet, the condition of the horse is better than that of his master. The horse will leave his load in the house of his master and feel light and free, while the master will receive his gold, rejoice over it, but, at the same time, will load himself. Man cannot be happy, if his horse is unhappy. The horse groans and suffers under his heavy load, while the man is happy over his riches, but his happiness is temporary, consequently - external. The horse says: My back is bruised by the heavy load. The master says: Never mind that your back is bruised, I will be happy. No this is a wrong understanding of life! This is not a Divine order of things. Tomorrow the roles will change: the master will take the place of the horse while the horse - that of the master. It is impossible for the master to be happy when the servant is unhappy. And inversely: it is impossible for the servant to be happy when his master is unhappy.
You say: But that is a horse, he does not feel like man. - If you regard things externally, only their forms, that is true. However, as a soul the horse does not differ from man. The form, which the soul of the horse has entered into, is limited and does not give it the possibility to manifest qualities which the human body manifests. If the soul of the horse should enter, into a human body, it will manifest human qualities which the form of the horse does not permit it to manifest. Therefore, you should know that the horse understands and feels the things in life much more keenly than you can imagine. When a master is rude and cruel towards his horse, the latter turns to God with the words: God, put more love in the heart of my master that he may be more patient and condescending towards me. I am ready to carry all his load, but let him be more calm and not hurry so much. This is the way the horse prays within himself. This is the way the wise master must act toward his horse: he must take half the load and put it on his own back and the other half - on the back of the horse, thus they will start together and have a friendly talk on their way. What sort of a man is that who cannot make himself equal with all souls? What does it mean - to make oneself equal with all souls? This means - to acknowledge the Divine in every soul. He who acknowledges the Divine principle in every soul, will never say: That is a horse, or that is a bird, or a tree! What are you then? I am a man who is solving the great problems of life. He who reasons in this way will inevitably come against many contradictions in life. God is watching at every moment how a man acts toward the animals and plants and then draw: his conclusion about that man.
Thus, as God watches us, at all moments, He either grieves or rejoice. He grieves when our thoughts, feelings and acts are wrong and rejoices when our thoughts, feelings and acts are high and noble. God does not rejoice the upright, but rather at a sinner in whom He sees the minutest good in thought or act. He immediately takes out His note-book and marks down the time, the day and the hour when that sinner has done a small good act. And because of that small joy which the sinner has caused God, some day He will give him a great blessing. What could be more pleasant, for anyone than to cause, at least, a small joy to God? We have come to the earth exactly for that reason - to cause, at least, a small joy to God. This must be our ideal! Now all men want to be happy and they can be happy. But how? If we cannot, by a small thought, feeling or act cause joy in the One Who has given us everything, we cannot have a foundation upon which to build our happiness. Therefore, men lose their happiness for the sole reason that the foundation upon which it is built, is not solid. And anything not placed upon a solid foundation disintegrates in the end. Thus, the happiness of man depends upon his aspiration to cause the smallest joy to God.
You say: God is perfect, He has no need of us, or of our causing Him joy. - You do not understand what perfection means. Imagine that several people write the letter “L” on the blackboard. One of them will write the capital letter “L”, another - the, small “l”, while a third one will write the same letter broad, or narrow, etc. No matter how they write the letter, they will all write the same letter only with a small difference in the writing. When someone writes the letter “1” small, it shows that he is a miser who is careful not to waste much time or paper. He says: If I write a letter to someone with large letters, I shall waste much paper, ink and time. It is better to write the letters small, thus make some economy. No, when a man writes a letter to someone, especially a love-letter, every word must emanate perfume, sweet odour such as the flowers emanate. Every letter a man writes, bears the stamp of the condition the writer has been in while writing that letter. One can judge about the life of a man by the first letter of his letter. And notice that a person can never write a letter twice in just the same way. As many times as he writes it there will be a slight, barely noticeable difference. As the thoughts, feelings and acts represent symbols through which is manifested the life of people, in the same way the letter determine the character of each man. If you observe the writing of a man in childhood, youth and ripe age, you will see that the way he has written the letters in these three phases of life are thoroughly different. The letter: are the same, but their writing is different. In the three phases of his life, man has imported something particular to every letter, which corresponds to his thought at each stage. The letter reveals the character as well as the state man has been in, while writing it. If you are sensitive when you receive a letter you can guess whether it is written with love or not, only by touching it. A letter written with love is in a state to transform even the most negative disposition of the spirit. It is enough for you to hold that letter for a while in your hand without reading it, in order that your disposition may change and that you may pass into a higher octave of the spirit. However, if the letter is not written with love, as soon as you touch it, you will feel a certain coldness. Such a letter is in a state to lower, not to raise your spirit.
The whole nature is full of love letters written by God. Every fruit is such a letter. When you take a fruit, close your eyes, concentrate your thought and see what you will feel. Whatever you feel, that is what the fruit says. The power of the fruit is hidden in that which is written in it. If you do not reason in this way, you will never acquire the strength hidden in that fruit. In the same way man must acknowledge that his thoughts are the fruit of his mind and his feelings - the fruit of his heart. If he does not recognize the qualities of his thoughts and feelings as qualities of fruit, he will never profit by the power and knowledge deposited in them.
Great is the world of God! It is created for us. It is created for each one separately. A day will come when you will receive a ticket to traverse at liberty the expansive, boundless world of God. When will that be? - It may be today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow - but it will be some day. It is not important when it will be - that does not matter. There exists one day of God. The day of God is not of 24 hours like the human day. The Divine day consists of, at least, one thousand earthly years. Then how many days of this kind will form a Divine year? Thus, after you have lived 365 thousand years on the earth, you would have lived one Divine year. And when you grow old - a man of 365 thousand years, you will be a child of one year in the Divine world in need of a mother to carry you in her arms, to fondle you and be happy with you. A small Divine child knows much more then an old man who has lived 365 thousand on the earth. And than we say that the real profit of man is for him to pass from the human into the Divine world. This is possible only when man has acquired knowledge which can be of use to him in the Divine world. Man will understand the deep meaning of life only when he has passed from the human into the Divine world. This means - to live on the earth and to understand things from a Divine point of view. From that point of view every form is imbued with meaning and acquires a definite expression. And then, as a clarification of the question, the head may be compared to the Divine, while the body - to the physical world. The head is a radio-station of Divine thoughts. Every thought of this kind is the result of the food which man takes. If the food man eats does not turn into thoughts, it remains in the stomach where it forms unnecessary accumulations, which cause man different kinds of suffering.
Now I shall give you a magic formula by which you can get rid of these accumulations. This formula must not be only written on paper, or spoken with the lips, but also printed in the heart. It is difficult to write it, difficult to express it, but still more difficult to understand it. In order to say this magic formal and to profit by its power, one must do three things beforehand. The Turks say: "It is easy to call the spirits, but difficult to send them away." Therefore, it is easy to go down a well, but difficult to come out of it. When you take hold of the rope, you can go down easily, but how will you come out? Man has done the easy thing when he has come to the earth, but now the most difficult task awaits him - that of going up into the Divine world. In order that he may do that, someone must by all means, come to his aid. He has gone down the wall - an easy thing to do. The difficult thing is for him to come out of the well. When a student go to school, he does the difficult thing - he climbs from storey to storey, and/as he passes from first class into the second, the third class, etc. When the time comes for him to go out of the school, he runs down the stairs easily. In the spiritual world, however, it is just the opposite. There, all the classes are on the lower storeys, that is why it is easy to enter into the school there, but difficult to come out of if. This is the difference between the heavenly and the earthly school. Then let everyone say in himself: if a student of the earthly or heavenly school makes efforts to enter or to come out of the school, why should I not also make some effort to attain one of my ideals? He who wants to enter the school with difficulty but to go out of it easily, can be a student only on the earth. But as a student on the earth, he will have a smaller and more limited knowledge than the spiritual student. You ask: Can the human life not be set in order in a different way? - What do you want? Now you enter the school with difficulty and go out of it easily. If you want to enter into the spiritual world, you must prepare yourselves for new conditions. There it is easy to go in, but difficult to come out. And really, it is easy to come to earth, but difficult to rise to the Divine world. Man goes to God with difficulty. Why? Because it is difficult to ascend. The way to God is a way of ascending, No matter how difficult this way may be, everyone must pass it. Upward! - That is the aspiration of every soul.
You say: How shall we go to God? There are three things everyone must do. The first thing is: whether you are in a village or a city, find the poorest, most unhappy man and pay him a visit. You will sit beside him, talk with him and ask him how he lives, what is the condition of his family, etc. He will call his family in - his wife and children, and you will be polite with them, observing how they are clothed and what they need. You will talk with all in the family until you impart something beautiful to them. When you see that they are cheered up, you will go away.
The second thing you must do is to go out on a stormy day and meet the rising sun. The day may be stormy and rainy, but you will have the patience to meet the sun and then go back to your house. Only under such circumstances can you have a real idea of what the rising sun means. Only under such conditions can man feel a real pleasure that he has been able to meet the rising sun amidst the rain and storm.
The third thing you can do is to observe a small child learning to walk. By observing him consciously, you will learn a great lesson. Otherwise you will say: That child is creeping! No, that child is praying to God. He stand on his feet for a moment and then falls all of a sudden. Then he puts his toes on the floor again, gets up from the floor, raises his head and stand to pray: - God, I want to understand life. Help me to attain that! The child gets up and falls time after time and prays: — God, forgive me for not having learned my lesson, yet! All that You have created is beautiful and fine and I want to understand and study it. That child either creeps on the ground or stands up and casts joyful glances at his mother, happy that he can walk alone. Walking is a whole science. And the small child is studying that science.
I say: You have also been such children and have studied this science, but you have forgotten it. Many ask: How must we pray? - Like the small children learning to walk. - What position must we have in life? - The position of the small children learning to walk. When you become like small children, you will comprehend the meaning of life.
Thus, after you have done these three things, you will be filled with a sacred thrill and will be in a position to pronounce the great magic formula of life: God is love! As soon as you pronounce this formula in such a way, a great, unexpected wonder will take place in the world. The sun will rise in your souls in a way you have never seen it till now. All the 12 doors of heaven, which you have never seen, will open. And from there you will hear the voice of all those who have passed your way end have finished their development. They will all together pronounce the magic formula: God is love. Wherever you pass you will hear: God is Love!
What will be the great wonder which will come to pass? - All sorrows and sufferings will vanish. The ignorance you have been in until that moment will vanish. Then you will realize what sufferings and death have meant and say: All that has been an illusion, a vapour. Then your faces will shine and you will see the brightness of the great world.
The great in the world is the Divine Love. The Divine Love can be understood only when a man can write, pronounce and apply correctly the magic formula in life. He who can do these three things: visit. the poorest man, meet the rising sun in the stormiest day of his life and learn the prayer of the child learning to walk, can pronounce and comprehend the magic formula in life - God is Love!
The magic formula - God is Love - contains the new understanding of the Kingdom of God.
3. Congress talk of the Master held on the 3rd of September, 1933, 5a.m., Sofia – Izgrev
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