1924_02_17 Moral Senses

[Ani]

Note 2p

 

Moral Senses

 

 

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

 

17^th February, 1924, Sofia

 

- Only the light way to Wisdom can lead us to Truth.

 

- It gives us constant Mirth and Joy.

 

Reflection

 

A summary on the topic: ”The basic elements in geometry” was read.

 

A few works on the topic: “The correlation between the moral senses and the mental skills” were read.

 

You speak about many moral senses. How many are they? (- One) What is it? (- The feeling for God) Any other? (- The conscience) If man had only the feeling for God, he would look like a triangle, on top of which would be his head, i.e. his mind.

 

 

 

Fig. 1

 

The moral senses are: conscience ©, compassion (м), faith (в), hope (н), firmness (т) and Love for God (л). You can observe what the centre of compassion with all people is. The sense for compassion is situated on top of the human head. It is determined by the angle ВАМ. This angle also determines one’s mental skills. People are not equally compassionate – the smaller the angle ВАМ is, the less compassionate a person is. The line AB shows the base of the brains, i.e. if you draw a line through the ears, it will cross the plane AB. The height of this plane determines one’s morality. The height of the perpendicular line ДЛ determines the intensity and the properties of the moral senses. Modern psychologists, as well as you, take this line in consideration when determining who is moral and who is not. Different angles also determine to what extent certain senses have developed. It is because everything has its external indications. We say, “This person is beautiful and that one is not.” How do we judge? There are certain signs by which we judge. We also say that someone is clever or intelligent. How do we know? There are signs for that, too.

 

If you examine some clever kittens, you will notice that the middle part of their foreheads is protruding. A domed forehead is indicative of intelligence. Intelligence finds its expression in quick-wittedness and alertness. My word is about feline intelligence; that is why, I compare cats. I do not mean to compare feline intelligence with human intelligence. With some cats though, the consciousness is as much developed as with people.

 

Modern psychologists are confronted with a hard issue – why don’t all people possess equal moral strength and why aren’t they equally developed mentally? The simple reason is that a clever person has organs better developed than the stupid one does. Therefore, a man can be revealed through his organs. Each moral sense has its corresponding organ - a moral sense can be expressed in accordance with the degree of development of the organ. Moral senses do not fall into the category of selfish feelings. The personal feelings refer to the area ACB, which is a pyramid. If we transform the triangles ВАС, ВАМ, АЛВ into pyramids, we will be able to define how these organs perform. If you doubt this, carry out some observation.

 

Examine any two people among you – one compassionate and the other not: you will notice that the structure of their heads differs. The head of the compassionate person differs from the head of the person who is not compassionate at all. The head of the conscientious person is different from the head of the one who is not. All the organs in the human head differ in structure. If one has a well-developed feeling for God, he feels elevated. Such a feeling can engender fanaticism if it is not in accordance with the other senses, no matter how noble it can be. One can become a fanatic if he believes blindly. This happens if his feeling for God is well developed but not in harmony with his intellect. Love can be blind because it is not guided by the mind. When the feeling is related to the mind, it is properly developed and can make one of the finest human attributes. Only such a person can be tender, perceptive and polite. Only a religious person, whose senses are affected by noble feelings, though not ostensibly, can be extremely polite and considerate.

 

It is best when these moral senses – conscience, compassion, faith, hope, firmness, and feeling for God - are well developed. A person who has these can never be melancholy. He can be brave and determined, able to cope with difficulties. If one ever feels melancholy, it means that these senses are not well developed. When compassion is not well developed, one can become a miser. If conscience is not developed, one tends to lie. If firmness is not developed, one is too indecisive or submissive. When there is not Love for God, the body has no head. If one is deprived of moral senses, he will be like an animal. He will not know what is right and what is wrong. It is conscience that tells you what is right and what is wrong. A person without moral senses has no moral principles. Animals have neither will, nor moral principles. They have instincts only, coming from desires and needs. An animal can be brave only when it is hungry. The moment hunger is satisfied, its bravery disappears. The mind of animals is not that alert as the human mind. Animals spend most of their time sleeping. The sheep falls asleep after eating. Why? Because it has nothing else to do. It cannot think; therefore, no philosophical thoughts disturb its mind. At a point it can wake up, then it falls asleep again. It can stay awake only if it feels threatened or hungry, but then it easily falls asleep. Things are different with people.

 

You should remember then that it is moral senses that determine one’s personality, i.e. one is what he is thanks to his moral senses. Deprive him of his conscience, compassion, faith, hope, firmness and Love for God, and you will send him millions of years back to the most inferior monkeys, even lower than that. Besides, monkeys have certain moral senses. Mind that monkeys are complete vegetarians – they eat fruit only. There is no way you can make a monkey eat meat.

 

Now, when studying human mental skills and moral senses objectively, you might ask what other feelings are likely to be revealed. You will say, “One has to be noble.” Well, yes, but what does being noble mean? Let one of you write on nobleness. Let some poet write on the topic: “The noble man.” What would you write? You can write a lot. Generally, you can attribute many qualities to the character of the noble man: conscience, firmness, love, order, intellectual capacity, sensibility, fair and judicious mind, generosity, an easy-going personality, etc. How would you define nobleness? Is it a skill or what? This is a philosophical question, so feel free to express an opinion. What do you think nobleness is? It is not just you – many philosophers would tackle this issue – how to define one’s moral senses? What they define should be correct and in accordance with what happens in Nature.

 

Then to which category would you refer nobleness – to moral senses or to mental skills? You see, a noble man contains a personal element, too. When you say that one is noble, it means that the person is always aware of his high descent. On the other hand, the awareness of one’s nobility involves personal feelings. Nobility is handed down. Such a person is noble by birth and his blood is blue. Some noble people are of royal descent. Nobleness is often attributed to nobility.

 

I will assign the following topic: “The difference between moral, personal, selfish and egotistic feelings”. What would you write to define these? Now I want you to study the issue profoundly. If you do not have profound knowledge of yourselves, all other studies will be futile. Imagine you visit a friend who gives you a stiff welcome. He has given you a friendly, warm welcome many times before, but this time he does not smile at you. You leave his home rather hurt. What feelings make you take offence? – A personal feeling. Why do you feel hurt? (Our personal feeling is hurt.) No, we are not discussing personal matters here. We are examining only their expressions. All of you experience this as it is a social phenomenon and concerns us all. These are things that happen every day. You feel hurt by your friend’s attitude and on leaving his home you say, “I’ll never visit him again!” I would like to ask you why you feel hurt; what has wounded your feelings. (Because he has failed to please you.)

 

Let me give you another example: Assume that every morning I go out to greet the Sun. It smiles at me every morning. I greet it and it greets me back – or at least I think so. However, one morning, when I go out to greet it, I see that the weather is gloomy, the horizon is dark and cloudy and the Sun is hidden. I turn my back and say, “What dull weather! I’ll never go out again to greet the Sun!” Is the Sun to blame? What is the reason for this gloomy weather? Why is the Sun hiding behind the clouds? Why doesn’t it shine through the clouds, disperse them and smile at me? And then I say, ”I’m not going to go out again and offend my nobility.” My question is: “Is there any agreement between the clouds and the Sun? Is the Sun at fault? (-No) Well, why are you angry at it then? (- Because it is our fault.) No, it is not our fault; we only draw the wrong conclusion. Do you know why?

 

 

 

Fig.2

 

Imagine that ав are scales and C is their supporting point. These scales do not function properly as they are a bit rusty. You place the weights on the one side, and on the other side you place the object to be weighed. You have bought half a kilo of something, but on the next morning you place weights measuring a kilo on the other side to balance the scales. Why is this so? - Because there is a kind of resistance somewhere in the scales. Then you make calculations using grams. However, if the person who sold you the commodity goes to some other place to weigh the same commodity, what will he find out? – He has either sold you more, or less. If he has sold you less than the scales show, you will say, “What a dishonest person!” If when weighing the commodity, you see that he has sold you more than half a kilo, you will say, “What a generous, noble person!” In these cases, both dishonesty and nobleness come as a result of a mistake. So, if giving more unconsciously, I am a noble fellow, but when giving less, although involuntarily again, I will be dishonest! Are these two cases connected? – Yes, they are, because every salesman should check his scales. He himself cannot be blamed for selling more or less. The trouble is with his scales, which ought to work properly.

 

Which human quality do the scales stand for? (- Conscience, moral senses.) Do you agree that the scales can represent moral senses? If someone told you that moral senses are the weights you put on the scales, would you find any connection between man and his senses? A moral sense can be identified if it can solve the problem outside the person. For example, justice and conscience do not settle an issue in terms of what is good for you, or what is just and fair for me. A moral sense just says, “That is not fair,” – nothing else. Compassion can settle the issue outside one’s personal life. One has to be compassionate beyond conditions, no matter whether one is poor or not. Compassion says, “You are obliged to do this.” Not that you are obliged really, but it demands that you do it. No excuse can be given to a moral sense. Moral senses do not accept any apologies, while personal feelings do. Moral senses make no exceptions, so you cannot be excused. Therefore, according to the exceptions you make, the more exceptions you make, the weaker your moral senses are.

 

You might happen to have a friend who has never been angry with you. You have always taken gifts to him when paying your visits. However, there comes a day when you call in but he does not give you a warm welcome – that is because you go to his place empty-handed. Think about this – if your friend’s moral senses are not strong enough to assimilate the current conflicts, he will not let you in. The moment he sees you, he will be kind of unwilling to invite you – he will not be ready to do this. If I have to put it in scientific terms, his moral senses are not capable of withstanding the inner conflict that occurs in this case. Let me give you another example: a friend comes to you and asks for a loan of fifty thousand leva. You are very poor and cannot do him a favour. He keeps insisting and says, “Either you find me the money, or I’ll commit suicide.” You somehow feel that you cannot let him enter even before he has come to your place and you say, “There is no way I can do him a favour.” In some other case you might have another conflict: let us say that a friend of yours is drowning, and although you cannot swim, you plunge in the water to save him. He snatches at you and pulls you down to the bottom. Is it wise or moral to try to save someone if you yourself cannot swim? (- No, it isn’t). Then what should you do? You’d better call for help because when two people are drowning, it shows that there is love between them, but it also means that the evil they share doubles. That’s why, anything you do should be morally based. All moral deeds should be reasonable.

 

For the next time I would like some of you to portray a person of morals. The whole class should reach agreement on this portrayal. You are free to choose your source or archetype. I just insist on being moral. You should all agree on it. You could choose him to be one of you, but you’d better think of someone from outside so that you should avoid any rivalry here. I want a truly moral type, and not a fanatical or narrow-minded person. By a moral person I mean someone who has a complete, round-up [A1] outlook on the Mental, Sensual, physical, Spiritual and Divine World – to be a relatively round-up [A2] personality. Not only should he have a well-formed outlook on life, but also he should act in accordance with it, always ready to make a sacrifice. For the next time be ready to present the moral type, and after that you will present the spiritual type, as I would like to see whether you can differentiate between them. Then we will draw a comparison between both types. For instance, a saint is a spiritual person, while a nobleman belongs to the category of the moral type. All noblemen are moral people and all saints belong to the spiritual type.

 

You should study your selves with due discipline and strictness, without worrying about it, because you will come up against many untoward difficulties from now on. Now you can say, “This will happen later.” No, many issues are on the agenda now. You can solve them properly right now and make good use of their solutions. The Bulgarians have noticed that some cows give bitter milk. Do you know why? When the cows graze on wormwood, it goes into the milk and gives it the bitter taste. Very often the personal feelings mingle with the moral senses, which adds a kind of bitterness to them. Besides, one’s egotistic feelings, which are more inferior than the personal feelings, are often awakened. When their juices penetrate the moral senses, this bitterness is added. The Bulgarians are wary not to let the cows eat wormwood.

 

It is necessary for each of us to cultivate moral senses. You can be physically healthy only in the presence of the moral senses. Moral senses give freedom to the human Spirit. They help the veins expand, i.e. breathing is free and easy, blood circulation is good, and one feels at ease. Most diseases come as a result of wrong development of the moral senses. That’s why you should all try to get rid of your shortcomings. I will help you become aware of your shortcomings and teach you how to get rid of them. You are young and you have many shortcomings. You should bear in mind that you cannot fool Nature. You make mistakes because you are ignorant, but ignorance cannot be an excuse – Nature inflicts equally severe punishment. It does not care whether you are ignorant or not. The only difference is that when Nature decides to punish you, and you are aware of your fault, you will know why you suffer. While, if you are not aware of your fault, you won’t know why it beats you so severely. It remains silent; you keep wondering why it continues beating you, so you ask it and it answers, “I don’t know.” Or rather it says nothing. Nature sticks to the following law: for each offence it knows precisely and mathematically calculated how many lashes you deserve. You will count the lashes so that you can identify your mistake. You should keep count of the lashes. If it hurts so much that you lose count, you will be punished again and again. While if it strikes and you count one, then it strikes again and you count two, next three, Nature will know that you are aware of the law. At this point it says, “What a clever child!” – Four – you keep counting and here Nature stops. The number four means that you have broken the law of justice and conscience. Nature will strike you four times only, but it will hurt badly. If it strikes five times, it means that you have violated the human laws – you have offended someone, your brother, or your have hurt their personal feelings. So you will have to rectify your behaviour. Nature has its own images.

 

This is just one possible explanation. When we make mistakes in our lives, certain organs get infected. A particular mistake makes you feel a pain in the stomach, in the heart, in the lungs, in the feet, in the elbow, in the spine, or in the liver. The location of the pain shows exactly what mistake you have made. The medicine of Nature is very special; it has its own pedagogy.

 

So, you will have to apply morals. You will not only philosophise, but you will also try to correct the mistakes you have made. If you do not do this yourselves, someone else will do it; however, it is always best to correct your mistakes yourselves. All gifts and talents, all human abilities – writing, poetry, and arts depend on the moral strength and calmness stemming from our outward confidence to act in compliance with the great laws of Nature. Only then can we be strong. Anything we do should be judged strictly. And the ultimate objective is to be strong. If you are not morally strong enough, how will you differ from the people outside? For instance, if you enter society, where you could easily get bribed, what would attending this lecture be in aid of if you committed a crime? You will say, “We do not need bribes.” Yes, but you should be really strong so that you will not succumb, and not just claim you will not.

 

Your present duty in life is to build up a willingness and readiness to be able to help whomever. Everything else you are going to learn here, on the Earth, is just a temporary burden. What you have learnt through the strength of your will, will stay and accompany you forever. You will forget reading Shakespeare, Plato, and Kant. You will remember what you have experienced, a fair deed, or a live lesson from Nature. The only reliable knowledge comes from Nature, so we can never forget it – we keep it when we enter the other world.

 

Apostle Paul says that we partly know and we partly think but when the perfect comes, i.e. the Divine, this partial knowledge and partial reasoning will disappear. He also says that when he was a child he thought like a child but when he grew up he quit anything childish.

 

Now you know what your assignment for the next time is – to draw a sketch of a moral person.

 

 

A secret prayer

 

- Only the light way to Wisdom leads to Truth.

 

- It can give us constant Mirth and Joy.

 

 

 

 

 [A1][all-round] or [comprehensive]

 [A2]same as above