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December 1960 to february 1961

Pages 14-16 – The Theosophical Movement – December 1960 (p. 73-75)

This subject of test, trial and temptation is very important. In Isis H.P.B. gave a significant hint. Look up Vol. II, p. 280: “Personal virtue could claim no merit, unless it had passed through the furnace of temptation.” It is time that you looked into this topic for personal self-examination and preparation for any and every temptation. At this hour you will not find much to worry about of a serious nature; but I ever believe in being ready to meet the devil and say “good morning”! Therefore it may be well for you to read H.P.B.’s article on “Chelas and Lay Chelas,” especially pp. 5-7 of the book Raja-Yoga. Then turn to Judge’s Gita Notes and read between the lines pp. 18-20, about our two foes. Note what he says about why and how others in our vicinity attack us for achieving that which they know to be right but are not able to achieve themselves. This you have already experienced and are now experiencing. Watch your Karmic connections and psychic precipitations which cause what Judge calls a kind of heat, a psychic ailment. One very fundamental aspect of it has to do with our Theosophical affinities. Master K.H. in one place refers to “the converging lines of Karma” bringing us into this Esoteric Movement. Crosbie’s Friendly Philosopher puts it in his usual simple way on p. 27 — the First paragraph of Letter 10.

Believe me, the Path of the aspirant has traps to ensnare the ego in numerous ways. One can never come to the height of devotion unless one remains true to one’s Inner Ruler and to the Lines laid down. Of course you will be assailed and tempted, but your earnestness and sincerity are there to guide you. You are preparing yourself by gathering within yourself spiritual stamina. If you calmly “search the scriptures” in an hour of test you will come through. Be confident. It is your good Karma that you are not ambitions and that your personal self does not want to shine in public. Along what particular line your attack will come and the form in which it will come is impossible for us to determine; only the Master knows.

It is good that you aspire to prepare yourself so as to have fortitude. Is it not said: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall”? This very feeling which puts you on your guard is a good sign. There are people who never think that they are under trial! Do not be apprehensive about the future. You make use of the present; grow in strength and stamina; have peace established within and render service in the without; add to the quota of knowledge; love humanity by loving some members of it, but loving in a true sense — thus make yourself invulnerable. Just as the physical body grows to its full height, so also our astral body has to grow to its full stature, which does not mean perfection, but it does mean bringing out to the full all our Karmic possibilities. Once that is done the Creative Brahma aspect changes and we have to sustain the Vishnu aspect. Use and enhance the spiritual stamina, i.e., knowledge and love. So you see, you have to grow; you have to bring forth what is slumbering. In doing so you will meet your natural, i.e., prakritic tests and trials. So, you have nothing to fear; but you have to be watchful. “He who is humble need fear no fall,” says The Pilgrim’s Progress (did you ever read that? A wonderful book!). You have humility and you are working at your life in secrecy and silence. Your chosen line, thanks especially to U.L.T. principles, enables you to serve in silence, to pour out your devotion in secret. Keep it up, dear neophyte. In the Movement of the Great Lodge of Masters there are struggles always and so also strifes. We have to learn to hold grimly on. Not tomorrow but today:

Lord, for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray:

Keep me, my God, from stain of sin, just for today;

Let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say:

Set thou a seal upon my lips, just for today.

So work on and watch — confident, hopeful, and banish apprehension. You will get through.

Faith and devotion to the Great and Blessed Holy Ones mean that we are unfolding strength and serenity of the mind. Our ideation of and about Them implies keeping company with Them, however indirectly. To forget Them from time to time, in the incidents of the day and the events which occur from hour to hour, means that we are weak to that extent. But we will be tried. Trials and tests must come and later temptations also. This force of temptation is another big subject. There are outer and inner aspects to all trials, tests and temptations. “Great Sifter is the name of the Heart Doctrine.” The sifting process of Karma takes new aspects as man aspires to be a chela, studies for self-improvement and says, “Let me be tried.” Unselfishness is the protector against temptation and we must resolve never to be overthrown by doubt or by despair. It is best to go on watchfully, hour by hour, and not have anxiety. If you read pp. 68-69 of the Voice about every failure being a success, you will recognize that we know of no failure. We will fight on. Mother Nature is mercy incarnate and the Great Ones are embodiments of Wisdom. Our service of Them and Their Cause will never be forgotten by Them. So go on with faith in the Inner Ruler and in Them.

People do not recognize tests and opportunities when they come. The preliminary step is a correct understanding of Karma. People’s scientific and religious training dies hard. Bias and prejudice and superstitions persist. Self-induction is not understood. In this as in all else one has to begin with one’s own self. We, each one of us, must live undaunted by our limitations or by adverse talk of friends and kin. We are nervous about added labour and especially a new responsibility. We have to make sure that the new line of activity is pure from the motive point of view and is executed unselfishly, with no axe of our personal nature to grind. A proper understanding of Karma would rid us of our fears. Especially for aspirants and practising aspirants like you there need be no nervousness about the future. You may not be able, at this hour, to act up to all you say, but you are saying it. Affirmation in words carries its own potential force. Our thoughts when articulated are objectivized. We see them and the incentive to act arises. Look at the definition of the Shila virtue with a penetrating gaze.

Well, this is your opportunity to face defeat, not only gracefully on the outer plane, but to turn the evil to good account, for your Ego’s real benefit. There is, of course, a lesson for you in this defeat or setback and that learnt the defeat must turn into victory. Look for the real reason of this event. It is a precipitation and will bring out of you real good if you calmly ponder over it in the silent sanctuary of your own heart. A greater humility will be born of a dispassionate meditation on this defeat. Humility is a grand Shakti, and, while greatly regretting your defeats, I for one hope that you will lead your personality to a deeper realization of the nature of this Shakti. Always count on the forces of test and trial to intervene. Do your duty, brighten your conscience, persist in feeling devotion to the Holy and Enlightened Lords, and things are bound to succeed though seeming failures show themselves.

So, do not be dejected. This is an Arjuna’s experience. Remember you are preparing yourself for the Service of the Blessed Masters. Nothing less than your very best in health of body, purity of mind, cleanliness in conduct, spiritual energization, all the time, has to be offered. Masters “try to make the best of the worst” and “we never whine over the inevitable”.

Pages 17-18 – The Theosophical Movement – January 1961 (pp. 115-116)

Your valiant stand and your right resolve, as also your desire to tread the Right Path, for which purpose you have sacrificed much, is a force which makes you a member of a Mighty Company. We put ourselves on probation as personalities by such resolve and sacrifice. This means that there is a new orientation in your life; you are on the Bridge which H.P.B. called Antaskarana and which Zoroastrianism calls the Chinvand Bridge. This Bridge bridges the deep waters which separate this from the Occult world. The latter is the world of the Ego. The purification of the personality by life means reverses to it and these naturally produce irritation, non-understanding, depression, suffering, and through them all — Realization. Each time pain transforms itself into a faculty — a spiritual faculty, and gradually produces Clear Vision. This Clear Vision has a double aspect; it not only is the Vision of the Ego, but he sees the worlds through clarified and purified emotions and feelings as also thoughts and reasonings. Therefore the Ego does not see colours — it sees through colours; it does not hear sounds — it hears through sounds; thus all colours and sounds and their forms and shapes are mere symbols which weave themselves into emblems which the Ego fully understands.

Now, what are called tests on the Path and trials of the neophyte are as truly self-engendered as the resolve we make or the sacrifices we offer. We put ourselves on the Path and thereby precipitate our own tests and bring forth our own trials. These tests and trials seem to us to be rooted outside of us — but this is due to misunderstanding of the Law of Karma. The Law operates within us and through us on others; within others and through them on us. Think on this and you will gain some illumination. To continue — being what you have made yourself by your noble resolve and beautiful sacrifice, and standing on that Bridge, you must perforce meet your Kurukshetra. You are between the two armies: the abyss of the material world is behind you; you can try to walk back into it, which will be equivalent to a boy of seven trying to make himself an infant of three; he will only disfigure himself if not destroy himself, for it cannot be done. Having passed the abyss, you must be prepared to go through the Yoga of Despondency. Remember, please, it is not the despair of the world, it is a yoga; see the title of the first Discourse of the Gita. Read carefully that first discourse and remember that Krishna is the Ego —your own Real Self — the Charioteer who has placed you in the midst of the two armies because you, Arjuna, the Reincarnating Self-Personality, asked Krishna to take you there. Therefore, Arjuna-like, you have to survey the armies, and which Arjuna during these millions of years has not thrown down his weapon in the despondency caused by that first survey?

We are all the same and if I write this it is to remind you that Krishna is near-nearer to you today than last year, nearer to you than your friend can ever hope to be, or, for the matter of that anyone. We all of us become Krishna, are Krishna. Therefore do not delude yourself that your moods are something of a speciality of abomination. There is a danger that lurks in that. Our subtle Ahankara forces itself forward and if we cannot be an especially good someone then we want to be an especially bad someone. Do you see the Personality — how it stealthily comes forth? Remember therefore not to grieve for your mistakes any more than to extol your good deeds. On to the Bridge, in the midst of the two armies, the activities which we pursued in the World of Matter follow us and overwhelm our march forward to the World of Spirit.

Be wise in living — look not behind, nor far away into the Golden Age, yet to be. Do what is nearest at hand as a real warrior -— chivalry, courage, love are our virtues and the sword of knowledge destroys doubt, fear and the binding limitations of matter.

What a long, grandfatherly sermon!

Pages 19-21 – The Theosophical Movement – February 1961 (pp. 154-156)

Meditation falls into two compartments: (a) self-examination-— the lower self surveyed by the light of the Higher and (this is important) of the Divine Science. Calm judgment tells us what is wrong and evil, what right and good; but judgment in the light of the Divine Science reveals what we lack of spirituality, of the sage-light. A periodic review-survey is very necessary. Then, (b) a memorizing of a great heart idea, a silent repetition of it, a reflection on it. This brings to us indirectly the influence of our Higher Triad. The remembrance of both these, hour by hour, as we are busy in the routine of duties and recreations, reveals the power of the meditation. Thus, your understanding and interpretation of the Gita verse about putting the mind upon the Spirit are correct. As you will agree, the process is easy to understand but very difficult to put into practice deliberately and actively, and yet it has to be done if we want to fulfil our purpose and mission as thinkers.

To make daily meditation more thorough you need to devote to it a longer period. The lengthening of period is right and genuine when we have not to watch — “Now is my period over,” or, “Five minutes still to go.” When such thoughts obtrude we are still under the influence of the lower. That from the point of view of the thinker. What proper objects or subjects are there? A concrete image like that of the Guru H.P.B. or of her colleague W.Q.J.? Or an abstract subject-verse like “All is impermanent in man except the pure bright essence of Alaya,” etc.? In either case the instruction is: “Withhold thy mind from all external objects, all external sights” other than the image or the verse. Further, “Withhold internal images” (feelings mainly). Why? “Lest on thy Soul-light a dark shadow they should cast.” When the thinker (Antahkarana) can keep himself untarnished by desires of the selfish self, when he is not influenced by the lower “light,” the Light of the Higher begins to come to him and gradually, slowly, the Antahkaranic thinker begins to act as Higher Manas and impresses the image or the verse with Its Higher Light. So, persist in Self-centredness. Close sense activity and also fancy. Concentrate on the divinity of Higher Manas and aspire to Buddhi. Result — become devoted in altruism during all the waking hours. A steady watchfulness is necessary. Spontaneity is the test.

It is this process which is the positive pole, the review or self-examination being the negative pole.

Self-examination does often have a depressing effect. But. when we see ourselves as full of weaknesses, who is the seer? Now that very word “seer” is so casually used that its real connotation often escapes us. The Sanskrit term “Rishi” means, literally, “Seer” — He who sees, who has attained to the spiritual and Buddhi-sight. Now self- examination must be both conscious and cautious. Self is the Seer, i.e, Buddhi-Manas, the Spiritual Soul, the Thinker with the light of the moral power. His object of sight is the lower self. After self-examination who gets fearful and depressed? Once again, freed from the benign influence of the Buddhi-Manas it is the expressions of Kama-Manas that so to speak, talk among themselves — “What are we going to do with this attempt to separate us?” Now what is the remedy? No self-examination should end with the noting and noticing of the foibles and frailties of the lower. One last act in the ritual of self-examination should be performed: the higher, Buddhi-Manas, must be gentle to the lower, like a mother who has chided the son or the daughter after which she must be soothing and encouraging to the son or the daughter to do better. The lower Manas, likewise, can do better. That aspect of the lower must be emphasized, viz., the learner. Kama-Manas is the pupil and the learner; one aspect of it — Antahkarana— is to become the chela of the great Guru. So do not fear or be depressed after a good self-examination. We have to raise the self by the Self, says the Gita. And whose thoughts are 100 per cent pure? Does not the same Gita say that every act is charged with faultiness?

There are always dual forces at work: the personal and the Manasic. Detecting our error is one thing; seeking the remedy is the second. The lower mind’s brooding and speculating upon its foibles and frailties is easy to it in an hour of its separation from Kama. But for it true reflection is difficult — reflection implies the reflecting Manas’s impress and influence. This is exhilarating, not depressing. The link between depression and exhilaration is the study of that particular teaching which deals with the nature of our error and tells us how to get over it. Not only too much anxiety but any anxiety about self-progress is harmful.

As to self-examination in reference to the past and the present, it always is truly a gain to act rightly now, in the day-to-day duties, work and recreations. Application is in the present and gives us a touch of the Eternal Now. More, it cleanses the past and brightens up the future. Memory is always there, like food when waste matter is eliminated. Ordinary men and women suffer from indigestion and constipation of the psychic nature. Elimination is poor. Why? No self-examination, no recognition of what is wrong and how to eliminate it. So, “Kill in thyself all memory of past experiences” is a real psychological exercise. “From Me come memory and also the loss of memory.” says Krishna. Memory is a vital subject and there are mysterious aspects connected with it. In Isis some good hints are to be found.

Memory is dual. There is the Astral Light memory and there is the Akashic memory. Memory is our foe and our friend. It is the common weapon of the two selves in man. The higher memory must attack the lower, i.e., our higher tendencies and knowledge must improve the skandhas till the higher impresses itself on the personal man who then regains the memory of the past lives as Judge recommends.

Mental attention intensifies itself as our heart brings to our tasks our affection for them. Which disciple has not the difficulty of Arjuna? But it will not take lives for you to be centred in the Divine Discipline. In a few years you will find substantial improvement. Keep the company of the Inner Ruler, now and again. Lean on great ideas every time you finish one job and take up another. A couple of minutes of remembering and repeating a single verse of the Voice or the Gita strengthens and renovates the whole constitution.

On the subject of concentration something was said to you before and I do not think that much can be added till you have begun in right earnest to get your own lower mind steady enough to catch the light of your soul. The brain has to be made porous to the influences of the higher mind. Attentive working at everything that comes to us in the shape of duty is one kind of concentration. But to come together to a focal point the brain has to become quiet, the desires, either of the body or of the mind, have to subside and the mind has to be opened to receive the light of the inner nature. This has to be attempted if you want to get beyond the finite. The exoteric approach to which you refer will not give you satisfaction, I am afraid. People go to Church and try to approach “Our Father which art in heaven,” but they do not succeed because the psychology about the person who utters the prayer and the nature of the Father in heaven are not properly understood.