1924_05_18 Contradictions as Necessary for Any Growth

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Note 2p

 

Contradictions as Necessary for Any Growth

 

 

31^st lecture given by the Master to the Youth Occult Class

 

18^th May, 1924, Sofia

 

The God of Love is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.

 

Ten assignments on the topic “The differences and similarities in the personalities and philosophies of Augustan and Tolstoy” were read.

 

For next time – topic Nr 26 “Distinctive features of the Human Spirit, the human soul and the human body”.

 

Let one of you come to the blackboard and write four figures, namely the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and give the mathematical indication that the number 2 is twice as weak as the number 1, that the number 3 is three times as weak as the number 2, and that the number 4 is four times as weak as the number 3.

 

A student: We shall indicate the strength of the unity with f. Then we will have 1, 2, 3, 4 – f/f, f/2, f/6, f/24

 

Where are the conditions most favourable?

 

A student: with the unity.

 

So the unity stands for spring. The energy in spring is at its strongest, because assimilation in plants is most intense. In summer their energy decreases – it is twice as weak, in autumn it is three times as weak, and in winter it becomes four times as weak as it is in spring – that is a law. The physical world is the strongest in quality within the unity. Feelings gain strength with the number two, while the physical world loses its intensity. Therefore, when the physical world decreases, the Sensuous world increases. The law acts further: when the Sensuous world decreases the Mental world intensifies; on the other hand, when the emotions are extremely intense, one cannot demonstrate mental activity - he is weak there. If you flood a plant, it cannot grow properly, but if you do not water it, the plant won’t grow either. Thus, when the conditions for the emotions are not favourable, the more difficulties one experiences in his feelings, the better the mental conditions are. Therefore, in order for it to be possible for one to develop mentally, he needs to undergo intense feelings. It often happens that if one is unable to physically resolve the gravest matters, he tends to become mystical or religious – some attribute this to the Causal world.

 

People within the unity tend to boast about their body – they are born materialists, military people or others. In the second case, within the number two, they are born artistic, committed to variable emotions and rather untrustworthy. The number three suggests people of the mental activity, scholars, followed by mystical and wise people.

 

 

Fig. 1

 

Imagine that A (Ж) is the world of animals and P (Ч) is the world of people. The world of animals is at 90 degrees to the ground, the axis O being horizontal. They are horizontally positioned against the sunrays at a 180-degree angle; thus perceiving the sun rays through their spinal chord. They perceive all thoughts and desires through the spinal chord; as a result they are not given propitious conditions to develop. The axis with people is vertical. Sometimes there are deviations. You can judge about one’s proper development by the position of his head. If he keeps his head straight up while solving a tough problem, you can be sure that he will manage successfully. However, if he bends the head, you should know that things are not good for him. The bent head can be indicative of the extent to which a job can be done – the more one bends his head, the more difficult it will be for him to solve the problem. Observe the position of your head while solving a problem and remember that it is quite meaningful. To solve a problem correctly one has to keep the head vertically or at least at a one-degree angle. The moment one bends the head too much, the solution of the problem will be hindered. Now you can ask yourselves what is the reason for all this. It comes as a result of your animal nature, which becomes dominant at a point. You can carry out plenty of observations. When the beastly nature gets the upper hand you do not see any light, your awareness is darkened and you feel an utter emptiness. Then one is half human and half an animal and has to fight the beastly habits dominating his nature. This beastly culture has its positive aspects, too – it is rich in material waiting to be cultivated.

 

Imagine now that you feel like having some honey. Such a desire is quite natural – it is understandable that you should want to have some honey. You pass by a house full of honey, which is not yours – what will this engender? – At least you will wish to taste the honey. Once a child went to buy some honey, but forgot the word for it. They asked him, “What is it you need?” – “Mummy sent me to buy something, but I forgot what it was.” The child started looking around and on seeing the honey, he dipped his finger in it, took it out and licked it, ”This is what I want.” Can you tell me which category such a deed falls into? The child sent by his mother was not attentive enough to what the mother told him. He was thinking of something else and forgot the word for honey. The child was thinking of having some fun on the way to the shop, his mind totally unfocused on what his mother had told him. Can such a child be considered intelligent? The child faced a difficulty – before seeing the honey, he was sure his mother would beat him – fear starts working, he remembers the humming of bees and a beastly habit is awakened in him, as a result he seeks a way to find the object of his mother’s desire. So, sufferings and difficulties in this world make you find the honey just as the child did. If you cannot find something in the natural way, you take the reverse way, which is full of more sufferings and troubles. Assume something else: let us say that the child was not so clever and failed to find the honey; do you think that on coming back home he would tell his mother the truth? – No, he would lie to her. Why should he lie to her? The psychological aspect is of some interest here – what urges the child to lie? His mother has raised him, so why should he be afraid of her? Generally children tend to lie most to their parents. Why? Here is the reason – a teacher with a wrong method of teaching conveys it to his students, doesn’t he? – Yes, he does. By the same law, the mother relates the false ways of her states to the child, and this teaching when applied to life will affect her first, so that she should see the negative consequences of her approach. Generally, the upper part of the head with children who lie tends to be narrower as their conscience is not well developed. You should know that with each impulse to tell the truth a certain area of the head is developed. For example, if you want to be brave, a small part at the back of the skull will develop. All aspirations one has, develop different parts of the head. Imagination, for instance, makes the forehead larger.

 

Each class needs to have students with various skills and abilities. Variety is necessary. Students need to exchange both negative and positive features. Skilful students give their impulses to weaker ones. Some students need more moral attributes; so in each class there should be students possessing well-developed moral attributes. Nothing is worse than uniformity, that’s why some should be mentally strong, others musical; some should be brave, others should be Truth loving, etc. They should all complement one another. For the time being, the great collective human being works through his units. There will come a day when man will unite them all in one whole; there will come a day when he will put them together to form an excellent, beautiful body. You should get used to analysing yourselves better. For instance, some of you tend to lie. There are people who have graduated from more than one university, but when you assign them the task to study some scientific fact, they will exaggerate it so that their theories become distorted truths. Many learned people distort scientific data. Take a theologian as an example: in order to prove some spiritual truth, he will distort it first. You should not abuse a fact in order to prove another – facts are interrelated and mutually supportive.

 

The first problem is that people are lacking in sincerity. Learned and spiritual people should have conscience and never lie. However, they are not brave enough – they are intrinsically intimidated. There are many learned people, mainly theologians who are afraid to tell a truth bluntly – they will falter and tell half of it. There can be a judge who will think hard before he comes up with a resolution. But the truth will be half revealed.

 

The first thing you should know is that everybody has frailties. That’s why you should try to think correctly. What you build up should be for your own sake. If you make a mistake it will be you who will bear the consequences, not I. If you do some good, you will benefit from it. Any of you can benefit or cause damage to yourselves, and indirectly your mistake can harm others. The same refers to the good one does – others can benefit indirectly from it, too. For example, if I call any of you to the blackboard and ask a tough question you cannot answer, you will feel embarrassed or humiliated, and if you do not answer, the other students will laugh at you. The point is neither whether they know more than you do, nor whether you know. The point is to reveal the truth. The first thing is that you should build up the habit of explaining the truth in its minutest manifestations. Do not try to explain the great problems in Life as this is an immense capital. Search for the minutest facts and hold onto them – small quantities are excellent. If one is too lazy to thrust his hand in the pocket to take out five cents, he will never get used to giving, while by giving the five cents, he will get used to giving much more.

 

The subject matter you are studying now does not yet include those occult issues you can apply in Life. However you are to apply them! For example, you should know whether someone is telling the truth or not, to a point. Then, you should distinguish between faith and credulousness. You should not be too gullible and credulous. For example, you are going along the way and someone tells you, ‘That’s not the right way! You’ve taken the wrong way!” You immediately lose faith. Why? – You take what you have been told for granted, without making sure it is true - that is gullibility.

 

 

Fig. 2

 

What is the reason for the deviation of these two lines? How was the angle of the deviation formed?

 

A student: There is a device in physics – an electroscope used to determine the angle of the deviation. If an electric current is conveyed through the strips, the electricity in either strip – negative in the one and positive in the other – will cancel the strips out, thus forming an angle.

 

If you examine the work of these four people – 1, 2, 3 and 4, (the way the direction of their work has taken according to the scheme), will they accomplish the work together? (- Each of them can do the job by himself, but there is no agreement among them.)

 

 

fig. 3

 

Now we will refer to a law existing in Nature. Which law is this? Let us say that we have a seed; what are its opportunities? – To grow down and up. In its growth downward it will encounter a clash – the soil hinders it although it is necessary for its roots to develop. The branches form in the same way. So, these counteractive forces, up and down, form the whole tree. Likewise, the counteractive forces in our organism help our growth. When a counteraction or a conflict occurs in you, you should know that it is absolutely normal. Thus, there should be contradictions, as any growth will be hindered without them. When a tree dies, it means that there are no longer contradictions in it. You might ask why a contradiction should be necessary. – The contradiction lies in the law of our development. It is necessary for a while. If someone decides to eliminate contradictions, he will stop his development as well. A dead tree speaks of former contradictions. The fruit of the tree speaks of reconciled contradictions – all the forces have gathered in the fruit. Therefore, one will be able to reconcile all his contradictions in the fruit of his spiritual Life. One should not try to reconcile the contradictions while growing because they are necessary then. That is a philosophy.

 

Now people belong to different parties. You should not worry that some people do not accept your convictions. These people are just a small branch of the tree that will grow three or four metres away, but will soon come back. When the wind blows it will bring this small branch to another one, which will ask, "What is it that you want?” – “I don’t want anything! It was the wind that brought me close to you. We just clashed – nothing more.” So, contradictions can be reconciled only in a tree’s fruit. Therefore, you should not worry about the way the external world is developing now. You should know that you couldn’t change the order of events. You can reconcile contradictions only in the fruit of the tree. That’s why, you should aspire after an ideal, spiritual life. Each tree in you should give fruit. The Gospel says that you will recognise them by the fruit. Anyone who has given fruit is one who has reconciled discrepancies. Anyone who has not given fruit is barren – it shows that the person has not discovered the law of reconciliation. It means that in the fruit, or the good you do in this world, you can reconcile all the contradictions of your physical, sensuous and mental life and go to the Causal World. It is so because the contradictions in the physical world are not the contradictions of the Mental world.

 

The lines 1, 2, 3, 4 in the diagram show the movement of the tesseract. When the angles become bigger or smaller, they show the movement and the direction of the tesseract. Remember the following rule: people with the greatest contradictions are the strongest. The strongest people face greatest difficulties. The bigger the impediments in your life, the more lenient Nature is to you. This does not require any mathematical proof. Imagine a gifted child who is severely controlled by his mother – she does not let the child go to the cinema or play out in the street. She forces him to stay at home and study; is it a bad thing? – No, it isn’t. The child might complain of the limiting constraints, but he studies. Therefore, Nature can sometimes act as this mother – It keeps you under control, shuts you in a room and tells you to study.

 

It is essential for you that you should try to reconcile the contradictions through the fruits of your life. If you do this, you are on the right way. Apply the following rule: as soon as you make a mistake, correct it. Each evening on coming back home, make an account of the way you have spent the day, what mistakes you have made and mark them – in this way you will find a way to correct them. The whole teaching is about correcting your mistakes if you want to be successful in Life. You can be very lenient to yourselves, saying, “Such are the conditions.” Or “I am not the only one who errs – others make mistakes, too.” If you find such excuses, sooner or later you will find yourselves in a dead-end street. Certainly, it is human to err, but mistakes have to be rectified. If someone tells you that mistakes can be avoided, he lies. You will err despite all your knowledge – no matter how much you know, you will make certain mistakes. If you are faultless, other people’s mistakes will be blamed on you. All the same, you should keep to the rule: each evening you should act both as a teacher and as a student. You should summon yourself as a student to the teacher and will ask, “Tell me, do you know what you did today?” Have you ever tested yourselves like this? The student will start making excuses; however, the teacher will remain just and fair and ask, "Why did you do this?” And you, as a student will have to give a full straightforward account – to find the reasons and the incentives for your wrongdoing. If you are not strict enough, you will fail because it will be hypocrisy. The physical being is like a child. Why do children not have respect for their mothers? – Because when they catch the mother lying, she loses respect.

 

Similarly, when the objective mind spots a weakness, it says, “I can see through you.” - This is a constant law in Nature. For instance, would it be right if I put a bag full of gold weighing 50kg on your back and told you to cross a deep river? Are you sure you would be able to cross the river safely with such a heavy load? – No, you would drown. You would sink to the river bottom and stay there. Such a river should be crossed without any load. Each mistake in Life is a burden. If you do not get rid of it, you will sink laden with it. You can carry the load when you are on firm ground. Only then you are safe enough – the ground will not slit open. Danger is in water – when you get to a less dense matter, you will fail. You should know that you are to cross such a deep river in your Life – there will be no bridge. You will say, “I’ll cross the river by boat.” – No, there will be no boat. What then? Imagine carrying a bag full of sand and you are to cross a river; what would it cost you to leave the sand on the bank, cross the river and take as much sand from the other bank? When you come to another river you could proceed in the same way.

 

The law is: you should be very demanding to your personal mistakes. If you do not correct your mistakes, they will later present problems and sufferings you have never heard of. Mind that it is not fear that is of paramount importance to the correct cultivation of the soul, but justice. Justice is unique. We do not say, “Why should these things happen?” – They will happen; only they have to be done correctly. If they are done incorrectly, they have to be rectified. Let us say that some fibers in the brain have to grow in length; besides, the size of particular cells needs to grow – this has to be done. This is the budget provided by Nature itself – the energy needed will be sent to your brain to work there. Assume that the brain cannot withstand the pressure, just as a wire cannot resist the current in some electric installation – what would happen then? The wire expires. Is there anyone among you who is an electrician and is able to say when the wire will expire? (- When the current exceeds a certain amount and the tension is greater than the wire can resist.) Therefore the human brain has to be installed correctly; it needs the best possible wire, capable of resisting any tension. The law is as follows: whatever you do, it must be done well; this well-done thing has to affect the structure of the body first.

 

So it is a budget provided by Nature itself. Sometimes you need to deliberately challenge yourselves through difficulties. It is known that children who suffer from a number of diseases at an early age do not die if they fall ill with some serious disease later in life – their organism has become tougher. While, there are children who have never been ill with something, and if they happen to fall ill with some disease at the age of 21, they rarely survive. One who is constantly suffering is likely to recover more quickly than one who has never been ill. So sufferings make one fitter and stronger. Do you understand the law? This is a law you cannot obviate. As long as you think in accordance with these laws, your thoughts will be in compliance with Nature. This agreement will enhance your correct thinking and will save you from mental torture. Ignorance engenders sufferings. Take, for instance, a tiny spark – it is not dangerous with wood, but it becomes extremely dangerous with inflammable substances. It depends where you will put it.

 

So, every evening you will make an account of everything you have done during the day. You will also need to set yourself a goal to attain. You have to work on yourselves. Now everybody, especially fatalists, tend to say, “Come what may!” This reminds me of the deadwood floating along the river – the river rumbles it through its waters until finally it throws the wood out on its banks. This, however, cannot be a solution to our common problems.

 

So, what is the main idea of this lecture? (- To rectify mistakes well in time.) In the beginning there were no mistakes. Anything else? (- Contradictions should be reconciled with the fruits we are going to produce.) Contradictions stem initially from the forces of Nature.

 

Now I would assign to you the following topic: “Which is the best way of getting acquainted?” Which in your opinion is the most practical way of getting introduced to someone? When do people usually get acquainted to each other? (- When we do good to someone.) Imagine that two people are travelling together. The bag of one of the travellers gets empty and he stays hungry for three days on end until finally, he finds the courage to ask his companion, “Have you got some food? I haven’t had a bite for three days.” – “Yes, I have some.” They strike up a conversation, the second traveller gives some food to the first one, and finally they shake hands, saying, “Have a nice trip!” Then either of them hits the road. How do students get acquainted? One of them is not ready for the lesson in math, so he asks someone to explain the lesson to him. They both get together – one is listening while the other is explaining, and as a result, they get acquainted. Would they get acquainted if they were both good at math? – Of course, they wouldn’t. However, if they both faced one and the same danger – for instance, if they both were hungry in a strange city, they would get to know each other. Then we can infer the following law: common needs that occur in Life bring people close to each other. These needs can be of physical, mental or spiritual nature, yet they always bring people together. So, each time a necessity occurs, you should know that it is most welcome, as it will bring you close to someone. Do not miss the opportunity then – any natural closeness is Divine and you can benefit from it. Two people who do not need each other cannot become close.

 

I am going to explain it to you, why there should be gentility between any two people in Life. Imagine that two people are enclosed in a case full of some water – the case is well sealed and loaded on a train. Do you think that they will get out from it safe and sound after floundering in it? Wouldn’t it be necessary to put some straw inside the case if these two were bottles? When we say that we have to be gentle we mean that we are travelling in that case. If we were not travelling, then we would easily do without any gentility. An only bottle does not need any straw for cushioning in the case, but if you transport it together with some other bottles there should be some straw in the case. When we say that we should be gentle and merciful, we mean that there should be something between us that will avoid friction. (- If they put you in milk, they will churn butter.) So, butter will be churned. Let us say that whoever made the milk-can left an opening through which the butter tries to get out but cannot and clogs it. What would you do then? - The opening should be made larger. That’s why one has to be generous and big-mouthed. Therefore, generosity means a big mouth through which we can get plenty of butter.

 

Now you know what gentility is and why it is necessary in your life. Do not think that you can do without the straw cushioning you and do not say, “Put this straw away!” Any two people who are soft cannot have friction because they are cancelled out. Then whenever you feel like arguing with someone, or whenever you encounter some contradiction in life, just say, “I am in a cage. Let me see if there is enough straw for cushioning me so that I can avoid an accident.” What’s more you should see whether your mouth is big enough – if you were crystallized honey, how could you get out through that narrow opening? People have found a subtle way to solve the problem – they pour boiling water into the vessel to melt the honey. In Life, however, when the mouth is small, the honey is hard to extract, because the process is very complicated.

 

The God of Love is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living