1923_12_23 DIRECTIONS. IMAGES

[Ani]

Note 2p

 

DIRECTIONS. IMAGES

 

 

 

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

 

23^rd December, 1923, Sofia

 

 

Only the light way to Wisdom leads to Truth

 

It gives us constant Mirth and Joy

 

 

 

Reflection

 

 

 

A summary on the works: “The benefits from wealth and poverty” was read.

 

Several works on the topic “The differences between the moral and the spiritual person” were read.

 

For next time: Topic Nr13: The origin of morals”.

 

 

 

Do you think that a moral person can be spiritual? – Yes, he can. Can a spiritual person be moral? Yes, he can. Who do you rate higher? – The spiritual one.

 

Exercise: The right hand rises upwards, goes forward and reaches the shoulder with the fingers slightly folded. Then you raise the arm with a palm turned downwards. Stretch your arm as much as you can. Move your arm slightly down to the left and then up to the right. Move it in a circle a few times. Then raise your right arm aside and move it in a circle up and down a few times.

 

Now, take your seats and start with your right arm – to the left, forward in front of your chest, and to the left. Then to the right again, folded at the elbow in the shape of a circle. The arm goes in front of the face, to the left, forward and then, turn it to the right in a semi-circle. Finally, put your hands on the table.

 

Straighten your bodies! Put your left arm forward, then to the left and next to the right. Raise your left arm to the right and the right arm to the left. Keep them well stretched. Raise your arms aside and then fold them, the right one on top of the other. Do this a couple of times, changing the hands – first the right one on top, next the left one.

 

Bring the fingers of both hands to meet in front of the face, keeping them in a horizontal position with your palms looking down. Move your hands up and down, in a circle but always in front of the face.

 

Now you should practise breathing. Breathe in while the hands are in front of your chest and the fingers touching up, then making a circle. You should breathe out while the hands are going down in front of the chest.

 

Move your hands aside, then bring them together in front of the face with the fingers touching and the palms down.

 

Tonight I am going to speak on directions and images. Let’s say you have a unit. What does a unit in mathematics mean? What do you, the mathematicians, mean by a unit? What’s the main idea? (-The unit is an immeasurable number). What do you mean by Two? (-Two is a consecutive number or two units. All the remaining numbers are cardinal units). Therefore, the unit is a measure. Let’s say that the metre is a unit of measurement. Is this unit dividable? Yes, it is. Into how much? – Into ten or a hundred equal parts. Each of these parts can be divided into ten more parts. So, a metre has a hundred centimetres and a thousand millimetres. And here is where scientists stop. According to this concept, can the unit of measurement be divided into smaller parts? (-In mathematics there is a distinction between a number and a quantity. Quantities are measurable, while numbers, as they are considered to be abstract notions, are immeasurable. A number itself is a concept and is used as a unit of measuring quantities. A number cannot be measured, while a quantity can). Then, from a purely mathematical point of view, what distinguishes the smallest quantity? – That it cannot be divided. (Mathematics assumes that the smallest quantity is zero because it cannot be measured, or has zero measurement).

 

Naturally, if we deal with bare figures, the matter is settled; however, if we have two, three, or more sand or wheat grains, it is a different matter. Let’s say we have a sand grain and a wheat grain of equal weight. You might ask what distinguishes them. – The wheat grain has a specific force expanding it from the inside outwards. If you plant this seed, when it grows and propagates, will the newborn seed be bigger than the planted one? Under certain conditions it can grow bigger or smaller. If you pick out the best seed and plant it in the richest soil, it will grow and give a better crop than the previous one. Next time it will be even bigger, etc. If we carry on this way, it might become as big as an egg, naturally, under selection. Only a reasonable person can achieve this. One can expand the wheat grain because it contains strength, while the sand grain hasn’t got the power.

 

Now, let’s say we have a crystal of some salt, as big as a seed. This crystal differs in that it can be dissolved in water, and if the water evaporates, you will have the same crystal as before. The question is: When would it be possible to get two crystals if you dissolved one crystal in the water that later evaporated? We are not going to give a definite answer now, but we will study the problem. What goes on in the wheat grain is multiplication. Some occultists think the crystals can multiply, too. They believe that gold does not form in Nature the way most scientists claim. They say that gold in the Earth grows, develops and multiplies the way apple seeds do. Therefore, they refer to the grains of precious metals as fruit. However, this is their specific terminology.

 

So, in order to be able to work with certain ideas, you need to have a clear notion formed in your mind. Do you know what a clear notion is? You can have a clear notion of the seed only if you have handled it, if it has come out under your guidance, if you have gathered the crops and tasted the fruit more than once. You will have a clearer notion if you communicate with it. Is communication between a seed and a person possible? Theoretically it is possible, but how many are the people on Earth capable of communicating with a wheat grain? If you launched the idea that you can do it, everybody would find you insane and say, “Tell me another!” It is true that it is impossible to communicate with a wheat grain. Yet do you think that it is possible to communicate with a person whose heart is overwhelmed by inconsolable grief? Can you attract his attention, or ever strike up a conversation with him? Let’s say that you face a person who is hungry. The only thing he can think about is food – nothing else could interest him. Can you talk with such a person about nice things? Whatever you speak about, nothing will interest him unless it is bread. What can interest a thirsty man? – Water. What can interest a person thirsty for knowledge? – Science. It is psychologically proven that the soul aspires after something that can be satisfied only with a main idea. This idea is alive. Watch yourselves. You all happen to undergo a crisis and to be mentally indisposed. Imagine that at such a point someone spoke to you about the wheat grain. What would you do? You would say, “I don’t care about this unit – the grain.” You would be right. At this point you are interested in other units, other stuff. For example, one could be interested in wheat grains, while another might be interested in diamond grains, yet another in something completely different. However, everyone is interested in one main idea, which is the object of his mind. Hence, every idea that exists in this world must have an object. Let me explain what I mean. Let’s take anger. Any anger without an object is harmful to man. Anger needs to have an object so that it can transform in it. If you get angry without an object, it means that you have no good reason to get angry, so you’d better control your temper. When I say not to get angry, I mean, do not lose your temper without an object or reason. When you get angry you should know why and whom you are angry with. You are all acquainted with Molliere’s “L’Avare”: he gets robbed, so he yells angrily and is suspicious of everybody. They ask him, “Who robbed you?” To which he answers, “The whole world robbed me!” He finds everybody guilty, but everybody can’t be guilty at the same time. Two, three, four, or more people can’t be to blame at one and the same time. If there is someone who has harmed you, it can’t be two people. Such is the law: It is impossible for two people to harm you. Only one person can. From a purely occult point of view, evil can come out of one principle only.

 

Now we are speaking of evil, but we should be clear about what evil is. For instance, you often speak about reality, although you don’t know what reality is. This morning I defined in my lecture what reality is. Reality is what connects all its parts in one complete whole, giving them room for development. Reality is always present in its parts. If it is not present in its parts, then it is not reality. Therefore, we all are a unit or a part, because the unit can comprise its own elements or smaller units. The metre, for example, is a basic unit of measurement, but it is not a unit of measurement of Nature. The French have estimated that the metre is one ten-millionth part of the world meridian, but it’s not true. The French mathematicians should reassess this because the earth expands every year. Many years have passed since this measurement was taken. Therefore, the French need to reform the metre after making new measurements. So, the metre is a conventional unit of measurement, although other basic units exist in Nature. For the time being, we make use of the artificial units. They are not bad, but we can’t solve the great problems in Life through them.

 

So, there are problems the individual should solve by oneself, though there are common problems we have to solve together. For instance, sometimes you are displeased and grumpy. You don’t know why you feel so, but when somebody approaches you, you lose your temper. This is a psychological condition. What has caused it? You should try to find out.

 

Someone comes to you and asks, “What’s the matter with you?” Go out! Can’t you understand I’m not OK?” “Why?” “It’s none of your business!” And then you say, “It’s his fault. He came to me and upset me even more!” However, it happens that no sooner has the first visitor left than a new one comes and you say, “Go out! I don’t feel well. Look how that man upset me.” Then comes another and another until, finally, a cheerful friend of yours comes and gives you a note. You read the note and all your indisposition goes away. You cheer up. Why? – This friend of yours has found your most sensitive spot. It’s so sensitive that the lightest touch can make you jump for joy.

 

 

Fig.1

 

You will ask me what makes a person indisposed. Any indisposition comes when the bond with God is severed. I find indisposition comes as a result of a psychological opposite. Indisposition, sorrow, and discontent come as a result of disharmony between two minds united as a whole but going in opposite directions. Take as an example the human mind and the human heart. Let’s say that quantity A is the mind and quantity B is the heart. If the mind and the heart are moving in two opposite directions, a kind of confusion or indisposition occurs in the person, in the soul, in man’s nature. Then you will try to make either your mind or your heart change direction. The mind moves in direction T, and the heart in direction D. How will they change directions now? How will you reconcile your heart with your mind? –(You will merge their directions.) Well, when you merge them you will make the way TD. What will you gain? (-Balance, agreement.) Yet you can’t reach agreement. You just form a battle zone. In this way you have curbed evil. In this circle a war is waged.

 

Let’s come to what is real. If we assume that there is a disagreement between the mind and the heart, how will you reconcile your mind with your heart? Imagine the following situation: On the one hand, the mind wants to study, you are eager to go abroad and study there, on the other hand, your mother is so ill that nobody else can replace you, so you will have to stay and take care of her. How will you bring these two opposites together? Should you give up studying abroad? – No. What should you do then? (- Let’s wait until your mother gets better.)

 

Yes, but the problem now is half solved. Imagine now your mother loved you so much that she wouldn’t let you go abroad. At first, she gives her illness as an excuse, but when she gets better, she doesn’t let you go and says, ”You’ll stay here. You might get ill if you go there, or something might happen to you.” What will you do if you love her? – (You are going to take her with you.) This is not a solution. Another predicament comes your way. Your father is alive and at work, so he doesn’t let your mother go with you abroad. (- Let’s take him, too.) Well, it is impossible for him to come, so he says, “Are you really going to leave me alone?” He lets you go, while your mother doesn’t. What’s the most sensible thing to do now? To take your mother with you after you convince your father to let her go, or convince your mother to stay with your father? (-The mother should stay with the father.)

 

Another situation: Imagine you are a young person but so weak of will that you could easily fail when abroad. In such a case it would be better if your mother came with you. If your father is a clever man, he should let her come with you. If you are strong enough in personality, then the mother should stay with the father. So, who connects the father and the mother? – (Children.) Who connects the father and the children? – (The Mother.) Hence, the mother stands for what is real. It is not the father who makes the home. The mother does. When the father leaves, the mother can take care of the house, whereas if the mother leaves, the father is not capable of sustaining the household. The only thing he can do is find another mother. A mother and a father are relative quantities.

 

Here is another issue, concerning you personally. Let’s say that someone wants to have some fun here, in this world. It is the inferior mind in man that demands this. When the Spirit in a human being demands a pure, chaste and lofty life, then there is an idea in it. The mind is learned, but it wants to go abroad and study there, to try out everything in the world, to enjoy itself. Should the Spirit then, under these conditions, let the mind go alone? What is the Spirit – a man or a woman, a mother or a father? (- A mother.) So, there is a conflict between the Spirit and the flesh. The Spirit tells the flesh, “You can’t go abroad without me. If I don’t join you, you’ll fail.”

 

Therefore, you should bear in mind one basic idea. Which one? (- To listen to our Spirit, our mother.) The basic idea, with which Life begins, the basic idea, which awakens the human mind and with which one starts working on the self, is the unit. The unit is the primary concept that gives impetus to the mind, the heart and the will. It is this primary thought that we should cherish. Why? Because not all people measure their inner world equally. Do not think that God has the same attitude to all people, otherwise you will be wrong. God as a basic idea has a different attitude to all people descending from Him.

 

God treats differently any two human beings - He has a special attitude towards either sensible human being. The attitude He has to a person is very special. He cannot have the same attitude to somebody else. What makes people different is exactly this specific attitude coming from the primary essence, which is God. This primary essence distinguishes the person and gives him/her the urge to grow and develop. It is the basic idea that you all should stick to. If you betray the basic idea, you will enter the realm of shadows and darkness. This is how you can go astray. People always make mistakes when they relinquish this basic idea. Do not give up your primary concept, and by all means stick to it. Anyone who sticks to it will be brave and determined.

 

Sometimes you feel dejected. Why? – Because you do not stick to your basic idea. My lecture now and my attitude to your basic idea aim at the following: I’d like to create the conditions under which your basic idea can develop. However, if you do not treat these conditions with due care, you might arrive at unfavourable results. Why? – Imagine I foresaw that you are eager to build a house on some hill. I know that this place will be flooded and your house may be damaged. What do I do? I start planting trees so that I can protect the soil from the torrential rains. Imagine now me planting a tree and you uprooting it. Then I plant another, and you root it out again. My question is: Can your idea develop? – No, it will be spoiled. The flood will have devastated the whole region. This is what the modern critical mind is. It cannot solve anything; it can only reject. You ask, “Is this a good thing?” It answers, “No, it’s bad”. Well, what is good in this world? At a point when you have to express an opinion, do not say that such is the basic law. On the grounds of the great Divine Teaching, if you find some fault in yourself, do not try to find another fault that can help you justify the first one. Each mistake or fault you have is a shadow, a unit. I indicate the mistakes with a minus unit (-1). The things that are done well I give a plus and indicate them as (+1). So, when you find some fault, do not try to find another. Instead, you should try to find out what has caused the first wrongdoing and what virtue corresponds to it.

 

Some of you often tell me, “I am anger prone. I can’t keep my temper. What should I do?” You all feel angry and you can’t restrain yourselves. Now you are looking for some remedy, a kind of panacea for anger. So, you are seething with anger – don’t think that it is a bad thing. Seething is indicative of instability. It shows that there are some acids in you, which cause the seething. First, you should understand the law of prevention. You should isolate all the acids from yourselves, put them under the control of your will, or keep your will so alert that it can keep the acids away from you. It is you who should deal with them and not vice versa.

 

 How do you remedy your anger? You don’t remedy it. You flip your lid to see what this “friend” is doing there. Who actually raises the lid? – The sin does. You flip the lid and your anger is refuelled. Then you put the lid back. No, this is not the way to remedy your anger. Sometimes you lose your temper and you say, “I’ll never forgive this fellow.” Yet you feel a kind of softness, a desire to transform this state of fury into a more elevated state of mind. What should you do? Do this person a favour – this is what I call healing anger. What causes anger? It comes as a result of an unsatisfied desire. I call anger a prematurely born child of five or six months. All people feel angry when a certain idea or thought fails to fulfill. Then one either gets angry, or gets sad. Sadness is just a stage of anger. Sometimes anger can relieve sadness, and sometimes it is sadness that can comfort anger. First, when you get angry, you will turn anger into sadness, and then, mathematically, you will find a small joy between these two sorrows. There is a current C hidden between the small sadness A and the other sadness B. You will find this inner current of Joy. Second, turn your anger into sadness and then, the sadness into Joy.

 

 

Fig.2

 

 

 

You are going to ask me if this is possible. I’ll give you the following example. Imagine you have a friend, whom you dearly love. He is very kind and very clever, but he wants to try you out. You are a student at some university and your father has sent you ten thousand levs, which you have locked in your chest. Your friend finds the key and takes the money. What would you do on seeing that the money is missing? First, you will experience fear, then sorrow, and, finally indignation and anger. These three emotions – fear, sorrow, and anger stand out simultaneously. What happens, in fact? This friend of yours comes and you tell him, “Someone has stolen my money, I don’t know who?” Your friend says, “I did it.” “No, you are kidding.” “No it was I who did it.” “But how?” “I stole your money and gave it away.” Imagine you found out that it was your friend who took the money and gave it away to people. I’d like to ask you whether you would change you friendly attitude to him because of the ten thousand levs. No, you wouldn’t. Well, if you change you attitude, your deed will be marked as –1, and if you don’t change it, it will be marked as +1. So, if you betray you friend, you have a negative quantity with which you need to work – you no longer trust him. This friend of yours comes back to you a few days later and says, “I’m sorry, I am aware of my fault and I am giving you back twelve instead of ten thousand levs. I shouldn’t have taken your money.” What will happen to you? Your situation will get better, but your attitude towards your friend will get worse.

 

Secret prayer

 

Only the light way to Wisdom leads to Truth.

 

It gives us constant Mirth and Joy.