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1924_01_20 ACQUISITIONS OF THE MIND


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ACQUISITIONS OF THE MIND

 

14th lecture given by the Master to the Youth Occult Class

20th January, 1924, SofiaOnly the light way to Wisdom leads to Truth.

It gives us constant Mirth and Joy.

 

A summary on the topics: “The difference between being industrious and diligent” was read.

 

Several works on the topic: “The difference between being economical and frugal’’ were read.

 

For next time – topic Nr 16: “The benefits from imagination”.When we speak of being economical and frugal, we mean two human attributes. Phrenologically, frugal people have fingers that are thick and short at the base. An economical person is neat and orderly. The frugal person never runs out of anything, such a person is rich as he is led by his instinct to squirrel. The squirrel is frugal. If you throw it some corn, it will gather it. First, it will eat some grains, and then, it will store the rest. It stores everything it comes across – walnuts, hazelnuts, whatever. While, if you give a hen some corn, it will peck some grains and will scatter the rest. The hen knows no frugality; it doesn’t think of tomorrow.

 

Economical people, on the contrary, have fingers thin at the base. The economical person is not guided by the same considerations as the frugal one, who takes great pleasure in saving money. The economical person will allocate certain sums of money on what he needs and on what he can afford, and then he will act freely. Economy is a mental quality. The economical person can be a statesman or a financier; generally, he is a clever person. When he is saving something, his mind is involved.

 

Frugality is a natural human instinct. People who have it as a strong inclination can have their arms lengthened. And what are the people who have longer arms? All thieves have longer arms, but, certainly, this rule has its exceptions. When? – When a person has a strong conscience. So, when frugality is well developed and the conscience is under developed, frugality can turn into a kind of inner blackmailing and the person becomes a thief. Therefore, frugality is the basis of Life, yet one must be aware that what should be saved and economised sensibly is energy. The digestive system with frugal people is perfectly developed; they have a well-developed corporation. A person without a well-developed digestive system cannot be frugal. Frugality comes as a result of greed and pursuit of wealth. The desire to get rich is related to the mental and thought processes, thus turning into economy, i.e. it assumes a mental character. Frugality is a natural impulse, while economy is mentally based.

 

You, young people, should be wary of many vices. By young I mean a person who has plenty. If this bounty is not properly utilised, it can turn into a surplus. The surplus causes decay, decay causes diseases, which in turn hinder human progress and lead to the degeneration of the human race.

 

Although diseases act as a kind of natural regulator of these energies, one can always come to a hitch. A kind of painful condition can appear caused by disharmony between the individual’s physical body and the ethereal counterpart, or between the individual’s powers and his Astral body.

 

1924-01-20-19_fig1.png

 

Fig. 1

 

The individual has two systems: the one, which I call dynamic©, is up in the head, and the other is the sympathetic nervous system (3), where the roots of Life are situated. If you examine the spinal column, you will see that it looks like a tree. The two systems differ – one is connected with the Sun ©, and the other is connected with the Earth (3). Whether you are a good person does not depend only on your connection with the Sun, just as the bad features you have are not attributed entirely to your connection with the Earth. Generally, the Sun has a beneficial effect on you. The earth, just like any living creature, has its own horoscope, following its course of Life. The course of the Earth is not as smooth as it used to be. Sometimes the Earth goes through certain areas in space, which affect it negatively. Then certain protuberances occur. People are often infected by these influences of the Earth, which give rise to various epidemics. Millions of people can die as a result. Many theories about these social and scientific phenomena exist, but we are not going to deal with them now. The occult teaching maintains that the Earth’s influences on people millions of years ago were so harmful that humanity was threatened with extinction. As a result, the Moon came into existence. The occultists say that the human body has some organs, where disharmonious energies are stored. These energies are very destructive and are the reason for the low tides. The influence of the Moon is in extracting these destructive energies from man. The way the Moon changes accounts for the changes of state with some sleepwalkers. Watch how you feel during full moon and what your state of mind is during a crescent moon. Sometimes, when you feel low or dejected, you should pay attention to the stage of the Moon. Intelligent as you are, you are expected to carry out scientific observations. You often say, “I don’t feel well today.” Trace the reasons for your indisposition – whether they are in you, in the surroundings, or in Nature itself. When you pinpoint the reasons, you will be able to solve the problem. If Nature counteracts in some respects, it will show you a way out. If it causes some disease, it will also show you how to cure it; it will show you a way to be saved.

 

I think that you, young people, are very rich. Rich people believe that they have the right to waste their wealth. That’s true, but they would have the right to waste it, as long as they were clever. Here comes the question whether you know how to waste your energy. Let us assume that some of you want to continue their studies at university. You study for a semester or two, and then you say, “I could easily do without studying.” You drop university and you say, “I’m going to become a teacher! I’m going to enlighten people.” So, you become a teacher, but a year or two later you quit teaching. Then, you say, “I’m going to become a merchant!” You go in for trade, but four or five years later you give it up. You take up some other business or trade, but you give it up too. In the end, people say that you’ve tried everything. You have become a person of encyclopaedic knowledge. Not really. Those who try out everything, learn nothing. Some would say. “Let’s try out everything in life!” Do you know what it means? A person who tries out anything will become like that gypsy woman, whose child got ill and asked, “Mother, give me some milk!” “Tomorrow, sweetie, we’ll buy some tomorrow.” But she bought nothing. The kid wanted many things, but ate nothing until, finally, he died. The gypsy said, “At least the poor kid tried everything.”

 

Similarly, modern people, who waste all their energy, end up saying, “At least we learned something.” What exactly have you learned? I have seen many who, after experiencing some hardship, say, “I know now what poverty is.” But if you give them some money, you will see that they know no better. It’s the same old story. Therefore, the knowledge you are acquiring now should have a definite goal. I don’t mean that you should be single-minded, but you should be consistent. For instance, if you have a flair for poetry, write a few lines, but such that should be remembered. It is not enough to say something and let it go. You should have it inscribed both in your mind and heart. Otherwise, writing something you are going to forget is a waste of your energy. One should be the first to benefit from what he has created – such is the Divine Law. Some will say, “Shouldn’t we live for our nearest and dearest?” Your own self is your nearest and dearest. I should be the first to benefit from the knowledge I get, so that I can see what it can give me and only after trying it out and seeing the results, should I apply it to my relatives and friends. It makes sense that I should apply the knowledge to myself.

 

An issue of prime importance in the Occult Teaching is how one should learn to focus. All modern societies can focus. While studying, one can concentrate, but there are laws one needs to know to do this properly. Let’s say that your mind’s eye is developing under the influence of the Moon. At this point you decide to write something. However, after you have written a poem, the Moon affects you so that you mount the high horse and overestimate yourself – you start believing that you are a first-class poet. Yet to think up a plan and carry it out are two thoroughly different stages in life. Nature never likes tackling grandiose plans; it handles only small quantities. It took Nature millions of years to create these rocks and huge mountains out of minute microscopic creatures. What patience it has! Perhaps, some of you are eager to excel quickly. They set out, but the first impediments that come their way frustrate them and make them think that if they opted for something else, their life would be easier.

 

What makes life easy? Let’s take examples from Nature. Nature, for instance, created the human body. But how? Was it easy? – No, it was through the efforts of time. So, today, we say, “The human body is perfect.” However, the body itself is not perfect. It cannot stand upright without human will. What keeps the body upright, what gives it a driving force to move and act is human will. So, everything needs an effort, some work, and not the easy way. There is a spiral, circular movement in the human brain. When this movement is performed properly, one thinks well and walks well without lurching or staggering. Check this to prove it. If while walking along the street, you come to think of an adversary and you start quarrelling with him over what wrong he has done to you, you won’t make ten or twenty steps before you trip and fall. Why? - You have interrupted this circular current in your brain. This current can be interrupted for other reasons such as fear, hesitation, suspicion, etc. Doubt and suspicion are vices that stem from the simple fact that some friend of yours who has promised more than once to do you a favour, breaks his promise. Imagine that this friend of yours has made a promise to a dozen other people at the time he gave his word to you. Is it humanly possible to make a promise to twenty people and keep your word? No, it certainly isn’t. In this respect, young people often make many promises they can’t keep. They are obsessed with too many ideas. They remind me of those farmers who sometimes are foolish enough to plant a large field of 500-600 acres, but can’t find workers to gather the crops. At harvest time the fields stay uncropped and the wheat not reaped and wasted. One might have perfect plans and lofty ideas, but unless he has the potential to mobilise his skills, his plans and ideas remain undeveloped, and not reaped. If one has enough workers, i.e. enough skills and abilities, he should be able to harness them properly. Most of the active forces in you and in the world are negative. At a point you get inspired to do something, but why? Because your father keeps giving you money. You trust your heart, your mind, and your will, so you say, “I can achieve anything through hard work and diligence.” You also say, “I’m not afraid.” Why? – Because your parents stand behind you. But you are on false grounds. To trust yourself means to trust and have faith in the Divine that is imparted into in your heart, mind, and will. If you trust the Divine, no matter what difficulty or failure you face, you will be strong enough to say, “The great principle that guides the world will save me. It will throw me the lifeline.” Yes, it will, but when? – When you are properly connected with Nature. In this respect those who do not believe in God and are not initiated in this matter, but follow the principle, have better results than religious people. Very often believers, who are very sensitive, face the risk to think of themselves in a special way, and as a result, they become quite strange people.

 

Once I met a young Evangelist, who when arriving at the state of rebirth, became so exhilarated that he started regarding himself as omnipotent. He believed that nobody could confront him. One evening he went to Vitosha Mountain and called Satan, “Come and fight with me! I’m strong enough to win. I won’t give up.” However, hardly two years had passed, when Satan defeated him. So, evil exists in the form of sensible, intelligent creatures, who are real diplomats, acting through the forces of Nature. Sometimes they have a direct impact, and sometimes they act through the mind. When an occult class, like yours, is formed, you will have counteractive forces. You are already an open target in the battlefield. You will ask why this is so. The Black Brotherhood acts against all organisations for good and spiritual uplift in order to cause death and disruption among them. The dark forces will implant a negative idea with one, then with another so what will happen next? – You will be distracted by the surrounding world, you will lose faith in yourselves and in God, until you become totally controlled by them. In this respect, the modern Christian world is under the full control of these dark forces.

 

Let’s come back to the influence of the Moon. – It affects imagination. How can its influence be used positively? Let us assume that at a point you are in a melancholic mood. Use your imagination and conjure up a pretty picture, some nice future perspective. Try this: you are ill and dejected, it is winter now and you can’t go out for a walk, so imagine you are climbing a peak you know well because you’ve climbed it many times before. Try to experience the trip as vividly as if you were doing it now. Climb to the top and then descend it. You can go on such a trip every day. This effort of your mind will tone up your brain. When human thoughts and feelings are disharmonious, all the abilities and skills are blurred and a kind of inner darkness is formed. All colours around us disappear and we feel utterly isolated as if screened off from the entire universe. Then it seems that all sufferings are stored on us. Those who go along the way of Divine Growth will waste much of their energy, but this must be done sensibly.

 

Let us assume that two of you, no matter who, strike up a friendship. How can you define what friendship is? It is not a mere acquaintance. Friendship exists in Nature, too. Once you make someone a friend, you won’t forget him. A friendship formed at a younger age stays for a lifetime. People who can be good friends know a kind of inner language, which they speak. If you have one friend only, you will never lose courage or hope. Without a friend you will get frustrated. The law excludes any frustration or despair between two friends. It is impossible to have a friend and lose faith. Two poets, who were in their mid eighties met once. They sat in silence by the fireplace. Five hours later they got up, shook hands and one said to the other, “Thank you very much for the nice talk we had.” Although they spent those five hours in silence, it was an inner talk of soul mates. Do not think that when you remain silent you do not talk. One is capable of conversing even if silent. It is the desire you have to establish a positive atmosphere and help each other. I see that many of you are getting ill. This is due to being careless about your body. You waste too much nervous energy. I can also see in most of you nervous gestures, spasms, impatience and the like. You should control your muscles.

 

In order to be capable of controlling your muscles, you should try to strengthen your will. You need to do a series of exercises. Here is what you can do: You should sit quietly and calmly and ask a friend to jab a needle in a soft spot in your arm or leg around where there are no veins. Try to sit without a flinch. He will start inserting the needle little by little and if you can bear the pain, you will tell him, “Go ahead!” You will tell him to stop if you cannot stand it any longer.

 

The needle should be cleaned in the flame to avoid infection. You should jab it to see to what extent you can bear it. If you do it suddenly, it will be easier to bear, but when it is gradual, it is more painful. So test your strength.

 

Imagine you were a martyr from the dawn of Christianity. How would you endure the torture? If you do this while experimenting with the needle, you will see that your imagination will intensify the pain. You often exaggerate your little problems and only if you experiment in this way, you will have a true notion of the martyrs of the past. Any difficulty, no matter of what nature, should be looked upon as a force working inside us.

 

I am speaking about these things in order to create an atmosphere of harmony among you. You should be aware that good thoughts, feelings and desires, as well as good deeds, form a wonderful atmosphere for work and success in Life. You can achieve anything if you live in agreement and cooperation. However, if you start dividing in parties and express reservation or dissent, you will achieve nothing, because your chief goal is your spiritual development. With any work you can accomplish here, on Earth, you should aspire after developing your mind, strengthening your heart and ennobling your will. Sometimes when you face some difficulty or failure you might say, “I’ll go mad.” No, you should stop and say, “There are sensible laws that guide life.” How can you lose your mind then? Who could possibly drive you crazy? You can become insane, but only under certain circumstances. Only those who live a life of sin can lose their mind. You should bear in mind that insanity is possible only among people who have a shattered nervous system and who have lived a sinful life. Insanity is out of the question when one has lived a life of virtue and purity. An illness or a nervous breakdown as a result of too much stress is possible, but insanity is not. Overstrain can come as a result of two opposite desires. Sometimes you could conduct so much electricity through your nervous system that your nerves get slack. You should know the capacity of your nervous system - how much electricity it can bear. The brain is like a battery. If you send this electricity to the brain through you nervous system, you can cause permanent damage. That’s why as disciples, in something new to you, you should practise self-control. Quite often some of you lose your memory – this is what I call influx, which I explain with the prevalence of your emotions and intensifying the matter. Therefore, in order to refresh your memory, you should direct these energies to your mind. Now I would like to ask you the following question: If one does not love himself, i.e. if one does not appreciate the Divine spirit in himself, how can others love him? Here is another question: If you can’t chew your food, can somebody else do this for you? – No, he can’t. If you visit a friend, he will give you a lavish dinner, but you will have to eat the food by yourselves. This friend of yours is Love. It can create all the necessary conditions for you to study, but it cannot study for you. Your friend can give you all the money for your tuition, but he is not capable of making you an efficient learner. If you do not have the will to study, it’s not your friend’s fault, so you shouldn’t lose heart or blame somebody else. Your friend can create a nice mood or feeling, but the will should be yours. Moreover, a clever student can transfer his ability to another clever student. Similarly, laziness can be transferred, too. Mind that the same thing occurs at school. Students who communicate with capable friends do well, while those who avoid communication with efficient learners, thinking that they could easily do without much schoolwork, lag behind. I often hear some of you say, “We can’t be that good.” No, you shouldn’t think so. You should be good, because Good is fundamental to Life. You shouldn’t say, “I could be less good.” – If you want to succeed not only now, but in future as well, you should be good! This goodness does not depend on you. You are all initially good; you only have to acknowledge good and apply it in your lives. The same refers to your abilities and emotions. You don’t have to acquire any skills, because you already have them; you do not have to cultivate any feelings, because they are within you. The will you need is also part of you already. What Nature has already given you is not necessary to be acquired. You only have to build up and develop these strengths so that you can carry out what you are predetermined to accomplish. Therefore, you shouldn’t go astray. One has to study throughout one’s life- from youth till old age – one should be eager to learn, keeping one’s spirit young. One shouldn’t say, “It’s over now. There is no point in studying.” Even if you are a hundred and twenty years old, you should keep the spirit of a twenty-year-old lad. You should keep your mind clear and inquisitive.

 

One of the dangers you could encounter in your life is to come across a person with whom you will argue over trifles. That’s why you should be aware of the prime, basic thought, and thoughts that are less important should be ignored. You should be guided by the following principle: No one can hinder you in your way! You can be held up or bound, but not hindered. It is impossible to have your mind, heart or will restrained or hypnotised. One can be bound for twenty years in prison and yet capable of passing to the other world with his mind still strong and sober – nothing can possibly restrict him.

 

Such should be the modern heroes!

 

Now, you will come up against hardships in Life and experience them. You should be aware of this! Imagine you appeared on the stage to cite a poem and the audience started heckling. What would you do? You might say, “I’m not going to try again!” No, you should say, “I will have another go!” Do it again and again! You should be more persistent! Have you heard of the eloquent American speaker Bicher? He went to England on a mission. He had to speak on some important issue, but it was at a time when the Americans and the English were on hostile terms. So he takes the floor, says a few words but the audience starts heckling. So he stops speaking and waits for them to calm down. Then he utters a few sentences, but the audience starts making noise and refuses to listen. He stops again and waits for them to calm down so that he can start again. This meeting went on for three or four hours until finally he made them listen to what he had to say. They shouted, and he waited patiently. In the end, he finished his speech. When it was over, they admitted to their mistake. This is a man of character! They may hiss you off, but you will have to stay calm and wait patiently. When the noise subsides, you will say a few words. They will start shouting again, “Off the stage! Shut up!” – Yet you do not lose your nerve. Some will say, “What impertinence!” But if you give up, it will be an act of cowardice. What is better - to be impudent or cowardly? Life is a stage, where you are, and if all keep shouting, “Off the stage! We don’t want to listen to you!” You will say, “Listen, I want to tell you why I am here and who sent me. When I tell you what I have to say, I’ll get off the stage myself. But I won’t leave the stage until I say it. You’d better know that I’ll come back as many times as I leave the stage.”

 

I have noticed that flies have a distinctive feature that is similar in this respect. I am sitting in my room doing something – and all of a sudden a fly perches on my nose. I keep working and it stays there. I try to wave it off but it keeps coming back. So, this is an admirable feature of perseverance students should acquire. Do you know what I do next? I put a few drops of honey on a piece of paper to allure the fly. I say, “I know what you need.” I keep the piece of paper close to my nose; the fly comes to it and perches there. Then I put the paper aside and leave the fly there. I deal with my work and the fly deals with the honey. If it hadn’t perched on my nose, I wouldn’t have given it any honey. What’s more, if it had come just once, I wouldn’t have given it the honey either. But it came twenty or thirty times, so I said, “I’ll reward your persistence with some sugar or honey. You deserve it.” The same law acts in Nature. When we are persevering in achieving our ultimate goal, Nature is ready to open its treasures for us. So, you should be persistent! If you fail once, twice, four, ten, twenty, forty, sixty, ninety, ninety-nine times, rise and try again! You will get what you want at the hundredth time.

 

Now, for example, you will take up publishing a magazine. You should be as persistent as our fly. Do not think that good will come to you at once! You might be criticised – it doesn’t matter – you have to be persistent! This is the only way you can fight your way. Do not think that it would be bad if you came up against some difficulty. This is just a crisis. The most inauspicious conditions present a good inner chance for something good. It is the only way you can become wiser.

 

So, there should be harmony between your brain system and your sympathetic nervous system. If your eyes turn yellowish, it is a signal that your liver needs a rest. You shouldn’t worry or lose your temper – you need full spiritual comfort. You should pretend that all your problems are settled. You need patience until everything is all right. Nature loves those who are patient, brave, determined, persistent and sensible – it always concedes to such people. Shortcomings and vices are the opposite human attributes that I am not going to discuss now.

 

An exercise: Put your arms forward with your fingers relaxed. Now start folding the fingers slowly into a fist and then free them. Repeat this several times. Put your arms in front of the chest and stretch them aside with your fingers tightened in a fist. Place your arms in front of the chest with your fingers free. Repeat this a couple of times. Fold your fingers tight again into a fist and stretch your arms ahead. Flex them back to the chest with the fingers tightened in a fist. Stretch the arms aside with the fingers free and then back to the chest with folded fingers. Stretch the arms forward and open your fists.

 

While doing this exercise, imagine you are holding a big bear by the ears. Hold the bear tightly, thinking that you are equal in strength. Imagine you are holding the bear’s head with your left hand. Stroke the bear with your right hand by the upper part of its head and along the back. Tap it on the back and on the head with an open hand. Then grasp it by the ears. Change your hands now – hold it with your right hand by the head and stroke it with your left hand. Now leave it for a moment and open your hands. Then hold the bear by the head and tap it well on both sides.

 

The second exercise with the imaginary bear should be done very slowly. This exercise might seem too easy to you, but the bear is a symbol. It is the accumulator of a certain type of energy in Nature. It is a creature full of health. For example, if you are feverish, or if you feel low, grasp a bear by the ear with one hand and stroke its back with the other. After finishing the exercise, you will feel that a kind of strength has transferred into you. In such a case, the bear might help you as long as you do not have the impulse to harm it.

 

This exercise cannot be done with the wolf, only with the bear. It is a creature of emotions and can develop a strong attachment, although it can be extremely revengeful.

 

If your sympathetic nervous system is upset, you can tone yourselves up through this exercise. Any person should be able to draw the missing energy from Nature. You should get rid of all fears in the first place. You naturally shiver at the thought of a big furry bear. Practise to overcome your fears. Mind that a flea or lice do not stay in the bear's fur - they run away. Therefore, with all the exercises you do, you should have in mind some living creature along with the vision of a bear. Then both you and the bear can benefit. I view the bear as a symbol of energy.

 

What did those of you who consciously did the exercise feel? (- Ease, peace) the bear is a calm, peaceable creature. It can be bad only if you tease it.

 

You are afraid of the bear as you have a distorted notion of it. Do you know the origin of the bear? According to a Bulgarian legend once upon a time it was a pretty maid. Her mother died and her stepmother treated her very badly. Every morning she sent her to the river to wash a fleece. When the girl came back home her stepmother started beating her. The poor girl couldn’t bear this any longer and said, “I wish God would make me a bear with thick fur. I’d rather live in the woods than with my stepmother.” So she put on the fleece and turned into a bear. It turns out that the bear is that pretty girl, who ran away from her stepmother. I say: It will take long before you form a proper understanding of animals.

 

Secret prayer

 

Only the light way to Wisdom leads to Truth.

 

It gives us constant Mirth and Joy.

 

 

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