1922_03_01 FEAR AND FEARLESSNESS

[Ani]

Беседата на български

 

Note 5

 

FEAR AND FEARLESSNESS

 

Year 1, Lecture 2 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class)

Given by the Master Beinsa Douno

March 1, 1922, Wednesday,

19.00h, Sofia

 

 

Secret Prayer

 

There was a presentation of the essays of the disciples on the topic “The Most Rational Method for Work”.

 

It is advisable to make a summary of the presented works, i.e. to extract the essential ideas from them.

 

You all should know one thing: you should commence each work with the least amount of obstructions. I will write the following few numbers: sum them up and draw a conclusion from their total[1]. It is better to reflect on these numbers in solitude.

 

 

I will now write the sentence ‘Fir-fűr-fen tao bi aumen.’ It's meaning is: ‘With the least amount of fear and the least amount of darkness.’ So, you have to follow the Divine Path with the least amount of fear and darkness. Why? Less fear and darkness cause less harm and deviation. Those who are too fearful cannot follow this Path. Therefore, one should master the art of maintaining only the least amount fear and darkness in his consciousness in order to enter this Path. The sentence “Fir-fűr-fen tao bi aumen” can also be translated in the following way:“Without fear and without darkness!” Fear comes from human sin and at the same time it produces darkness. But do not confuse fear with caution. Whoever acknowledges the existence of the Primal Cause in the world, but nevertheless is fearful, has not understood the essence of this Cause.

 

So, you should follow the New Path as disciples - without fear and without darkness. Whoever is fearful will lose his Light and the darkness will come as a natural result of this. And the opposite is also true – when darkness comes, fear will follow. Fear and darkness are two senses in human consciousness, which should be regulated by all means. By what tools? By fearlessness and Light. Otherwise, on entering into the School, a disciple will continuously ask oneself questions such as: ‘Can I manage my studies in the School, shall I succeed? Is it time to follow this Teaching? Do I possess the skills required? What if I fail some time, if I go backwards in development?’

 

No, the disciple needs to ask himself a different kind of question : ‘Do I want to study or not?’ If the answer is positive, this very aspiration will be powerful enough for him to be able to overcome all difficulties in Life. But if you are fearful, you will experience the following verse from the Scriptures: ‘Those who are fearful will not enter the Kingdom of God.’

 

It is true that a fearful person cannot become a scientist, a philosopher or a statesman. Actually, a fearful person cannot succeed in any field, because he resembles a hare. However, there are animals which are even more cowardly than hares . For example, frogs are more cowardly than hares; they can be considered a symbol of extreme materialism. Materialists are full of fears. If a rich man, who is also a great materialist, is deprived of his money, he will immediately lose his courage. As long as this man is rich he behaves like a hare, but when he gets robbed he becomes like a frog. There fore, when you think of a hare, visualize a rich materialist who hasn't been robbed of everything yet, so he is running away in order to save some of his riches. And a frog is a symbol of someone who has been robbed of everything and there is no other way out for him except to jump into the water and find salvation there.

 

I will take now three animals that symbolize fear: a hare, a frog and a bird. If you scare a hare, it will run away into the forest; if you scare a frog, it will jump into the water; and if you scare a bird, it will fly up in the sky. Finally, if you scare a person, he should say to himself, ‘Without fear and without darkness!’ Write these words down clearly, neatly, without making any comments about them.

 

I am asking you: when you plan to go to an excursion, what goal do you want to achieve? Your purpose is to climb up a high mountain peak. During the climb you take rests from time to time, so that you can reach the peak. You should use the same method in your spiritual studies: aiming at the high peak, you will take rests to refresh yourselves at many places in order to restore your forces. Many people say that esoteric-ism is dangerous. Spiritual science is really dangerous but only for those who are fearful and it is safe for those who are fearless. When it is said that spiritual science is dangerous, this indicates that some fearful people are subjectd to an examination and it will become clear whether they will pass or not. When fearful people are instructed to go onto the Path without darkness, they ask, “How can we go without darkness, when Light is not enough for us?” It is an indication that they are afraid of Light even. A robber, for example, works in the darkness to rob a cash-box; if Light comes from somewhere, he will immediately give him a heart-beat.

 

Therefore, two testing methods exist for the disciples of the two schools – the School of Light and that of darkness. The disciples of the first school go without fear and without darkness, while the disciples of the second school - with fear and with darkness. So, the disciples of the Brotherhood of Light will follow the path without fear and without darkness, while the disciples of the opposite brotherhood will proceed with fear and with darkness.

 

Young people should know which path to follow. If you go on a long journey, you may send someone before you to see the conditions of the road: if it has been cleaned; if there are bridges; what is the best way to travel: on foot or by horse, etc. And when you have this background information, you will be fearless. You have taken this Path many times and then you turned back, but this time, when you take the Path, you should stay with it. We see a similar situation in ordinary schools: many students join them, but some of them after finishing first grade leave school, others complete only the second or the third grade, etc. Few of them graduate from all the grades. And the best students continue at some university. But in life just the opposite may happen: students who are good at school may lag behind in Life, or students who are very good, even excellent in the first grades may become less successful in the next grades. On the other hand, students who are weak in the beginning may improve their results in the next grades and finish school with excellent marks. It is due to a specific psychological reason: parents and teachers who praise their children often and too much, make them conceited. As a result the centre of vainglory develops in their brains, attracting more blood to the back part of the head, so the front part of the brain receives less blood and gets gradually weakened. If people praise you too much, they will unconsciously stop your mental development. This is why teachers should restrain from praising their talented students. The centre of vainglory, located in the back part of the head, is like a thief that steals a great amount of the blood which otherwise goes to the front part of the brain. That is why the brain of vainglorious persons cannot develop very well. The same phenomena is referred to in the Bible in the following verse: “God mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble.”/Proverbs 3:34/

 

Therefore, those who want to work on their brains and improve theim should not be conceited. It has been noticed that those who were often mocked and laughed at, later became famous scientists, poets, musicians, and those who were praised too much and people had expectations from them became mediocre. Why? Their brain was not nourished well and consequently it could not develop properly. So, be deaf to both praises and reprimands while you are alive. When you die, then you may listen to what people say about you in the graveyards. Someone may ask you, for example, “Are you a disciple of the Spiritual School? Do you know that nothing will come out of you?” Do not pay attention to such words. Another one may tell you, “You are an excellent disciple, there is no one like you.” Do not be concerned with such words either. Go on working on your growth irrespective of what you are told.

 

Apply this method to see what results it will bring to you. Apply this method but not out of fear. Many people are brave in Life under the influence of their fears. This is not courage. One has to be brave, but consciously, not out of fear. Even a cat, when scared, huddles first, but then it becomes brave due to its instinct of self-preservation, so that it gets ready to attack its enemy. This is not fearlessness, but bravery out of fear for losing life. True courage means fearlessness in all situations in Life, at any given moment. To put it in spiritual terms, brave people hesitate outside, but not within themselves.

 

Only Divine Love, being perfect, can inspire courage. No other love is able to make someone behave bravely and fearlessly. You cannot know Love in the physical world until you have become fearless. If your heart is full of fear, whatever you say about love, it is not Divine Love. When you get scared, your heart will quiver in a specific way. The energies of fear cause peculiar psychological effects: a specific quiver of the heart and a simultaneous paling of the face. When frightened, first you get pale due to the withdrawal of your blood to the heart; then you get reddish due to the appearance of anger in you and stirring of your blood. Cowardly people are actually afraid of public opinion, so they get insulted easily; when they are discredited before people, they get angry and they become cross. For example, an adept of the other Lodge may come to tempt you and to cheat you. You will succumb to his words, trust him and commit a crime. Then he will come again as your benefactor offering you a method to hide your crime. This will lead to falsehood which is even worse. I say, brave and fearless people will never succumb to temptations. Disciples should know this, because they will encounter many temptations after they enter the School.

 

I mentioned the hare and the frog in this lecture as symbols. So I wish to direct you, as disciples, to reflect on all phenomena in Life and Nature, on all objects, and to make translations. What will be your translation, for example, of the following words: a river, a tree and a mountain? What translation will you give for these animals: a wolf, a fox and a frog? What do flies and mosquitoes symbolize? All these things are symbols that make up the language of Nature.

 

A disciple should study this language and know why Nature has created animals, plants and minerals. Nature has used them as letters in its alphabet in the same way as we use letters and syllables to form our thoughts. Therefore, if we put all minerals, plants and animals in their places, we will get the intelligent Word and Thought of Living Nature. Those who want to study the language of Nature should begin with the simplest images and gradually proceed to more complex ones.

 

Secret Prayer

[1] *The actual total of the listed eighteen numbers is 218 (editor’s note)

Edited December 1, 2016 by Viktoriya

[Viktoriya]

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