1922_03_09 The Four Rules

[Jackline Spasova-Bobeva]

Note 6

 

The Four Rules

 

Third lecture of the General Occult Class, given by the Master Beinsa Douno on the 9th of March 1922, Thursday, 7.10-8.00 pm, in Sofia

 

The song “Bless, my soul, the Lord” was sung quietly

 

Secret prayer

 

Order, system, and discipline are needed from all of you, but not imposed by me. I want each of you to impose your own discipline on your thoughts and feelings. And those, who cannot impose it on themselves, don’t let them come. If you cannot impose such discipline on yourselves, do not come. And if someone allows himself to come without this discipline, then I do not answer. I want Absolute harmony! Outside you may find fault with me, but here I do not answer for the consequences for one who criticizes me. When a person enters the House of God, he should know that this is a church; when he comes to the school, he should know that this is a school. If you come here to compare your knowledge, to see how much you know, you need not come. You want to be friends with me, don’t you? But we can be friends only when we observe the law of the Absolute Love, when we observe the law of Wisdom, the law of Justice. They are equal for everyone, no one is excluded; the law is absolute there. Love is absolute and relative; there is Absolute Wisdom and relative wisdom, Absolute Truth and relative truth, Absolute Justice and relative justice, Absolute Good and relative good. We follow the Absolute not the relative; the relative is outside in the world, let’s make that clear. Because in the Absolute there is one opinion only, while in the relative there are many opinions. And you should know: only in this way can you have the assistance of Heaven. Heaven is a place of order and system, a place of discipline. In Heaven, there are no such orders and such policemen as on Earth. There are no written laws there; everyone has the laws written within – either in his mind or in his heart or in his Spirit, in accordance with the degree of growth of the being.

 

Now, my wish is to free you from unnecessary sufferings and difficulties. If a pupil, who goes to school, has a corn, scrofula in his leg or a stomach ache; will he be able to learn? He should be free. If this pupil is hungry, if he has not eaten for three or four days, will he be able to learn? That means that there should be food, there should be clothes, and there should be everything he needs. So, if you come with your worries here, we have no need of you – this is not an orphanage, this is not a place of refuge. Your coming here on Sundays may be considered as coming to a place of refuge, but at present it is a school – healthy people are needed. A person who is ill should stay outside and a person who is healthy should come. So, all of you can be healthy. If you are ill, there is an excuse but the ill should stay outside. In a spiritual school people become ill by themselves and recover their health by themselves. Now I will answer this question outright. Were you ill when you left God? – You were healthy. Therefore, what is the reason that you are ill? Were you uneducated or educated when you left God? You were educated, not uneducated. Your present ignorance is due to you having eaten and drunk everything. And in eating and drinking everything, you have become impoverished on the physical field.

 

Now we will address ourselves to the positive Life. Let us leave the remote past and the distant future and take up the present. When a contemporary author decides to write a book in the form of a short story or of a novel, he has two subjects – a male character and a female character. The male character is a man and the female character is a woman and the author allocates all other characters round those two and makes his story interesting. Now I am asking: why does he need these two characters? The male character presupposes the female character and the female character presupposes the male character. Once you take away one of the characters, the other disappears without saying. People also have two characters inside them; what are they? I will tell you: the first character is the mind and the second character is the heart. The author, that is to say the Spirit allocates the rest of the characters round these two. The Spirit, the author, is who selects the two characters - the mind and the heart - and on them he builds up his story; all other characters are arranged round them. Now, this author selects his characters; he defines exactly what the heroism of both characters will be and he endues them with certain moral qualities. For example, he will give the male character power, courage, resolution to win and he will give the female character greatest sufferings in order to withstand; he will put her into the greatest temptations and she will endure them; he gives her a negative part. Well, then what should the qualities of your mind be, what should the male character be? Your mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute. Should the mind say: “This is not for me”, it would be deprived of its heroism. Once your mind looks for the easy way in the world, only a star-fish or a sea mushroom may come of you, nothing more. And when an Angel comes down to Earth to take a look at people, He recognizes what each one wants through his mind. If a disciple, who enters the School, seeks the easiest way, nothing will come of this disciple. If he comes to the difficult problems and he gets round them or gives them to be solved by others and he enters with someone else’s solution of the problem, we know what would come of him. And all those now ruling the world, who are at the head, have come out of such schools, where they have only solved easy problems.

 

And then, what should be the qualities of the heart? They correspond with the female character. The mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute and in the heart there should be plasticity, endurance, and patience. These are the qualities that the disciple should acquire. No one was born with them, everyone acquires them. There are conditions for this and you should acquire them in order to be able to comprehend the Great Nature. Now, what do you think; if this male character has hesitated five or six times and departs from his vocation, what is in store for him? Once and for all, he has lost the good will of the female character and he is finished. The reverse is true also – when the female character departs from her principle, from her vocation, she has lost her heroism, too. Do not be in error and say: “Is there not a blessing?” This is another question. In mathematics, problems are solved in one way only, no exclusion is allowed. “But it is only one unit, one mistake!” This unit, this mistake does much harm when it concerns a great number which is reiterated in the calculations.

 

And so, you will study your male character, i.e. your mind and your female character – the heart. And then you will ask me: “Where is the human will?” In my opinion, the human will is a child of the mind and of the heart. Therefore, if a person has will, I understand that the mind and the heart are productive, that they have worked in compliance with the Divine law. If there is will, this shows that the mind and the heart have been going the new way; if there is no will, this shows that they are childless; these people have lived a wrong life – this is the interpretation. In the Spiritual life, a person without will is degenerating. This is the definition of will, but it is not like the definition of contemporary philosophers.

 

Now, in order to be able to understand your mind, in order to be able to understand your heart and your will, you need four other elements. These are the so called temperaments. There is a nervous or mental temperament, which belongs to the brain; there is a sanguine temperament, which belongs to the lungs and to the respiratory system; a choleric temperament, which belongs to the muscular and bone systems; and a phlegmatic temperament, which belongs to the stomach.

 

When the nervous or mental temperament is of high quality in the display of the forces which form it, the thought flows plastically, fluently, the mind is productive, no darkness is ever noticed in it – it will work always, you will be quick and deep in your thought. This is only when the mental temperament is of high quality. All temperaments can be of high quality, of middle quality and of poor quality. Once the temperament of the mind is of poor quality, you will have to work for a long time. Since the main role in this temperament is played by the brain and the nerves, hence you will have to learn to regulate your electricity. The brain is a place of electricity. Sometime we can make a trial, as this is a wide field. The different regions of the brain accumulate and collect various types of energy. Even an experiment could be made to show that if certain energies are taken away or transmitted, your mental mood will change at once. Let us presume that you are afraid of something, you cannot live at home, and you want to leave. If someone, more courageous than you, puts his hand on a certain part of your head, where the centre of fear is, he will take away the respective energy at once and your fear will disappear; and vice versa, if a coward puts his hand on that place of someone’s head, that one will become cowardly. So, fear can be transmitted and can be taken away from you. These are currents within the brain; when we come to these currents, they can cause certain movements in the corresponding centres and a moving in the consciousness will appear, accompanied with danger. Also, let us say that someone is merciful or compassionate; this energy is also located in a certain part of the brain. If you decide to do a good deed and a person with negative qualities who is not merciful, comes to you and puts his hands on the centre of mercy, the same wish not to give anything will be generated in you too; and the reverse, if someone does not want to give alms and someone else, who is very merciful puts his hand on that centre, a wish to give alms will be generated at once in that person. So, someone says: “I am not in mood to do this thing”. I am asking: has it come out of your mind, is it yours? You should know whether a thought is yours or someone else’s. “I am not in mood” – he says. Yes, but this not any kind of philosophy. This indisposition may be someone else’s and if everyday you live someone else’s frame of mind, what experience could you have? The answer is none. The Bulgarians say: “Someone else’s is always someone else’s; it can be taken away even on Easter”. No, you will keep only that which is inside you; only yours, only this, which has passed through your mind, has been ascertained by your heart and has been applied by your will – you might work on it. I wish that what you learn in the School, to pass through your mind, through your heart and through your will. I do not aim at persuading you to do this; this thought is far away from me. In this Great esoteric school the experience plays the whole role. Food recommends itself, does it not? I do not recommend it, I say: “Taste this food!” You will judge the food by the results. From what you are taught, I want you to form an opinion as to whether it is helpful or not, by yourselves.

 

I call the first temperament - the mental one, dynamic. Therefore the head is dangerous, it is a dynamo. It is like a mace and one who has a strong head, if he is not good, he can do great harm to someone with this mace.

 

The second temperament, the sanguine one - I call it gaseous, it has the property to expand. And hence it is necessary, because when a person possesses this sanguine temperament, he gives expansiveness to his dynamic force – the head, its form becomes larger. This temperament develops as well, that is why we should use breathing as a means of its development. In those who have weak breathing, who are narrow-chested, whose lungs are not developed, whose blood vessels are weak; in them this temperament is of poor quality and consequently their mental system will not function properly as well. There is a relation between the temperaments. And so, first, you will try to develop your lungs in compliance with your nervous system. The lungs and the circulatory system are included in the sanguine temperament – they form it.

 

Next to the first two temperaments comes the phlegmatic temperament or as some call it, the vital or the life temperament. I call it an accumulative temperament - which thickens. It is the temperament of the stomach. When a person has a normally developed stomach, eating is done correctly – neither too much hunger nor too much overeating. Therefore this temperament is necessary to accumulate energy. And those who are denied the vital temperament often wither like flowers; they are short of soil around and begin drying up. It is said: “It is no use being fat”, but also it is no use if the stomach is quite small. In the case of this temperament the size is not the important thing but the structure of the stomach and it has the quality of good eating. If you want to reorganize your stomach, you should eat on time and should not overeat.

 

And last is the choleric temperament; the temperament of the muscular and bone systems, the temperament of physical man. I call it executive. It bears the executive side of human life. Everything that has to be done in the world is always done through this temperament. Those, in whom this temperament predominates, have sinewy muscles; their bones are sound, somewhat coarse; their tongue is slightly unbridled; they do not argue by words but by hands and legs.

 

Now, each temperament has its own field of action. When the choleric temperament is predominant, the relative centres in the brain – around the ears – are developed. Because each outside centre has its representative up, in the brain, these parts are well developed there. The upper part – the imagination, is well developed in the case of the sanguine temperament. In the case of the phlegmatic temperament, the temporal parts are developed, and this shows that when such a person smells a dish, he conceives the pleasant desire to enjoy his food. When the mental system is predominant, the entire structure of the front part of the forehead has a nice shape.

 

You should study the temperaments and should start developing them. If you cannot build a certain temperament, cannot carry its inherent properties, you will remain with a shortage. An enduring person can be one who has vital or phlegmatic temperament. Even the well developed person may not be enduring, if he loses the qualities of the vital temperament. He cannot be nippy if the sanguine temperament is not developed in him. Also, his mind may not be bright, may not be quick to grasp, if the nervous temperament is not developed. First of all you will start cultivating your temperaments. Now, there is a certain measuring regarding the temperaments, but if I give you the combination, you may mix up your conceptions, being not acquainted with these laws. For example, the width of the nose in its lower part and in the temporal fields will show to what extent your vital temperament is developed, because there is proportionality between all parts. The width of the nostrils is in correlation with the width of the hand as well as with the face. Also, your fingers will be organized according to how your stomach is organized; your entire hand as well as the soft parts of the fingers, which correspond with the lungs, will be organized according to how your lungs are organized. One, who comprehends this, will know in what shape your stomach is, will know everything just by looking at the parts of the hand; in this respect it is open and above board. And you, as disciples, are faced with a very serious work.

 

Now, I want to specify the following: in this school you will use for work only your spare time – the time which you do not know for what to use. I do not want you to leave your homes. How many hours can you spare: one hour, half an hour or more? You need at least one hour and it will be better still if you can spare one and a half up to two hours per day, but not to leave your work and to cause rows, I do not want any rows. The capable disciple needs a little time as does the assiduous one. You know the saying, don’t you, about the tortoise¹ and the rabbit that were racing? The rabbit was running very fast but it slept at many places while the tortoise was going slowly but did not have any rest and left the rabbit behind. So, sometimes fast people are late more than slow ones.

 

It is also true that the most talented pupils at school, who are very promising, in Life give nothing. It is not that they could not give but they get complacent from praises. Now, many say: “Let us be praised!” No, praising is very dangerous. You should speak favourably of someone once per year, on Easter only, but to speak favourably of him every day is very dangerous. On Earth, it is very dangerous for man to be praised. It is dangerous also to blame, there is no need to blame. The one thing is as dangerous as the other. Both blaming and praising are egoistically motivated. Why do we speak favourably about someone? In order to bribe him – our motive is not because he is high-minded but because we want to bribe him. Sometimes we say: “You are very bad”; thus we want to influence him. But he says: “I am not so bad”. In the Esoteric school, neither methods are used – it is not allowed either to be praised or to be blamed.

 

Now, we have abilities, put into us and everyone is ever so rich in them. These abilities should be developed. Some have more conditions for this and others have less. In the present circumstances you cannot be all alike and cannot achieve the same results. Even, from among ten persons only one or two are capable, they can achieve a great deal; only they are the stars, the rest have supporting parts. If we do not achieve much in this life, we will achieve a lot in the next one, but we should not lose heart from this. When you have your term, then you will be ready – this is how a disciple should look at it. He should use the present for the sake of those distant purposes of his life. One day we will be called and will be told: “Play your part!” If we are prepared, we will play it. Then you will have your turn.

 

And so, in order that you could develop your mental or nervous temperament, you have to learn to control your thoughts by all means. It has been spoken many times about self-control. Self-control is mastery for the disciple. Worries will come, trials will come and they are a matter of course. They will come but when all these disturbances appear and you obtain a certain good, you will have succeeded in controlling your thoughts. Each of you should have a note-book, this is a must. Once you yield to temptation or sometimes get anxious, note how many minutes you needed to calm down. Once you start getting angry, say to yourself: “At 10:30 a storm arose in me and after five-ten-fifteen minutes, half hour or one hour this storm blew over”. Someone says: “This anger will pass by itself”. Right, the anger will pass in itself but it can carry everything away and then it is dangerous; but if you set it to work, everything will stay. It is not bad for anger to come, but it is dangerous when it gets away with everything. You should set this energy to work. Or, once a good thought comes to you, note how much time you needed to attain it. Do not note all thoughts; one thought per day is enough. If it is negative, note how much time you need to transform this state, to achieve a pleasant mood inside and to say: “Thanks, I learnt my lesson well”. This means to solve your problem by yourself, does it not? And it is remarkable, that as soon as a person enters the spiritual Path, troubles begin to happen at once. Take your child, who has been calm and has played; you send it to school and teachers cause it trouble at once. Returning home, it cannot play, it starts thinking about the subjects he has to study and you say: “My child studies a lot”. And the mother worries that her child studies too much. It is not dangerous to study a lot. Now, you may think that this is a simple work. No, this a fundamental work!

 

Tolstoy² gives a story. I am not going to give you the whole story but only a part, clarifying my thought. It is the following: a person wanted to become clairvoyant and he thought that in becoming clairvoyant he will be able to use it. And he did have such a moment indeed. He saw that a thief was going into a house of a rich man with the intention to rob him. And the clairvoyant decided to do a good deed. He went to the rich man and poked him to stand up and see the thief; the rich man stood up and killed the thief. Another instance: the clairvoyant saw that two young people love each other; at one time another young man came nearer to the girl; the clairvoyant went to her beloved telling him to save her; the young man went quickly, they quarrelled and killed each other. The clairvoyant wanted to arrange their lives. A third instance he saw that someone was going to steal shocks from a field. The one who possessed this field was poor, so the clairvoyant went to him and told him: “Do you know that your sheaves are being stolen?” The poor man went, caught the thief but they quarrelled and killed each other. This is not any science. That is why it is said in the Scriptures; “If someone is going to commit a crime, let him do it while the disciple should go his way.” I like the example from the novel of Victor Hugo “Les Miserables” with Jean Valjean, who was caught with the candlestick in hand and was brought to the bishop. The latter said: “He did not steal it, I gave it to him”. This is a high-minded example!

 

The error of all esoteric disciples is in your delving into a small error of others and saying: “Why should they do it?” We do not look into errors; in an esoteric school it is never allowed to look into the negative qualities of others. And if someone comes to complain to you that he was robbed, take money out from your pocket and pay him. Say: “How much was taken?” – “I lost five hundred leva³. “I will pay”. And the matter is settled. I want the disciples in this School to correct the errors of others by doing so. “How would I correct the errors of others?” How? – Do not allow these negative qualities in you. Never think of the errors of others, if you want to ennoble yourselves. Do not think of people ever, absolutely never! Now, this is for the disciples in the School, not for the outside world. The rule for the world is different, do not apply this rule in the world, the law there is different. But the one, who wants to be a disciple in the Christ’s school, he should never dwell on the errors of people. They will appear but never dwell on them. God also does not dwells on our sins – everyday He creates new things; creates the new. Now, there are many people who are dwell on the errors of others and say: “Is this right or not?” In Absolute right there is only one rule and I wish that you all apply this rule: always to bring into yourselves something new, something good. You will not become perfect disciples at once, I do not want this from you, but you should know how to solve your tasks, how to be accurate. Under this rule, you will have as much as you are allowed, never postpone, and never put off. Do not have a bad opinion of yourselves; but have the same opinion which God has of you. If you say: “I am very bad” and you mean that God has made you bad, you are very wrong. And if you mean that you are very lazy, this is another question. Say: “I am capable of doing it, I am capable.”

 

So, you will work on your temperaments: on the temperament of your head, the nervous one; on the sanguine temperament; on the phlegmatic temperament, as well as on the motive or the choleric temperament. And you always will distribute your energies evenly. In this way your face will start taking on a regular form. In those, whose temperaments are distorted, asymmetry appears: fingers bend, hands and legs are crooked, and disharmony appears in the display of energies. And so, mind, heart and will have four elements and you should work with them. You will put dynamism in every thought, that is electricity. After that you will expand this thought, then you will give it weight and last you will give it strength of motion or, as I call it, growth. Once your temperaments function in this way, you will be able to do everything. It is necessary that these things should not just be sown but should be raised to bear fruit. Some writers write well because they have put into their thought all these qualities.

 

The mind is the male character, the heart is the female character and the child born by these characters is similar to the father and the mother. When I speak about the will, I mean the child of the mind and the heart. Often after my Sunday talks, after preaching a fine lecture, I have noticed that two people argue, they quarrel about something and I say: this is how they have understood the lecture – both are offended. And at once they say: “Excellent lecture!” and they do not quarrel; they have understood it well then. But once they quarrel, the lecture has not been excellent. If people quarrel the lecture is not first-rate.

So, the path you will go on is a path of work and perseverance.

 

I will be punctual; I have only five minutes more. Then you will relate both talks - the previous one was about sleeping, eating and working and the present one is about your mind, your heart, your will and the temperaments.

 

Now, I will give you a task. Let each of you write ten lines on the topic: Which is the best mind. Let each one write what it means according to him. And then I will let you, the disciples, review it by yourselves. There will be one or two meetings – the disciples will review what they have written. And so, the topic is: Which is the best mind or what are the qualities of the best mind. It is very clear; we likened the mind to the male character. You will describe as an author describes the main qualities of the character – the mind and the character are similar. Now, next time those of you, who can write this, will bring their sheets of paper and from what you will have written we will extract the essence – what you think of the mind – and will figure out certain rules: how the mind should be cultivated. Everyone will write without reading what is written to anyone else. You will write half a sheet, ten lines, not putting your names on the paper. We will read who thinks what of the best mind. We will have one exercise and then we will engage one of you, who is most capable, to extract the essence from all these thoughts and to make an overall description, a summary about the best mind.

 

Secret prayer

 

The song “Love is spring” was sung

 

 

 

1 Originally in the lecture is about frog-rabbit race.

2 The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy

3 Bulgarian currency

 

 

 

 

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