1923_11_25 FIRMNESS, COURAGE AND DILIGENCE

[Ani]

Note 2p

 

FIRMNESS, COURAGE AND DILIGENCE

 

 

7^th lecture given by the Master to the Youth Occult Class

 

25^th November, 1923, Sofia

 

- Only the light way of Wisdom leads to Truth

 

- It gives us constant Mirth and Joy

 

 

Reflection

 

The summaries on the topics: “Distinctive Features of Mildness and Temperance” and “The Seven Words and Their Relevant Colours” were read.

 

Some works on the topic “The Distinctive Features of Courage and Firmness” were read.

 

For next time: topic Nr 7: “The Difference between Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophical views”.

 

 

After that you will write on topic Nr 7: “The Difference between Fear and Conscience”.

 

 

Firmness, courage and diligence, or the so-called executive human abilities fall into one and the same category – they are the forces of the will. They can find a graphic expression as the three sides of a triangle. These forces can appear in the subconscious mind, where they act mechanically.

 

 

Fig.1

А^T – firmness. В^с – courage. С^и – diligence.

 

Each of these has its three manifestations. In the first case, firmness can be revealed when one’s judgement fails to act. In such a case one is stubborn and self-willed. Such a person fits the Turkish proverb; ”A gypsy will sell his hammer and his rug, but will stand his ground.” In the second case firmness can be revealed when one’s personal feelings are hurt. In the third case firmness can be revealed if one has convictions. This is the ideological manifestation of firmness. So the first manifestation of firmness is physical and unconscious, as consciousness is not involved; in the second manifestation emotions are involved; the third one is ideological.

 

What is your idea of courage? A courageous man is not always diligent or firm. A firm man is not always brave, either. One can be brave without being stalwart, and one can be firm without being courageous. Is the water running down the slope courageous? – No, it flows down out of necessity, as such is the direction given to it. What about the water that goes up under certain pressure? Is it courageous? No, it has to go up because of certain circumstances. Brave are only the high-minded, high-principled people. A courageous person can be a horseman who attacks people to rob them and runs away.

 

A firm man can be someone besieged in a fortress, like the French soldiers at Verdun. (A town in East France, which in 1916, during the First World War withstood a ten months’ siege by the German army.) A firm person can endure a month, two, three, five, eight, even more. A diligent person has a purpose. He is determined to overcome any difficulty. Such a person is the long-range artillery of human nature. These are the three operative forces in a human being. The centre of firmness is located on top of the head. It is a guard, a supervisor at the front door of human moral feelings. When you come to it, it orders you to show your ticket. Courage, on the other hand, arranges things for you. It is the second gate to the will. Destructiveness is the fighting soldier. There are no morals in it. When the manifestation of this feeling is urged only by reason, one becomes an opportunist, seeking benefit from everything.

 

When the manifestation of these virtues is dictated by moral feelings or by spiritual strength, then they can find their ideal expression. Be brave, but you should know why. Your courage should be appropriate! Be firm, but you should know why. Be diligent, but you should know why! Your firmness, courage and diligence should rest on some convictions and beliefs. These three forces are not among the loftiest and most noble human feelings. They have their place only in the material world. They are necessary to those who come to the material world. When the Superior Creatures descend to the Earth, they arm themselves with these weapons. When firmness is not guided by reason, i.e. when the mind is not involved, it can inflict a lot of trouble on man. One gathers certain energies, which have to be transformed. Firmness is like a battery, which stores either electricity, or magnetism. There are firm people who are tenacious of their opinions and never give in; also, there are people who can agree with you only if you manage to prove that they are wrong. And, finally, there are people who accede only to ethical arguments.

 

 

Fig 2.

 

 

What would you answer if asked why Nature endowed man with firmness? Firmness is one’s backbone, which shouldn’t be stiff and mechanical, but conscious and flexible. It has to bend without breaking under the pressure of highly ethical feelings. How does firmness move? - It goes upwards along line AB. All firm people grow upwards. Then we can draw the conclusion that short people are not firm enough. Therefore, firmness fosters the growth. And how does courage move? – A courageous person moves in a direction to C, in width. How does destructiveness move? – Its movement is circular an in all directions (along the arcs ab). In fact, all murderers try to catch someone; they strangle the victim by winding the rope around the neck. When they besiege the enemy, they are guided by destructiveness. They have a strategy and they conceive a plan how to attack, murder, etc. Destructiveness is the most violent force in man, and it is of the meanest origin. People who have this feeling well developed are always willing to hang someone, imprison him, or kill him. A courageous person tells someone, ”You shouldn’t be so meek! Punch him in the nose and give him a piece of your mind!” A brave person should attack and step back. A firm person should be like a rock. – Anything that bumps into him should bounce back. Therefore, firmness makes one stand his ground. A courageous person will say, ”You shouldn’t let them ride you! You should show them who you are.”

 

Watch the movements of the hand while these forces are acting. When destructiveness takes the lead, the hand forms a fist to punch something. Follow these movements with children, especially when they appear naturally. What does a stubborn child do? – The child strains all the muscles, stands still like a pole. Any feeling finds its expression in certain kind of movements that reflect one’s inner self. You should bear in mind that all these forces and all human abilities affect the mind. They are strands of the thought. If firmness, courage and destructiveness dominate over the other forces, they will inject much spleen and poison in one’s life. If this person is courageous, he will say, ”I will give him a piece of my mind!” If one is firm, he will say, ”I’ll stand my ground!” One should cultivate his feelings naturally, otherwise a lot of trouble might occur in his life.

 

 

Fig.3

 

It is phrenologically proven that when one reveals firmness F (Т), the reverent R (Б) or the religious feelings are well developed, while the reason is not well developed. Such a person is a fanatic, whom you cannot persuade to believe anything else. When a notion gets into his head, nothing can make him change it. Try as you might, you won’t make him renounce his convictions. Only death can reform such a person. When you withstand an idea, you should consider your motives and your incentives, as well as how you can benefit from it. A point that deserves attention is the influence all these forces have on the personality. When one builds up firmness, his nails change their shape. They become wider. If you observe people whose nails are wide, you will see how tough they can be. People who are cowardly and too cautious have small, curved nails. On the other hand, a healthy blood circulation affects the nails. If you want to check your blood circulation, note whether you have a white crescent at the base of the nail. The bigger the crescent is, the better your circulation is. If this crescent is small or practically none, it means that your circulation is weak, so, you should practise breathing deeper. The shorter the nails are, the greater the destructiveness grows. Destructive people have short and wide nails. The shorter nails are indicative of stifled mental abilities and growing physical forces such as destructiveness. People having small, wide and short nails are irritable and cantankerous. So, any feeling affects the nails. Everything that is going on in you can be stored as information in your nails only within 180 days, as this is the time it takes the nail to be shed. The nail can tell about your condition during this period. Your nails should be smooth and round. If some roughness appears, it is indicative of some disharmony. You can study your character by your nails. They can be the best mirrors, and if you look at it every day, you will know what you are missing. If a nail happens to flake out, you should try to find out the reason for this. You will find out that certain changes in your nails have come as a result of the development of some mental skills, or moral strength. So, as students of the Occult you will use your nails as a kind of tool, or a manual that can help your self-education. If you are not ready, you will fear Life. That’s why you are not expected to know much. For instance, you might look at your nail, see something unusual, showing that there is something wrong with you, and if you do not know how to read that sign, you will get frightened. Why? - Because you do not know how to fix it. Consequently, you need knowledge.

 

How can you get rid of your fears? I divide fear into three categories: physical fear, a fear of the emotions and the mind, and moral fear. When a person is morally afraid, he keeps thinking about whether he will be admitted to God’s Kingdom, or not. When one is mentally afraid and when the fear is related to emotions, he fears that he won’t accomplish what is necessary for one’s mental and emotional growth. When the fear is physical, one fears his shadow. Such a person can be compared to the hare, which took a pistol and said, ”I’ll show everybody how brave I am!” At this point something moved, the hare got startled, threw the pistol aside, and hid in the shrubs. The hare is cowardly by nature, so his consciousness does not work in such cases. Then it came back, picked up the pistol and said, ”I’ll show you how firm and brave I am.” But, again, he heard some noise, threw the pistol away and took to its heels. One can make plenty of various promises, but if he does not have the skills developed, he forgets about his promises and breaks them. Now, I can see that some of you have the same weakness as the hare. They join the Occult School, stay here for a while, and then they say, ”This is not for us, we are young, so we’ll opt for something else.” They throw the pistol and run away. What will they choose? – The same as everybody else will. Then what? – Forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years later, you will be carried to the cemetery, where you will find out that all philosophers, learned or ignorant, rich or poor people have resolved the main issue in Life equally well. They all have a cross or a tombstone above their heads, on which, if the deceased was old, the inscription would read, “Here lies an eighty-year-old man, who died at an old age.” Or if the deceased was young, the inscription would read, “Here lies a young person, who died too young to taste the benefits of Life”. This is what the living people would write. For the student of the Occult, there are things more meaningful than Life, and more important than science itself. Modern science does not exhaust the point in Life; it is just a means to achieve a loftier aim. Apostle Paul says that partly we know, and partly we think.

 

 

Fig 4

 

Let’s say that the small circle C represents a living individual. At first, the individual’s consciousness is at the first degree, so it has not revealed itself yet, but is planning to reveal itself. Once it has started to reveal, the individual starts making some moves and the consciousness goes to the second degree (С²). How many directions will it take? – It will take two directions, forming plane D (Д). Has consciousness С² acquired something in this move? – Yes, it has acquired something, and it is the third degree, where it becomes С^3; it has not benefited yet, the benefits will come later. I will illustrate this with the following example. Imagine that this plane D is a field ploughed and planted with seeds. At the first stage consciousness C has planned to reveal and decided to buy this field. At the second stage the consciousness ploughs and plants it, thus going from C to С² – it has acquired something. At the third stage what has been planted starts coming out and growing, so consciousness С² goes into consciousness С³ - it acquires something, although it does not reap the fruit. The benefits can be seen in the next stages С⁴, С⁵ etc. In the same way, you will be able to make out to what extent your feelings and abilities have developed. For example, you will be able to define how religious you are. If the religious feeling for a person is a line 10 cm long, and for another person the line is 9cm long, and for somebody else the line is 8cm long, do you think that the religious views of these people are the same? – Of course, not.

 

You will say that the mental abilities derive from the moral or spiritual feelings in man. So, when a feeling arises, man starts thinking. Such a feeling is an urge to God. When one separates from God, then he starts thinking of God correctly. Why can’t one think of oneself? When can one think of oneself? When one leaves his body, he will be able to think better of himself, and will know himself better. Therefore, to be able to think of someone, we should distance ourselves and change the perspective. When speaking about God, by God in the philosophical sense I mean thinking. To believe in God one has to think. Those who think can believe in God. Anyone thinking can believe in God. Those who do not think do not believe in God. This is how the idea of God makes sense. According to the modern philosophical concept thinking of God hinders the very process of thinking. So they say, ”You shouldn’t think of God!” This is a materialistic concept. Some perceive God as an enormous creature. God creates all forms, but He has no form whatsoever. In fact, if you try to perceive God as an enormous creature, or as a gigantic sun, you will fail to encompass Him, and, naturally you will lose heart and won’t be able to think. If you have such a notion of God, then it can really hinder your thinking. Some say, “Why should God care about me?” The moment you say this, you stop thinking.

 

From here we can draw the following inference. All great ideas in Life that take a huge form hinder your development. The ideas you have should not take huge forms, as this is in accordance with Nature itself. Take the acorn, for example; what is its ratio to the weight of the whole century-old oak tree? This small acorn can carry in itself the whole oak tree. You can enjoy it, carry it in your pocket and touch it – it has all the characteristics of the oak. But can you carry in your pocket the whole oak tree? – Well, you can’t.

 

Therefore, when you want to examine some ideas in their essence, you should study them while they are growing. And when you want to study the power they have, you should examine them as seeds. You can imagine the oak as a small acorn, which gradually grows and then shrinks. This is a sequence of images. You can trace all the stages of the acorn’s growth into an oak in your mind and then trace its transformation back into an acorn. So, there is nothing bigger in this world than God and nothing smaller than God is. God exists in the two extremes: there is nothing bigger and nothing smaller than God. Then how can you understand God? Your ideas of the small things are associated with weakness. In fact, in practice, small things are weak in material life. However, it is different when it comes to spiritual life. Take a small lighter as an example. It is true that it is small, but if you put this tiny spark under a ton of some inflammable substance, what will this lighter produce? Here, it will transfer its energy to the substance, thus causing a grandiose explosion. The tiny spark in this case produces a lot, while a big, heavy stone thrown at the substance will cause nothing. Therefore, the tiny, microscopic things in this world are the strong ones. So, the point in Life is not in the great ideas, but in the small ones, only we have to transform the matter, make it more flexible and fit for work.

 

Very often you halt at an idea, saying, “I am not going to think this over.” Of course, you shouldn’t, because it is radium. Do you think that if you had ten grams of radium, you would stay in this room? Do you think that if there were fifty grams of radium in Sofia, the residents would stay in town and not run away? The whole town would blow up. The sunshine also contains radioactive power. There are a number of transformers in space through which the sunshine passes and changes so that it falls on objects as beneficial warmth and light.

 

If the sunshine were accepted in its original form the way it comes directly from the sun, it would melt everything that came its way. Do not think that the Sun is very lenient to you! I will tell you a Hindu legend to see how lenient the Sun can be. Hindu people imagined the Sun as a place inhabited by many living creatures, most of whom were girls. Only the Sun was a boy. As He was the only elder brother, He was in the habit of bullying His sisters. One day His mother, who wanted to prevent His sisters from being beaten, placed the Sun in the centre and arranged for His sisters to live and orbit round him in the periphery. This is how His circular shape was formed. The Sun sent His sisters light, quavering with discontent, as He could not beat them any longer. So, it beat them through His light and from these vibrations the whole Earth can benefit today. So you should remember that the tiny, microscopic ideas are the strong ones. You should keep them, so that you will be strong, too.

 

Now I would like to ask you the following question: Is there anything greater in Life beyond God, beyond Love, beyond Wisdom and Beyond Truth? Yes, there is. Then, what is greater than Love? – Life is. Life is the result of Love. What is greater than Wisdom? - Knowledge is. What is greater than Truth? - Freedom is. Keep this to yourself.

 

Love and Life are not one and the same thing. Two processes are constantly going on in Life. One is the process of destruction, and the other is the process of creation. These two processes do not exist in Love. Love is something pure and ideal. There is no differentiation in it, while such a differentiation exists in Life. In such a case, if we say that Life and Love are the same, we won’t be able to explain the controversies that stand out. Love is Beyond Life, and Life is just a partial, temporary manifestation of Love. On the other hand, Knowledge is a manifestation only of Wisdom.

 

Wisdom is more than knowledge. It is absolute. It has no room for misconceptions or theories. Freedom is a manifestation of Truth, but Truth is absolute – it has no room for restrictions or slavery. Freedom in itself has some restrictions, because any human aspiration for freedom shows that man has his restrictions.

 

Then I would like to ask you if you could live without Love. Yes, we can. You will have Life without Love, but you will suffer. Can you live without Wisdom? - Yes, we can. You can have some knowledge without Wisdom, though you will act foolishly. Can you live without Truth? – Yes, we can. You will have freedom without Truth, but you will be enslaved. Therefore, when you act as individuals, deciding to live for yourselves, you deny Love, Wisdom and Truth. Sometimes one can afford oneself such a gesture, but when the results come, one should not be cross. When you suffer, you should say, ”It is my fault, because I betrayed Love.” When you suffer, you should say, ”It‘s my fault, because I gave up Wisdom.” When you suffer, you should say, ”It’s my fault for all these restriction to occur, because I denied Truth.” You may be free, but what freedom can it be if you have to fight for it armed with a revolver and a rifle? You can walk along the street, but always wary of the danger of being robbed or stalked. Can this be Freedom?

 

You, as students of the Occult School when walking along the streets, ask yourselves, ”Am I on the right tack? What if I got lost? What will my life be?” All these are negations. These negations can be found in all philosophical systems. They are a transitional stage of human Life. Young people face the danger of sinking into pessimism. I can compare young people to sponges. They are as light as sponges and when put in water they absorb it, but when taken out of the water they let it go. When you enter the water, you might think that you have expanded into something big, but when pressed, you become as light as you were before. This is not youth. The sponge comes to show that one has to live on small things and should not covet. Things could be small, but pure. If the blackboard is cleaned with a sponge which is too wet, then you can‘t write on the blackboard. The sponge shouldn’t be too soaked. It has to be neither too wet, nor too dry. The young person has to be flexible. An old man is like a stone. Whatever you do, an old man remains as he is. While with the young person, it is possible to clean a blackboard, at least. An old person can be used to build a house, but in such a house people will die.

 

What I am saying refers only to accomplished people. I am not speaking to children. You have all graduated from university – you have graduated from the great university. When Christ spoke to Nicodemus, telling him that if he was not reborn, he would not be admitted to God’s Kingdom, Nicodemus asked Him, ”How can an old man be reborn?” Christ told him, “You are an Israeli teacher[A1] . How come you do not know such elementary things?”

 

Now I would like to ask you how much is 5 х 5? (– 25). I can question this result and say that 5 х 5 = 7. I could prove this mathematically, through formulas but I am pressed for time. This process is true in Nature, because it has the final results as its aim. In this case 5 х 5 = 7. Why? The numbers 5 and 2 are living beings and both are bases, while 7 is an acid. Therefore, you can’t do anything with 25, because the two figures 2 and 5 are two bases, and two bases can’t make anything. In this case, if you plant 25 seeds, you will get nothing. Why does 5 multiplied by itself give 25? It is accepted as an axiom, and though it can’t be proved, it is taken for granted. Such a reflection leads to sophistry. 7. On the other hand, 7 includes 2 and 5. What are the characteristics of this number?

 

Let’s take the following numbers:

 

 

Fig.5

 

 

 

By the first line we write the numbers from 1 to 9, and by the second line we write the numbers from 10 to 18, etc. When we add the separate figures of the numbers after the first line, we get the numbers above, namely:

 

 

 

10 = 1 + 0 = 1;                       13 = 1 + 3 = 4;

 

11 = 1 + 1 = 2;                       14 = 1 + 4 = 5;

 

12 = 1 + 2 = 3;                       15 = 1 + 5 = 6;

 

 

 

16 = 1 + 6 = 7;                      19 = 1 + 9 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1;

 

17 = 1 + 7 = 8;                      20 = 2 + 0 = 2;

 

18 = 1 + 9 = 10;         21 = 2 + 1 = 3...

 

 

 

So, the number 1 is the creative power, an acid; 2 is a base, and 3 is the result. Therefore, 3 in Nature stands for a complete process. The triangle is a complete process, a result of some work accomplished. The numbers 1 and 2 have merged, to give a complete result. The numbers 4, 5 and 6 are from the second category: 4 is an acid, 5 is a base, and 6 is the result. The numbers 7, 8 and 9 are from the third category: 7 is an acid, 8 is a base, and 9 is the result. Then the numbers 3, 6, and 9 fall into one category; 2, 5 and 8 fall into a different category –bases; 1, 4, and 7 are acids. As you can see there is diversity among numbers. They are forces that have transformed from one state into another. 1 is the first manifestation of these forces, 4 is the second manifestation, and 7 is the third manifestation. Such a transformation occurs in the human mind as well. Matter, through which consciousness passed, used to be thinner, then it became denser and the deeper consciousness went, the denser and denser matter grew, until finally the existing forms came into being.

 

Now, one unsolved problem stays in your minds. The beauty in Life can be found in the unsolved ideas. A field that is not planted with seeds has a future, while a field already planted has worn out. The issues resolved are over now, and what is ahead is the future basis, the field on which we are going to work. Do not worry when certain problems stay unresolved. The time to do this will come.

 

So, 5 х 5 = 25 = 7. Examine this from all sides and decide whether it can be correct or not. There are terms on which it can be true, but certainly not always.

 

What does it mean when in math a number is multiplied by itself? Do you think that a seed can be multiplied by itself? In order to multiply the seed it is necessary that man, the soil, the sun, the water, and the air should participate. They are the formulas that participate in work. Therefore, when we say that 5 х 5 = 25, we should consider all the elements involved in multiplication. On what conditions does 5 х 5 = 25? The table of Pythagoras shows that 25 comes as a result of certain conditions. So, we should consider the reasonability of the human spirit, which participates in the multiplication. Thus, 5 х 5 = 25 shows all the conditions, acting at a point, so that 5 could turn into 25.

 

 

Reflection

 

- Only the light way of Wisdom leads to Truth

 

- It gives us constant Mirth and Joy.

 

 

 

 

 [A1][a rabbi]