Jackline Spasova-Bobeva

Беседата на български Note 5 Psychic Observation Year 2, Lecture 3 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on October 18, 1922, Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret prayer The disciples' essays on the topic “The Distinguishing Characteristics of Life” were read. I will now give you a psychic exercise. You will all take out your notebooks or notepads and write down the title of the exercise: ”Psychic Observation”. The exercise is not difficult, but it isn't easy either. You need to do the exercise on an empty stomach. Exercise: hold your left hand up, with your fingers spread and bring your palm against your face. Place the index finger of your right hand on the index finger of your left hand (their tips should be touching). Observe the thought which passes through your mind at that moment, and note it down concisely, using two or three words only. It is possible that no thought passes through your mind – this shouldn't bother you. Observe whether your thought is pleasant or not, whether it is negative or positive. If it is negative, mark it with a black dot; if it is positive – with a light-coloured dot. You should be sincere in your observations, noting things as they are in reality without feeling embarrassed about it. For instance, you travel from Sofia to the village of Dragalevtzi. You see all kinds of things on both sides of the road, left and right. If you want to give an accurate description of the road, you will note everything as you saw it, without embarrassment. Do not think that if you state a given fact as it is in reality, you will look bad. This fact doesn't represent yourself; it is something separate from you. As you put your index fingers together so that their tips are touching, you should concentrate your thought for a minute. After that you will place your index finger on the middle finger of your left hand and you will again concentrate for a minute; you will observe what thought passes through your mind. Then you will place your index finger on the fourth finger of your left hand, then on the little finger, and finally - on the thumb. You will hold your index finger on each finger for a minute, observing your thoughts as before, and noting them in your notebook. As you do this exercise, you will notice that there is specific cosmic energy coming out of each finger. Each finger is a channel for a particular type of energy, a specific current. When the index finger goes through all the fingers of the left hand, you will put your hands together so that only the tips of your fingers are touching. When your hands are in this position, you will think positive thoughts. Do this exercise twice a day – in the morning and in the evening at no predetermined hour, but mostly after you have finished the work you had planned. This is the first part of the exercise. The second part of the exercise differs slightly from the first one in the following way: you hold the right hand up, fingers spread, palm against the face. The index finger of the left hand supports the index finger of the right hand, but this time at the middle point of the finger, not at the tip. When your fingers are in this position, you will concentrate your mind for about ten to twenty seconds. After that, the middle finger of the left hand will support the middle finger of the right hand and you will once again concentrate your mind. Then the fourth finger of the left hand will support the fourth finger of the right hand and so on. You will concentrate your mind for ten to twenty seconds when supporting each finger. While holding all your fingers in this position, you will raise your hands above your head, concentrate your mind for some time, and then bring your hands down. You will do that three times, then bring your hands down, but the last time they will separated from each other. You will do this exercise for a week – this means a total of fourteen times. When you do this exercise, you will observe the manifestations of your consciousness and the extent to which it is awake and expanded. Take this exercise seriously. Do it when you are by yourself, not in front of people, so that they don't spoil it. If somebody sees that you are holding one of your fingers up, he or she will say, “This person is calculating something.” When they see that you are holding two fingers up, they will wonder what it is that you are doing. The two arms of man were formed under different conditions: the right arm – during the involution* of man, whereas the left one – during his evolution. So when humans were coming down from the Invisible world, most of the energy was passing through their right arm. However, this energy had first passed through the left half of the brain, then – through the heart, and lastly – through the mind. You will be very careful when you do this exercise, and you will observe what changes take place in your consciousness. It is possible that no changes happen – this shouldn't discourage you. The exercise is interesting in itself even if you don't expect much from it. Such movement of the fingers is nothing other than music. In the future it will be possible to create such an esoteric instrument that could be played. This exercise has a practical application. When you are feeling down and risk losing your balance, do this exercise a few times until you restore your normal state. You should reflect on your thoughts while touching each finger. When you touch your index finger, you will say to yourself, “I must be noble in all my deeds!” When you touch your middle finger, you will say to yourself, “I must be just, to reason correctly about all things in Life!” When touching the fourth finger, you will say to yourself, “I must love science and art!” When touching the little finger, you will say to yourself, “I must be equitable in all my business deals, to comply with all the laws of the material world!” Therefore you will make yourself the master of your objective mind and you will say to it, “Listen, I want you to be a noble, just, reasonable servant, do not lie to me or steal from me, and finalize your deals properly. If you don't follow these instructions, I will fire you.” This is how you will converse with yourself, with your objective mind. When it realizes that it has a good, reasonable master, the objective mind is always ready to listen. There are two minds manifest in a person, but the Higher mind should rule over the objective mind. It is the objective mind that dominates in animals, which is why they are cruel. It is the subjective mind that dominates in herbivorous animals. The Bible calls these two minds “the two men” – the man of Flesh and the man of Spirit, who always live together. When you do the exercise you should also think about the planets that correspond to each of the fingers. The thumb, for example, is influenced by Venus, the index finger – by Jupiter, the middle finger – by Saturn, the fourth finger – by the Sun, and the little finger – by Mercury. Once you complete both parts of the exercise, you will do the following movement of the fingers: you will place the right index finger on the tip of the left little finger and you will slide the index finger down the hand, all the way to the wrist; from there you will slide it up to the tip of the fourth finger; from there again down to the wrist and up to the tip of the middle finger; from the tip of that finger, the index finger slides down to the wrist and then up to the tip of the left index finger; from there down and up to the tip of the thumb. In this way the right index finger will go to all the planets, passing through Mars – the planet of war, and the Moon – the planet of the imagination. The fingers of the hand should be spread apart. When you do the exercise, it is good to note the exact hour, minute and second you started it. This exercise requires great precision because it is connected with time and space. It is preferable that you do that according to the sun clock. Those who are sensitive may do the exercise the moment the first sun rays appear on the horizon. It is then that you will have excellent results. Whoever is sensitive can turn their backs to the east and feel when the first sun rays appear. Exactly at that moment, they will feel slight pleasant warmth in the Solar plexus. The spine is capable of perceiving the warmth of the first sun rays since it is connected to the sympathetic nerve system. Someday we could do the following experiment: in the morning before sunrise, the whole class will go out in the open, turn their backs to the east and concentrate. Everyone needs to be blindfolded at the time in order not to be able to see. I will be on the watch to see when the first sun rays appear. I will be asking you from time to time if the Sun has risen. Those, who are sensitive and have sensed that slight warmth in the Solar plexus, will immediately say, “The Sun has risen!” Everyone can do these experiments on their own and test their sensitivity. Sometimes you sense that warmth, but you doubt whether the Sun has risen or not. Every doubt causes a split of consciousness. As soon as your consciousness splits, you lose your inner impressions. * Involution is a term used by the Master Beinsa Douno which means the opposite of evolution. Source

Беседата на български Note 2 Points of Contact in Nature Year 2, Lecture 1 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on October 4, 1922, Sofia Greeting: Without fear! Without darkness! Secret prayer All people ask themselves what good and evil in life are. Evil is useful in life as well as in nature, but it is not a necessity. When connected with the negative forces in nature, evil becomes a necessity. It represents the lowest vibrational frequency of Good. In life Bad, i.e. evil people, act as drains that impurities pass through. It has been written in the Scriptures that there exist impure and pure vessels. The impure vessels are bad people, while the pure ones are good people. Once they realize what kind of service they perform, evil people begin to suffer, gradually improve, and change their way of life. While they are not yet able to improve, they are dissatisfied with good people and say that they suffer because of them. This is the reason why evil people don't have a good disposition towards good people. Now that you know this, you should show understanding towards evil people. This is the occult view of evil. This explanation, however, isn't meant to encourage evil, but rather to help you understand its deep meaning as a law in nature, as a temporary necessity. As long as there are impurities in the world, there must also exist drains, vessels that these impurities can flow through. In the world, good and evil represent two schools with completely different programs and methods. The student of the first school should not pass into the second one, because he will lose the place which nature has determined for him. As long as he is in the first school, i.e. the School of the White Brothers, he will work with his head and his chest. Once he enters the second school, that of the dark brothers, he will work with the stomach and the liver where inevitably he will ferment. Therefore a man can live either in his head and lungs or in his stomach and liver. Then he will work according to the laws of either the White Brotherhood or the Dark Brotherhood. These two laws manifest everywhere in life. When someone raises only one finger, the index finger, for example, he wants to indicate with this gesture that he serves the White Brotherhood. The index finger is the flag of the White Brotherhood. When someone lifts two fingers - the index and the middle fingers, this indicates: "I serve both brotherhoods", or: "I give blessings on behalf of both brotherhoods, i.e. I will speak the truth when needed, when not - I will hide it." The two fingers are a sign of contradiction. This is dual morality: when the question is about God, I will work according to the first morals; when the question is about evil, I will work with both morals. In the first case I will work with the head and the chest, in the second one - with the stomach or the liver. It is up to you which rights a man should use - the rights of the white brothers or those of the dark brothers. When you raise both fingers and look at them this indicates that your subconsciousness is warning you to be careful in your actions and in your choice of method. By choosing the first method you will gradually learn to think correctly, you will learn that evil is not a punishment, nor is it something superfluous that you can change. One thing is expected of you: to be careful not to disturb the balance that exists between good and evil. The ratio between good and evil is determined by nature: for every one hundred good people there are ten bad people; and the other way round: for every one hundred evil people there are ten good ones. This is the first ratio, which is also the best one. There exist other ratios too: for every hundred good people - fifty evil ones, and the other way round, for every one hundred evil people - fifty good ones. The third ratio is as follows: for every one hundred good people - seventy-five evil ones, or for every one hundred evil people - seventy-five good ones. If for a given time period of 100 years the first ratio is in place - ten evil people for every one hundred good ones, a positive energy influx covering all aspects of life will be felt in the world; if it should happen that among one hundred evil people ten would be good, there would be a receding tide. For example, when a spiritual or religious wave comes into the world, then according to the first ratio, for every one hundred people ten people are non-religious; in the reverse case, for every one hundred non-religious people ten are religious, spiritual, good people. In no case can the number of good people fall below ten percent. There will never be a time when good people disappear from the world. The numbers one and ten are equally strong numbers. The number one represents the power of good people. Thus you should know that the positive and negative powers, i.e. good and evil are necessary for you but you should deal with them most wisely. This means that you shouldn't criticize each other and look for your negative traits, because you will get infected by them. When a student makes a mistake and strays from his path, the others should carefully look for the reason for his mistake, because they too can undergo the same trial. You cannot be judgmental about people's mistakes before you come to know Truth. How many ways are there to say the truth? There is only one way. If you use another way it will not contain the truth. For example, you visit a poor family. You stay there for an hour or two, it becomes dark and the host lights up a candle so that you can see each other better and continue your conversation in a lit up room. After an hour passes the host extinguishes the candle. "Why did you blow out the candle?" - "Sir, I am a poor man, my earnings are limited. If I let the candle burn out I won't have the money to get another one. Therefore if I light it up for a short time only it will last longer." This man speaks the truth. You visit another poor family, here too the host extinguishes the candle. "Why did you blow out the candle?" "Because, as you can see, we have a window looking out at the street and everybody can look into the room through the window." This man doesn't speak the truth. He points to the window as an excuse for blowing out the candle. In reality the reason is poverty. When you are asked something, you also answer either in the first or in the second way. Some of you say: I extinguished the candle because I can't afford to purchase a second one. The rest of you say: I extinguished the candle because people from outside look through the window to see what is going on inside. In other words, when one of the students makes a mistake he is ready to say the truth as it is in reality. He says: "I committed the crime, I am guilty because I don' t have enough moral strength to endure the trial." The disciple whom I compare to the second host says: "It is true that I have made a mistake but the fault lies with my friend who led me astray." I am asking, what kind of a disciple is he who follows his friend's lead? The disciple can follow only the lead of his Master. In order for you to come to know your Master I will describe to you the distinctive qualities of the Master of the White Brotherhood, as well as those of the one from the Dark Brotherhood. How does the good teacher differ from the evil teacher? The master of the Dark Brotherhood doesn't know truth and for this reason he pays great attention to the exterior: he dresses well in the best and most fashionable clothes, wears expensive jewellery, has rings with different precious stones. He says to his students: "Remember that you can find truth only with me." The Master of the White Brotherhood dresses in a modest yet always clean and neat way, and without any rings or other decorations. He says to his students: "Don't expect too much of me!" Therefore in order not to fall in error the disciple should know his Master not externally but internally. When a disciple of the School of the White Brotherhood visits his Master and starts to recount about some teacher who is very advanced and knowledgeable, the Master will not start attacking this teacher and calling him names, but will say: "You are right, this teacher knows much more than I do. He can accomplish certain things that I wouldn't dare to attempt. In this respect he is above me." "In such case I could go to him." "Go to him, you can learn something." He doesn't restrict his disciples but gives them full freedom instead. By going to the new teacher the disciple changes his place immediately: from the head he goes down to the stomach and the intestines where the impurities are, after which he ends up in the liver. When he sinks in these dark factories he starts to understand his first teacher and says: "I no longer wish to remain here. I would like to leave this prison as soon as possible. By not wearing any external decorations such as rings and other adornments, the Master of the White Brotherhood wants his disciple to find the inner wealth and purity of his teacher, his inner and not his external radiance. Realizing his inner poverty and dryness, the teacher of the Dark Brotherhood says: I will dress in rich clothes with fine adornments to be able to show my students what great wealth is in my possession." These are things of external value. Whoever has the desire to exhibit external wealth is poor on the inside. Whoever seems to be externally poor is internally rich. Beware of external delusions and remember that whenever a lot of promises are made, little is given; whenever little is promised, giving is generous. In the first situation you will run into beings of different levels of mental and emotional development and if you attempt to criticize them you will come under their influence. This is what fighting evil means. Whoever has tried to fight evil has always been defeated. All initiates and masters who have tried to fight evil have failed. Evil never succumbs, it is never defeated nor can it be brought under control. As an initiate, Apostle Paul said: "Defeat evil through Good." Thus Good can only partially restrain evil, so that these two powers can be balanced. Besides these two kinds of teachers there exists also a third one. These teachers make use of the methods of both brotherhoods but belong to none of them. Many of the teachers of the Dark Brotherhood have completed the school of the White Brotherhood, know all the methods and use them for the Dark Brotherhood. After finishing the school of the White Brotherhood some of the Masters of that school have also attended the school of the Dark Brotherhood so that they too know the methods of both brotherhoods. They use the methods of one or the other school according to the occasion. They take the liberty to do so because they are of a higher hierarchy than the others. The Masters of the White Brotherhood use the methods of their own school. The teachers of the Dark Brotherhood, who know the methods of both schools, often use the methods of the White Brotherhood for the benefit of their school. You need to know this because when you study the occult you may run into great difficulties and conflict. As disciples of a school of the occult you need to know your powers, because at the present stage of your development, with your present knowledge and moral strength, it is impossible for you to handle certain powers of nature. Why? - Because you can't withstand their inner pressure. I am talking to you now about these things in order for you to learn to differentiate between someone who speaks the truth and someone who doesn't. The Master of the White Brotherhood, the Master of truth brings three things with himself: freedom for the soul, light for the mind, and purity for the heart. The teacher of the Dark Brotherhood brings with himself enslavement for the soul, darkness for the mind, and impurity, defilement of the heart. These are the distinctive qualities of the schools of Light and of darkness, which every one has experienced. If you come across the school of darkness, immediately you will be prescribed a number of laws and rules which you simply must obey. As soon as you start obeying them you will notice that you fall into slavery and confinement. A long time may pass before you can be freed. It is difficult to escape from the iron hoops of slavery. Who can free you? - Truth. What will bring enlightenment to your mind? - Wisdom. What will purify your heart? - Love. What is Love? - Love is the most dangerous power in the world. Wherever it goes, it takes everything away: it opens and empties the purses of the rich, it carries away the full granaries of the farmers, it takes away the masters' servants. How does Love do it? By removing the servants' head-stalls. For a while it seems as if the connection between the master and the servant is severed, but later without the head-stall the servant goes to help his master free willingly. When this occurs you need to either accept love, or if you think that love has come prematurely, refuse it. - No, everyone needs to open their arms widely to accept love: the rich will empty their purses, the farmers - their granaries; the masters will free their servants. What should the state, the government give to love? One of the first forms of governing was monarchism, conservatism, i.e. repression. I am using this form of governing as a symbol, for clarification. I call these explanations first degree explanations. This means looking at the symbol as it is reflected in the nation. After that I will use another symbol figuratively, i. e. as a second-degree explanation. Such a symbol is the extinguishing of the flame of a candle. In this case the candle symbolizes life. Therefore every symbol should be examined first in its closest, most recognizable form, the way people use it, and later in its figurative sense. I wish that this year real, mindful harmony be created among you, but free willingly, not by force. This doesn't mean that you should tolerate everybody, but, knowing the law, at least not criticize each other. It is not a question of remaining blind to evil but rather of knowing that it is needed in this world. As soon as you see it you can distance yourselves from it. Once it becomes needed, evil has the right to exist. If it wasn't needed, it wouldn't exist. You are sitting somewhere entranced and suddenly an evil thought enters your mind. Why did this evil thought come? It came in order to take you out of this stupor. You need to be alert and not to get carried away. Therefore good and evil, positive and negative powers in nature, are as necessary as the floods and tides of the ocean. For example, you are sitting on a rock contemplating about God's Love, not realizing that the conditions where you are sitting do not comply with this Love. A child with a stone in its hand comes by, throws it at you and injures your head. This is a rising tide of evil which was aimed at you. Immediately you jump from the rock and start chasing the child. This way you were saved. Since you got carried away while sitting on the rock, if you hadn't run after the child you would have fallen into the precipice and lost your life. Without realizing it the child helped you escape this situation. There are hidden intelligent beings behind it who directed it to throw the stone at you. In this case you say: " Come evil, as it is worse without you". Therefore when someone injures your head and causes you sorrow, remember that rational beings did this through the child, thus wishing to tell you that you haven't come to this world to live blissfully. It is not a world of bliss. Therefore as long as you are in this world you shouldn't get carried away. Once you go to heaven you can get entranced, sing and jump as much as you like. In addition to high tides of evil there are also influxes of Good. Again you are sitting on the rock, but this time you are desperate, discouraged, ready to commit suicide. The same child passes by, throws the stone and fractures your skull. You drop the gun, put your hands on your head and forget about committing suicide. Good people come to your aid in this moment. They bandage your head and say some encouraging words. You relax, start thinking reasonably and say to yourself: "I am thankful to the child who injured my head, because if this hadn't happened I would have lost my life." Many such cases happen in life to good as well as to bad people in order to free them from evil. When an evil thought comes to your mind its purpose is to remind you that the world you live in is not yet the Kingdom of God, that you need to be alert. When a good thought comes to your mind its purpose is to advise you about which good deed to perform. These are thoughts you need to keep in mind as disciples of the occult. You may have many other philosophical thoughts, this is good too. This way you will be able to determine the degree to which the rules given to you are plausible. By evil and good, by negative and positive powers I mean powers that work in two opposite directions: evil operates in the roots, good - in the branches, in the blossoms. However both evil and good are necessary for life's development. Their services are strictly allocated. One day when you complete your evolution the Great Brothers who guide both schools as well as all of humanity will arrange a new way of living which is completely different to the present one. In the present conditions of life the plant lives like a plant with its head stuck in the ground; the animal lives like an animal; man - like a man, Irrespective of how much effort man makes, he cannot yet live like an angel. In the future man will pass through the favorable conditions of the angels, this however is not possible today. All of you are aiming towards the pre-determined peak but you need to remember that there is only one way that leads to this peak. The Master who is leading you is standing on that peak and saying: "There is only one way but there are turns that go down or sideways. Whatever diversion you may take, at the end of all ends you will see that the path is only one, the peak is only one." When you complete your evolution, i.e. when you reach the peak, you will meet your Master, who will show you a wide open field and say: "Now you can go wherever you wish, you are free." Until you reach the peak you will follow one path towards your Master. As soon as you reach him, many other ways open up and you can freely make a choice. As long as you are on the earthly plane there exists no freedom. Freedom exists high above, on the peak. Gaining freedom implies completion of one for of evolution and entering another one, a completely new one. In your present state you need to guard yourselves against delusions and thinking that another way besides the one pointed out to you, other easier methods for work may exist. The way is one and the methods are many, but remember that there are no easy methods in the world. Don't delude yourselves into thinking that because you are young you have the power to change the world. While they are students, young people think that they will write a book with which they will improve the world or that they will give a talk which will cause a radical change in people's way of thinking. Many of the prophets and teachers also have the same idea, but the Great Teachers who rule the cosmos know that everything will happen according to a completely new plan. When? After the end of this era. Now that you know this you should avoid criticism and not occupy yourselves with your negative qualities. This is a requirement of the science of the occult. When you stumble into one of your negative qualities immediately replace it with a good one. Do the same with your friends and brothers as well. Pay attention to what is good in yourselves an in your next of kin. Try as much as possible to avoid thinking about your shortcomings. You do just the opposite as if you have made it your conscious aim to occupy yourselves with your shortcomings. What happens in this case? Unknowingly you find yourselves in the Dark Brotherhood. The opposite happens too: if a student of the Dark Brotherhood is occupied with the positive qualities of his character he becomes a student of the White Brotherhood. Therefore I recommend that you work with your positive qualities. Regard your negative qualities as remnants of the past. I am not interested in the negative qualities of a disciple. I care to hear the truth from him. A doctor for example questions the sick person about his condition not because he is interested in his stomach or heart, but because he wants to know where the sickness is located. By pointing out your faults my intention is to help you free yourselves from them. In order to achieve this you need to know which virtue corresponds to the given fault. In this way you will influence yourselves. Good will chase out evil. I am not looking for the evil in you in order to reprimand you but rather to show you methods which cultivate the good instead of the bad. As disciples of an occult school you ought to act judiciously. I will not be telling you to be good and judicious. I am giving you methods instead which will help you act in the right way, judiciously. The mind needs to be fed food that conforms with reason. You may say that one needs to read books to feed his mind. - Do you know, however, what books you need to read? Do you know how you need to read? I would recommend to you the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant or to read about the lives and deeds of the prophets and apostles. Many of the disciples read indiscriminately any book that finds its way into their hands and as a result their mind becomes cluttered. They spoil their taste for the truly beautiful and consider this or that not worthy. They become great critics with a high opinion of themselves. Once they notice that you are very knowledgeable, the White or the Dark Brotherhood will invite you to do some service. These schools need knowledgeable, educated people. If you are invited by the White Brotherhood, you will be sent as a preacher to a large church in America. After ten years you will be evaluated as to what category of preachers you fall into and how good your sermons are. If the Dark Brotherhood invites you, you will be made the prime minister of Bulgaria and will be instructed that these people cannot be governed with goodness and morality, but with an iron fist, with prisons. Thus you start sentencing one after the other until you make many enemies and accumulate a heavy karmic debt. All those you have jailed will create a number of misfortunes for you. This is what happens when someone is very knowledgeable. If someone knows a lot both schools will put him to work for their own benefit. For this reason disciples are advised to have positive knowledge and science. It is advisable for a disciple to be humble. The disciple must know every moment with certainty the source of every feeling, every action, every impulse - whether it comes from the right or from the left side. Every thought can have only two results, either good or bad. A thought may have good consequences in the beginning and bad ones in the end. And the other way round - it may have bad consequences in the beginning and good ones in the end. The same can be said about feelings and actions. And so all thoughts which cause constriction to the mind and deprive it of purity come from the left side and should be eliminated without fail. You have nothing to do with them. On the other hand, all thoughts which bring purity, light, and freedom come from the right side. Welcome these thoughts in yourselves and allow them to grow. When I speak of purity I mean living purity. Purity is mobile as are the colours of the spectrum. If you place a glass prism over a white cloth it will be colored according to the colours of the spectrum but only as long as the prism is exposed to sunlight. As soon as the rays of the sun stop passing through the prism, the cloth turns white again as it was before. Truth acts in the same way: it colours, beautifies things without staining them. As long as the prism of truth acts upon a certain object it colours it red, blue, green or any other colour; as soon as the prism is removed, the object turns back to its original state. You complain that someone has tainted you. This is an easy problem to solve. It is enough to remove the prism of truth from you in order for you to become pure again. In the White Brotherhood you can be tainted and you can become pure again. However in the Dark Brotherhood once you are tainted you cannot return to your original state of purity. Their colouring cannot be removed. The people of darkness are tainted with the colour from the Dark Brotherhood. Thousands of years must pass before they can remove this stain. Therefore in the White Brotherhood as well as in the Dark Brotherhood a cloth gets tainted but with the difference that a cloth tainted with the prism of the White Brotherhood can instantly become pure again, whereas in the Dark Brotherhood this is impossible. Living purity is connected with the law of Love and with the law of Wisdom. As long as you abide by these two laws you are pure. As soon as you make the slightest deviation you loose your purity. Living purity is not a constant quality of man. It is mainly a quality of love. This means that as long as love is present in a person's heart he or she is pure. Purity is a quality simultaneously of the mind and of the heart. Light is a quality only of the mind. As soon as light disappears from the mind, darkness and gloom set in. This is the diagnosis which defines the state of your mind and of your heart. These conditions further determine what path you will take. I wish for you to have this living purity. When it is present in your mind and heart you are joyous and cheerful. Man is not born pure, he becomes so later in life. Light appears instantly. It takes a long time for it to get ready, it manifests itself in an instant and disappears instantly as well. Thus living purity is a quality of mindful love. He who wishes to have this purity needs to be connected with love. Love excludes impurity, suffering, envy, hatred. It excludes all negative manifestation of life. Wherever love is absent all negative qualities exist. Wherever love enters there is peace, joy, gladness, growth, and freedom. When someone says that he suffers because of love he doesn't understand the law of love. We completely disagree with such a statement. One cannot suffer because of love. One suffers only when he loses love. This is a completely different matter. For as long as love abides in a person and illumines him, he is joyous and glad. When love abandons him he starts suffering. Why? There is no one to lighten him up. Therefore suffering and sorrow indicate that you have lost your love, that your candle has been extinguished, and that the object of your love has moved away from you. This may come contrary to your ideas about love but you can accept it as a new attitude. In the future when you write new literary works you will need to use a new language. At present you write: "This person is weeping for his lost love". Then you will write: "This man is weeping because his candle has gone out". Or "He or she is suffering because of the extinguished love, the extinguished truth." Sometimes you say that when someone is in love he or she becomes absent minded. In reality one becomes absent minded because of fear of losing his love or because he has lost it. He resembles a man who has lost his money. Love awakens in man the most sublime feelings and thoughts. If someone is weak, cowardly, hesitant and lacks intelligence, he lives without love. He who wishes to be intelligent, talented needs to acquire love and live with it. I am not speaking about that which people call love. These are feelings, passions which make a person unhappy. The disciple works with the common, human love and the Master - with the sublime love. When the Master speaks he uses every word appropriately. He knows why he uses a certain word, he knows what an effect it will produce. When a student speaks he doesn't know why he uses one word or the other. The Master's Love has been tried, it cannot be tested. The love of the disciple has not been tried, it needs to be tested. The knowledge of the Master has been tried, it need not be further tested. The knowledge of the disciple has not yet been tried and needs to be tested. The purity of the Master has been tried. He has passed through this test. The purity of the disciple has not been tried, it needs to be tested. Therefore the love, knowledge, purity, compassion of the disciple need to be tested. This is necessary and appropriate. Do not think that you can go a different way. This is the path that all your teachers have passed through, this is the path which you will also pass through. If you are tempted to criticize, you will delay your evolution. Boundless Love! Ceaseless Wisdom! Constant Truth! Write these thoughts down and work on them throughout the whole year. Contemplation. Without fear in boundless Love! Source

I am the true vine I shall read to you the fifteenth chapter of St. John’s Book Jhn 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” This chapter is addressed to the disciples, not to ordinary people. The verse relating to the branches forms the first part of the chapter. The branches represent God’s Kingdom which is now developing on Earth. The second phase is contained in the verse: Jhn 15:3 “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” This is a comparison between the vine branch and the relationships the disciple forms. For just as a branch draws juices from the vine, so should the disciple draw juices from his Master during his development. In this process of growth our Father is a husbandman. You need to know that it is namely the principle of reincarnation which is represented by the inoculation of the fruit’s seed. Do not imagine that when you choose a wrong Path you can be planted just anywhere. No, there is a similarity in the act of inoculation due to which you are under a duty to follow this principle. Jhn 15:7 “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”. This and the following two verses relate to the thought world: Jhn 15:5 “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” Jhn 15:8 “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” These words of the Christ indicate the conditions necessary for you to become disciples. Someone says: “May I become a disciple!” Do read chapter fifteen and take note of the conditions. This is the only way for you to be disciples. Now the second phase of the disciple is taking place. What shall become of one after she becomes a disciple? The second phase you are now seeking is Love - it is the second consecration. To those who have to enter I shall say: Jhn 15:9 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love”. The state which distinguishes a disciple is contained in the words:”…continue ye in my love.” Jesus says: Jhn 15: 10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love.” Now you want to be loved but you do not abide in Love yourselves. Which one of you abides in Love, could you tell me? Where is your Love? Christ has proven that he abides in Love; when He was crucified He cried, prayed and finally He bore all suffering voluntarily. This is what it means to abide in Love! Whether one is a disciple or a Master he still needs to prove his Love. This year, I want you to prove your Love. How can Love be demonstrated? To me, empty words mean nothing and promises do not matter, either. What is significant is this present Life and your task is to bear fruit. You wish for the Heavens to open up to you, for you to have all the strength you need, for God to do much for you, but you yourselves give nothing. As far as I can see the disciples in Bulgaria want a lot. It should not be this way! The rules have not changed for the disciples of any nation, tribe, of any period in time and any century, and they never will. Now you are seeking the Christ and speaking of Him, you wish His Love, you want to know Him and think you know Him. Is it possible for you to know Him and yet fail to abide in His Love? Christ clarifies: Jhn 15:11 “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.” Jhn 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” The third point Christ addresses is that the Love which exists among all disciples should be the same as the Love which arises between the disciples and the Master: Jhn 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.“ Jhn 15:14 “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Jhn 15:15 “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” Jhn 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” Jhn 15:17 “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” Jhn 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.” Jhn 15:19 “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Here, what Christ means by “world” is the Black Brotherhood, the Black lodge. It cannot love you. The modern world is governed by the Black lodge, its rules, orders and the formalities of the church are characterized by their ostentation and spirit of emulation. Further on Christ explains: Jhn 15:20 “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” Jhn 15:21 “But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.” Jhn 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not have had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.” Jhn 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they would not have had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.” Jhn 15: 27 “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” This chapter you can read many times and ponder. It holds precious directions and exercises for any disciple. Now, you are all inspired by the idea of leaving the Path for the Spiritual world you have entered. This is a misconception. When Spirit and flesh live and work together, they inevitably quarrel but at the same time they are so connected that each needs the other; similarly, once you enter the world you need to do your work and defeat it. If you do not defeat the world you cannot be good disciples. You will win and all it holds shall be at your disposal. If you do not defeat it, you cannot be good disciples. Christ says “I defeated the world.” If Christ - our Master did so, then so can a disciple. Now, your desire is to go in the world in order to defeat it but it is also to obey its thoughts, wishes and actions. You think all that happens in this world is perfection. Which of you does not desire to see how perfect actors play their parts? Well, is there a greater show than real life itself?! Between an actor suffering on stage and an ill man suffering in bed, who is a better performer? Between an actor killed on stage and a man killed in real life, who is a better performer? Certainly, it is the latter. Observe life and you can witness top performances of a great variety - comedies, tragedies, drama. You say: “Let us go to the theatre, this drama is to be played”. I am telling you - I have seen better plays than that. Indeed, the playwright has created a good replica through his work, but I have to ask if you have seen the original version of this drama. It is ten times better. There are painters and musicians, who copy Living Nature and if we reach a state where we are capable of understanding her language, then we will be able to perceive a things’ true essence and will then have a better and more correct understanding. The sense of hearing of modern people is not that well developed, thus, we think that Nature does not speak. But it speaks very well, beautifully and eloquently. At some times of the year, on some days, the Master of the White Brotherhood can, through a cosmic path, descend into Nature. They say of such moments that the Heavens open and different apparitions come forward. There are moments in every age when the Master descends to us and if you are aware of these moments, you will see the Splendour of Nature. Sometimes God remains silent, sometimes He speaks to us. He is silent when He is occupied with an ever so grand a thought of creation of a new world. And it is namely when these Divine acts of creation take place that the greatest crimes happen as well, as then God is too occupied to be concerned with mankind’s folly and foolishness. So now you say: “Let us commit this and this act while God is silent, now is the best time!” But once God finishes his work, He turns to us and sees it all. He keeps a record of everything, never forgets anything and anyone, misses nothing and never falls asleep. He may seemingly fail to notice you and even when He looks at you, God manifestly does not see you. He keeps his silence; continues to do so even when He observes you, but you tend to mistakenly think He does not notice you and you take comfort in this false idea. No, he did and does see you. In order to achieve Love, you have to be disciples. In order to be loved by its mother, a child has to become a child. If it does not, it cannot be loved. Similarly, a disciple has to assume the position of a disciple in order to have Love. If you want to experience Love, you have to descend upon Earth, to accept some limitations and to realise your relationship with God. Once you become humble, you shall all feel eternal as God; you shall begin to abide in Him and shall seek no other. Once you accept the limitations and come here to work, this is when the Lord will show Himself to you in his Love. And for this manifestation of Love, you will need a body; what is more - it needs to be a harmoniously developed body. In it we need an excellent heart made of the finest matter, which exists in God’s world. Next, we need an excellent mind, created by the finest powers which exist within Nature. Furthermore, we need a soul which originated in the Divine substance, in His very essence - a soul which holds and reflects the functioning of the whole Cosmos. We also need a Spirit - this Divine ray of light which disperses Life as it is released. This is the being within. And when all of these elements are combined, then one becomes conscious that she exists simultaneously on Earth, in the Astral dimension, in the Causal and, finally, Divine world. Now, when I say you should be disciples this is not to say you are not ones but it is desirable that you should be diligent and capable and when faced with hardship, able to find the most suitable solution. If you had a daughter who you kept locked in a castle, then she would be completely pure. If you had another daughter who remained pure after being lead into society and surrounded by any temptation and ordeal possible, which of these two would stand higher? It is certainly the latter. If you find yourselves in favourable conditions and you remain pure, then this is excellent, however, what you need to know is whether through the tests and hardships of life you can still remain uncorrupted. One who has gone through the turmoil of life, through all the temptations and, yet, has managed to keep her purity, can be said to be a disciple. You wish to be disciples, to isolate yourselves from any temptation and thus remain pure. This is the easiest thing to do but then being disciples would lose its purpose. No, a disciple walks in the world, he is put to any possible temptation; however, if he resists, you know he is a disciple. But when you set out on your Path, you say: “May the hardship and the temptations be fewer.” What an odd set of conceptions! You will have just as many difficulties along your way as are necessary for your growth and development. Take for instance a secular school and its curriculum. In first grade it corresponds to the level of understanding of the pupils; in second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grades - it is the same. If people arrange things in life in this manner, then imagine how much better at this must be our Lord! May God foresee everything! We have set out on our Path and now say: “Dear Lord, please give us not difficulties which will break us!” We give our Lord advice! What this means is that we do not truly believe in Him. This is a trial, a temptation. Instead we should say: “Dear Lord, we shall fulfil Your plan as You have drawn it up for us. May Your Will prevail!” Now, I speak to those who are already preparing, who are on the doorstep of acquiring their status as disciples. You would say you are already disciples. Yes, of course, but there are disciples of first, second, third, fourth grade and so forth; from one disciple to the next there is ample difference. Moreover, there are high-school students, university students and finally - esoteric students or disciples. The word disciple is different from student. Sometimes, when I say you are not disciples as yet, you disagree “How come we are not!”. You are like primary school students rather than high-school students. Then you become like high-school students but still not university students. Is this not true? It is. Oh well, let me ask you now what should be the qualities of the disciples in the esoteric school? All the qualities required of a disciple need to be clearly determined for you and you have to possess these characteristics. The aim of a trader is to be rich and this is a right aim. The aim of the fighter is to be strong and tough. The aim of the warrior on the battle field is to prevail over the enemy. The aim of the one who is hungry is to satisfy his hunger, of the one who is thirsty - to quench his thirst. The aim of the disciple is to learn. And thus, our goal throughout the year will be to learn. What exactly? How to love. The first thing to learn is how to love! The second is to learn the ways and methods in which this Love is manifested. The third task is to know the conditions which will allow us to demonstrate our Love. In order for people to love you, there has to be something about you. For instance, you love music; if you know how to play, I will love you. You like art, painting; if you excel at it, if you are a first -class artist and do a painting, I will love you. You love compassion; I see you perform an act of compassion which is of assistance to someone and you uplift them – I will love you for that. In consequence, in order to be loved by people, you must always manifest your Love to others; you have to demonstrate your Love for the weaker through your acts. In order to be loved by her child, a mother must be able to educate it. Then all say: “She is an excellent mother and a wonderful example to others.” But if she then abandoned her child and left its education to others, if she instead chose to frequent different meetings which concern her private interest and no public matter, and if she were to leave her children on their own, then anyone would say: “This mother should know better than to leave her children alone and fail to educate them”. Now, you may know all there is to know in the world but you do not know how to serve Christ, your Master, you are unable to apply His Teachings. When you need to apply the principles, you do not know how to go about it. If I were to ask someone whether the teachings of the Christ are applicable and capable of being practised in the modern world, she would reply they are inapplicable and incompatible. Also when Purity is concerned, you say “We cannot be pure, I am married and thus could not possibly be pure.” Even if not married this one would still be impure. A woman is to you like a carafe which serves to keep you from becoming dirty. But do you know when a man and a woman become dirty? When they have such a union where they have their eyes fixed on the outward expression of their relationship: the man looks at what is on the outside, the woman looks at the same. But looking at the exterior is what brings dishonour. When one stops giving importance to God within and admiring His Love, but starts to admire the outer side, then he is on the road to crime - he has committed all the crimes already. And then anyone can disarm you: you can be disarmed by the eyes of a woman, when they are dark, when she has a plump figure, or that she has a beautiful nose, that she has full lips, and so on and so forth. Further on you can be disarmed by the fact that someone has houses, a field, and money. Anything can disarm you and thus weaken you. This is no longer Love; this is what is referred to as “scene of the crime” in the Holy Scriptures. If you are for instance disarmed by the knowledge of your teacher and love him for nothing but them, then you are committing a crime. Knowledge is not a goal in itself because it is Love that brings Knowledge within. You cannot behold Knowledge until you have Love. You lead yourselves into believing that you can achieve Knowledge before you attain Love. Only the one who has Love in its completeness can have knowledge. Do not think that you can have any Power whatever without Love. All statements to the contrary are false and fictitious. You say you can accomplish something without Love. But look for examples of this throughout history - there is no single reformer, not a single Great Master who took on his mission without Love and had success. He may have had temporary success but then everything necessarily collapsed and went to waste afterwards. Therefore, I am saying now that all your power, if it is demonstrated without Love, will go to ruin, will be a waste. And then you will say: “Why did we have to take this venture!”. Yes, you cannot succeed without Love. Only with Love! I am telling the truth in a way no one has before: without Love one cannot do anything. Someone may say: “Once I acquire Knowledge, the road before me will be clear and easy”. No, first you need to have Love and then you will attain true Knowledge. In this respect, there are no exceptions. You may say your hearts are cold. Why? Because you do not have Love. - “But how do I acquire it?” Well, where are you searching for it?... I shall leave this question unresolved but remember that all in the world is unveiled only through this Love that is hidden within Divine Wisdom and Divine Truth. When you realise this thought you shall have a revelation and will have an impulse which will lead you to see all human souls in a different light. Then you will think of everything as dear to your hearts; even the most ghastly creatures like frogs and snakes: after you look at them through the enlightened eyes of this Love, you will say of them: “Poor creatures, how sorry I feel for them! What could the reason be for this plight of theirs?” When you come across a tortoise, you will stop and exclaim: “How sorry I am for you! I understand why you are wearing this carapace.” When you happen to see a snake you will not be afraid but shall say: “Poor thing, now I understand you, I know the reason why you are crawling and squirming”. And you shall feel solely compassion. Now, when you meet someone you tend to say: “What a hypocrite you are! I know all about you - you want to lie to me, to lie to your God and think I do not know. I am not lied to easily!” If you reason like this, then you have surely already been deceived. If you know the Truth, you will think: “I understand where this brother of mine has tripped and this situation is familiar to me.” You will then see through the reasons that he behaves in this particular way – he is solving a difficult task. I want to give such examples with the disciples who formed communes; I need examples and I reckon they will not be offended if I use them to demonstrate my point. So a disciple comes to me and says: “We have found the true Path, we founded a commune and as we are secured with a home, I can now leave work. We will start a commune in this city and will thus serve as examples and enlighten people”. I tell him: “Do not demolish your house before you build the new one, or in other words - do not leave your old position. “ Another brother then comes from Sofia to give a lecture on communes. A sister who hears the talk tells him: “This brother from the commune has found the solution and knows how many acres of his field he needs to work in order to feed forty to fifty people.” However, no later than four or five months afterwards, the brother refuses to feed these people. Why? The work was not well considered - it is not as easy as that to feed so many people. For this you need Love, Love! This way some disagreements occurred, the people in the commune had a row and then separated. And afterwards they come to ask the Master to fix the situation. This is what I can say: I will fix this when you can no longer make amends. Later these same brothers established another commune but it is not successful, either. While the idea is an excellent one, these brothers are lacking in Love - they wish to secure themselves before the others, so they take extra. Now, many of you wish to be my disciples in order to be well provided for. But with me, there is nothing secure. You will work just as I do. I have not provided for myself. Some will ask: “When you grow old, what shall you do and who will be there to look after you?” When I grow old I could stay hungry forty to fifty days – I will suffer a bit, will resist. – “But you could die this way.” We die when we eat and when we do not, so then what is the difference? If this is meant to happen to me, I find it irrelevant if it will be in abundance or in penury. This is an unimportant issue in which I take no interest. Therefore, the first condition for the establishment of communes is the presence of strong conscientiousness. Disciples join together and act in mutual assistance. However, in the communes which you are now entering, you do not allow others to take initiative and ordain in the Lord’s Name. I often notice that people seek to impose their views about things. For instance, in the country those who follow me say that they do so because the Spirit told them. Others, in order to facilitate my work, persuade the rest that it is necessary to fast and that was the order of the Master. These people go on telling stories on behalf of their Master. And those who listen to them wonder how come the Master tells them one thing and then a completely different thing to the others. Do not be fooled and ask me when you are confused. I am here with you so why not come and verify the truthfulness of all you have heard. I speak with the spirits as well. If I were in Paul’s shoes, I would say “If someone were to say I was a Jew I would say I was twice the Jew he is.” Thus, if someone claimed I had sessions and communicated with spirits, then I would reply I had twice as many sessions as he imagined. And in my communication I do not need mediums but talk to them directly. Some accept all the spirits say as the unshakable truth. No, on the other side there are just as many lies and impurity as there are here. There is evil there as well, and fermentation even more than here but it is all so subtle that you cannot see it. In order to grasp the far -fetched deceit and traps which haunt you, you need to have a sharp and perspicacious mind. When you enter the spiritual world the spirits will welcome you and hand you clothes to put on, will treat you to some food and will take you to their woods and meadows. But there are flowers there which intoxicate and induce sleep. So, when you wake up you will no longer know where you are. They start well in that world but end badly. So, when you find yourself surrounded by such flowers, do not fall asleep but keep your minds alert. Some will say: “If there are lies involved, then, it is better not to take an interest in the Spiritual world.” No, you need to know about it, but be smart and remember that spirits behave as we do, the difference is that they have finer bodies. They are bored sometimes and take an interest in earthly matters; sometimes they make up false stories like we do. Someone told me how a spirit in the town of Pleven called a person and told him: “You will conduct this experiment: take a candle, then look in the mirror and exactly at twelve o’clock you will see me as never before.” The man then takes the candle and at twelve he gazes at the mirror but sees nothing. At last he hears a voice: “Do you not see this donkey in the mirror?” Then he understands it is all about himself and it is all a mockery… Now, this should not cause you to lose heart in the least. If you know the rules, you will not go and look for the spirit’s reflection in the mirror but will awake within yourselves these spiritual senses. You cannot see a spirit with your physical eyes or understand it with your physical feelings. You need to awaken within yourselves spiritual senses and use them to acquire knowledge of the Spiritual world! Now, a disciple has to know his Master. The Master is not on Earth. He might have a physical body but he always remains in the Heavens above. In form he is down upon Earth through his body but in substance he is up in the Heavens. Therefore, wherever you are and whatever you do this year you need to acquire the Love of your Teacher! Years ago a young lady, one of the most intelligent women I have ever met, told me: “I have this rule: I interact with all people very well but when I meet someone, I aim to find her one best quality and as I focus my mind on it I cause her to manifest it and then, no matter how rude or bad she is, a reaction occurs.” A laic has come in her spiritual growth to this revelation and these results and I recommend her behaviour to you, it serves as a good example. When you meet someone, you should both try to find a good trait in each of your characters. Do not concentrate on the bad qualities of the other; they are temporary things which lead you away from the Truth. Only this practical experience can lead to success. Do not do it out of obligation or because it is imposed upon you, but endeavour to try it. Just as the young lady discovered this art, so can you. Christ says: “I am the true vine”. Imagine that you are on this vine, that you yourselves are a twig engrafted in Christ. Do not seek Him anywhere but do believe that you are a branch and aim to understand the language of the vine. You will learn Christ’s language! It is not Jesus who should learn a disciple’s language but the disciple who has to learn His language. And when you learn it and start speaking it, then nothing you shall request will be denied to you. If you wish to learn His lessons you need to learn His language and how to speak it. If you do not speak His language you will see that you can address your words to Him for days and yet fail to receive His attention. On the other hand, if you only say one word in His language, He will notice you and listen. During this one year I want you to learn the language of Christ. The beginning of this language is Love. So, start with this first word - to love. It is not the first one but you need to begin with it. In the Bulgarian language, the word to love has a higher moral content than the meaning to fall in love. To love expresses a stronger feeling. Thus, you need to ask yourselves if you love Christ. But do not reply “I love Christ”; reply that you have “come to love the Christ”. When you use this expression, you change the meaning you put in this word. And it is a more powerful expression. This is why you need to remember it and make it a part of yourselves. Sing it! If you had Love you could now write a song about this expression and it would be the best song you have ever heard. You will say: “Master, sing us the melody of this song!” I will answer sincerely: one who has come to love only sings to his beloved. But if this one does not love Him back, He is silent. Thus, the Christ is silent and cannot sing for you. Now, as far as a song is concerned: yesterday I sang to you “Bless and forget not”, I also sang “Fir-fur-fen”1. You can sing of things unknown but not of things familiar to you. In the future, your hearts have to become so delicate as to allow you to sense the different shades of things. There is spiritual sorrow hidden within your soul. If you only knew how big and deep it is! There is sorrow which cannot be expressed through a sigh - so deep are these feelings that only the soul which contains and lives them knows what grief is. Whoever experiences deep and overwhelming grief that exists in Nature, has his clothes whitened and he is purified and cleansed from within as well. But do not think whiteness is the key to everything; it needs to evolve into Light, go through Life again and bear fruit in the Divine world, fruit which will improve Life and find their realization in this manner. Therefore, this white colour has to be transformed into Light, the latter has to turn into action and thus be used in the conscious Life and then produce the fruit on the Tree of Life. And when we eat them, when the soul feels the presence of our Lord in His completeness and magnificence, when we taste the great splendour in the Word of the Great Master of the world, then we shall comprehend the deep meaning of His Word. This year, all of you shall have the necessary conditions and an opportunity to become familiar with the language of your Master and learn it. Many of you tell me you saw Christ in your sleep. I ask them if He spoke to them. - “No, he only passed quickly.” How do you expect Christ to talk to you when you do not understand His language? Once you have learned it, Christ will talk to you and say: “If you only have Love for one another.” Now many of you will go into the world. There you will experience hardship, misunderstandings, obstacles, doubt, but anything can be overcome with this inner Completeness achieved through the knowledge and use of Christ’s language. This is why instructions will be given to you and we will thus understand each other. What would happen if I could not put myself in your shoes? Why does the doctor understand the plight of his ill patient? If the latter took the medic’s hand and said: “Doctor, you are the only one who can cure me; to me you are God, my mother and father - I have no one else; only you can relieve me of my pains!” Then the soul of the doctor would awaken and he would say” I will help this patient.” But if the patient were to say: “You are a doctor and it is your duty to cure me, this is what I am paying you for!”, then he would remain silent and ignore him. If you want and ask, the Divine will awaken within this doctor and he will say: “I will help this man” Now many say: “If He shall so desire, God will cure me.” What do you mean - if God so desires – you are the one who has to desire recovery! Then start and pray according to all rules, cry if you must and say: “Beat me, crush me, but only You will help me!” Then God would say “This ill man deserves (to be healed) but I want to make him turn to me”. Some of you say: “We had better not go to the Master, it is better not to disturb him.” Others speak to me: “Master, I wanted to ask you something important but I am noble and do not want to disturb you like the others do.” I am telling you - you have now disturbed me more than the others. You, who had to solve this issue at that given time, failed to do so and you now wish to lie to me. The lie has entered your soul. I would prefer it for anyone to disturb me but to solve their problem expediently and in compliance with all rules and principles of Divine art, to solve it according to the principle of Love. There is one issue for the solution of which I have never refused advice. I have never refused to receive anyone whose heart was under extreme pressure. I have never let anyone down. If someone’s will power was very strong, I would tell him: “You have will power as strong as steel or granite, you do not need my help” Now I speak to you in the name of Christ, in the name of God: since Creation I have never failed to help a sufferer. I shall state this more simply - as they are written in God’s book: never since the beginning of the world’s existence or since the creation of Cosmos has a soul in plight knocked on the Lord’s door and failed to receive help; in spite of his constant engagement with His affairs, He is always ready to assist. Never has a troubled mind knocked on God’s door and failed to have a ray of Light sent to it. And there is no exception to this. So, when we approach God with all our mind and heart and when our souls are in hardship, He shall speak to our minds and hearts. Now, you wish to be disciples and this is a commendable aspiration. There is no more beautiful desire than to be a disciple! Whoever was once a disciple remembers these days with admiration. It is the same in an esoteric school. There is no more beautiful wish than to be its disciple. Now, as disciples I wish you all success on the way to Truth. I wish you to become familiar with the language of Love, its grammar - to know where to put the noun - in the beginning or in the end, the same with a verb or an adjective, a connector or an interjection. I wish you to learn the language of Wisdom and that of Truth. And next year when I say: “Tell me Truth”, then you will start talking about it in the appropriate language. How beautiful and how excellent this language is! Yesterday evening a disciple, whom I commend, came to me and said: “Master, I shall tell you a bitter truth about myself: I failed to resist love as I should have, I failed to preserve my purity.” So I told her: ”I congratulate you on your courage!” She had started to speak the language of Truth. This sister then went on: “I should have done this earlier but my will power was too weak; from now on I wish to speak the Truth like never before. I want to be pure - pure like I have never been before.” The story I have just told you is a perfect example, I commend this disciple and wish for everyone to follow suit. There are many disciples who are not better than her but are considered better. We have to be brave and decisive in the Lord’s eyes, to confess every sin and all uncleanliness. We need to open our hearts and let go of all impurity. Confession is what we all need! What confession? Perfect confession: you shall face your Master and tell Christ within your souls: “Master, I have not kept to Your Love until now, did not abide in Your Purity, but from now on I will apply Your Love in all its completeness!” Then the devil will come and say: “Wait, do not give a promise, are you certain that you will manage to keep it?” You will then say “I will keep it! I will keep Purity!” Then another temptation will come along and you will ask yourself if you can walk with this Purity. Where there is Love, there is Purity as well. Finally, one last temptation remains - you shall think: “This Master of ours wants to make us saints, to deprive us of all the goods in the world.” If I love the world, what does it matter that I renounce it? You think that if you give up the world or something else nothing will remain of you or what used to characterise your personality. Do you know what this sort of reasoning makes you look like? You resemble the frog that says: “If I were to leave the marsh, what would my life turn into?” Better life exists. Is not the life of a musician better than the quacking of the frog? Does not an artist who paints beautifully stand higher than the frog? Does not the one who reads David’s psalms and the Holy books stand higher than the frog that only quacks and makes noise? I am telling you - when you leave this life the perspectives before you will be a thousand times grander and more glorious than the present life. As you are formed today, when a mother and daughter meet and kiss, the former shakes off and says: “Your lips are cold.” Why is she discontent? Because in this kiss there have to be vibrations - your soul should vibrate as if it were to become this kiss itself. A mother considers this requirement as entirely natural. The daughter kisses her but the mother is not contented, she feels that the daughter loves someone else more strongly and gave them a warmer kiss. The mother sighs and wonders: “Is this why I gave birth to her? She gave someone a warmer kiss and neglected me.” Similarly, do not think you could lie to me with some last kisses. I do not kiss for last or accept leftover kisses. I speak in the Name of the Lord. He does not give or receive last kisses. When the Lord kisses you, you will rise, will liven up, will be resurrected, will become virgin and as pure as an Angel. Virgin signifies the kiss of God, the kiss of Christ. I wish for all of you one day to receive this kiss, to rise, fill with life, be resurrected and say: “Now I know this infinite Divine Love, the Love of Christ, our Master of whom many have talked for so long.” You have sought and seek Him still. This is the one and only Path! Live in the world, work but always keep these three things in your minds: first, all in the world receives its meaning and makes sense through Love, second, all in the world is only created through Wisdom and, third, all in the world is only protected through Truth. Whatever work you take up, put into it Love, Wisdom and Truth. May all be conscientious and then work will go smoothly. Whatever these Teachings are applied to, they have no exception. There are no exceptions to the principle of Love. Christ says: Jhn 15:5 “I am the vine, ye [are] the branches” So, if you start a commune, call upon Christ and say to him: “Lord, we want you to have a share in this commune and be with us; we begin in Your Wisdom, we begin in Your Love, we begin in Your Truth.” Do not venture upon setting up a commune for ten people only but open it to the whole Divine world - let it serve as an example to the world, this expression of Truth! Now we are setting up a School2. Some consider that its members will only be chosen ones. No - it is open to all with no distinction! Anyone who can love, anyone who can think for themselves, anyone who can speak the Truth is welcome to become a disciple. It is irrelevant whether she is big or small. Next year, we shall meet again and talk. Then you will bring those ten topics. Let the most capable student write something on the topic of Love - in prose or poetry – as she chooses. But may she express her ideas so that each word has its meaning and weight and at the same time remain natural - express Love as she understands it. On the second subject may the most capable student write something on Wisdom - what exactly it represents. On the third subject, may the most capable student write something about Truth. Each of your works should be no longer than twenty small pages. Do not write too finely to trick me. Only write on the lines and not between them; only on the front side of the page and leave the back side blank. Only ten pages - no more! Write less if you will but not more. You can say something about Love with ten words, ten sentences or ten pages at most. Now, let us have a release/relax a little bit. Do you realise your own situations? You are like the rings of a barrel which is tightened by the cooper. He tightens all the rings so that no gaps remain. Then he pours water and again makes sure there are no leaks. Finally he turns the barrel around, takes out the rings and uses a big trying plane… The barrel wonders how long the process will be. Until there are no more leaks. Now that the barrel is ready, the rush can be put but if a ring breaks, there will be work again next year. Now you will set yourselves free and say: “We are now free and under no obligation to abide by the rules!” But after we set you free do not think of walking away. No, you can stay tomorrow and the day after tomorrow - according to your work and circumstances. Do not think I am signing your passports; a day, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten - you can stay. I decide for up to ten days, the residents of Veliko Turnovo decide for any longer periods. For they can say: “How long do these people intend to stay here and keep our Master occupied?” But I do not believe they will say such a thing since they have already experienced this last year. Out of Love you can stay for as long as you like, you are welcome. Eat and drink as much as you wish, but once you leave, go and pay your debts. Receive and treat others like we treated you! 27th August 1922, Veliko Turnovo3 1 “Bless and forget not” and “Fir-fur-fen” – music exercises given by Master Beinsa Douno at the annual reunion of the White Brotherhood in Veliko Turnovo, 1922. 2 Setting up a school – Master Beinsa Douno inaugurates the School of the White Brotherhood on February 24th 1922 in Sofia. 3 The lecture “I am the vine of truth” was first published in the literary miscellany “I am the vine of truth”, Varna 1992. Source

Note 6f Transformation Of Energies Twenty-third lecture by the Master, held before the General esoteric class on 4 August 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret1 prayer I will now talk for a while about transformation of energies. You should partly get acquainted with this great law of transformation. Let us say that you have a certain pleasant or unpleasant state of the Spirit, the soul or the body. State of the Spirit implies that you are thinking of something, that some thought occupies you; state of the soul implies some feeling in the heart. So you have some state either in your mind, in your heart or in your will. Well, precisely this state ensues from the tension of some force. For example, you are walking, and a tiny thorn pricks into your heel – for each step, you will feel unpleasantness. So a certain force has attacked this thorn, it influences your foot and you get restless. Whoever does not know the reason for your state – that this tiny thorn has got into your heel – would say: “This person just wants this and acts this way – twisting”, but this twisting comes from this thorn. As a rule, Bulgarians have with them such big needles and when they prick themselves with some thorn, they start picking with this needle until the thorn comes out; once it gets out, they put their mouths on this place to suck up some blood, and then they put a little salt on top of it. Well, now this thorn may get somewhere into your feelings, because thorns grow everywhere just like uninvited guests. And if it so happens that you walk along an unbeaten road where these thorns grow, then possibly not only one, but ten, twenty or thirty of them might puncture the sole of your foot. Now, these thorns are still more dangerous when a feeling rouses in you, let us say, a feeling of disgust or hatred. You may be a philosopher, you may be a religious person, but when this feeling comes, you will change; you will forget your religiousness and will show yourself just like you were originally. Twenty years ago I watched how two missionaries in North Bulgaria flew at each other’s throats and almost killed each other, but half an hour later they prayed, and after the prayer – this-and-that, they kissed and forgave each other. Now I ask what happened between them. The cause is one word – this word in a certain moment might be misunderstood, it may incite a series of other feelings and cause another kind of a state. You have to know the laws, to turn these forces into a positive direction, to replace them with something else. Now, let us say that we talk about hatred. You might ask: “Couldn’t we go without hatred?” – You cannot – the stronger hatred is, the stronger Love is, too. But when will Love be stronger? – As soon as this hatred is removed. Love will be so much stronger, as much as hatred has been stronger. Hence, hatred is a shadow of Love, and by this shadow we will be able to judge in what direction this Reality is located, because if you do not love, you will hate. However, there is a third state that is worse than hatred, because the one who hates you, is active; the one who hates you, takes from you – this person will either hit you, or lame you, or set your house on fire; if this person is a journalist, he will write in the newspapers to compromise you and will clamp you so that you can feel his hatred. This is a restrictive condition. The one, who cares for you or loves you, will do you Good, will recommend you at the proper place; if you are poor, this person will lend you money, make you a house – this is a process opposite to the first one. Now I will not dwell on psychology, where these two states have derived from, because the state of hatred has its origin, too. Initially this state was natural, but now this state of hatred is unnatural. Therefore, in present life, we should place hatred as a rear of Love, every time it is possible. And the esoteric law reads as follows: “Do not oppose hatred, because if you oppose it, you give it more power – if you oppose it, you acknowledge it a reality, and if you oppose this reality, you acknowledge it as a power. If you do not acknowledge it, then you should think only of Love, speak only of Love and leave hatred as it is – to act alone by itself. And Christ says it rightly: “Do not oppose evil”. Why? – In order not to give it strength – once you oppose it, you allow it to draw strength from you. If your mind is occupied with someone who hates you, and you want to oppose this person, you allow him to draw some strength from you. And we can say that hatred is theft done in a lawful way, blackmail, drawing of human energy. And the one, who hates you, will always exhaust you, hit you, break your head or leg. If it is in physical aspect, this person will hit and lame you so that you cannot oppose him; thus, he would like to take your energy both in an intellectual and spiritual aspect. Therefore, Christ says: “Do not oppose evil and think of Good within yourself”. So there is the difficult part, because evil – these are intelligent beings from the Brotherhood of Darkness2, and they say: “Oppose evil, because only in this way you will show your character” – for them, doing evil is life, while doing Good is death. As in the Lodge of Light evil is excluded and everyone is being punished for it, in the same way in the Lodge of Darkness, Good is excluded and everyone is being punished when doing Good. Also these moods you sometimes experience come through suggestion. For example, someone would come to persuade you, saying “You give him a lesson, prove to him that you are a good person, that you are not a simpleton; otherwise your prestige will be lowered – clench your fist and show yourself so that everyone trembles around you.” At the same time, another thought from the Brotherhood of Light comes to you, saying: “No, act after your Love, don’t pay attention to this, consider it not addressed to you.” And these two thoughts begin talking to you – the one school and the other one start talking to you. You sit and sit, and then say: “We shall take the road”. You are in the Brotherhood of Light and yet you work with the Dark ones, so you are to the left. Because every moment you are either to the left or to the right: you get angry – you are to the left, you love – you are to the right. This path is like this – each moment we will alter, now to the left, now to the right, until we come to the position to distinguish these states and immediately grasp the moment in which they want to tempt us. When you come to the position to grasp this moment, you have to let your intuition manifest and not oppose it – and once you do not oppose it, you will be victorious. Every time when one is able to withstand a certain temptation, a certain seduction, this person always gets stronger; but if one is unable to withstand a certain temptation or seduction, one falls and weakens – this is a law. When temptations come, you cannot avoid them. Temptations will come, tests will come, the question lies not in this; the bitter and sweet feelings will come – this is a law, there is no other path in the present conditions, and everyone should know how to receive them. This law is the same also in the Mental world: some thoughts are formed by the Brotherhood of Light, while others are formed by the Brotherhood of Darkness, and every single thought has its own utmost limits. Then I will define the following law for you: those who walk in the left path, they prolong the time in the beginning and shorten it in the end; while those disciples who walk in the Brotherhood of Light, shorten time in the beginning but prolong it in the end. I will now explain this law to you: for example, a worldly person has some time to think and discuss, it takes him one, two or three days, he thinks a lot about how, for instance, to cover a road of several kilometres – he would send a whole expedition to check the road, to investigate it, and would say: “This road cannot be travelled along.” While the person who lives in accordance with God, who walks in the Divine path, who has intuition, beholds this road all at once, and says: “God speaks so – it is possible to travel”. But once we come to the methods of the Brotherhood of Light, when we see the results in the end, we protract time. Now, the one who would lend you money, first protracts time for one, two or three months – the time will pass and when the term for collecting the money comes, he shortens the time, he will restrict you and you will pay, it cannot be helped. In the Brotherhood of Light, this process is reverse – we think in the beginning and then act, but when the fixed date comes for paying back, and someone wants to pay us back, we say: “We do not want this money, you can keep it for yourself” – this person extends time. And so, you will watch the process which takes place inside you. If, still in the beginning of your life, you want the fruit to come quickly, if you want the time to come soon for you to achieve something, if you want the results to come fast, then you walk into the left path – if you want to master something rapidly, then you walk in the left path. If, after having worked for a long time, you let the fruit come at last, and you are not in a hurry, then you walk on the right track, in the right way3. The one who has worked for one’s nation in the worldly manner, and who has walked in the left path, wants a monument to be built for him, and wants to be written about in the papers, and if they do not do so, he considers these people to be ungrateful. While a person who has walked in the right4 path, when the time comes for an anniversary, says: “There is no need to do this for me, let this be done after my death” – this person protracts time. If you wish for rapid results still in this life, you are to the left. If you hurry in the beginning, you are in accordance with God; if you protract in the beginning, you go according to the world. If you shorten the time in the end, you go according to the world; if you extend it in the end, you go according to God – this is a law inside you. And when you worry about the results of your life, about what you have done, you are to the left. You have done something and you worry – you are to the left. For instance, you worry: “What will happen to us, what if they don’t baptize our children, what if they don’t wed us?” – you already are to the left. So you have not come to this world to be wed and buried, these are side-matters. In which code of the New Testament is it written that one has to be wed and baptized? When God created the first man, was it written somewhere, that he would be wed, did God wed him? God created man in His image and according to His likeness; He said: “Be fruitful, subdue the Earth, live in accordance with God” - this is what the Lord has said. And later, when people came and began to live worldly, they used to say: “We must be wed, we must be baptized, the Lord has said so.” I am asking, who wedded the first man, who wedded the first humans? He who wedded the first humans, He will wed us, too. If this is a question of baptism, there are two kinds of baptism: with water and with Spirit. If it comes to baptism, we will prefer to be baptized by the one who baptizes with Spirit. The priest might dip me in his cauldron twenty times and I will still remain the same person. No, the Lord will baptize you, and if He baptizes me once, it is enough for me. Now, who will wed you? – God. And who will bury you? – If it is a question of burying, the Lord will bury you, because He will also bring you to life at least. If we worry, this shows that we bother about public opinion – then you are to the left. We could have in mind this public opinion, if it consisted of saints, of noble people, of people with the most sublime character, mind, heart and will – then we would accept their opinion. As for those who bother you – these are people who take bribes every day, at each step. What would these people say? Here is what a distinguished person of theirs used to tell me: “Though being bad people, we know that when a noble5 society appears, then bad people will crowd together and fly out at this society to justify their own sins.” And when they speak of you, we know that these are their sins, but we are not such stupid people. So when transforming energies, everyone should occupy oneself to see how much time it takes one to transform some energy. Now, you can make experiments – let two friends say to each other: “Tell me some offensive word, so that I can see how long it will take me to get over this offence”; pull out your watch and see at what time he offended you and how long it will take you to transform this offence. For instance, at 6 o’clock in the morning he offended you, and you will see how long it takes you to transform this feeling – whether you will be able to transform it in two minutes, in half an hour, in one, two or three hours. If you cannot calm down this feeling in a month, it means that your character is weak; if you can transform this feeling in one or two hours, if you can transform this offensive word, so that it becomes an ordinary word for you; and not only stand it but that this becomes a musical word for you – it means that you have a strong character. Now I am explaining to you the transforming of energies in the following way: let us say that you enter a restaurant; no matter if you are an esoteric disciple or a Christian, but you have no money, and the restaurant-keeper asks you: “Do you have any money?” – “I don’t” – “But you have a nice hat, I will give you a meal for that hat” – so you put down your hat. I am asking whom you should thank – your hat or the restaurant-keeper? – You should thank the hat. You enter the restaurant for the second time, you already have no hat, but your shoes are nice, you have no money, and the restaurant-keeper says: “I can give you a lunch for your shoes” – you take off your shoes and remain barefoot. Whom you have to thank? – Your shoes, not the restaurant-keeper. And if this restaurant-keeper tells you: “You should thank me that I fed you” – yes, but due to the hat; “Thank me that I fed you for the second time” – yes, but due to the shoes; i.e. the words of the restaurant-keeper are true to some extent. Maybe this restaurant-keeper just wants to test you, and the opposite might happen – he might just want to test you, to see what you will think about him, he might take your hat and give it back to you again, he might take your shoes and send them back to you again, i.e. he wants to conceal his virtue. So you will thank your hat, and he will give it back to you. When you thank your hat and he gives it back to you, he plays backgammon – he has won; but in the game, if he does not give your hat and shoes back, that settles the question – no gratitude. Now, our educators in church want us to thank them. All right, but if they have taken our hats, our shoes and coats, and do not give them back, but have given in exchange three meals to each one of us, then what shall we thank them for? I say: thank your nice hat, shoes and coat, that you could have three meals for them, but there is nothing to thank these educators for. All right, now I interpret: if a priest baptizes you, what will you gain? If you become a noble5 person after this priest baptizes you, it is good, but if, after being baptized by him, you become a scoundrel, the lowest good-for-nothing, then how much is his baptism worth? It is better if he did not baptize you. Hence, in each moment we should know how to transform these energies that accumulate every day in the form of feelings, thoughts and acts inside our body. We cannot require someone to be patient, we should not force patience upon this person from outside – he has to realize this from inside, this patience should be born within his consciousness. Patience cannot be present at every moment – sometimes patience is compatible while sometimes it is not compatible. In what cases must we have patience? If I am weak and someone is being hanged before me, I will have patience – this is God’s Will; but if I am a strong person and some people of a weak character are hanging someone before me, I will not put up with it, I will not keep my patience, I will stand up, bind them and try to dissuade them and I will not say that such is God’s Will. Hence, when are we recommended patience? – When I am weak, I will have patience, for the weak one has to be patient; when I am strong, I will not put up with it – once you are strong, you must help right away. Now this might suggest to you the thought that God is called long-patient, but do you know what God’s consideration for His long-patience ensues from? – The Lord knows that if He gets angry, the world will end, hence He is long-patient because of the consequences that might result from His anger. If He gets angry at one person, the world will be gone, because, if He gets angry, he will be angry in a way people have never seen. This is the reason why God is so long-patient. He knows that the people of weak character, the sinful people would not compel Him to betray the laws He has set up, to put Himself out of His own peace and follow their minds, and walk in their paths – He will walk in His own path. Therefore, in this respect, patience has its own place. And we should be like God – if someone criticizes us, we will walk in our path and will not stop to reason about criticism; if we stop to reason, we give strength to criticism. We will walk on the path that we are convinced of and that we have tested. Now, in Chamkoria6, in one of my talks I told my listeners that we, men, women and children at the age of 15 to 70, climbed up Musala7. – “It is a lie” – they say, - “It is not possible, you want to mislead us, a 70-year-old person cannot climb up Musala!” One of the attending persons sitting there says: “I am a witness of this, it is true.” – “But please tell us is that really true?” – People consider these things fiction. If people consider fiction the things you are doing now before their eyes, then how are you going to convince them of things they have never seen? In your reflections8 as disciples of an Esoteric school, you should always stop and consider matters. For instance, is it worth transforming the energy, do you have enough energy to spend and so on. Because in a certain case, we might have much more important work to do than deal with idle matters. And everyone has noticed that when a temptation comes, a thought always imposes itself in the following manner: you must decide something and you think that if you act in a certain way, then the affair will be settled, will be made easier; but if you act like this, not only will the things not be settled, but they get mixed up even more. In some cases it is necessary to drop this thought and absolutely ignore it, transform your energy and go on your right path, walk in the path of your own development. Sometime a person feels nervous and cannot bear9 something and says: “I can’t bear it”. Why do you suggest to yourself that you cannot bear it? This is a suggestion from outside. Imagine that four people catch you, bind you and ask you: “Can’t you bear it?” and hit you fifty strokes; then would you not bear it? – You will bear it and go beyond it. If four persons with these sticks compel you to bear it, then why could you not say, according to the same law: “I can restrain myself!” – You can, why not, only we, when suggesting these negative thoughts to ourselves, say: “I can’t.” You will suggest to yourselves: “I can, I can endure”; you would not say: “I can endure sufferings”, but you will bring Love into your soul and say: “With Love, I can bear everything!” Some stupid thought comes to you; do not deny this stupid thought, but tell yourself: “With Wisdom, I can do everything!” A lie comes; do not deny the lie, but say to yourself: “With Truth, I can do everything!” And then you draw out forces. So, when it comes to the moment to apply the esoteric law, you will always use positive words and phrases. If you use even one negative word of any nature, it will always bring bad consequences with itself. If you say: “I will get sick, I will die, our things are not getting better”, then bad effects are coming. No, all these thoughts are not for the esoteric disciple. Even the disciples of the Brotherhood of Darkness are much bolder in their statements – they come and use the positive methods of the Brotherhood of Light. A disciple of the Brotherhood of Darkness never says “no”, such a disciple says: “I will do good”, but when he gets the power, he uses it for evil. Therefore many of the Brotherhood of Light disguise themselves and go into the Brotherhood of Darkness to study their methods, while many of the Brotherhood of Darkness enter the Brotherhood of Light to study their methods – both schools have to be explored. For example, an evil person says: “I will win, I will become strong”, and a good person says: “I will become rich”, but both of them, after getting the strength, generally spend this strength – the one will do violence, and the other one will do beneficence, but both of them make statements. Now, each one of you, as a disciple of this Great school, should be positive in Good. You will not say: “I will take revenge on him”, but you will say: “I shall requite him by Love, I shall requite him by Wisdom, I shall requite him by Truth, Righteousness, Virtue, Mercy10 – that is how I shall be quits with him!” And only in this way these energies, these forces can be transformed from one state to another, because all energies are connected with Intelligent11 beings. We have to study the language of all Intelligent beings – and when you know their language, they will listen to you; but when you do not know their language, they do not help. Now we all study the language of things. Do you know what this Divine language is like? There are two things by which you can recognize it: when you have learned some of the Divine words and you have prayed, you will feel certain warmth down, in the pit of the stomach, your soul will expand and you will feel that you will soon get an answer, you receive encouragement. Then an hour, two or three hours have not even passed, and you get your answer just as you felt it. While sometimes you pray but feel some rigidity, some bitterness12, as if your prayer stands a span above your head, and no reply arrives – you speak to God in an unknown language and He does not answer you. When we speak according to His will, He answers us. Now, in the Esoteric school, the law of transformation of energies is related to the necessity of things. Every time when you start trying the law, you will begin with necessity in Life. You are hungry, you need only bread; you will take in your mind this first thought – to remove your hunger, to calm down your organism; you will not put in your mind any other thought, but you will only focus your thought to obtain bread, i.e. food, lunch, to feed yourself, this should be your thought. Once you obtain the first thing, you ought to calm down, for instance you may plan to sleep somewhere; then you will concentrate your mind upon sleeping. And then, according to the degree of necessity, all your needs will line up. If you observe this law in this way, then your prayer can be answered to, but if you put all these desires all together and if you want everything at once, all these things will be delayed and all your plans will not be achieved, because you have not observed this law of sequence. You will pray for the first thing necessary, for the thing that you cannot do without, then – for the second one, the third one, the fourth one and so on. This is how Divine law works – with mathematical precision, but if you change things and put the minor things in first place, the law changes by itself. Now, only by this law of transformation of energies, a judicious13 harmony can be created. For example, it would not be wise on my part to put on my worst clothes with a repulsive smell, enter your home and say: “Now, stand me, love me” – it is not allowed to treat any mistress like this, unless if it is to test her. I am not allowed, on my part, to tempt anyone, I have no right to do this, unless it is to test this person. Hence, on my part, I have to be so correct, so as not to give occasion to any of my classmates to lose his or her balance, neither to serve as a means of temptation, because neither will I gain something from this, nor does my classmate. Let us say that one of you, a brother, is off his balance, angry, and you gather and begin to say things about him which are not necessary – about his negative side; this passes through the whole class and then you all talk around that we have no other disciple like him – you have all failed your test, you are all to the left. Once this brother, this disciple, has made a mistake, you should all gather, make a prayer, send a grateful thought towards him, draw something from his mistake and say: “Thank God, that the Lord gave us a very good lecture and we thank this brother very much that he became a model and gave us a test.” Send him nice thoughts, he will be encouraged – then you are to the right, this is transformation of energies and that is how you should act. And so, for the future, as disciples of the School, you have to apply this law, it is a Force for you – only in this way can you develop properly. If you begin to put it into practice, you will notice a certain growing, enlightening of your mind, softening of your heart, strengthening of your will. Here is an example: I say that I have patience; you come into my room, I have some work to do, I want to write or correct something, I draw out my watch, but say nothing to you, because according to the esoteric law, it is not allowed to say: “I have some work to do, come some other time.” This is not allowed – according to the esoteric law when a disciple comes, he should guess by himself that it is time for him to leave. So I draw out my watch, look at it and the more this wish grows in me, that he should leave, the more the willingness to stay grows in him. Make an experiment: sometime you wish that someone leaves, while a wish, two times stronger, grows in this person to stay longer – he feels as if someone draws him, the process is reverse. Some other time you want a friend of yours to stay longer, because you love your friend, but less than five or ten minutes will have passed when your friend will say: “Good-bye, I will come again to your place some other time ”, he or she will leave – this is suggested to your friend by the brothers of Darkness. But if I set to myself the thought: “Wouldn’t he or she leave?”, all of a sudden my friend would find something else to tell me. No, you will draw out your watch and will see how long you will stay quiet and calm as Diogenes, without disturbing your balance – you will stay quiet and calm as if nothing happened, even though a whole day might have passed. If your friend stays a whole day and you do not lose your equilibrium, you have won. And your friend will say to himself or herself after leaving: “I should not have stayed so long, I overdid it a little” – your friend feels that he or she has given more. If your friend has stayed more, provoked you and thrown you off your balance, then after leaving, he or she would say: “I would like to go to him the same way one more time.” These are purely psychological processes which take place in you. Most of you have this kind of experience – this is a great law which you should understand and observe; this law regulates things. So, to create a character through transformation of these energies is not an easy job. Have in mind that the great Divine Spirit who has been working over you for thousands of years14, has changed your character only a little, you have done only a little job. Even when someone among you enters God, his character changes with such difficulty. There are moments when this person must absolutely change and enter the New Life, but before he or she comes to this New Life, this change happens very slowly. Once this person enters the New Life, things are radically changed already. So now you will think over transformation of energies – you will think, you will have the willingness to see to what extent you are strong. And you will all take care to transform your energies, to turn them into positive ones. Once you transform them, you win. Now, the rest of your time you may use for questions that interest you. (Brother Stoychev announced a few messages towards all of us regarding our forthcoming departure to the Gathering of the Universal Brotherhood of Light in the town of Veliko Turnovo.) This year we will apply the law, and those who come to Turnovo, will act and after that think. All will act – you will have experiments and you will think over the results of these experiments. As for those who want to reason, to think, let them not come – the ones who would like to reason, let them go into the world, this is a place for reasoning. We set to experiments – we have philosophized for twenty years, now it is time for small experiments. Some of you who want to be the first, to rank first, here is the experiment I will give them: let them go to Musala at evening time, and go through the Rila desert, through the Maritza river, the Toundjanska valley and return. After we return from the gathering, I will give this experiment to those who want to make it. The heroes will come alone and then leave by two at a time. If you cannot traverse on top of Musala, then what can you do? In ancient times, one could do as much in the world as the kind of a peak one could traverse – all adepts, all Masters of the past have gone through high places. Some of you want tests – such will be the test: getting to Musala at evening time by moonlight. There also may be another test: traversing Musala in a dark, stormy night with snow up to the knees. If you endure it, we will say that you are a first-class hero on the physical level. But if you cannot go through Musala even at daytime, there are no privileges with us, and we will say: “Brother, it is not a big thing, but you couldn’t do it”. So we will judge people by their merits and whoever endures it, we will give this person the first place. Why? – Because he or she deserves it. We will give you the first place and we will give you the last place. Now, this will be the first experiment for everyone (all of you are young), for all disciples. This is a very hard test – to go through this desert of Rila: your hair will bristle up, and some of you may be sick for several full weeks. When we went to Musala recently, a friend of mine walked back on his own, passed through the desert of Rila, and here is the experience he had: he remained alone with his wife, while two other persons walked way ahead; this brother confessed to me like this: “When you were gone, I used to see living people springing out of each bush, my hair bristled up”. And indeed, when you enter this valley of the Rila desert, it is desolate there; no birds singing, but you only hear the rustling of the leaves and branches of the trees. And only if you pass it in the dark at evening time! And if you climb up the southern slope! First of all you have to pass this way at daytime so that you have no illusion that it is easy; then you will pass it by moonlight, and finally – in a dark, stormy night. Only three tries, otherwise you will be lost, your life will be in danger there. Once you make this attempt, there are certain energies in these places, which you will make use of. This is one of the best paths, this is an occult valley – only spirits of silence15 are implanted there and they have expelled all birds. When you enter there, you feel that all these energies go only inwards, and you become more and more serious – something grand! When you pass Musala and enter the valley of the Toundja River, immediately your heart opens up and becomes merry, joyful. When passing on one side, you are serious, while when passing on the other side, you are merry; these two conditions are excellent. Nature in this desert of Rila is grand, majestic! One should spend there a day, two or three days, in order to see what a fine place it is for reflection. Disciples should begin with these experiments, because in Bulgaria you have comfort with these high places, with these mountains – in Egypt and elsewhere, they used to create these things artificially, while here Nature has given them to us without our efforts. Therefore, this year we will start with these methods, we will all be active. When you come now to the gathering, you will all work – no privileges. You, too, citizens of Sofia; there must be twenty or thirty extra people for every job – all of you should work willingly, no one saying: “I cannot do this job”. We will begin with the example of the eldest, the strongest ones, and then the youngest will work in the same way. One is the law that you will obey, one is the opinion. We will try the law and see what the consequences are. This position will give us Freedom, a certain faith so that we try God’s will and apply it without any correction. In cannot be otherwise – we will try this without any change. If a certain route is set for you, then you will accomplish it without variation. When we walked to Musala, I told them: “When we come to the places with snow, no one will walk this way, we will take the path slightly to the side”. However, four people deviated from this rule, rolled down, and two of them were saved by a miracle, they contused. A disciple walks along with me and says: “Let me go this way” – he wants to walk along the snowy path. You shall travel along the same path that I travel on. When the Lord tells you to cross the snow, you will cross the snow, but now you will go around and walk through the crags – every time you will walk along the path traced by God. We are thankful that these two persons were rescued so safely: they were a man and a woman who rolled about a hundred meters downwards – it was because of their disobedience, because they wanted to cross the snow. Now, obedience is required of you all, inner obedience. Some would say: “This spirit talks to me like this”. This Spirit is supposed to talk equally to each one of us. A spirit who says one thing to me, and to you – another thing, is not this genuine Spirit. This Spirit should speak to us one and the same thing – this injunction is one and the same for me and for you, and for all of us. His will has to be the Divine Will, which we ought to implement without any doubt. And then the results will be excellent. My experience is: where God’s Will is done, there are always good results, without any exception; where we stray from God’s Will even in the very least, there the bad consequences will come immediately. I will give you an example which a sister told me: she made her experiment to Vitosha16, but on her way back to Dragalevtsi17, she feels like drinking some water, approaches the fountain and wants to drink only two or three sips, to wet her throat, but something from inside tells her quite definitely: “Do not drink, walk on your way.” She comprehends this voice but thinks: “Just two or three sips.” She stops by the fountain – she has nothing to drink with, beholds a young girl filling her pitchers, asks her to drink from her pitchers and the village girl lets her do it, she raises the pitcher to her mouth, but does not manage to drink even one sip when she drops the pitcher from her hand and breaks it. Now she stands before the broken pitcher, still with a dried throat, but she thinks of this no more, but instead thinks of how to pay for the pitcher – she has no penny on her, and the village girl insists on being paid. This sister offers her hat to the girl. – “I don’t need your hat; I want money, fifteen leva18!” – “I don’t have it.” – “Find some; go back from where you came!” – “Listen,” – the sister says – “I am a teacher, I will not lie to you, I will go back to Sofia and will return here on purpose, to bring you fifteen leva” – she takes her address and name, and so the problem is resolved. Now, I have faith in you. I got a nice impression that there is good will in all of you. When I was looking at these a hundred and four people, climbing up towards Musala, standing before the snow, they asked me: “Master, shall we go this way?” I look – a dangerous road, snow; I say: “You may do it”. When these a hundred and four people rushed, they reached Musala in a little over than an hour. I say: with these disciples, high peaks can be conquered – this is a good feature in them, it can be used for good. And all of them came back safely, except for those two, the contused ones – it was an incident. There is good will in all who listen to me – experience shows this, but I want for all of you to make good use of your energies. Those of you who will remain in Sofia, whose things will not be possible to be settled, I want them to observe the days of the gathering – to get together in groups of ten up to fifteen persons, to be in touch, to make contact on the astral plane, so that there is a connection between us and them. I believe that this year many things will be straightened up. The Invisible world works a lot and we have to be ready. It is someone else who works now for our sake, and we will correct things that are worked out and will take care not to ruin God’s path, God’s plan, not to distort God’s Word. Let us implement everything word for word19, let us fulfil all orders – let us be model disciples of the Brotherhood of Light. Because not many years will pass, and there will come brotherhoods from other places, which will wish to unite with you, to see how you live – you have to be ready. Now, a very good future lies ahead of you, there is no reason for you to lose heart. They really put packsaddles on in Turnovo, but everyone puts his own packsaddle on. When you come, we ask: “Brother, this packsaddle is for you, this bridle is for you, can you put it on and take it off yourself on your own? If you can, take it, because we don’t have resources, we don’t have enough.” This is in the figurative sense. Once I say it, I will do it – I will be faithful to myself. The one, who is faithful to oneself, will be faithful to God as well. And there is no better thing than this – to be in the good graces of God, of the Angels, of the saints, to have the favour of God, what can be better than to be in harmony and concord with this Great law! They will not give us something that we cannot perform, they will not demand impossible things from us – they will give us things that are possible in conformity with our mind, heart and will – things which will ease and enlighten us. So we need not lose heart. Secret1 prayer 1 Here “secret” should rather be comprehended as “silent and confidential”, i.e. prayer which is only between God and the praying person. 2 The phrases “Brotherhood of Light” and “Brotherhood of Darkness” in this lecture are translated following the meaning. If we had to translate the original phrases literally, they would sound as “White Brotherhood” and “Black Brotherhood”, where “white” and “black” in the Word of the Master are always used only in their principal meaning, concerning the ideas of White (Light) and Black (Darkness) as basic opposite and complementary principles in the whole Creation (as, for example, it is in “Yin and Yang” in Chinese philosophy). To avoid any misunderstandings, the translator has preferred the words “Light” and “Darkness”. 3 “the right track” – “right” here is used in the meaning of “correct” “the right way” – “right” here is used as the opposite of “left” In the Bulgarian original they are two different words. 4 “right” here is the opposite of “left” 5 “noble” here is used in the meaning of “high-minded”, “magnanimous” 6 “Chamkoria” (from Turkish) – the old name of the resort in the Rila mountain in Bulgaria which is now named “Borovets”, in both languages it means “pine woods”, “pine-wooden” 7 Musala - the highest peak on the Balkan Peninsula. This peak is in the Rila mountain in Bulgaria and is 2,925 meters high, which is equal to 9,596 ft 8 “reflections” here is in the meaning of “reasoning” 9 “bear it” in this context is used in the sense of “have patience” 10 “mercy” here is used in the sense of “clemency” 11 “intelligent” here refers not so much to the intellect, but implies that these beings have very high level of consciousness and understanding. It should be rather comprehended as “wise”. But since “wise” is connected with “Wisdom”, which has a certain definition in the Word of Master Beinsa Douno, the translator would not like to mix the meaning of both words. 12 “bitterness” here has the meaning of “lack of mercy”, “fierceness” 13 In the original, the word for “judicious” here is the same used above for “Intelligent beings” – only here it refers to an object, not a being. 14 “has been working over” here implies that the Spirit is still working over 15 “silence” here implies the idea of “being silent”, “saying nothing” 16 Vitosha is a mountain to the South of Sofia. It is situated between Sofia and the Rila mountain 17 Dragalevtsi is now a district in South Sofia, but at the time when this lecture was held, it was a village in the surroundings of Sofia, at the foot of the Vitosha mountain 18 “Leva”, plural of “lev” – Bulgarian currency 19 “word for word” – in the original here is used a Russian phrase meaning “exactly”, “literally” Source

Беседата на български Functioning Of The Heart Year 1, Lecture 21 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on August 2, 1922, Wednesday 19.30h, Sofia Secret prayer There was a presentation of the disciples’ essays on the topic: “The purpose of the human heart.” For next time please write on the following topic: “The significance of the human eye.” When you were writing about the purpose of the human heart, did you stop and reflect on the centre of your heart? When the heart ceases to beat, physical life also ceases. When the heart ceases to feel, astral life ceases. Now I will give you the following weekly task: every day - in the morning, before lunch and before dinner - say the following words: “God, please create a pure and sacred heart in me!” After you have said these words you should reflect on the heart for five minutes. Some people say that the heart is a temple, others say that it is an altar of God. What is the heart for poets, a temple or an altar? Such sentiments indicate that people place a high value on the heart. What is the role of the heart in the human organism? It is very simple – it stimulates blood circulation. In that sense the heart plays the role of a conductor. It has a precise, mathematically determined size, according to which its function is also determined. There is a certain relationship between the physical and the spiritual functioning of the heart. Although as a physical organ it is small in size, from a spiritual perspective the heart is considered very important. As a result the heart becomes a master, which it doesn't have the right to be. This is an incorrect assumption. Only the human Spirit can be the master of everything. I am going to ask you the following question: “Does the heart or the Spirit feel?” How do contemporary psychologists explain the function of the heart in the Spiritual world? – As mere nervous impulses, as functions of the nervous system. As far as the psychic or inner-life aspects of the heart are concerned, people pay no attention. They walk by the heart like tourists without entering deeper into its inner life. Many modern tourists climb mountains, pick and eat blackberries, but never think about collecting some berries for the winter. You would say, "When winter comes, we'll buy blackberries from the store." Yes, but you will not find blackberries then. The heart needs to have reserves the same way a good housekeeper stores various fruits for the winter. It has been said that the heart is a temple of God. However, every temple needs an altar. The altar is the fireplace of the temple. The human body is likewise said to be a temple of God. The heart is the fireplace of this temple, and the fire burns always within it. What is the fire needed for? People warm themselves, cook, boil water on the fire and so on. If you bear in mind the role of fire in a fireplace, you will understand the functioning of the heart as a fireplace in the Divine temple. When it is warm outside, the fire is extinguished, but the fireplace remains. So in summertime people keep warm without a fire. We said earlier that when the physical heart ceases to beat, physical life also ceases. When sensations and feelings cease in the human being, the astral life comes to an end. When the astral life ceases, one falls into a sleepy state that resembles the application of anaesthesia. In the same way one can be intoxicated by smoke, ether or other gases. When the chimney of someone’s house doesn't work well, the house will be filled with smoke, so it should be ventilated through the windows. It will be impossible to stay inside and breathe the smoke. Similarly, each negative state indicates that the human heart is full of smoke. Why? Because the chimney of your heart, the chimney of your fireplace is stuffed. People say that everything is due to the heart, yet when they pass through difficult inner experiences, they look for the reasons elsewhere. I enter their house and see that it is full of smoke. I say, "Clean your chimneys, or fix them if they are broken!" The same is true for the heart. When you have emotional problems, I say, "Clean the chimney of your heart!" What is the chimney of the heart and where is it located? Reflect on this question for a while in solitude and find your own answer. You will be able to answer this question when you begin to study the Physical, Astral, Mental and Causal bodies of the human being. In the same way that the Physical body has its physiology and anatomy, the Astral, Mental and Causal bodies have theirs. The physiology and anatomy of the higher bodies are similar to those of the physical body. When certain analogies are made, however, they should be true. If analogies are true in their comparisons, one will intuitively feel inner harmony and satisfaction with them. For example, someone has written a poem. He has read it several times, but he doesn't like it. He corrects it, reads it again and then leaves it for a while. He then reads it again and realizes that it's now better than before, so this time he likes it. This proves the existence of an intuitive sense within a person, a sense that indicates to him which choices are right and which ones are wrong. In this respect, as disciples, you should develop your intuition so that you become able to distinguish between right and wrong choices. If your intuition is well developed, after you have written something on a certain topic - as you have written about the heart today - and after you have read it two or three times, you will be able to determine immediately whether your work is true or not. If your text is good, both you and your listeners will be satisfied. If you are not satisfied with your text, in no way can you expect others to appreciate it. While you were preparing your essays about the heart, you should have asked yourselves if your heart was healthy, if it sensed in a correct way. Then you should have considered the number of its valves from an anatomic point of view. Lastly, you should have perceived the astral or the spiritual heart, and reflected on it for some time before finally writing the essay. This is the right way of thinking. Contemporary people don't think in depth. Imagine that someone tells you that you are a bad person. Is that true? If you don't think deeply on the matter, you will take these words to be absolute truth and you will feel insulted. However, if you are a servant and your master has ordered you to go out to the field and dig, and you have refused to obey the order, I would say: you are a bad person in relation to your job, but not in relation to your life. If the servant hasn't gone out to plough and sow the field, one of his basic obligations is unfulfilled. I am asking, is there any difference between a servant sowing the entire field or just a single grain of wheat? Whoever is ready to sow a single grain of wheat will be ready to sow the whole field as well. Whoever cannot sow a single grain of wheat cannot sow the whole field either. Therefore, when we say that someone is a bad person, we mean that he is bad only at a certain moment, but not in other past or future moments. He is bad for as long as his bad behavior lasts. In a future moment, when he thinks or does something good and noble, he will be a good person. Similarly, when we speak about the occult meaning of good and evil, we understand only a specific moment. This may last a few minutes, a few hours or an entire year, but then it will change. One cannot be only bad or only good for an entire lifetime. Even the wolf, who is considered cruel, may display nobility on some occasions, such as when it enters a flock of sheep, touches this or that sheep with its muzzle, then goes away, causing no harm. In such cases shepherds say that something unusual has happened, that the muzzle of the wolf was blocked so that it couldn't kill any sheep. No, this wolf has shown some nobility. After pushing a sheep, he thinks for a while and says, "All right, have it your way!" When a wolf enters a flock, he may act in three different ways: either choke the sheep; scratch them with his nails, thus frightening them and then run away; or push them a little without choking them and then go away without causing any harm. The same is also true of humans. When one behaves badly, he either chokes others, scratches and frightens them, or pushes and knocks them over and runs away. Therefore, when you say that someone is bad, you should know exactly which of the three situations has occurred. This is the reason why good and evil are relative. Relativity is determined by the period of time in which the energy is active and whether or not the activity has changed anything. When it is said that someone is unable to do evil, this means that evil action is determined astrologically, through the influence of certain planets over human beings. In simple terms, the right conditions must exist in order for someone to do evil. When someone acts outside of these conditions, the door for committing evil is closed to him or her. Outside of this closed door, the individual energetically knocks and hits upon it, but since it doesn't open, the direction is changed and the individual begins to manifest good deeds. The same law is valid for Good, too. Therefore, one doesn't always have suitable conditions for doing good, neither does he always have suitable conditions for doing evil. When writing your essays about the human eyes, think seriously about the good that can be attained through them. Reflect also on the good that comes through your heart. Make scientific observations on yourself in order to differentiate the experiences you have, as well as their effect upon you. For example, measure your pulse when you are in high spirits, then count the number of heartbeats that you have when you experience great joy or grief. It is interesting to observe the variations of your pulse as your inner states change. Also, you will receive certain mathematical data that you can use in your work on yourself. Notice whether the rhythm of your heart is steady or not, if it is long or short. You can determine your condition by the rhythm of the heart. Only in these ways can you receive concrete data to apply to your life. Otherwise you will accumulate capital, put it in the bank and count it without knowing how it was acquired. If you don't become bankers, you will dig, plough and sow the field in order to learn how wealth gets accumulated. Whoever hasn't acquired his wealth through effort and labour can only boast of having thousands, but such wealth is dangerous. As disciples of the occult who are given a great deal of knowledge, you run the risk of becoming too full or absent-minded. When you study many subjects, you may become disoriented, and as a result there will be many things that you won't hear, comprehend or perceive. You will hear physically, but you won't perceive inwardly. In that case no matter how much you speak to a person, he won't be able to understand anything. Such a person is like a young man awaiting the date with his beloved who can think of nothing else. No matter what you speak to him about, he will only think about his date. A hungry person is in a similar situation. You tell him this or that but he only thinks about food. Therefore, when an individual's consciousness is occupied with a certain thought, there are many things he won't grasp and will simply miss them. Sometimes your consciousness is also busy with external thoughts, not allowing you to perceive things properly. You read a poet, you admire him, yet you wonder what he intended to say in the poem. What did he want to say? He experienced despair and he masked it, so you think that his ideas are very deep. Some other time he was uplifted and fascinated, yet you're puzzled about his ideas. He has expressed his fascination, nothing else. These are external thoughts which are unrelated to the main subject. When describing his disappointments, the poet has gone through painful experiences. When describing his fascinations, he has been healed, especially after receiving financial support in the thousands, enabling him to travel overseas. However, a real poet views things from a Divine perspective and applies this in his life. A real poet describes things in their reality and is not guided by personal feelings. The same is also true for music and art. Now, when you reflect on things, I would like you too to expect nothing from anyone else, and nothing should be expected of you. When I refrain from speaking to you in a more concrete way, it's because I haven't yet met a person whose consciousness is as clear as the Sun – without a stain. Only those with clear consciousness can perceive things as they exist in the Divine world or in Mindful Nature. Therefore, as disciples of an occult school, you should purify your consciousness in such a way that everything you perceive can be understood and imprinted on you. You should break your telephone connection with the external world by saying, "We receive only from within, not from the outside world." When you come to class now, you are busy the whole time answering calls: “rrring” from here, “rrring” from there. You stand up, go away, come back, and fail to comprehend the subject you are being taught. How can you comprehend when you only busy yourself with these calls? The first task of an occult disciple is to learn to close his telephone lines. If someone wants to call you, you will say, "Excuse me, but my wires with the external world are disconnected." – "Why, how?"– "They're disconnected because of my occult studies at School. When I finish my lesson, I can receive and send messages again. Please don't bother me while I'm in class. Wait until the end of my lesson - then you may tell me what you need. Until then, wait for me outside." Source

Note 4 Development Of The Consciousness Lecture twenty-two read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 27th of July, Thursday, Chamkoria A secret prayer First the essays of the disciples on “The Most Proper Way for the Will-power Cultivation” were read. After that brother Rouschev read an essay devoted to the material world. I will talk for a while on the development of consciousness. In this case I take the word consciousness in its broad sense. In the Bulgarian language the word consciousness consists of a conjunction meaning “with” and a noun meaning “knowledge” – this means “to walk with Knowledge, is to be aware of something.” This meaning is primarily spiritual. It means to be simultaneously aware of two different states within yourself, within your mind, i.e. to be aware of the right and the wrong deeds, to know the difference between these two deeds, to know the difference between the right and the wrong feelings. Well, when I talk to you about the consciousness some of you resemble those who like music. Those who listen to the music and who say: “The music is a wonderful thing”, but you cannot tell which is the better part of this music, you can’t tell the difference between the tones. If some of the tones are omitted, you are not able to grasp this, you are able to comprehend the general stream only, while an expert musician can discern exactly where the mistake is – he discerns it by the help of his experience. You, the occult disciples - if you cannot grasp certain tones, if you are not able to make out such differences within your consciousness as these expert musicians do, then you cannot be disciples. All right, now I shall consider this question from an occult point of view: if I write a clef on the staff and under the first line I write a zero without a tail, I’ll have a whole note. Let us assume that right besides this note I put a quarter note, then a quaver note, then again a whole note, then a half note, etc. will this quarter of a note boast that it is beside the whole note? Sometimes I notice that you the occult disciples begin to think this way – how much the small note is nearer the big note. But you shouldn’t do this – you’d better mind that the tone you emit blends with the first note and that you make these notes harmonise and mind what expression you can achieve within the common harmony of all the notes. You still continue to ask yourself in what direction you are as regards the whole note, and how far you are from this note. Sometimes you notice that you are at a distance of one division, of two divisions, of three divisions from it and you say to yourself: “We drifted a great distance away.” This is not the musical way of examining this matter. That note, which is able to give an expression, might be very far from the main note, from the first note – it can be at several sheets’ distance from the first note and yet give the best expression. And mind that military music, the music played when you are about to fight, always gives the highest possible expression from its very beginning and startles the audience. While the minor music begins quietly, quietly, then gradually gets louder and louder and finally becomes high-pitched – after that it again lowers and flattens. With major music this is not so. Now if you want to grow properly as disciples, you should understand Life in its interrelations – as God has settled it. It might be said that during the day you are like notes, but when you go to bed and when you wake up, your musical scale is not the same. For instance, tomorrow the relations between me - as your Master - and you - as my disciples - will not be the same as they are today; you think that they will be the same, but no, they will be quite different. There is another inner force that settles the things of Life and its place does not depend on the very note itself, but it depends on the respective musician. And you do not have the right to say “Why was I put at a lower position or why was I put at a higher position?” – Wherever you are you should play your role. If you are above or below, if you are a whole note or a half note, or a quaver, or a semiquaver note, or the thirty-second, or the sixty-fourth note, played by a drum, or play another instrument, you should merge your beats into one. No one should be able to discern your beats as they are of no importance at all. Because within this consciousness, which I am talking to you about, exists another consciousness – the Divine consciousness, to which your own consciousness should become a repercussion. You are not the reason for the world’s existence the world has not been created just because of you. God has created this world as a pastime, and human beings are toys for his entertainment. Consequently you are the toys for God’s entertainment. When you say: “In our self-perfection…” What is this self-perfection about? – It is about the attainment of God. In what way can you know God? – In His Love. All right, did you succeed in attaining Him in His Love? – “Well, in His Wisdom, rather.” – Did you succeed in attaining Him in His Wisdom? – “Well, rather in His justice.” – Did you succeed in attaining Him in His justice? – You didn’t, that is, you only did it partially. When His justice is being applied to you, you say, “It is of no use”. When His love is being applied to you, you say, “It is of no use”. When the Wisdom is being manifested in its high forms, you say, “This is too tangled, it is not for us”. When the Truth comes in its Light, you say, “It is not for our eyes”. So I am asking you: if the consciousness of each one of the disciples is at this level then what knowledge can you possibly have? Consequently, all of you should strive to harmonise your consciousness, i.e. to reflect correctly within your consciousness all the Divine thoughts, all the Divine feelings, and all the Divine acts. For the human being this is a kind of salvation, or I call it human consciousness brightening. The human consciousness can reflect anything – the human consciousness is like clear water that can reflect anything. And in this reflection we can see how the world has been created. So, I keep a close watch on you, I keep a sharp eye on you: you are engaged with things that you have experienced many times. For instance, now you are worried about what will you eat, what will you cook. But the wolf also worries about this – whether he will be able to find something to eat today or not. The bird also thinks of its food. If we begin to worry about such things like the birds that do not posses our mind(UNCLEAR), what will happen then? In fact, your food has been provided for because God has provided your food and if you realise this, you will be able to find your food. If you start to understand His language you will be able to find your food at the right time. Let’s say that someone from Sofia has sent you a parcel, and has written to you about this parcel in a letter, but you haven’t received the letter yet – that is why you know that the parcel has come, but you are not able to take it. (?) Well, in the occult science everyone should strive to learn the Divine language of things. Do you know what it is like to speak the Divine language? Let’s say that I teach some disciple the Divine language and that this language seems very strange to him. I teach him the first letter of this Divine language. This language has its own alphabet and you are being taught this alphabet every single day. So our prayers, beliefs, and love – all these are the means, by which this divine language can be interpreted to us and they are the means, by which we can attain its power. If you ask me why Love is necessary I will tell you that it is needed so that we can learn the Divine language. If you ask me why Wisdom is necessary, I will tell you that it is needed so that we can learn the Divine language. Why is the Truth necessary – so that we can learn the Divine language. As soon as you learn this speech, your present life will be given meaning. For instance, often the following question comes up within you, the following desire – to be loved, to be in love with. Do you know what it is like to love and to be loved? When you love somebody, you evaluate Love as follows: you make this person a garment, you make this person a present, you build this person a house, or you buy this person a horse, you give this person money and if this person is a son of yours you give him something more. In this way you express your Love externally, but this is not Love at all. Well, imagine that you are my servant, you are honest and I let you use my house and my horse for some ten or twenty years. Meanwhile I go somewhere and when I return I take all my things back – do you think that I would have done this out of Love towards you? I would have done this out of Love towards myself only. At present you, the mothers, underline that you have an ideal love and that you love your children unselfishly. Well, I don’t doubt that your Love is unselfish, but why do you love your children in the first place? You love them because you will get older and this son of yours will become a famous man, so there will be someone to take care of you. You have a daughter and you love her, why? So that she grows older, and she marries a rich scientist, who helps you. Can you say that this is not true? In no way can you convince me of the contrary. Within all your thoughts there lies an agenda of self-interest, an absolute selfishness. You come to me. Why? – In this I also see some selfishness – you come to me so that you can obtain something. When I tell you that I, in my turn, also want something from you, you say, “Help me win the lottery, and I’ll give half of the profit to the Brotherhood; help me win one hundred thousand levs, and I’ll give half of it to the Brotherhood.” After you win! This is what my disciples say, “After I win…” But this is not occultism, this is not discipleship – clear these ideas out of your heads. From you I want some absolutely unselfish toll for God – do you understand what absolutely unselfish means? In future all of you should serve absolutely unselfishly, without any expectations to get something in return. You are constantly trying to alight on the first place and say, “Now I am on the right, or - now I am on the left.” This is what the Disciples of Christ wanted. Some of them wanted to sit on the right hand side, and others wanted to sit on the left-hand side; two thousand years later the people still want the same. You cannot enter the Kingdom of God in this manner. You want to enter the Kingdom of God easily – this is not an occultism. In your consciousness there should emerge a higher idea. If I, as a Master, had the objective to use you, this wouldn’t be any Mastership – this would be just business. If I didn’t tell you the exact Truth, it’s because I have had a reason not to. I did tell the Truth to one disciple, and as a result he cried for two days; if I tell the truth to some other disciples, they might cry for three days – this truth will contain bitter things. The one who enters the Kingdom of God will be given greatest bitterness – they will put you in the strongest acids, and if you liquidate into them, it would mean, that you are not fit for the Kingdom of God. Now you have to prepare your consciousness. To prepare for what? To prepare for the truths that the Divine world will submit you to – and this divine world will indeed submit you to these truths. You are funny; you want to enter the Kingdom of God as guests. No guests are required in the Kingdom of God though. What does the girl, who is going to get married, think? Does she expect to have three of four housemaids to serve her after she enters her new home, while she is constantly sitting on a chair and getting dressed, is this what she thinks? When she is at the village, her husband’s father will want her to buckle down to the task of kneading bread, so that they can check if she is good at kneading bread, if she is a good cook, if she is good at washing, and after that, she will have to go to work in the field. Meanwhile we, the spiritual people, are often thinking that when we go to the Heavens, we will get guitars and that everybody there will play and sing to us. There will be playing there indeed, but in between the playing there will be many great things which will be done in this great world. And if you, with your present comprehension, are planning to enter this world, you will find yourself in great controversy. Imagine that you are in Heaven and that you have been provided with the best food, with the best music, with the best amusement, and that suddenly someone there comes with an order and tells you, “You have to get up now and go to Earth to visit a great sinner.” As soon as you get sulky, you will fail. But you will not get sulky then, no, you will get up and you will go to this great sinner. If someone makes you do such a thing, you certainly will get sulky though. For instance, if you have sat on my right side and someone makes you stand up for some reason, you would have said: “Once I had the opportunity to sit here and now they make me stand up” – all of you think in this way. I don’t mean to say that this is bad, - in fact this is good, but in the Divine world they say, that God is omnipresent. God is testing you – you don’t know where exactly He will manifest, and in what way He will manifest - you don’t know this, because it is not that important in what way God manifests Himself - the important thing is how all this will end? Imagine that I invite you to visit me at my place and I roast for you a nice hen, but then suddenly I say: “Now let’s go for a walk for three or four hours and after we return we’ll see whether we will eat the hen”, what would you say in response to this? Suppose that you are hungry, that you haven’t eaten for three days and that after I invite you for a roast chicken, I suggest that you go for a two or three hours’ walk; you would certainly say: “Is this the right time for a walk now?” You will severely criticize my deed, and you will say: “But Master!” But what would you say if it proves to be that this hen had been ill, and I tell you: “We will put the lunch off till later – we’d better go for a walk, than eat”? This means that I have asked you to go for a walk, and I have taken you far away, because I have considered, that if we had stayed at my place, that roasted hen could have smelt tasty and would have tempted you. Consequently we can conclude that all the temptations are nothing else but a diversion of our attention from the dangers which have been created in the world. In itself, each temptation is bad, but since it happens this means, that something greater, something worse would have happened – so this evil has happened in order that something even bigger doesn't happen. That is why a Bulgarian proverb says: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”. Consequently all the temptations aim at freeing us from the great evil, which is hanging like the sword of Damocles over our heads. As disciples of this School you should have in your consciousness a clear idea about the changes which are going on in the Divine world. What the people do is not important; the important thing is how the work is settled. The Divine Spirit, who makes these changes, gives to all the people whatever he chooses – you better try to understand the Divine Spirit, instead of trying to understand these minor spirits. Explore the Spirit who enlightens, who gives away the things, who is a source of the Divine Love, who is the bearer of the Divine Wisdom, who is the bearer of the Divine Truth, Justice, and Virtue. This great Spirit – it is He that you should have listened to, and if you had listened to Him, there wouldn’t have been any arguments at all – all these arguments, which are happening now, would have been settled quite easily. The other day I spoke to the first class about the transformation of the energies. Imagine that some friend of yours comes and insults you in a deadly manner – you make such an experiment, for one month you watch closely for how many minutes, days, or weeks you will be able to transform an insult. The goal is that not only should there remain no trace from this insult, but also when you hear it again, you should feel good. Watch carefully how long it takes for you to transform this insult into a pleasant feeling – this again depends on the power of your consciousness. If you cannot convert it within a month, it means that you are far from it. Then a month, two, three months, a year, two and more years pass and according to the law of karma after a great while, everything passes, God erases this recollection and you say: “It is over.” Yes, but such a person is not a disciple at all, and he hasn’t learned any lesson. You might consider that you have learned your lesson well only in the case where after someone insults you, you manage to erase this insult within an hour – and not only to erase it, but also to conceive a liking for the insulting word. If you master this science, it would mean that you are a disciple who has an understanding for the laws. Can you do this? Yes. When Christ says: “Love your enemies” this means that you should be able to convert the insult that someone has given you because when he, as your enemy, insulted you, he freed you from a greater evil. All of you should strive to clear your consciousness. Now I’ll tell you the same in a religious language: you should pray to God, you should call the Holy Spirit, so that you can apply the Divine Spirit. If with the help of your Love you can’t transform an insult, then you are not a disciple and your Love is weak and it is not Divine Love. All elements should melt within your Divine Love. Some of you might sigh. But the real disciple should not sigh “Oh, oh!” No, you should work. He might moan today, he might moan tomorrow, but finally he will say: “I understand everything now, I’ll not moan anymore, the task is solved”. I do not get angry that you moan sometimes, but when I hear you moan, I am watching to see if you still continue to work. When I hear you moan, and I see that you don’t work, then I say this matter won’t be settled by moaning. If you don’t adopt this method, which I am giving you tonight, you will waste your time, that is, you might graduate the school later. I am saying this, because some of my disciples repeat this class for fifteen years now - they say: “Master, tell us something more!”, but when I give them a more complex task, they say: “This is beyond our powers.” Then how do you want to go up a form? I don’t mean to say that I personally want this, but I am saying that everything in this School is fixed and necessary. It is not a privilege to love – it is a necessity; to be wise is not a privilege – it is a necessity; to love the truth is not a privilege – it is a necessity; to be merciful is not a privilege – it is a necessity. You should not say: “I can’t.” – No, you should just obey - this is a necessity. If you don’t obey this necessity, then death is in store for you. Why do you have to love? – Because if you don’t love, then there is no Life – if you love, there is Life, and if you do not love – there is no Life. If you don’t adopt this piece of wisdom, then the conditions of this Life will not manifest themselves. So when we talk about Love, when we talk about Wisdom, when we talk about Justice, when we talk about Truth, we comprehend the necessity of the Divine life. You should not ask why, but you should say: “I have to love, I have to be wise, I have to be just, I have to love the truth – this is a necessity, this is Divine, this is imposed on us, there are no exemptions” – that’s the way you should think. Some of you ask: “Why should we love?” – It is necessary that you should love. – “But why should we love a bad person?" – It is necessary. – “But he is so and so.” – It is necessary, don’t you see – such is the will of God. Do you understand what the will of God means? If you do not submit to His will then it will sweep away everything; if you submit to it – it stops. God will not submit to childish self-will and He will not give you answers to your questions what for and why – not at all. You must know: it is necessary. – “Why should I love?” – It is necessary; “Why should I be wise?” – It is necessary. That’s the way you should think and these things should be implemented within your consciousness once and for all. And they should be present not only within you - you should preach them to the others as well. So when they ask you what you study? You should answer: “I study that it is necessary to love!” – What else do you study? – “I study that it is necessary to have Wisdom!” – What else? - “I study that you should not make foolish things!” – What else do you study? – “I study that it is necessary to learn the Truth!” This is our doctrine: so it is necessary – you should not say: “I might, but only when I’m in the mood.” No, you should just love and that’s all. You should not do it depending on your mood – you should do it on order. You should submit – if you refuse, then everything will be over. So the reason for all the suffering in the world is just that the Invisible world wants to make the people reasonable, and wants to convince them that these sufferings are necessary. From the occult point of view, this is the reasonable side of the matter. From the Divine point of view, as long as these things are necessary, then they are to be realized most easily. For instance, it is necessary that you should eat. Is it difficult for you to eat? – No, it is easy. It is necessary that you should drink water. Is it difficult for you to drink water? – No, it is the easiest thing, one sip after another and you will drink it, just lift the glass and start. These are the easiest things. Now these disputes, which you carry on, stem from the fact that other beings exist in the world, and they obscure the human consciousness. Often the human consciousness gets obscure and the person cannot tell the difference between one thought and another, or between one feeling and another – he says: “That’s the way I think”, while the other person says: “Well, my opinion is so and so – let’s come to an agreement!” There is no place for discussions – there won’t be any contradictions as regards Love - it is necessary that you should just love. You might say: “But how, how can I love?” I’ll give you an example: when the little ducklings hatch, does their mother give them lessons on how to swim? As soon as they hatch, they know how to swim; does their mother teach them how to peck? They know how to peck as soon as they hatch. So I am telling you also: as soon as you come out of your egg you will know how to peck, and you will know how to swim. If you tell me that you don’t know I will tell you that you are kidding me, that’s how things stand. I am talking to you about the Truth, which is implanted into your soul, so that you may know it. As the chicken is able to peck and as the duckling is able to swim as soon as they hatch, the same holds true for you – you also know. The mother-duck says: “Cluck, cluck” – if we interpret her language this would mean: “Do as it was written within you.” As the duckling comes near the water, its mother croaks: “Croak-croak”, which means: Swim as it was written within this Divine book.” You might ask me: “How shall we love?” I’ll say: “Croak-croak” – you should love like it was written in the Divine book. There is no place for arguments – you can open the book and read. If you stop me, and you reason philosophically, you won’t be able to even enter the water at all. So have in mind that the fundamental Divine thoughts and ideas are invested and written into this Divine book and that everyone can read from it as long as they want to read and as long as they want to listen. Watch closely the chickens and the ducklings – when they hear the voice of their mother “cluck-cluck”, all the chickens gather and submit to her, i.e. when their mother calls them they all go to her. Well then, mind, that when God calls you and you do not listen, you will lose. If your mother, who is supposed to call you, says, “cluck-cluck” and yet you are not there, don’t you lose? If she says to you “cluck-cluck” and you go one or two minutes later – then you will find that everything has already been eaten. You say, “There is time enough in the future.” There isn’t time enough though – everything is fixed. This chicken cannot retreat to a great distance from its mother – it can move away to a distance of about one, two, ten, fifteen paces, but it cannot move away to a distance of let’s say one hundred paces or more. If it moves away to a larger distance, it will lose its mother. Likewise we, in our consciousness, cannot move away from God. You might say, “I shall move away from God” – all right, but if you retreat to a great distance you will not hear when your mother says, “cluck-cluck”. In our consciousness, we have to remain at such a distance from the world, that as soon as we fall under these Divine circumstances, we can detect what is the Spirit saying, and what our mother is saying - to be able to immediately grasp what was said and follow it - to realise her will. You don’t have to think about the consequences though, because within the realms of the necessity everything is for the Good. We finished at 8:50 a.m. A secret prayer Source

Беседата на български Possibilities Year 1, Lecture 20 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on July 26, 1922, Wednesday 11.40h, Cham-Koria Secret prayer There was a presentation of the disciples' essays on the topic: “Tall and short people and their distinctive features." What is the difference between possibility and necessity? Possibility is related to human processes, to human beings. Necessity is related to Divine processes that are imposed through the power of something higher than the human order. When we speak of possibilities, we consider what one should do in a given situation in order to utilize the favourable conditions provided by necessity. Now I will give you an example which illustrates the relationship between the high and the low principle in human nature. If a master has a good horse which he loves, a friendly relationship is established between them. The master rides the horse, the horse carries him on its back, and together they go threshing. The master dismounts the horse and harnesses it, and they begin to thresh. In the evening the master releases the horse from its work, mounts it and returns home. He goes into his house and the horse enters its stable. I am asking, where do the possibilities lie – in the master or in the horse? - In the master. Only the master has the power to change the circumstances of the horse – to improve or worsen its living conditions. The horse in its turn is able to make the circumstances of its master easier. Therefore, the lower principle in humans makes things easier, whереас the higher principle improves their circumstances. The relationship between a Master and a disciple is the same as the relationship between the master and the horse. The Master improves the situation of the disciple and the disciple makes the position of the Master easier. After the Master has improved the conditions of the disciple, the disciple should use them wisely. Therefore, possibilities represent for a human being nothing other than the rational principles contained within them. Every possibility should be utilized in order to improve the condition of the horse, which in its turn will bring ease to its master. How can the position of the horse be improved? Its stables, food and water can be improved. When the horse's situation is improved, it becomes stronger and healthier, it is better able to serve its master. Therefore if the master of your body doesn't improve the rational powers and abilities of his brain, the feelings of his heart, and finally the acts of his will, he cannot expect his life to be made any easier. As disciples of this School, you are about to learn how to transform your discontent which will be an obstacle for you for years to come. What is a disciple discontented with? A disciple may be discontented with himself – with his mind, heart and will. A disciple may also be dissatisfied with the surrounding environment. Whatever form discontent takes, whatever cause it might have, it is an energy, a force which should be used as an incentive for work. Discontent is due to a lack of something essential for human happiness. I am asking, where are you going to find that which you are lacking? If you lack Heat, where can you find it? In the Sun. If you lack Light, where can you find it? In the Sun. You will say that any burning or heating body gives off light. We also have, for example, heat coming from a lit oil-lamp, from a candle or a burning piece of wood. Yes, but this heat is secondary. Candles, wood and other combustible bodies have solar energy stored inside them which can be turned into light or heat according to necessity. However, the most pleasant warmth and the purest light come from the Sun. Primary Warmth and Light come directly from the Sun. Therefore, you should look for heat and light in the Sun. Where should you look for Love, Wisdom and Truth? In God. Therefore, the external side of God, i.e. His disk, is Wisdom, the content of the disk is Love, and its meaning is Truth. In other words, Wisdom represents the real, external, visible form of things, Love is the content of these forms and Truth represents their meaning. If you want to search for Love, Wisdom and Truth in a person, these qualities are there as a secondary manifestation. When you search for Love in God, you are in a safe place. Why? Because the Love of God is inexhaustible. It is a source that springs continuously, a fire that burns incessantly. You should pour your water into this source and add your oil to this fire. If you don't pour your water into the Eternal source, it will cease to spring. If you don't add your oil to the Divine fire, it will cease to burn, just as oil-lamps cannot give офф light without oil, or electric lamps without electricity. Oil, fuel and electricity are the conditions for burning. People find that many of these conditions bring contradictions to life. When the conditions are finite and limited, they bring contradictions, but when they are infinite and unlimited, they exclude all contradiction. As disciples of the Great School, try to understand the Boundless and the Infinite which is revealed in limited, finite, but intelligent forms. Then you will recognize the origin of discontent. The Infinite makes humans discontented. What can you do to relieve this? You can expand yourself. If you become like a big, wide tube, through which the water of the Divine Source can freely flow without tension or pressure, you will expand yourself and your discontent will vanish. Your discontent is due to the fact that you haven't used the favourable conditions for your development in a timely and mindful way. When do people get discontented? When they get old. All old people are dissatisfied with themselves. They realize they should have studied and acquired knowledge and experience in their youth, whereas they have wasted their time instead and are now unable to go back in time. All old people, with a few exceptions only, are extremely dissatisfied with themselves. Young people on the other hand are dissatisfied with the limitations that impede them and hamper the implementation of their wishes. Each obstacle or difficulty on their path causes them discontent. One should be satisfied with the conditions one is placed in and should try to use them in the best possible way. If an individual is dissatisfied with his position in life, he will be like the frog in the fable “The Stork and the Frog.” This is an occult fable with a deep inner meaning. One day a young stork, which represents a beautiful young man, passed by a swamp where many frogs lived. The stork looked at the swamp and saw the head of a frog popping from the water. In this case the frog represents a young woman. The stork stopped in front of the frog and began telling her about the world he lived in. "Do you know what heights we can reach, what kinds of spaces and skies we can see? I wonder how you can live in this dirty swamp!" – "What can I do, I have no wings to fly away." – “It's very easy, climb onto my back and I'll carry you up to the wide spaces - you'll see a new world and new heights." The frog got on his back and thus flew into the skies. But since she couldn't endure the new conditions, she exploded and fell on the ground. What lesson can be learned from this fable? – Each person should live in the conditions he or she has been placed in. If they leave the position where Providence has placed them, they will inevitably fall and get killed. The stork told the frog about the high, beautiful places too soon, and the frog came out of its swamp too early. Now, you should know that in occultism too there are dangerous and tempting places which can cause you suffering. Don't get on the wings of the stork too soon! What is dangerous for the frog is safe for the stork and the other way round – what is dangerous for the stork is safe for the frog. If the frog had succeeded in making the stork enter the swamp, the stork also would have suffered. The world the stork lives in doesn't offer opportunities for the development of the frog; neither does the world of the frog offer the stork opportunities for its development. Possibilities provide conditions for the development of one’s mind, heart and will. Human thoughts and feelings should be endowed with the qualities of width and depth, and intensity should be introduced into the human will. Now, do the following experiment in order to find out how wide and deep your thoughts and feelings are, and how intense your will is. When a friend of yours uses a bad word, observe whether and how quickly this word can be transformed in a positive way. The sooner you manage to transform the bad word, the greater the width and depth of your mind and heart are. Turning what is offensive into music is a form of art. If your aim is to say a bad word to your friend, be careful not to use too heavy and insulting a word, for it will produce a large, deep incision in him. Whoever has such an incision should observe the time required for its recovery. The Hindu heal their wounds in an easy way. They use a method of taking prana from Nature and directing it mentally to the sick area, so the recovery occurs in no more than twenty minutes. Therefore, an offense is nothing more than a small incision made in one’s mind, heart or will. Those who have a sufficient supply of natural prana should just concentrate on the wound and put their hand on it, and it will recover by itself in a few minutes. This is what strong and intense will means. Without this experiment you will be like some trader who thinks he is rich, but who has no money in his cash-box. So do this experiment consciously. When you see that a friend of yours is in a bad mood, go to her and say something that will challenge her. Then she will say an insulting word in response. Thank her, explaining that you have carried out a small experiment with her and that is why you have teased her. You are to choose a person for this experiment whose use of bad words you will actually expect. Then, turn to yourself and observe the time you need for polarization. Such experiments could arise in a natural way, with no need to create them artificially. It would be better for you if the experiments were natural. So, you will arrange your own experiments only if they haven't been arranged for you through natural means. All experiments and tests you are given in the School represent possibilities for attaining energy. Those who succeed in their efforts and pass their tests will gain energy. Those who don't solve their tasks will lose energy. You should know that contradictions on the path of disciples are needed for their physical, mental and spiritual development. Contradictions are a necessary law for the development of the disciple. When we speak about the laws and forces in Nature, we must take into consideration the Primary Law, according to which things are precisely determined. There is only one exception to this law that exists as a possibility, as a door to something new. According to this exception, nothing is impossible for God. He can do anything, either instantly or gradually. When it is cold outside, you are dissatisfied; when it gets warm, you are happier. When it is dark outside, you stumble and fall and get discontented; when it is dawn and Light comes, you are happier. As you can see, cold and warmth, dark and light are forces that either spoil or improve conditions. The mental states of humans change in the same way. As long as their consciousness is in darkness people believe they cannot attain their wishes. When the Sun rises in their consciousness, their wishes become attainable. Therefore you should study the possibilities in your present life so that you know what you need to improve and what you need to make easier - i.e. you need to know what possibilities you have for improvement and for making things easier. The lower should make things easier and the higher should improve conditions. Sheep, for example, serve people by providing them with milk and wool; people improve the living conditions of sheep. Improve the state of your mind so that it can make things easier for you; improve the state of your heart so that it can make things easier for you; improve the state of your will so that, by becoming intensive, strong and powerful, it can make things easier for you. Today I spoke of the possibilities that exist in Life. Good and evil are possibilities that exist in the Universe. Discontent and contentment, grief and joy are also possibilities. Each disharmonious thought, feeling or action produces grief in a person; each harmonious state produces joy. Grief represents the ploughing of a field, joy represents its harvesting. When people plough, the Earth is joyful; when they reap, the wheat is joyful that it has gone through a lot of suffering and has now freed itself. Secret prayer Source

Note 10 Simple and Complex Movements The twentieth lecture of the Master, delivered at the General Esoteric Class on 13 July 1922, Thursday, Chamkoria1 Papers were read on ‘Why God Created Man’. I shall speak about the simple and complex movements in Nature. Primary movements you will substitute for simple movements, and the last movements, the faintest movements you will substitute for complex movements. One explanation: complex movements imply a great deal of opposition, while simple movements imply little opposition. Now in all of you, in your mind there are two movements: there are simple movements, there are also complex movements. For example, in order for you to come here, to Chamkoria, what movement was there in you - simple or complex one, in which category would you place it? – “Complex.” Simple primary movements are only movements to God – movements, which are pure, where the consciousness is not split. Primary movements are crystal clear, while with complex movements, human consciousness is always split. You go to a resort, but you have several motivating reasons – it is not one reason, you have many reasons. I will then ask you, when one gets married, is marriage a simple or a complex movement? Complex, because it seems that the woman can say that she loves the man or the man can say that he loves the woman. This is one of the reasons; secondly, they want to have children, thirdly, the man wants somebody to cook for him. There are a number of motives; hence marriage is a complex movement. And you have to be aware that in all complex movements in the world there are obstacles, which you should be prepared to expect. And consequently as students of the Esoteric School I give you this distinctive difference in terms of methodology, so that you can psychically recognize the forces that are active in you at any moment – whether these are of the primary or of the secondary, the latter type, so that you can know in which category each movement falls. Once you know the difference, it is easy to find your way around. You are now confused between these two – there is a complex movement in progress - you expect the results of the simple movement, there is a simple movement in progress - you expect the results of the complex movement. While each movement has its own definite results. Now it is ridiculous that some people, when they want to become religious, they expect to become rich. One who wants to become religious in the full sense of the word, particularly such a person will lose all one’s wealth, because wealth itself is a complex movement. If you have Knowledge, this is a complex movement. Therefore you have to be aware of the categories in which the movements, taking place in your mind, fall – they fall either to the one or to the other category. This is a practical means to orient oneself – just to know which one is prevalent at the moment. These movements do not belong to you. If you are in a crowd, can you walk in a straight line through the crowd of people? – You will be faced with a very complex movement and when you get out you will say, “Thank God, we are safely out of it, we overcame the obstacles.” Often in life you unwillingly pass by a celebration and therefore you have to fight; what method will you apply – a complex movement, you will make thousands of by-passes in every possible direction and you will then think. These are what I call, human movements, while simple movements are short. What kind of movement is friendship, true friendship? – “Simple.” – All these motives, which take the least expense, are Divine, while those which consume huge energy, pertain to complex movements. Let’s define movement – what does it spring from? – It springs from Life – Life is the primary cause of movement. Each movement in the world shows that the consciousness of any being wants to gain access to certain food – certain forces necessary for this being, are laid for it. Thus Life generates the first movement, and the energies, stored in Life, have ensued from the World of Thought. So we are faced with one movement, representing the purely physical world; there is Life, representing the World of Spirit, the Mental World (The World of Thought). This world is expressed in the thought dominating Life, hence thought is expressed in Life – it is Life in progress, while any movement is an implementation of these three together. This is why we can determine: if your thought is simple it will generate a simple life with primary, pure, simple movements; if your thought is complex, your Life will inevitably be complex and the movements will correspond to it. Let’s say that a being, living in the Mental World, conceives the idea to become great, to create a Solar system – a complex movement is conceived within it. If this Being wants to acquire a primary, conscious movement, to try Divine Love in its pure forms, we shall then have simple movement in the consciousness. Often, you extend yourselves, wanting to reconcile simple and complex movements – these are irreconcilable. A simple movement cannot be combined with a complex one – these are incompatible. A saint and a sinner cannot live in the same place – they can live, but not in the same place; sick people and doctors may be at the same place, but it would be the doctor attending to the sick, while the sick are cured; so shall the saint stay with the sinner, until the one cures the other; the child under the same law will live with the mother until the child takes what it needs and having taken it, the child no longer looks for the mother. Now you say that God created Man in order to manifest Himself. Manifest in what; manifest to whom? I would like to correct you a little bit now: to manifest to Himself. If God wants to manifest Himself in the world then there must be another Deity. This is how it turns out to be, and this is dualism. I want to manifest myself to whom? – Not to myself, what is there to manifest to myself – I want to manifest myself to another entity and the other beings if they want to manifest themselves, they also need someone else to manifest himself or herself to. While God can manifest Himself to… whom? This is a question, one of the difficult questions. And I shall give you the following answer: God created Man in order for Man to be created. Now I will put the following question to you: when can something be created? – As man cannot be created, and I do not mean the creation of Man by God. To create implies constructiveness; there are esoteric students who cannot comprehend this. To build, to construct – there is always the implication of material life. When a place is being constructed why is it constructed; for whom is it being constructed; could it be for its own sake? Something could be constructed for Man to manifest oneself. If we say that it could be created in order for Man to manifest oneself, is this idea right? People construct a bridge for example, in order to communicate – there is an obstacle, so a bridge is constructed, the bridge is a means of communication. Similarly Man is a bridge serving as a communication link between worlds – nothing more than that. You will have an even more righteous idea because you as a whole, you still do not know the meaning of the physical world, i.e. the physical world is not only little known, but some say that it is an illusion. These are only words whose profound meaning is yet to be grasped. As to the Divine world with these Beings inhabiting it, as well as the beings who live in the physical world – what are their direct relations in this aspect? Now, under this situation we shall dwell on the following two issues: we say about the Spirit, who is pure, “Spirit is in constant struggle with matter”. And again there is the philosophical question: what needs, can the Spirit have, being pure, being in such a serene state, why should the Spirit need to incarnate itself in matter and why does it have to incarnate? Some will argue that it had to descend in matter to acquire certain experiences – if so, then this Spirit is not complete. And then there comes the question: if matter is something unreasonable by itself, how is it possible for something unreasonable to confine Reason? If matter is to confine Spirit, then there must be certain Reason in this matter and, at that, such a Reason, which is equal to the Reason of Spirit. If matter can capture Spirit, then such matter has its own intelligence – at least this is what comes out, if Spirit is confined by matter. We shall not resolve the issue now, and shall leave it like this – unresolved, as everyone has left it. And you know why? We shall climb up on top of mount Moussala2, shall enjoy the panorama, shall climb down and shall be thinking of Moussala only – about its natural history, we shall study it, while it shall be immovable. I am asking you to investigate a huge mountain peak – what is its natural history. This is a long story, but so that you could be thinking along more appropriate lines, I shall once again give you a hint and shall ask you why a person should be woken up from a sleep. If you are a servant why should your master wake you up? – To work. Why should you sleep? – To have a rest. When this servant is woken up, is the master creating the servant? Similarly, Man in the current circumstances has just awoken from a sleep, nothing more than this – you have been sleeping until now. People call such waking up creation. After having worked, who manifests oneself – you or your master? Both you and your master manifest yourselves – you manifest yourself in the work done, while your master can manifest himself in the plans he granted to you. We shall substitute this question and rather than asking why God created man, I shall ask you why Man came to Earth, or why Man was sent here to Earth – this is a more appropriate question. Man has come from somewhere, but why has man come? This is an easier question to answer than trying to answer why God created man. Look, the issue why God created man has no practical aspect under the current circumstances here, where you are. In order to know why man came to the Earth, why God created man – you should read the archives of Nature – there must be someone who loves you, to open this book for you, to go over the annals – there it is put on record why and to what purpose. I raised the question why God created man, so that you could find your own attitude to God and be assured that without God, if you are not related with Him, you can have no growth, no Life, no mental activity, because Reason springs from Reason, Life springs from Life, and activity springs from activity. Because God is right in everything and because man belongs to complex movements, this complex movement has to find its impetus in the primary aspect. We need to be connected to God not by form, nor by content, as these are yet external aspects. Not by meaning, but on principle, internally, in the very essence of things – to be linked with God by necessity of the very Existence itself, because only in this way can His thought give an impulse to our Life and His movements can give an impulse to the movements of our life. And then everything is possible. Such must be your innermost goal, your innermost desire, so that there is no chance for you to stumble. On entering this School, you may intend to conquer certain natural elements – but you may have no conquering whatsoever. I do not call it a conquest if I tend a pear tree for ten years and when it bears fruit, someone else comes and picks the pears – I do not consider this a conquest. I have worked and someone else eats the fruit – there is no sense. We can work only to obtain knowledge, but when we want to take advantage of it, we have not explored this. Now you often say, “It’s in the Scripture, it is said that we should love each other”. To love each other – the implication, according to me is to make a bridge. Do you think that if we make a bridge, everything in the world will become better? If the two parties are enemies, then it is better not to have a bridge, because they will then start quarrelling; if they are friends, then let there be a bridge. If people are ready to serve God, let there be a bridge, if they have not learned how to serve God, let them be without any bridge – this is better. So you should not mix things in esoteric science. I often keep observing you – this is how you are arguing, “You may want anything in the name of God – wolves, bears, tigers.” You may say, “I now live according to God’s law, to Christ’s law.” And the wolf also says, “God is Love”, but the wolf is alone, the wolf attacks the sheep and says, “Because I love God, and I love His children, because of this you have to fall victim for me” Well, can you reconcile this? The wolf is allowed to eat the sheep; if a man eats a sheep, it’s tolerable - neither here nor there - but if a sheep eats a wolf, the sheep will undergo the greatest suffering; and when a man is eaten by a bear, the man will experience the same. We are not sent to Earth to organize a menagerie – sheep will be kept separate, wolves will be kept separate, so will bears, all will be kept separated. There will be a fence separating them, a wire – to speak brotherly to each other but with strictly determined borders. And not like this: I see someone has the brains of a bear, someone else has the brains of a sheep, and both of them say, “Let’s break this fence, let’s unite our brains.” But what can a sheep and a wolf do together? Imagine someone with a bear’s heart, someone else with a sheep’s heart, how can you unite them? Some act like bears, others like sheep – how can you reconcile them? They cannot be reconciled. You will say, “Esoteric science can do everything.” Esoteric science can do everything, but you cannot do what esoteric science can. God can, I know that God can do everything, but we cannot. We should not be trying to do what God does – we cannot. Hence we should do only what we can, what is within the scope of our knowledge. Now I want you to do things, which you can, not things, which you cannot. We are getting mixed up together, therefore I shall tell the person: “Listen, do not demolish your wall; by saying what I said, I did not mean to make you demolish it - you keep the fence, and you shall find a new place for the new stuff where you will not place old stuff.” For example, you often want to reconcile the idea of Divine Love with your present love – these are irreconcilable. My Love, the Love I have is incompatible with your love, do you understand what I mean? If I transfer these ideas, do you know what will happen? I will tell you: there are many cases described in the book of Caprices of Electricity, where electricity appears in big round shining balls – such a ball suddenly falls upon a person, all the clothes are burnt, but the person is intact. The Love that I speak of is such a ball – if it falls upon you, you will find yourself naked; and after you find yourself naked, you will be doubtful and you will say, “This is no Love.” This is exactly where Love is. You want a new understanding of Love – bearing a new signature, while containing the old concepts. There is no sacrifice in the purely Divine Love. Sacrifice is just a result of the complex movements of Love in the physical World – this is a temporary period of transition. When people say that a person must make a sacrifice, this does not concern Divine Love – there is no sacrifice whatsoever in true Divine Love. Hence in order to understand Divine Love, you have to inevitably descend to the physical world, to learn the law of sacrifice. This is precisely why people descended to the Earth - to learn the law of sacrifice too. People will learn what Divine Love is when they experience the law of sacrifice – this is a law of the Divine energies proper transformation. Someone says, “I want to know what you think about me”; I say, “You may know, but I have to eat you up.” And therefore Christ says, “If you do not eat of My flesh and if you do not drink of My blood, you will have no eternal Life.” So, if you want to understand me, I shall have to eat you, so when you enter me, I will understand you and having understood you, I shall know how to help you. This is to say that you will sacrifice yourself in order for God to enter you, you will make this sacrifice. If you want to understand someone, then either you are eaten or you eat someone else – this is a symbol. If you want to understand someone, that someone has to eat you; if you want someone to understand you, you have to eat that someone. To this you will say, “This is scary!” But look, doesn’t the present life consist of eating and drinking only? If you take eating away, what else is left in life? Perhaps, having eaten a good pear, a bright idea will come to mind and you may write a poem – this pear is also a flower and therefore Christ said, “I am the water of Life and I am the bread of Life.” You have to make a difference between the simple and complex movements and to understand for what purpose Man has descended on Earth. You have to learn the law of sacrifice – this is one of the significant issues, which you have to investigate. But what sacrifice – sacrifice the way one understands it? You have to ask yourselves the question what you are supposed to sacrifice. The little concessions you make do not count for sacrifice – the law of sacrifice is a law, which reconciles all contradictions in the world. Let’s say you are in a very sad and difficult situation; apply the law of sacrifice and you can immediately remove this sadness of yours. Let’s say you have to receive twenty thousand leva, you do not have this money in your pocket – what will you do? Open your books and make a decision to sacrifice this money for your tranquillity’s sake – you will immediately feel your soul relieved and Peace will come to you. Now don’t you move to the other extreme! Sometimes you regret that you are not a highly educated person, and you say, “If had a good education, I would have become a Minister, a doctor” – you torment yourself. Tell yourself, “Even if I am not a Minister, I can still live like Man” – and you will feel relieved. Sometimes you go to the other extreme and some say, “We need no knowledge.” This is not the question – in this particular case we are suffering due to the lack of such goods, which stem from knowledge. Say, “We can do without the good of knowledge.” Such knowledge does not imply that you have to become a minister, doctor or priest – the absolute, pure knowledge is a simple movement. You for example often say, “We have to increase in number in the new movement” – our strength does not lie in our numerousness. – “We have to build a home” – strength lies not in building a home; “We must possess knowledge” – strength does not reside in such knowledge. What we bring to the world is a kind of a need, which Life cannot do without; what we bring is a necessity, just like water and bread are needed for Life. These people, anyway, shall come, but when they come we shall not say, “Hang on, this is unbearable, it’s expensive, you have to pay for your bread, and then you have to pay for your water, you have to pay because I am the first one who has brought it.” No, once this thought enters your mind, the issue is over. You have to act absolutely selflessly – bread you will give in order to be used, water you will give too, and whomever you give to, you will tell this person so, “You also have to give under the same law, in the same way.” Give everything – this bread and this water you have to give, but only to those to whom they are meant to be given. Now some of you think that once they enter the New Teaching they will become better. How do you know you will become better? A person’s goodness always depends on the sacrifice – the better one understands and applies the law of sacrifice, the better one will become. Time is nothing but a manifestation of sacrifice. I am now hinting at this idea so that you will not be at odds with yourself. For example sometimes when I am talking some people say, “The Master should not have said so.” I can place a stone on the eastern wall, on the western, to the north or south, but I can also place it on top – but where should I place this stone? Let’s say its place is determined, where shall I place it? – Where it is determined to be – according to the measure of the place, this is where I should place it. Well, in this life you have entered, you are determined, measured. Sometimes I place you somewhere and you say, “I do not belong here, I am not fit for a prince”, and I see – this is the place determined for you; which is to say you are spoiling it. There you will stay, where you belong, nothing more than this. Afterwards you summon someone (this is how false masters appear); and you say, “I do not belong here, can you not relocate me?” Everybody gets drawn to this place and says, “What work can this stone do?” - They start building something new and distort the whole edifice. And then the committee comes over and says, “It’s not built well” – then they take the stones down and say, “This and that society has disintegrated, this and that religion has fallen to pieces.” I am warning you: there is a weakness within you – you want to fall back into old building practices. You will deny the old ways; you cannot go ahead without sacrifice. You must be clear with this issue in yourselves, so that each of your deeds, each of your thoughts, has to be absolutely clear, selfless. You must be certain about it for your own sake; do not declare this publicly. You have to preserve and develop this feeling, and never say to people that you are good. Now you say, “Let’s live like brothers!” Sheep live with sheep; wolves live with wolves, bears with bears, hares with hares, flies with flies, while the way you are carrying on is no good. But one of the Hebrew prophets says that lambs and lions shall live together. Remember this line, but when will they live? – When God comes, so that there will be ample space, won’t there? We shall leave this line; it belongs to another category. Do not reconcile your good thoughts with your bad thoughts; do not place them in the same place. Someone says, “I have one bad thought.” If your thought is bad, place it where it belongs; if you have one Divine thought, place it right where it belongs; if you have a desire – either good or bad - put it onto its proper place – everything has to be placed where it belongs. Many of you (I see you) when you find a wolf with nice teeth, you bring him here and you say, “Master, we found a good man – he is very clever and educated person, and what a disposition he has, what language, what words, let’s take him with us.” I can see him - he is an old wolf, but I say nothing to the man. You say, “Let’s give him a good reception; let’s open the door to the sheep, so that he can visit them.” And I tell you, visit them he will! There are not only male wolves, there are female wolves as well; there are not only bears, but there are also she-bears – these are all symbols. All of Nature around is symbol-ridden – all of these bears and wolves are a whole branch of science, which we have to study and understand. It is easiest of all to learn about ourselves while studying the animal, mineral and plant kingdoms. Bear in mind that trying to understand this story one may find it difficult to understand the changes that are under way. Sometimes you get up from sleep, you pray, but say, “God does not listen to me”; how can you explain this situation? When you know the reasons, the attitude within you should be as pure as possible. Many of you are caught in a complex movement, you have to resolve one of the most difficult tasks and to this end you need resourcefulness, tact, skills, knowledge, will and stamina in the world. And those of you who have a better understanding, shall perhaps understand tonight what I did not say, and shall say tomorrow, “Did not the Master say so?” You will find yourself in the position of that priest, who preached like this, “Let those who have two shirts, give one to the poor”; his beloved comes back home, the preacher had two shirts and she had given one of them away following Christ’s law. In the evening the priest asked her, “Where is one of my shirts?” – “I gave it away.” – “How come you gave it away without asking me?”- “You said so in church, didn’t you?” – “I said this to the others; I did not mean it for us”. Well, the priest’s wife had given the shirt away; where did she go wrong, do you think she acted right, why didn't she give one of her shirts away, but one of her husband’s? She is not right, because she did not give away one of hers, but one of the priest’s – the priest should give the shirt away himself. She says, “I followed Christ’s law”, the priest is discontent that she had given his shirt away without asking for his permission. Well it is often the case that you give away my shirts – I do not mind, but you should give away your shirts also, nothing more than this. Some interpret it like this, “You were given for free, for free you should give!” When you take a Divine idea or whatsoever, the rule is that you keep this idea to yourself. You have the right to give the fruit to the others, but the idea you should keep to yourself – to all you should give of the fruit it bears, but it should stay with you. You, however, take this idea and say; “We were given for free, for free we shall give”. This is not right, Christ also says, “Each sprig coming from Me shall bear fruit.” These Divine ideas should pass through us and should bear fruit – and of the fruit you will give away. You all have to be rich of the fruit of the Divine thoughts. Secret prayer So, the main points are: simple and complex movements, the law of self-sacrifice, the law of sacrifice; the Divine idea has to stay within you in order to be sown in you and bear fruit, and of this fruit we have to give away – these are the main ideas in the lecture. You get together sometimes - for this purpose I shall assign a certain task to the students so that you can seriously start working to resolve it. Discuss the three aspects – to the physical world, to the Spiritual World and to the Divine World. Each idea should be discussed in three aspects. Direct your thought to be clarified, in order not to be held back. If you were ready I would give you a task now, but you are not. I would give you a complex task to perform. Do you know what it means when a person is not ready? This is what I imply: imagine it is winter-time and I send you to an excursion, but you have no shoes; can I send you barefoot? Imagine I send you to a place in the mountains with glaciers, while you do not have the required equipment – you need to prepare. You will say, “Everything can be done with God”; God can do everything, but we cannot. So now you will think it over. I want you to gather energy at least from Chamkoria, more Light for your mind, to strengthen your heart. Perhaps I would assign this task to you under more favourable conditions, but everyone should be ready, because I will give to you a more complex task – as is required. Now that I say so, you may wonder what this task might be. You will get to know, certain things are kept back. Now when you start, first you will act, and then you will think – do not be scared. For example I tell you: “In an hour’s walk from here, at about 10 kilometres there is a place, you will walk on one of the sides, you will stop there and shall not move.” You won’t ask me why – go there and you will get to know why. You will walk ten kilometres from here; you will find a sack with weight of 10 kilograms, you will not untie it, you will take it and will bring it back to me. I will then tell you, “You will take this sack and you will open it, there is a measure of wheat, you will put oxen to the yoke and you will sow it.” You won’t ask why – next year you will get to know whether the task was right. Let me explain the idea: you will go a ten kilometre distance from here, there are ten kilograms of wheat in a sack there; you won’t untie the sack, because you will waste time, you will not be curious and I will not tell you anything, so as not to waste time; you will harness oxen – next year, when the wheat grows, you will reap it and you will then reason. This is what the esoteric student should be like. Well you may now ask, “I must know what there is in the sack.” – You may know – I can tell you this, “You will go to a place ten kilometres away, there is one sack of wheat there, you will bring it here, will harness oxen and will go to the fields etc.” – I can tell you all this but do you know what the results will be? You will not get there on time; you will be late. We are already late; we have missed the most favourable circumstances, because I was explaining all this to you, an hour had passed. This one hour wasted the best circumstances under which this seed can live. Therefore in the Divine world there is no waste at all – no sooner said than done! You will then acquire punctuality; all of you have to learn this punctuality. And you will try my thought whether it is right or wrong. The day before yesterday, at Moussala peak I tested your hesitation: we reached a place where we stopped – not possible to go ahead, as it was dangerous; if you had decided to go across the ice, then everybody would have fallen into the lake. You now say, “There are a lot of obstacles along this road (as the road was covered in frozen snow), what shall we do?” We could have cut a road through, we should have taken hoes with us, but it would have taken us a whole day until we cut a road through – this, however, we did not foresee. You thought there were no obstacles on the way to Moussala. There is no way back – then you say, “Upwards!” – You manifested courage. – “No one shall pass through the snow!” Then you started crawling up the hill, not even thinking of stones falling on you. You have to be very careful, as there are many obstacles in our development. While I was climbing a big stone passed me by – four fingers thick – such a stone can break bones. So while climbing up the hill, you have to be careful not to touch a single stone, you should not aim only at climbing up. What is the law concerning this? – Do not be in a hurry, I do not demand of you to hurry. If you reach a certain place, sit down – try it, place your foot on this place and find out whether it is strong. By touching the stone with your foot you will receive certain energies, will concentrate within yourself. This is a task: to climb up to the top and to try the whole road, to get to know what dangers there are – such should be the tasks, this is the only way to carry you up there. In a certain respect all of you were very brave, not cowards. Courage is a good feature – indication that you can do the job. But it takes someone else behind your backs – I should have been the last one in the line and had I remained last everybody would have climbed up. Then, you did not follow my instructions – I said, “Absolutely no one should pass through the snow”, while some of you did and this might have cost them their lives. Had I told you, “Go through the snow”, it’s my responsibility. Some other time I shall take you to Moussala and shall tell you, “Up you go through the snow” – then it is my responsibility; then everybody has to carry a hoe – will dig a step and will pass. But if I say, “You may not pass though the snow”, then you may not. Someone says, “We may.” No, now is not the right time – we shall walk along the path that is predetermined; this is a rule. In Esoteric science a task that is not accomplished properly has risks – this is absolutely so. While the results are always correct, i.e. everything will be going well; will be supportive. I want you to see what laws operate during these excursions, to see that this Divine mind; these elevated Beings take part in all of our deeds and acts. And these two, the brother and the sister, who slipped down, were saved along a direct line, not along a curved line. Had they not stopped slipping, they would have fallen into the lake. We shall now walk in a living faith – I am not preaching to you an ordinary faith. This faith is extraordinary and our deeds shall also be extraordinary. And so shall Love – everything within us will be extraordinary, this we have to be sure of. Translation: Maia Mitcheva 1 Chamkoria literally translates Pine-Woods; At present, the name of this famous resort in the Rila mountains is Borovets. 2 Moussala: 2925 m altitude, summit on the Balkans in the Rila Mountains Source

Беседата на български Positive And Negative Forces Year 1, Lecture 19 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on July 5, 1922, Wednesday Cham-Koria * Secret Prayer The disciples' essays on the topic: “The most distinct feature of Light" were read. Next please write on the topic: “The Purpose of the Human Heart.” When you write about Light, unconsciously you think about darkness, too - it comes to your minds as the contrast of Light. Actually, if there was no darkness, could we talk about the growth of bodies in the physical world? Light and darkness in the physical world are the two states through which the soul ежпрессеs itself. The soul begins to know itself in the darkness by limiting itself. Darkness is a process of limitation and Light is a process of knowing God, or knowing Love. Love cannot be known without Light. So the most powerful feature of Light is knowledge of God, knowledge of Love. Introduce this idea into the summary that you will make of the essays about Light. Light represents a process related to the Mental world. When the Mental world is revealed before the human eyes, forms are simultaneously revealed, together with their content and meaning. In this way humans come to the Primal Cause – Love. Whoever wants to grow and develop in the right way should psychologically connect Light with the process of knowing Love. Therefore, all states that cause disharmony in the human soul pertain to the sphere of darkness аnd darkness places limits on human beings. All states that produce harmony in one’s soul belong to the sphere of Light. When you enter the sphere of metaphysics, the issue of Light and darkness is treated in a different way there; the statements that metaphysics makes will create great contradictions within you. Metaphysicians, as well as extreme occultists, maintain the idea that Absolute light is Absolute darkness. And when God said "Let there be Light!" He created the first limitation. This means that when Absolute darkness limits itself, it produces Light which cannot be overtaken by the darkness. I am asking, what is the first limitation of human beings? Sacrifice is the first limitation. Therefore, when an individual decides to sacrifice something he produces Light within himself. This is why sacrifices are needed. When you sacrifice something, the first day of Light comes to your soul. God said: “Let there be Light!” and there came Light. When Light comes to someone and he can differentiate between Light and darkness, it is a sign that he has made a sacrifice in the right way. If neither light nor darkness emerge in someone, he has not made the sacrifice at all or he has not made it properly. When Christ said about Himself, "I am the Light of the world" - this Light, this Daylight was produced as a result of His self-sacrifice. So, if one wants to produce Light, one needs to sacrifice himself. Thus, Light is related to the act of sacrifice. In the present evolution, Light has four different directions in the physical world, which are determined by four types of waves that have different frequencies. Those waves that have greater density form the back part of the human brain. The weight of the brain in animals - in other words, the greatest density of their brain - is behind the ears, and as a consequence they are compelled to walk on four legs. The weight in plants is down in their roots, so they are forced to keep their heads under the ground in order to maintain balance. The weight of the human brain is in front of the ears, therefore humans have to stand on two legs. That is the only way for them to maintain their balance. Thus, presently the three directions or courses of Light have created three different currents in the brains of living beings. These in their turn have produced three different positions necessary for maintaining balance: plants are upside down, animals stand on four legs, and human beings stand erect on their two legs. Now the fourth direction of Light is coming in order to form the current of forces required for the formation of the Spiritual body of human beings. This body is related to the Higher or supersensible world. Therefore, when Light acts upon human beings in four different directions – from behind, from ahead, inward and upward - a cross is formed. Now, you can draw this cross in order to find out in which of the four directions Light is strongest. The power of Light is evaluated on the basis of the length of the four lines forming the cross. If the west side of the horizontal line is longer or more developed, this is an indication that the animal essence in human beings predominates over the other forces; if the lower vertical line of the cross is longer, this is an indication that the vegetative forces in human beings are more dominant; if the east side of the horizontal line is longer, this shows that the ability to feel are more developed. Finally, if the upper part of the cross is the longest, this shows that the Divine prevails in that person. If you project a vertical plane down through the center of a person, parallel to his face, he will be divided into two parts. The back part represents the left path of his development, while the front part of the plane parallel to his face represents the right path of his development. If you project another plane through the person – from west to east – you will get another division in which the right part of the brain represents the narrow path and the left part of the brain the broad path. In principle, the left path indicates the aspirations of the human soul and the right path - the deeds of the individual. And indeed, only an active individual will follow the right path, while the one who has aspirations but has not yet begun to act will follow the left or the broad path. These are the two paths that contemporary people follow. When we speak of the influence and predominance of the vegetative or animal forces, or of the aspirations of a human being, we mean the first manifestations of human consciousness and subconsciousness. Under “animal influence” we understand the first manifestations of human consciousness. Under “vegetative influence” we understand the first manifestations of human subconsciousness. When more energy accumulates in the human brain or in the entire organism than what is necessary, a number of disharmonious conditions are created. For example, when the temples are well developed, their development corresponds to that of the lips. Therefore, there is a certain relationship between the temples and the lips. The stronger the temples, the thicker the lips. Thicker lips have been noticed primarily in people whose noses are close to their mouths. The nose is an organ of olfaction, so each smelling of a good dish makes blood flow into the lips through the nose, as a result of which the mouth becomes thicker. In general, all parts and centres of the brain exert an influence on specific organs of the human being, thus leaving certain imprints on them. For example, when the brain centre of Hope is well developed, this influences two specific facial muscles. In this case the edges of the mouth are curved upwards and not downwards. Therefore, the brain centres exert their influence in two ways – they create either straight or curved lines. Sometimes they also create concave angles. In general, lines go in two directions: up and down. When someone is sad, the angles of his mouth go down, and this means that the currents within him are either vegetative or animal. If these angles are pointed up, one is happy – then the human and the Divine states prevail in him. This is why as disciples of the occult you should do several experiments; you should research and study the various states that you go through, both positive and negative. When you are in low spirits, try to make this mood leave your consciousness. Observe it objectively, as something that has nothing to do with you. Subject this mood to criticism in order to understand its causes and consequences. If you haven't made a few attempts in this direction, you will think that each mood is your own, that it is related to your consciousness, that there is no way you can take it out of you. So you think you should bear its torment. No, you can separate it from your consciousness in the same way that you can take the devil’s nail out of you. Never mind that it will cause you some pain – take it out of your foot! When someone is fearful, or is ambitious but has weak hope, this person is a pessimist. Fear creates images of obstacles and difficulties in his consciousness that he cannot overcome. Together with his fear comes the feeling that he cannot succeed and that he will remain behind the others. At the same time his weak hope discourages him, so he falls into despair and pessimism. Pessimism in its turn generates a number of negative traits in him, such as slyness, wile, envy and hatred. You may ask why fear has appeared in the world. In the animal world it is in the right place, and is one of the great laws that has reached perfection there. When an animal is fearful, it shows that right is not on its side and that it needs to rely on its legs. Weak animals in the animal world are told, "You're not under the protection of the law and the law cannot save you, so you should develop your legs – may they be long, so that you can rely on them." Fear in animals is equal to conscience in humans. So fear in humans is substituted with conscience. When fear is experienced, all negative traits from the past are awakened, which causes unhappiness. For this reason, when fear comes to you, you should replace it immediately with conscience. When you transform fear into conscience, sense and reasoning will immediately return to you. Then it will be possible to talk about what is right. Therefore everyone should work consciously upon themselves and distinguish between their mental states in order to study them. If grief comes to you and you don't want to live, isolate it from your consciousness and observe it objectively: why has it come to you, how long will it last, etc. When you isolate it from yourself, you will see that it is not yours. This indisposition is of external origin. People are easily obsessed by external thoughts, they easily receive these external feelings, and because they don't know the laws, they suffer and torment themselves. Through suggestion and hypnosis some people can accept the thoughts of a hypnotist, and they can fulfill them later as their own. Having fulfilled the ideas suggested by the hypnotist, only then can they understand that they have acted under external influence. Many murders and acts of suicide in the world can be explained by hypnotism. It may also happen that a person who was in an occult school in the past received a certain thought from his master through suggestion - a good or a bad one - and he puts it into realization in the present. In such case, he himself wonders how he could have changed so much. You meet a good and honest man, you know him well and rely on him, but all of a sudden he changes. He begins to rob and blackmail people. You wonder what has happened to this person that has caused him to change so much. Then you meet him two or three years later, and he lives honestly and righteously – he has changed his behaviour again, he has returned to his original self. What are these abrupt changes that have happened to him? As disciples of the Great School, you should all work to correct these inner states that you have, in other words, free yourselves from them. So you have enormous corrective work to do. The School aims to give you the knowledge that will enable you to correct the errors of your past in a reasonable way. When you come into a hypnotic state from your past, you will go back and correct it with a reverse method. You will do the opposite motions of those you were hypnotized to do. The hypnotists of the Dark lodge usually make their passes starting from above and going downwards. Today many people wash their faces and bodies in the same way – starting from above and going downwards, and closing their eyes as if to say, "It's not good to have your eyes open." Yes, when you enter the material world it is good to close your eyes, but when you come to the School to study, it is better to have your eyes open. As disciples you should do motions that are the opposite to the passes of the Dark lodge. When you wash your hair, do upward motions, not the opposite. All the movements that you do have deep meanings and they exert an influence on you. Observe your movements and their influence on you, as well as the effects they produce within you. Some of them make you happy, others are unpleasant. Observe your movements and study them, but don't go to the other extreme – being doubtful about whether to do a movement or not. When you want to tune your mind, do an upward mental motion – following the evolutionary way. First think of plants, then of animals, then think of humans, and finally – of God and of the Beings from the Divine world. Thus you will feel spiritually uplifted and in an ascending mood. If you perform the motion in the opposite direction, starting from the Divine world and gradually going down to the human, animal and plant worlds, you will fall under the law of involution and you will experience a spiritual descent or a lowering. In applying the first exercise, you will be able to release many negative feelings. If you study botany, zoology and anthropology, if you read Divine books, you can do this exercise more successfully. People go down into the lower worlds and then come up again on a daily basis. Each experience of grief is a sign that one has linked with the plants. Thus people help the plants and the plants help them. When people are not feeling well, when they are angry or have other negative feelings, they link with the animals and help them in this way. When someone arrives at a state that is mindful and pleasant, they have entered the human world. And finally humans come to the High and the noble, i.e. they enter the Divine world where absolute harmony abides. These are the four worlds or the four states that human beings need to study. When someone is not feeling well, when he is confused or impatient, he can imagine that he is in a forest of pine and oak trees. In a short time his mood will change and he will acquire the mental state of the plants. If someone falls into laziness, he should think about the animals that are usually quick and mobile. Their need for food causes them to move all day long so that they can satisfy their hunger. When you think about animals, you make a connection with them and they stimulate you with their energy. Having satisfied their hunger, animals also become lazy, but once they are hungry again, they go out looking for food. After you have acquired the patience of plants and the mobility of animals, you will move on to the human state in order to develop reasoning and thinking. After that you will go to the Divine world, where all your thoughts will be openly displayed. The Elevated Beings of this world will make note of all the thoughts that you present. Wise people make such a presentation every day, ordinary people once a week, and foolish people once a year. When we say that someone will be subjected to critique, this refers to his presentation of thoughts in the Divine world, where Intelligent Beings will evaluate them and where he himself will monitor and observe everything, thus seeing the errors in all that he has ever created. Until people arrive at this position, they should consistently discipline their minds. You haven't yet gone through such discipline, so you are not prepared for the Divine world. If you go into this world too early for you, you will fall asleep, you will be disordered, unable to endure its high vibrations. However, those who have organized their minds will come back fresh and elevated from having visited the Divine world, bringing new Light and Knowledge with them. Absolute silence and complete harmony, undisturbed by any noise or worry, is required for your passage into the other world. Such an attempt to enter into the Divine world demands a clear surrounding aura, absolute harmony and silence. This atmosphere should be maintained for one or two hours at least, which is impossible to do in cities. This attempt is impossible even here, in Cham-Koria, where we are now. It will be possible only at some high and isolated mountain location. If such an experiment was made in Sofia, for example, a special room, surrounded by a solid, pure and harmonious aura, would be necessary. No one else should enter this room, no one should even suspect its existence. However this is impossible under the present conditions, as there are no people who are ready for that. Whoever is not ready for this experiment will not want to go into this room. Disciples, however, will strive to enter this room the way bees strive towards aromatic flowers. Disciples needs to work at creating a harmonious aura in their rooms, so that their efforts will be successful. Work hard upon yourself so that you can overcome all hardships. In this way you will develop your will as a tool for overcoming everything. What kind of will should you develop? Neither iron nor granite, but a diamond will. A will that is of iron or granite could easily capitulate, but a diamond will can overcome all obstacles. You will need broad views and great selflessness to clear away the delusions on your path. You can do this only with the Light of your consciousness. It is a special type of Light. If it doesn't enter your consciousness, you will stay at your present level of understanding, which cannot help you get the results you expect. When I am saying that a special type of Light needs to enter your consciousness, you shouldn't worry. This Light will come of itself, you only need to climb a high mountain peak and wait there. You know that the Sun first illuminates the mountain peaks, then the valleys, don't you? In the same way this Light will illuminate first the peaks of your consciousness, then its valleys. You are required to make efforts to climb the high Divine peak, where Light comes at the earliest time. Later it goes to the valleys and to the plains. Therefore, when you ask yourself what the advantages of the Esoteric school are, you should know that it shows its disciples the Right path for climbing the high Divine peaks which are the first to be illuminated by the Divine rays of the rising Sun. * (The old name of the Rila mountain resort Borovets) Source

Note 3 The Bear Trap The eighteenth lecture of the Teacher, held to the Common occult class on 29th June 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret Prayer The works on the topic were read “The profit of mountain tops”. The rest will be read in the other Thursdays' meetings. Next Thursday do you have a topic? – No. For the next time, write something about the history of the wheat grain. When did it appear on Earth? Write only about the wheat grain – when did it appear and under which conditions, does it exist in a wild state or not. You have to think little if it exists in a wild state. (– It does not.) Why does not? You will write conceptually, will not spread to talk about minor matters, only with notions – all, that you say will be told conceptually, figuratively, but later on the details. Learn to speak loftily. The occult pupil must speak: “I am hungry”, but not: “I am too hungry, very hungry.” – “I am hungry, thirsty, feel like walking”, but that: “I feel very much like walking, I will feel very well...” – this is for the people, who have time, who spend plenty of time. Later, when a theme is given to you, from an occult point of view, you will describe the most distinct feature. For example which is the distinct feature of bread, which is the distinct feature of water, which is the distinct feature of light, which is the distinct feature of Love, which is the distinct feature of Wisdom? You can say many things, but the distinct feature is only that, which shows first of all, which projects – it is distinct. The distinct feature is the first, which appears first. If I ask which was the distinct feature of the world? – When God says: “To be the Earth and Sky.” What does God say? – It created Light, that means the visible world – the distinct feature of the visible world, this is Light. Therefore which is the distinct feature of Light? – it reveals the world; which is the distinct feature of darkness? – it hides the world. This is distinct, and light does this, does that, these are minor matters – the distinct must stand out. Later, what does Love, which is the distinct feature of Love? You say something, anything, many things. Which is the distinct feature? You can say many things, but do not hurry to evince, because I will say one thing and you will consider yourselves insulted, think. Which is the distinct feature of the Spirit? Now, may we say that God, who contains everything inside, can be a victim? Can the eternal and the endless become a victim, for whom he shall sacrifice? Because, as you say sacrifice, you have to understand which the distinct feature of the victim is? This is a philosophical question. We say, that God has sacrificed, but which is the distinct feature of sacrifice? The distinct feature of the Eternal is, that He does not want to scrunch the most miserable – God wants to give this Life even to the most miserable, the one He has. And God stops even in front of the smallest bug to make a way to pass by – this is a sacrifice for Him. He stops the whole movement, in order for a bug to pass by, is that not а sacrifice? This is an effort. Therefore, some time God stops his Car for us and if he did not stop his car, what would we leave? – We would fail, but He often stops the whole movement. And often the conflicts, the misfortunes in the world result from what God has stopped His wagon, so that a bug can pass and you feel concussion. I say: God stopped His wagon – this is the sublimity of God. And tomorrow because if you it stops, the law is the same – tomorrow is ahead of you and He will stop His wagon for you to pass, this is a great thing. These are cogitations of your brain, so you have to think. Now, what is the distinct feature of Love? You will say: “The distinct feature of Love is sacrifice.” But how you will understand the sacrifice, when you alone did not sacrifice? Only one can understand who has sacrificed; if you did not sacrifice, you do not understand sacrifice. Now, as we say sacrifice, we can understand the preparation for such a good lunch: fried chicken, so freshly butchered and fried on grill, reddened; after a good soup made of her legs; after that pasty, made of milk and eggs, with cheese; then, put in a bottle half a kilo of six-year-old wine. And if you, after you starved and waited for that chicken, then a friend of yours comes, who has starved for three days, you give up your meal, this is a sacrifice. And this will bring you delight, that you sacrifice the chicken and the pasty, and all – to be satisfied, as you see, that he is eating. This is what I call to a certain extent, according to your understanding – this, which is appointed to you to give it to somebody else. A necessity is the sound thought, i.e. the perfect thought. Now, these must be the cogitations of the occult pupil of the Live Nature, the simplest cogitations are the following. And if you, the contemporary, let’s say, teachers and pupils, go into a contemporary exemplary school, are not all things presumed as possible: the program, subjects, how many hours you will be studying, how many teachers there will be, which teachers which subjects will be teaching and every teacher will explain his subject – all is presumed. The pupil, as he enters, must learn, it does not look proper on behalf of him to criticize all those textbooks and to say: “This textbook is worthless, that is worthless.” And in one evangelic school the teacher teaches Bulgarian, a pupil stands up and says: “Mr., The Bulgarian language has so many grammars – of Iconomov is written so, of Ivan Stoyanov is written so, of Todor, of Petko the grammar...” The teacher says: “Listen, what Iconomov writes about the grammar I do not know, I want you to write about the grammar, which I teach in class, and as you go out of class, you can take whatever you want.” As we are in the school of Nature, you have to use its language, nothing more. One day, as we outgrow it, so that we can leave the school, then we can think, what we want. In this Live Nature all is forecast. Let’s say, I give you a certain object for mountaintops; which is the distinct feature of a mountaintop? When you sharpen a plume, why do you sharpen it? – in order to write better; why do you sharpen your pencil? – in order to write; why do you sharpen your knife? – in order to cut better. Which is the distinct feature of a knife? The mountaintop or valley, these are two conditions inside Nature – and in the valleys, and in the tops gather two contrary energies. The mountains form the spine of the Earth, they the backbone, therefore our Earth has come to the position of the backbone, that’s why mountains exist. Once upon a time it was a soft body, without mountains, i.e. it was a time, when it was without mountains, and it becomes spinal. And then the rivers compose its blood – arterial and venous blood, which runs and comes in through the spine and so on. Now you may say insignificantly, that the mountains have gathered a huge energy that the spirits have come together – all these things are true. Through the backbone are there a lot of nerves, which pass, many knots, which is true; many cells become bent in the hollow of the head, millions of cells are gathered, but this hollow is made for whom? – for music is made. Now, of course, those, who have created the mountains, had one aim in the history of the Earth, if we say geological to describe it, the mountains are not created because the temporary geologists try – on all tops there is something distinct, but they are not created so. Now, the first thought will be established. It is not our question to discuss all secrets of Nature, but each task, which is appointed in the great school of Nature, we must riddle half of the tasks, which are given to us, we must riddle. When you get up in the morning, the first question is not what you shall eat or what you shall drink. Therefore says Jesus: “Who thinks so?” – Only the pupils. And the pupils, who know the Nature and who know God, will not think about eating. The good son and the good daughter, when they get up every morning, they will go to their mother, they will kiss her and the mother will kiss them – this is the purpose – they go to school, because they are pupils, and they will kiss them. After that the father and mother will order them to go to school, but they will eat before the lesson. And now you, when you get up in the morning, right away you decide one important question – what you will do during the day. You do not go to your father; you do not go to your mother, you do not know Nature and, what’s more, you want to be pupils. You must know Nature. If you have a certain opinion, when you get up, to whom you must go? And when you get up in the morning, when you turn to God, you must know whether He is up – you do not know where He is. You have to find Him in You! If you do not find Him in the people, if you do not find Him in Nature, you doubt; don’t you know what comes from this doubt? Imagine you and I are in two near posts, we are connected by telephones, telegraphs and other means for communication, but imagine, that the messages of the telegraphs and telephones are broken off and we shall be isolated – and then we exist without announcing. If you send to your brain one criminal thought (let’s say, some evening we go to bed, a criminal thought has come, but you did not perceive it), as you get up in the morning, you will be disposed, all messages with Nature, with God will be broken off. Maybe you are indisposed, and somebody with his bad influences has corrupted you – it will be strange, if one great spring is muddled by some other small spring. If you are a very shallow spring and somebody can influence you by his thoughts, to change the pace of your life, to make you restless, you are shallow. But it is true, that inside your life you have allowed one thought, which in a certain moment has stopped all the messages. When they come from the Invisible world to help (because even the Nature has its own servants), an hour or two will go by, maybe one-two days, until they put the message for order – and you will have one pleasant disposition of the soul. So in everybody that exam must be determined– every time to know which is the cause of your state. You are in a certain state – you have to know that state, which you are in, in what category it falls: in the physical, or the spiritual or to the Godly state. I will give you now one categorization between the physical, spiritual and the Godly state. Now, if you are questioned which states are simply physical? – The physical states are the exact states, they are restricted states – meaning the restricted states which we have, are the physical. They are also transient – every time every physical state changes quickly, the physical states change very fast. Let’s say, you have one disposal, thinking that, you are very patient person; take one small needle and stick it in the gentlest place – it will produce one little pain and right away you will change, and will change your state. At that moment, if you have control over yourself, this needle must not produce anything, not to change your state. So these states are connected to the subjects on Earth, which constantly change. Let’s say, you have one brooch or one you have one precious stone; you get attached to it, but one day an other gets attached to your stone, steals it – your states changes. You’ve got a book, which you love, a great poet has written it, this is a precious book; somebody comes, steals it – stored in your brain – it cannot be taken away, you are stronger, but comes somebody, hits a strike there and bothers your calmness, but you cannot open the sheets. Therefore we have to reach that state, in which, as we see, that somebody will cast a strike on our head, to be able by our thought to stop that hit, instantly to paralyze his action. Somebody will say: “If it is the Will of God will we be able to stop somebody?” You may ask: “Is it fateful that somebody hits you on the head.” If you are stupid, yes, one can hit you, the stupid one is hit every day. The clever, when he is hit, becomes clever, and the stupid, when he is hit, becomes stupid. You will say: “A law of fate that somebody hits you in the head.” No, it is not a law of fate – this strike can come consciously or unconsciously. In Khazunlak region somewhere somebody made a trap for bears, but in the morning he goes and sees – there his donkey is trapped. Imagine now, that you are a traveller, passing and touching this trap and you become trapped; if you were not so curious and you were not interested in that bear trap, would you be trapped in? – No. Therefore in the Occult school every time they warn their pupils, that the Astral world is only full of traps, bear traps, looking like nice flowers, like nice juices, like nice things. And the Teacher says: “Down this somewhat road you should not go, somewhat trap, somewhat book, somewhat flower, you should not touch, anything more!” But we, the contemporary people, say, that everything we must travel over, we must try everything. If that pupil decides to examine all bear traps, he will say, that uselessly will test them, no value will obtain. Now these bear traps will also be form between you. I will say one day, now there is not, but I am preparing one talk for the bear traps, which are formed between us and you are fooling with every day. As you are fooling with them, come and ask me why that trap is laid – you, as pupils, did not walk your way, you will not ask me why, these are for bears. And twenty years I have to talk only about bear traps – why did somebody do this act, why did he do this fault. So good, I retail – I will tell you the cause why this fault happened, what use will you make of that? You tell me, that Dragan Stoyanov, a husband of somebody, bought her a silk dress, but a cow passed near her, she ran away and tore her dress in the wire. And you ask me: “To tear her dress, what portent does it have for her, is it good or bad, whether astrologically on time has this dress been made, whether the day has been chosen well or badly, or the quilt is in that trader, from whom is the cloth bought, which is the purpose?” It’s nice, imagine, that I explain, what will you use? The only thing is that this Turk was not careful, she has travelled with a gentleman, in rapture, the cow shoved her in the wire and tore her dress – this is an explanation. Now, the second explanation is that this female Turk was afraid of buffalos and therefore buffalos happened to get out, cows on the opposite and she starts to run, and as she jumps over the wire, tears her dress. The third situation: this female Turk carried her bag with money, but somebody needed money, chases her, she runs and tears her dress. These are a number of reasons; which of these reasons is the essential – which tore her dress? Now, you shall think. I do not want you now to think, that I give this for a comparison with your dress, no, the principle for explaining is not important. There are many things, which I do not have to explain to you. For you, the occult pupils, it is important to study the art to build excellently; to pull down, it is not an art. For example, if in twenty years’ time you have come to ask me in this way: “Teacher, I have decided to do a good deed, give me one best method - and I will do it”, and if you had been thinking so: “Teacher, I have decided to reconcile with all those who am in conflict with, give me the best method, I will do it without my eye to wink”, “Teacher, I have decided to sacrifice all my property for the poor, give me rules, I have decided that”, if in twenty years’ time you have asked me these things!... And now they will come to me, saying so: “Mr. Teacher, just imagine that sister there the previous day do you know what she did? – “She did not let me say a word during the meeting, not only that, but the other day, when she met me, she did not greet me, does this beseem a good Christian?” Now, do you think, that is an explanation – I have to sit as a lawyer and explain why she did not greet you. No, she did it on purpose, because she was in such rapture. – “How is that, she must not be in rapture!” We can say: she can be in rapture– “No, no, when she meets me, she must not be in rapture, in any other case she can be in rapture, but not me...” And well, I ask now: who has never been in rapture, once a man will be in rapture – these are bear traps, do you understand, these are bear traps! And I will once in the School make an attempt – I will make a bear trap, so that you can see how funny it is, how people are deluded. Decide now to make one of the best deeds – by all means at least ten bears will show up in your brain. You decide to do one good deed; you will first scrub, and say: “Let’s feed myself with pasty, and after that”, the second time will say: “I have some work, this or that”, and then say: “For today it is not possible, but tomorrow I will do it.” When you, as pupils, enter the Occult school, right away in your mind will spring a number of contradictory actions and you must understand these laws, in order to get rid of them, they will not change. And maybe the occult pupil is exposed some time a big temptation, to big contradictions is exposed – why and for what he will not explain, he is exposed – I only present the facts. But this exposing, if he does not use, is good. And therefore that day I told you, that when we are somewhere in the occult way, we will act and then think – the occult pupils must act, then think; out, in the world, they will think, then act – one of the two. Whatever good is it and to be a good thought and to come in your brain and then show up as very distinct feature, do it, without hesitating. If one morning, after you get up, in your brain comes a strong, good thought and shows up as a good feature, make it, do not stop in front of any philosophies, do not eat, do not drink, do it – if it is shown up, do it. And after you did it, do not go around shouting out in the neighbourhood. Make an attempt – they will think later, and when results come, then you will find out, after time you will know how to give it in. You have noticed in the morning, when you get up, what thought you have first? Do now a kind of investigation: as you wake up your first sleep, notice what thought is in your mind – whatever thought it is, write it down in your book. This – for a week, for seven days what thoughts you have. As you wake up from your first sleep, write it down – you will be strict; the first thought may be pleasant, maybe also unpleasant – you will note the fact, as it is. Because, as you wake up, you may be thinking of a fried chicken, even though you are vegetarian, or you can think, that you have twenty thousand leva, and in your mind can be such a thought: “So long time I walk on this Godly road, I gained nothing, as I walk on the wide road” – I will note the thought correctly. For seven days, if only good thoughts come up, it is pleasant, a pleasant occurrence is also the field, through which you go is excellent. Now, you expect, saying: “God will enlighten us”, (will he/ won’t he!!!)? But if God looks from the left side, you will use a method; if you look on the right, he will use another method. As he sees you on the left, he will put you on the right, he will put you in front and then he will talk. If you do not come from the left to the right and then in front, never will God talk to you. And I will give to the mothers one rule (I will not explain the occult law): but in the first place take the child, put it on the left, then on the right, embrace it; then take it in front and then kiss him – the kiss is already Godly – as you kiss him, you will begin to talk. Now, you will ask your philosophy again: “Isn’t it possible that I place myself on the left and on the right?” Make an effort, because these are microscopic efforts. Why as a result of this effort – from the left or the right – we will produce another effort. Now begin with the children: you have a daughter, 5-10 years of age; place her on the left, on the right and as decide to put it on the left, the child might say: “Why mother?” and to listen; if it does not listen, do not disturb it. The fathers to do the same with his boy – of course those, who have children. And those who do not (to them might be left behind wish), will find some poor orphan, a little orphan, who you will love – you might find it somewhere, will go in some poor house and you will place it on the left, on the right. For a week make this effort – go into a poor family, which you like, and there make your attempt, this will certainly come. Now you will see an other objection: “What will the people say about me?” If you think what will the people say about you, do not go. The experience, which I give to you, go, do it and nothing else – do it, even though the world can turn upside down! These children, with which you will make the attempt, will thank you – they did not have a sweet kiss, nobody loved them and they will wonder how, where from did such a good man kiss that orphan. If you are being philosophical, you are free, I give you full Freedom – let only those do it, who can by the law of Love and Wisdom do it; who can’t, should not be seduced, because they are going in unnecessary trouble. How do you think, when God sends a great Angel to a sinful soul to comfort it, what must he do? And the angels have an occult school, to help such sinners. Do you know what is the situation? Some saint is sent to deal with some wrongful sinner; if that was you, you hairs would stand upright, and say: “How can be that in that place that I am defiled!” and without any hesitation – said-done. Don’t you know what is the law – as it this Spirit touches you, right away the sins will be taken, burned in that Godly fire. And if you believe, this fire will surrender. Now you, the occult pupils, are not expected to become saints. We will pray, will make efforts, to see how much you can carry out the law. For example generosity is preached; it must be helped, but you do not know how generous you are. Let’s say, that you are one official or trader, and you have an income of one hundred thousand leva per year; you get up, want to show how generous you are, say: “I give ten thousand leva”, but when you go to the safe, stop a while: “Is that not too much?” you will say: “Five thousand leva”, then you will say: “No, these people do not need even five thousand leva, let it be two thousand and five hundred, but they do not need even it – so, a hundred leva” – and so you go down from ten to one hundred leva. Then do you think, that you will be an occult pupil? – No, in the Brotherhood, they know that you are but nothing – you are a tree for work. It is not right, once you said to you “ten thousand leva”, to go down to ten pieces, do not go back on your word – said, done. Do not hurry, but once said, you should hold on to your word till the end – this is a distinct feature. And can every pupil act like this? It is not in the quantity, but this, which we promise, must always do – this is submission. Why this thought has come from somewhere, it has come from God – you have promised and after that you are hesitating if it is from God. Try it – as you try, as you know it whether it is from God, or not. Secret Prayer Source

Note 5 The Influence of the Music Lection seventeen from the Teacher delivered at the common Occult class on the 22nd of June 1922, Thursday A secret prayer The works for music have been written. Now, if they ask you which world touches music or which world descends from music, what are you going to answer? – From the Mental world, i.e. only an intelligent man may sing. Therefore, music and human intelligence go together. Because the right thought, is music. Now I shall give you one little musical attempt. Of course those of you who don’t know how to sing have to make an effort. Firstly learn the scale, the seven tones and from them – learn the natural tone which the scale starts from. You may take the natural tone of the organ or the piano. Some pianos starts from higher or lower with a half tone. Learn the tones of the scale without rising or lowering, naturally, everybody here learns C, D, E…C, B – forward and backward. When you have a good frame of mind, sing the tones. Afterwards, after your frame of mind changes, sing them again and notice what the difference is. For example, if you are angry, sing C, D…C, B and backwards and see what resistances you will meet. Observe psychically, make a difference in the singing: sometimes you have an inharmonious temper – see in which tones what disharmony comes; sometimes you may have some inner fear – sing the scale again forwards and backwards, note the tones you don’t sing properly. You will make psychical observations. Make these attempts and psychically you will differentiate how far you are far from perfect. For example, some musicians, I have heard, take higher D, cannot sing it correctly. Why? – Because they are extraordinarily active. At some point they don’t sing B correctly, somewhere they don’t sing C correctly. To sing means that you must always make the tones correctly. After you change it in whatever relation, you are not a musician any more, you do not keep the rules. Therefore, a musician is only this, the one who in all conditions keeps the natural relations – I see the sensible natural relations that exist between the tones. For example now, when you quarrel, and the quarrel is music, somewhere the emphasis in some tone is higher. In speech there is rising and lowering, isn’t there? If we translate anger into a musical language then when somebody gets cross, he sings forte; when somebody wants to gloss himself, he sings very softly, sings pianissimo. But you will see that in all of you the tones are weakly included. In the past, you didn’t learn music and now you have to make a very big effort. And your failure in life is due to a lack of music. The criminality in people is due to the fact that there is no music. For example, people – killers do not have any music. Therefore, the music is one stimulus – after you start to sing, the blood starts to flow into the front part of the head, the brain attracts the blood to the front part, and so it develops correctly. And the first thing in the Black lodge is that it always says, “You are old, you do not need singing, God may do and without your singing, you are indisposed today, do not sing!” And you start to become coarse, to become coarse till you lose this feeling, and the blood goes down in the lower centre of the brain and everything in you begins to pine. Afterwards in some people there is a shame – they love music but don’t sing since the others will laugh at them. There is no shame in this because there are no singers. I have heard only one singer sing nicely, to control her voice so much – one Turkish woman, I listened to her twenty years before. I have heard two or three singers who sing nicely – where the soul takes part, not only to quaver the voice, but also to make an effort. Music is one natural art. When you sit, you start to think how you will sing. No, you have to sing without thinking; if you start to think how you will sing, you will not sing. When a man starts to think how to pay his debts, he does not have money in his box, and when the case is full, he doesn’t think, but pays; and whoever comes along says, “How much do I have to pay you, here you are.” Why? – His box is full. All of us are people that think a lot – we think about religion a lot, about the virtues we think a lot. Why do we think? – Because the boxes are empty. Now the disciples of the Occult School do not know music. After the box is empty, you will think but you will know that without music you can’t be disciples of the School that you have to know. One condition: without music, you can’t be disciples of the School, so good disciples. And the first exam we will give is on music and there you may degenerate. The first exam in the School is music – they will give you one part to sing, one very easy song will be given to you to sing. So, you understand already, music and thought go hand in hand. And after that we can use the music as an educational resource. Watch different people and see what kind of songs they like. When somebody is indisposed, sing him the song which he likes and he will have a good frame of mind. Every man has a favourite song. The religious people in the Orthodox Church and in the Evangelical Church also have a favourite song. Now first, the observation, which you have to make, is in controlling the scale. Do this exercise for two weeks one by one – every day, morning and the evening before you lie down. In the morning sing the scale three times – make observations, not just singing. You want to study occult sciences, have great ideas to grasp the powers of Nature but if you can’t grasp the difference, the soft vibrations between two music tones, how will you grasp those great powers with higher tones? And now I don’t want to encourage you but when you study the occult music and you start singing, all the grit will start to group in one place and create stones – there are occult songs with which only when you sing to a stone, for ten minutes from above it will start to split; there is an occult music which if you sing you can stop the stream of a river; there is occult music that if you sing near by some dried up spring, the water will flow. And if sometime you dry up and begin to look like dried up springs, it is because you don’t sing. You say, “God does not love me” – your spring dries up. Start to sing and your spring will start running immediately. You will say, “Now I am sad, when I get into a good frame of mind then I will sing.” There is no reason to sing then, you will sing now! Afterwards, if a boil breaks out in some of you, I shall give you one musical attempt to cure it: if somebody has a boil sing the scale three times in the morning, in the evening – again three times and if you sing correctly, this boil will pass. And why can't some illnesses be under treatment? You lose the music. A man who is afraid and who can’t sing dies. You have an inflammation, forty degrees temperature, sing some (some, any, 1) song and the temperature will fall immediately by (few, 3-4 degrees lower) several degrees. But the doctors will say, “He is ill, to keep silent, no singing, only to feel his breath.” You have a bad frame of mind, an unpleasant state – sing! Sing to this state one song, sing a second one, third, till you sing the proper song. The practical educational influence of music – it does interest us. We don’t have an interest in things that stand in our way, but what can produce the music in us, it interests us. Now, in connection with the music, I shall define two ways of Life. The ascending, the correct way of Life is a way that contains in itself all the ascending powers: there is form, content, and sense in it - it is called the correct way. The descending way is a way that contains all the descending forms, content, and sense of the descending life; it is called the Left way. So, with Way you will understand all the possibilities which Life demands in a given moment – it is called Way. Now, music is one of the resources of the Correct way, of the ascending way, one of the great resources of the ascending correct way in Life. Therefore, every single life has to start with music. Now when you sing you will not do it as pupils C, D, E, F, G…- it is not singing. You will stop yourself and when you say C, will forget that you are in the World – when you say C you will think that you start Life, and start to live. And when you say D you will think that this Life in which you live will start to form it, will start to collect materials for it. When you come to E you will understand that you distribute this material. F helps to understand for what the received inside combination could be used in Life. G, it is a construction – starting of the construction, A is plaster, and B is finishing of windows and doors. Then you will finish – you will do not only mechanical windows but will know that one window is one opening, a place that the Light may come from. The door is a place from which a man may come – a way for movement of the soul. When we talk about windows and doors we see that the window is a place where the Light may penetrate, and the door is a place through which the soul may come in. These are only a few occult signs in music; I shall speak about this another time. Now sing C. You take Ci-i, is there music in this Ci-i-i? The soul still doesn’t take part in this singing. In these vibrations, not only do you have to take part, but you also have to control your respiratory system, because here you have one more of the important centres – the larynx. Through the brain you will develop the larynx. The correct speech in the world depends on music – if music is correctly developed, then speech will develop correctly. Therefore, you will concentrate all your energy in the lungs – between the sympathetic nervous system and the larynx; between these two centres, the wheel of the brain begins to turn. Of course, there is that shame in you – if I invite somebody to get up and sing now, all of you will start to laugh. For example, you will not watch how he sings but will giggle, and laugh because he doesn’t sing the tones correctly. And with that you kill his desire to sing. Well, let’s all now take the first tone C. (Everybody sing: C, C, C). Let’s now come to D. C, D, D – louder! (Everybody sing). You don’t do it correctly, this D is not clear, something let you be far from perfect, this shows that the energies are not distributed correctly. But C is clear, it is good. (Everybody sang the whole scale.) Sometimes I shall occupy you – we will take some occult exercise on music. Then we will make one difference: we will sing one usual song normally, and afterwards we will sing the same song with the rules of the occult music to see what effect it can produce. Now the rest of the things you will read the next time. Do you have another theme? (- No) “The use of the mountain tops” – what use does climbing up bring? Afterwards what other use do they have? – They retain the snow attract the dampness and the wind. Now, you notice all these objects, do not think that they are given arbitrarily. All the themes you will write in one special notebook and will think them over. For the music in fact you will think from now further. As many themes as you have written, you will stop over them and will look at them again because in the future we will start to combine – for example, I shall want to combine the relations which exist between music and the mountain tops. Of course, these are complex exercises, we will pass onto them later. After one year, we will come to the complex exercises. You will be careful to put one strong base now, because if you don’t put this strong base you can’t build upon it. Because in the Occult school we have aimed first to develop the centres of Faith, Hope, Love, to develop the musical feelings, to develop the imagination, to develop the mathematical abilities, the judicious abilities, the creative mind, to develop amicability, to regulate human ambition, human pride, afterwards to put to work the executive possibilities of the man in work, to develop speech, to put it in a correct way, afterwards to create the correct forms for Life. These are tasks which have to be worked upon. And after these centres are developed, then we will connect them. Every single centre is connected with some trend and then it can manipulate. So it is imminent to do exercises, exercises. Let’s say that you have one hard task: you are a pupil or a student and you failed the exam, and you haven’t the resources to learn in the next year – your benefactor doesn’t support you any more. Three thoughts may pass through your mind: to kill yourself, to interrupt your life. What should this student do? – He will sing, he will start to sing the scale from below upward and from above downward, he will say, “Life is one ascending scale.” Start from lower C and go to the other, to upper C. – “They have failed me.” – you will go down in the scale, i.e. the failing will think as a coming back on the way back. When they fail somebody, they will say, “Sing the scale backward C, B, A...” Who doesn’t understand music will say, “I have failed.” But whoever understands the music will say, “I sing the scale on the way back.” – And then he will rise again to upper C. And when he acquires the tones, he safely passes the exam. But when they fail him too, he will sing the scale correctly backward – it is the same thing. For example, now you cannot convince yourself that if they fail you on the exam it is better than to pass. Many times miserable pupils don’t learn throughout the year, but it happens that he is examined on the easiest object, he has five and passes, but it is so much better to fail him, and let him repeat learning the material thoroughly – then for the next class he will be ready. Now in the Occult school you can’t pass just like that. The material is connected in a way that you can’t pass by skipping material. The disciple has to learn everything and to do it nicely. No matter what kind of tricks you will use, there is no way you can pass, it is one necessity. So, all the things you have to learn well. And the sufferings in life are nothing but failing - constantly failing us. Sometimes you think that you are virtuous but suffering fails you on the Virtue. You say, “I was good until yesterday.” But you still haven’t learn the art of being good – it is an art to know how to be good. In occultism, we understand “good man” as one who knows how to use some Divine powers correctly in the forms that are predetermined to them. This means a good man: to every Divine power to give the respective form, which is definite for it. Because if in different states, in different tempers, and in different ages, you know what the form is that corresponds to this power and you may give in to it with no mistake, then you will be a good man. It’s like that. Therefore, you will learn with which power, in which case which form corresponds. Because in the Occult meaning, only in this way will you obtain Light. Now you discourage yourselves, every day you become good and bad and hard work is imminent to you – mainly to those of you who want to learn. Afterwards, you will keep another rule: the great occult science always put itself in a way that a man has to start to work with the weaker powers in the world, they are the most productive. You will start with the most weak power that you have. And even in the practical relation you see the same: when a man starts with big steps immediately after he leaves his home, he can’t finish any kind of job – as he goes further he reduces, reduces, and in the middle of the way he tires and stops; but if some man goes out and if he suspects and if he starts very slowly, very slowly and gradually increases, this man will finish the work. And now in religious relation the science consists of the same: the one who goes out in the street and says, “I shall do this and that,” he will do nothing. No stop yourself and say, “This that the teacher gave me, I shall learn it; for the other way I don’t know, but today this little step, I’ll do it.” He doesn’t think about the future. Somebody, when he comes into the school, does think about how he will end the second, the third class etc., what diploma he will take, how they will meet him with flowers, adornments – all this fills his mind, but this pupil is going to do nothing. Now some of you, as occult disciples think in this way, “Now when we finish here, we will do this and we will do that.” No, whatever you are going to do, don’t think about it as only coming to an end, don’t waste your powers. When you have free time, you may dream on different objects but in the School – no other objects for sure. Out of the Schools there is dreaming. The Occult brothers, when they want to dream, from the Invisible world, they go down to hell to see all the dreams – because hell is full of great dreams. If somebody wants to see the greatest dreams, the greatest plans, he has to go down to hell – what dreams, plans, and projects there are there! The most learned philosophers write to the priests, to prophets, to teachers, to mothers, to fathers – all the plans are collected there. And when some man wants to become very great, God sends him down to see the great plans. And because of that in the Occult school firstly they learn the little works and after that step up to learn the great works. There you will start with the little powers that you have in you, with the smallest impulses – do not start with the strongest impulse of the soul. Some preach to begin with the strongest energy but in the occultism we start with the smallest, with the weakest inner convictions. If you can give life to the smallest inner conviction, you will have power to do great works. With money if you may do something, it’s good – but if your father leaves you a hundred thousand leva; but if your father leaves one penny and if with this penny you do something, you are a man, but if you do something with one stotinka… Mind is required, it’s required heart, and required will! Because of that with the weaker powers you have, you will start with them. And the world starts with the weaker things. A secret prayer Source

Беседата на български Precious Stones Year 1, Lecture 17 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 21, 1922, Wednesday Sofia The disciples' essays on the subject 'Precious Stones' were read. When writing on this subject, you have focused on the external characteristics of precious stones. Discussing only the external characteristics of a subject is equivalent to taking some food without feeling drawn to it or without feeling any hunger. Therefore the main impulse, the main stimulus connected to eating is the pleasant feeling one experiences while chewing and when the food is taken in by the stomach. If no pleasant feelings or attraction to certain food are evoked, one has no desire of eating it. If one eats without affinity to the food, there can be no positive results from eating. When we talk about precious stones we mean the human mind, because only an intelligent person can speak about them. Only highly intelligent, noble and virtuous people can speak about precious stones and distinguish one from the other. I would like you to focus on the 12 main precious stones and do a tiny experiment with them. The experiment is as follows. When you have an issue of physical, emotional or mental nature, start to imagine the 12 precious stones in your mind. Start with the most common one and gradually move to the best and most expensive one while at the same time observing which stone will make your unpleasant feeling disappear. As you move these stones through your mind, make a connection between the stone and the virtue that it is associated with. In this way every stone can exert a positive influence on humans and improve their mental state. Virtue is not expressed by a colour. If a maid is rosy and has red cheeks, it is not yet an indication that she feels love. If the maid puts lipstick on or a pink dress, this still doesn't indicate love. If someone likes blue, this doesn't mean that he or she bears the Truth. If you think that someone's fondness of a certain colour indicates that he or she bears the virtue associated with this colour, you will make a big mistake. A colour is only a passive expression of a virtue, but it must pass through the centres or focuses of the mind prior to becoming an active virtue. A transformation of the virtue is required. Each colour gains certain value and worth only after passing through the mind and being focused on a certain centre. In order to understand the content and meaning of precious stones, you must study them. Nothing is achieved easily. Work, effort, and serious labour are required of everyone. Imagine that some day you fall into apathy and laziness, that you don't want to study, that you are ready to give up your beliefs and decide to hit the road; or some other day, you ask yourself if you are on the right path or not; or another day, you experience a number of negative emotions such as envy, hatred, inner fear etc., and you start looking for the cause of this state but fail to find it. Instead of searching for the cause of these conditions, bring the precious stones to mind and then see the kind of result you will get. Sometimes your experiment will be successful, sometimes it will fail, but this shouldn't discourage you. Carry on with this experiment and eventually you will obtain results. Once you have obtained a result I can talk to you about the laws that act through the precious stones. In the past, precious stones were simple, ordinary stones. At some point they underwent a transformation and acquired their present state. For example, a diamond was once ordinary coal but by a series of processes across ages it got transformed into its higher state; it changed from a lower to a higher form. It was black when it was coal, and became colourless as a diamond with the ability to refract the sun beams. The occult science which you are studying now uses precious stones as a method of transforming the troubles you may get into. Precious stones can help you as a mainstay in the life you live in the material world. The experiments I described to you shouldn't take all of your time but only that part of it which you don't know how to use. A small experiment is like planting a small seed in the earth. My assignments are small but aim at investing your leisure time in a useful purpose. Being small, they will be fun and will incite a series of positive thoughts and feelings with regards to the material world which you live in and which you need to know well. Source

Note 2 Thoughts and Deeds Sixteenth Talk of the Teacher given before the General occult class on 15th June 1922, Sofia Next time you’ll write about the influence of music in Life. Because the class is general you are not equally prepared to grasp the subject in the same manner, you have a different understanding. Those, who are not so familiar as the other students, consider themselves equal to that who know and thus is born a little disharmony. Those, who have not grown, have to learn. This is not the place for amusement, no, you will think. Here you have to devote yourself to learning, here a serious thought is required. When we say a serious thought, there should be no fear, do not fear. At least fifty minutes a day the student must stop for a while and think. You have to think about different matters: sometimes you are in pain – think about why you are suffering, you have a troubled life – think why you have encountered such trouble, which are the reasons and how can you objectively find a solution to them and not to say: “ I’m unhappy, such is the society. God has made me in such a way!” This is not a philosophy, this is a solution to the problem. This is a bird’s philosophy, they solve their matters in that way – when the bird is chased by a falcon, it stops by a tree and says: “Here is the salvation.” Or when a big mouse sees a man, hides itself in the hole. I’ll give you an example: in the working field of a Turkish man many mice bred and they said to him: “Hello, Hassan, your field is ravaged by rats!” – “Is that so?” – he went there, put cartridges in the gun, aimed at them as to settle the thing but the moment he raised his gun, all the mice rose at their back feet before him – some thousand rats. – “Well, this means you count me as your master.”- The Turkish man said. “I’ll spare you.” (The Turkish word “harizvam”- “to spare someone’s life”), he lowered his gun and they went backwards. Hassan knew the reason for this, that they consider him their master, however these mice want to know what the man’s intentions are. But Hassan thinks: “I admit my mistake so accept my apology.” Now, when you join the Occult school, you expect to act more humanely, to prepare yourself for an occult student. Yes, you do, but reasoning is needed, the occult students need quick wit. You don’t have to misinterpret some facts, each fact should have its own weight to our life, neither bigger nor smaller – Nature has given it its value. If you don’t learn to reason in that way, are you aware that sometimes you give yourself more weight than you deserve, and sometimes you give yourself less weight than you are worthy of – both are excesses. So my point is that a certain disharmony is bred, which harms the ears of wheat, hampers the thought of the Teacher. Because the students can also trip up their Teacher, at least they can turn him away from the mainstream. And when the stream is driven away, their gardens will be left unwatered, nothing more, nothing less. Now I want to introduce you the most basic things in Nature and show you their inner sense, the foundation. On this elementary basis the further knowledge you will receive will be laid. This is because there many occultists that have lifted themselves high up, there are adepts, who have climbed to the Third vaunt of heaven and they have fallen down head over heels. Those who have passed in the occult, they will be let in but they will be returned back from above, they will be given a good lesson – on the sacred road of Holy school one can not pass without knowledge. One should know- he needs knowledge so he can work. When I say should know, this means that you can always check your knowledge, to prove it, as one student understands his or her knowledge – they give him a task and he starts solving it, he knows the rules, he can work. Now, don’t mix the occult truths with religious. Religion is also one method for educating people but it is an inner method. Church is one seedbed, and the Occult school, this is a school for more developed souls. Some of them have elevated minds, their consciousness has woken so that they can understand the basic laws, which work in their organism, which operate in the society and manage the human evolution. Now, you have to bear something else in mind: you can’t set up yourself a home, to be happy unless you grasp the occult laws, you can’t love your friends until you have understood these laws. And that’s why people will marry and divorce, will become friends and stop being friends, will reconcile themselves and again quarrel, and nations will make wars until they understand those occult laws, which Nature has laid in the foundation of contemporary society. But people have to subject themselves to this society – if they don’t follow these laws, Nature allows all the extremes, which now exist: illnesses are born, which wash way health and knowledge, which people have. Often some small illnesses weaken memory, darken mind, sometimes earthquakes, a hurricane, storm. The reason for the earthquake is us, people – people’s thoughts can be the cause of an earthquakes. Yes, they can and Bulgarian people are not far from this conclusion: when in some Bulgarian village there are crimes committed draught and hail will destroy the crop. (The Bulgarian word for wasted crop is “gradobitina”, a word, received by blending of “grad”, which is the Bulgarian word for hail, and “bitina” a noun, which comes from the verb “biya”-, meaning “beat”, “heat”). Gradually, step by step, after these transgressions have stopped, rain comes again, and the “gradobitina” ceases. Now in Nature we are all connected and we are so sensitive to this connection that we can make a great good or a great evil. That’s why God has limited us, God has not given us great power. Sometimes you wish to have power – in the preset conditions, had god given you power, you would have hanged all human beings in the world and when enraged you would have chopped off the head of someone without really meaning it and then regret it. Now, occult science requires moral stability, not common morality. Absolute good will is required from the student: he or she should never misuse what he has been given. Because when you misuse it, those, who execute control, there are Beings that control, God will not hesitate to send them to execute their control and they will punish you – because there are laws in Cosmos, which are applied everywhere, everything is being monitored. They will punish you and then God will pardon you. Mistakes are forgiven but mistakes are not excused, mistakes in the class must be corrected. Now we won’t elaborate on what and why. Our wish is that the mistakes, which we witness in the class are to be corrected and the reasons why and what for, do not apply to us. We are interested that mistakes be corrected and if they are, then we can guess why. Some expect to obtain more knowledge. At the stage you are now, it is useless to give you lectures, had the best lectures been given to you, you can’t learn because here inner quickness of mind is sought of those subtle psychic forces that are at work. For instance, contemporary occults speak of will, that one should have will. A person can have will, for instance he and she can clench his or her fist, knit his or her brows – this is manifestation of one’s will too. However the one, whose will is strengthened, can seem quiet and calm but he can send a thought so powerful in its intensity and yet so quiet that it can produce a small illness but when this thought reaches its uttermost bounds, it will make such an upheaval, which the world has not yet seen. That now evil people sometimes send stronger and more powerful in their intensity thoughts and good people say: ”God will arrange all this.” We have to say: “The world goes according to God’s order and we should not disrupt it, my life has been arranged by God a long time ago and it will stay so lest I violate its order; God arranged my life long time ago.” Brain is subordinated to mind, stomach - to digestion, the lungs – exhaling system, heart is subordinated to circulation. It is well enough if I don't disturb my heart, brain, stomach, foot; all these little cells where Life functions. They know their work quite well. But one day, you drink too much, disturb your cells – and God gives you a lesson. -”Our life has been planned” - this thought must gradually be shaped in our mind. And first thing is: we don't have to misshape Life. When I say: ”World has been designed”, what is the meaning of all this? Let's imagine that you have a son, five years old, you have opened him an account of one hundred thousand leva, this child has been provided for, isn't that so? But this money is not at his or her disposal, his father has written that it has to be given to him or her when they come of age at 21 years, till then this child has to be taught how to manage this capital. When I say you are provided for, I don't mean that you have the right to do whatever you want, to have the capital at your disposal, no, the capital has been invested and you have to learn that when this capital comes in your possession to make results, you should know how much of it to invest, otherwise you will waste the money and you won't realise the meaning of Life and why you have come here. Now, for instance, did you know what was your program as students today? Today you had one important program. When you woke up today how many of you uttered a prayer to his Father to tell him: ”Father, I thank you for the conscience you gave me, I thank you for the opportunity you created for me to go to school, for the friends, for society and the social circle, for all these endeavours!” How many of you said this? Some of you first have washed yourselves, have said quickly the Lord's Prayer then had a bite, and went to work. But the work is profound – if I am a poet this is a profound work, if I am a philosopher, it is a profound work. They say: “ He is an excellent philosopher”, well when we philosophize, what are we to prove? - “I will give evidence for causes of the world's creation.” And do you know how we prove it to the scientists so often? By making ourselves a laughing stock. There is such an example that it is taken from Bulgarian life, I don't know how much of it is true but take it as an anecdote - the son of a family from a poor, desolate village where the houses are in fact huts without tiles and the holes are filled with faeces (Bulgarian word is “izverzhenie” - obscure form of the regularly used word “izptazhnenie”), by the will of circumstances goes to Europe and graduated in nature science. He then comes back to his village, sees a big “izverzhenie”, stuck on the wall and started proving his father by the work of what natural law the “izverzhenie” has gone up there, relates him philosophy. His father tells him: “Son, I've just seen your mother putting it there, for the forces I know nothing of.” So, my question is, if it wasn't for your mother, by the work of what force would the faeces go to the ceiling? Often we want to prove that the things in the world take place without any reasonable force, in some mechanical way. This is not the case. Now you are in the occult and say: “Why is there evil existing and why is there good?” I will put aside this question for further discussion. Why faeces are to be found? - “Izverzhenie”, this is one evil, all illnesses in the world are given birth in the faeces on the account of faeces being rotting substances. What is this “izverzhenie?” -”Izverzhenie” is one indication for existence of Life. Because some of these beings haven't studied the laws of nutrition, their faeces contain more poisonous substances. Take for instance these beings, fist the dog, which is canine and is therefore of the character to bite, take then the ox, compare their faces and by their content you will know the character of the animals. Bear by its faces shows that it is not that bad, take the goat, she is also not that bad, the sheep too. Then in the same way the sins of people are not the same – there are sins which are like the faces of the dog, sins as the faeces of the ox, as these of the sheep and so on but by a grade. And someone is asking why is there sin, how should we abolish sin? - Cease to eat and each sin will be abolished, all evil will disappear from the world. But then you say: “Can we live without eating?” - Then I will answer you – if it can't be without eating, it can either can't be without sin – this is philosophy. You, since you want to eat, will feed your hen, and eat it. This hen is a kind of brother – you will take her eggs and argue why. Because you want to live. Well then, do we, from the occult point of view, think that meat food is the only healthiest food? For science will find proof in the future but occultism has another statement on that matter. These substances which the meat of these breastfeeding contain, of hens and turkey, these essences can be found in Nature in ten or hundred times pure form. And if we were more reasonable creatures, we would have extracted these substances not from the meat of the animals but from its original source and would have been healthy but now we have need to send animals to gather this energy for us. And do you know how they gather it? It is restricted, because we are restricted too. I take this restriction not as one moment but restriction for one long-lasting culture which has began first too slowly (in the text is used the Russian word “medlenno”, familiar to Bulgarians) went unnoticed but gradually it has increased. And our mind our is so twisted that even the intelligent European citizens would find difficult to prove that this food is not healthy. He will prove you with regard to physics and chemistry that this is the right way to eat – he or she will prove you what are the results and what is the death rate according to statistics. What do many births and deaths show in the population? - These are two anomalies. When many people are born, this is an anomaly and when many people die this is an anomaly too. Some support this: “A family must have many children.” I am not against this but how many children must one family have i.e. how many Nature demands? How many does there have to be? - This is a disputable question. Taking into account the present conditions if we reason the question has to be asked in another way – What was in fact the preliminary plan when Nature created man? And another thing: how many boys and how many girls should be there? Now I see that in some families predominate boys only but with feminine character and in another family only girls but with masculine character. Do you consider this to be the natural state of things? When man dresses himself by a feminine model and the woman by a masculine, human 's life has turned upside down. Not only this situation we will find but also all men want to be teachers, masters. To be master means to be a man. And now consider this -all women want to be men. What is more - they say even this: that in each family one man is born blind. There is no man or a woman who wants to be blind, to be born blind. Then some say: “It isn't worth being a student, you should be a teacher.” I would discuss on this matter not factually, I want us to consider it as a thought -should we be manly or not? This is not important. Whenever you think righteously you are a man, when you live rightfully you are woman. When you think right, considering all laws of reasoning, from the occult point of view you are a man, a sensible man, I name you a sensible being. And when you live right, having in mind this thought, live up and sense the delight that you have refined yourself, you are woman – not woman but a virgin, you are a virgin. In the first case you are youth, not a man, in the second your are a virgin. When you become woman it depends on how you act, reasonably or not. There is some intertwining of things. Sometimes you notice that some clever people don’t lead a good life. Therefore I say: there is some discord, a disharmony between their mind and their life. And we say that these people are not clever. Don't say you think that clever is the man that can engross his people in war? - He or she is not clever. Does a writer who has written one book that has fascinated one generation and after hundred years people learn that they are on the wrong way? Do you consider an occultist clever if he or she for the sake of this science leads him or her in the wrong way? - No, one thought has to be in the soul of a student, he has to know the Truth. Now they ask, why do we need Light? I won't give you a definition but I say: Light is there to show us the way of Life, the road we have to follow. Sometimes you ask why you don't find compassion, to give you incentive to walk onward. Each wish, this is an incentive, therefore, make use it. This incentive can take many directions, you can take different detours. Light, it has its application but the aim of Life, the inward side of Light is to show us the Way. And do you know what the Way is? Nowadays, we, the contemporary people, under the term “way” understand only the distance which we can walk from one point to another: this is not way but one straight line. The Way, The Way of God, these are all possible methods and ways according to which a person can live sensibly in this world. This is the Way – all sensible methods and ways, included in the laws of God of Sensible life that we can apply to our life. And to you, the advanced students, I will present you the following: some of you have an undeveloped brain, you have to learn. We say this: a person should think and then act – this is one point of departure, don't you think in that way too? And there is something else: a person should first act and then think. To make out these two statements, to deduce them to their premises and to determine their proportions you must have a reasoning mind. How can you act before you think, how can you begin one task before thinking it over? You should say: “The rightful way is to think and then to act but to act and then to think, is stupid.” No, it is not so - if you do a job conscientiously first you have to think then to act, when you do a job by the rules of God, first you have to act, then to think. When you act, God will think for you – He thinks, you act – this is the way of God. He has given you his plan, you don't have to think that much – you will do the work that He has given to you, you want reason, He will determine. And when we want God to do instead of us, we have to have given thought about our life in advance and then God will do as we have anticipated and the way you think, so will God act. So you can try but God is very careful in this respect. If you are sincere, He will respond to you with the same. For instance you want to steal – He will create all the conditions for stealing and killing – He will give you all conditions to kill but then he will establish prisons, gallows, he will make all this. You want to help - He will create all the conditions because God will say so: “You conceived that thought, that's why I did it in such a way – you want it your way.” And when we act all comes good, God realizes. His thoughts are omniscient, His plans are clearly defined – there are no two plans in Him, there is only one plan and in this plan the only the Absolute Good in the world is inside. Now you can explain the norm one way or another but you will know that strictly defined: what you think that will be, what you do that will be. So if you do according to God that will be. But if you hold up to exact at one phenomenon of God your thought, you will experience the opposite result: Where God has determined you don't have to correct His plan. For instance He creates one form of a woman and you say: “Why should I be a woman?” When you say: “Why should I be a woman?” do you know what will become of you? - You will get the worst of man, the worst of children, you'll get the worst possible place for giving a birth and you will say “ I haven't enjoyed one sunny day in my life!” Why is that? Because you have said: “Why I have been born woman?” It doesn't depend on you whether you will be born man or a woman, this question is determined. It is not within your power to chose your parents, it is not, it is destined by the circumstances of your previous incarnations. You are not in state of chosing your father and mother but once you are born with a father and a mother, you are your own master, you can face your life alone. When you are released, when you become 21, when you become of age, you are in the state to change your life as you want. But will is needed, will to do it – it won't come to you without you giving a thought. Let's say that your father was a drunkard and you got disgusted by his drinking and you say at once without pondering: “I won't drink!” and that’s it! I met a Bulgarian young man fifteen years ago, at 21; his father was a drunkard and he since he had seen all the things his father had been doing at home, said:” I'll never take a sip of wine in my life!” He decides this and so he does not. He said: “ There is that much disgust in my soul - I hate wine that my father loves!” So this son avoids the vice of his father and after some time he will teach his father a good lesson. There is will in him. Now, you, the students from the occult school say: “God will fix the job, God is good.” We know that God is good, I am convinced one hundred and one percent that God is good, that God will set things in the right path and He has done that already but we have to learn, to learn. And in what is the foundation of this teaching? First, you can move your eyes at the normal level, right, can you move your nose in that way, do you know how to direct your chin, from an occult point of view, likewise? In occultism this is strictly defined, there is way how to hold your head, where to put your hands. Some speakers would put their hands first before them, then behind them, in their pockets, everywhere about. Where should we put our hands? You will say: ”This is irrelevant!” They are, my friends! Take electricity as an example – between these two poles, when electricity runs through them, there is contact and you will receive such a shock that you will shiver. But what if instead of poles, for some time you hold your hands together, what then? - It is not safe for you to hold your hands together always: there are times when you have to hold your hands free. And when you pray, you have to pray with hands folded, this is a not a good prayer, God will not accept this prayer. What the reason is for this, I will not elaborate on. People generally hold their hands turned upwards because in all other positions it will form a bad contact. And if you raise you hands up to the Invisible world, then you let some other contact in your left hand a reverse action will take place in the right hand: another contact should happen – two contradicting actions will occur in the Invisible world and you will experience a change. Now take for instance, when we love somebody and when we don't want to listen to somebody: when the father is angry with his son, he says to him: “Ivan!” and when he is pleased with him: ”Ivancho”; or the son says: “Father!”, not “Dad”; can a daughter or the son have another name: ”Petko” (Bulgarian for Peter), “Peter” and so on. Why does the child bow down? - This child bows down, blood flows to the rear part of his head, doubles the pressure in the brain and breeds negative energies - and because the noble energies come from the sympathetic nervous system, [sympathetic nervous system – sympathetic part of the vegetative (autonomous) nervous system in which the stomach (sun) string also called stomach brain is anatomically the biggest nervous string (editor's notes)] this person impedes these energies and says: “You are the father but I don't want to know about you.” And what will you do then? - You have to know the law. This water which flows has to be less, you have to put the flap so that lesser blood circulated in the brain of your boy Ivancho. Now, there are many called Ivancho among us, don't think I mean a concrete figure, no, I do not: Ivancho, Ivane, these I voice only to give you and explanation, don't think I have a real person in mind. Precisely this part of the blood has to be sent in another directions, to circulate it up and then down the forehead, in the upper part of the head, in different centres i.e. in places that are short of it. You have to know how to impose on ourselves. And in this relation you have to be prepared. We will come up to the science – to one science which we have to apply to its limits. So we will make small tests. In the present society, as it is here, in Bulgaria, a reaction originates: the newsreporters want to counteract, commence a reaction from one hand, the priesthood from the other hand makes hindrances with which they want to stop one movement and at least to discredit. We know all that is being done – I know why these people want this to happen- they want this because they want to deprive us of the energy won: they want this society to be devastated so that they can easily consume all and become heirs of this energy. But this will not take place: I have already said – not only will they rob us of five coins, but we will make them pay a huge fine, we will give them nothing. While I am in Bulgaria, there will be fertility, when I am gone, there will be desert here as in Palestine! And you, the students, when you leave so it will become. Such is in one law of God written: when a nation disregard all great laws of God which have been set for them, such a nation can not prosper. And you, as students from the Occult school will say: “ What should we do?” - You will be positive inside yourself. And we, when we come to stand for the God's Name, there is only one opinion for us – the Grand God's Law. And no nation will venture to transgress it. And there, when to the Slavs were sent those great ghosts, I don't speak of me (I don't include myself also), I have in mind this great law because God shows his will the Panslavism as to embody it in one work, in one mission for mankind) – this is a fact -those goods are given to him but there have to be reasonable people to make use of these conditions. They don't, Slavic peoples will be followed by others, third and fourth. Each nation as one individual does has to reasonably fulfil its mission. Now, they want to say in Bulgaria that this thing here is a sect, they want to convince you either. Why? You will become are apostates to the Bulgarian people. If you are not students in the School, you are apostates, not only to the Bulgarian people but apostates to mankind because you impede God's majestic energy which prepares the new way of the mankind. We do not speak in the dark, come and try, we say: ”Believe” but come and try, we don't want such misleadings. Well, you will be brave and resolute – we will spin the wheel and when we turn it round, all the newsreporters in Bulgaria will hit the ceiling and then we'll see what they will write in the future. I will make all these newsrepoters neurotic, sleepless, the worst illnesses will befall them, they could not eat sweets, do they know that one can not play tricks with God. They have to use their pen in favour of the Truth. I have nothing against a newspaper publishing the truth but when a news reporter writes lies, they will not be forgiven. A priest, a teacher, a mother or a father telling lies won't be forgiven. Now when you embark on, you don't have to build your life on the old foundations. We have to reform our lives. Now many people say: “What is our benefit for so many years?” Well, a person that has done work in the world, hasn't he won something? The one that has risen up each morning and worked on his field hasn't he won something? As for the one that has sent others to dig for him, it is not certain for him that he is going to win anything. Now, for so many years I have tried to give you a method to work as I do. I start from scratch too, I have also been present at excursions and other events. Though you are prone when you come to say: ”I can do without going there?” – You can't. “Can't we do it in another way?”- There is no other way. “Isn't there an easier way?”- This is the easier way: when you come out for a walk, this will do you good. Even when a person makes friends with the simplest people, this is one good – if you know how to act, you will learn many great things. Few days ago, at Vitosha came two oxen, they laid down and the one started to lick the other, to clean him, and the other exposed his flank to him so that the other can clean him well. I said to those that were there: “So excellent example is that!” One of oxen smoothed the skin of the other, the other moves afore so that he can be well cleaned. I say to those that were there: ”What an excellent example!” The ox cleaned him well, the front, the back, the sides, the other stands still, peacefully. What an excellent example is this, who from you is willing to clean his or her brother's face? You will say: “Go and wash yourself up there at the wash-basin” though it will not occur to any of you to say: “Let me give you a hand and pour the water for you.” You will say “Oh, come on, now!” This is a great moral. Think of it at one: ”Let me pour the water for you”- this is alertness, one good feature. Well, you will need experience, through these little deeds nobility is being cultivated as a feature in the human character. And sometimes I enjoy going for a walk with you. Why? - Because this walk teaches me, do you follow me, I make use of the small things, not the big, I gather material. Because there are things in Life which I will gather in a special way – as one bee must fly around thousand blossoms as to gather a little honey thus must a teacher and a student learn many things. Best things are won hard. Then I demand a little patience from you -and the result is: you are in a hurry. And then I recently made such a test that all became worried lest i go. No, I am testing your faith, God's can 't be torn apart, can you grasp this? That which comes from God can die but it will be resurrected ten times stronger than before. This is God - in Good. He can make you die but he can then resurrect you. When God comes to ruin a job of ours – he doesn't do that but He gives new energy to us to do this job. Therefore, whatever the conditions the student finds himself, he or she must know that in the God's plan there are exceptions. When Jesus was crucified, all students ran away. “It's over.” - all of them said, and all Peters, and all the rest ran away. For three days they all were in shivers and thought: “We thought that he would become a king and now He has been crucified and it is all over.” Do you know in what situation were his disciples until Jesus was resurrected – everyone thought: “What is going to happen now?” (This is not written in the history). But the Godlike are at work, inside in the soul, this man Jesus was resurrected not only in his tomb but in their hearts also and they saw Him and were filled with strength. In the occult science you will again see this new state in one living Truth which will bring this invisible Life into you. So now I' m telling you: don't fall in despair. Jesus has said to his disciples: “I must leave, it will be better for you that I go now”, then he says: ”Sadness filled your souls but I will see you again, you will rejoice in yourselves. I go only for a time but this means nothing in the course of fulfilling God's law.” When we come to fulfil the law of God, there is only one opinion in us and neither beforehand, nor late we'll do sufficient work but only on time. Now I want from you, as students of this school, not to fear. Now some of the students here are in deep thought: ”What will happen to us when our Teacher goes away?” What will happen? And I will tell you:” if you have given it a thought and acted afterwards, all this will be smashed to pieces and if you have acted and then thought all will paste together again. If you consider this to be my job, then you waste your energy uselessly but if you think this is God's deed, you will exalt yourself. But you have to determine yourself. This is the question: Godlike or not like God. If it is Godlike, go with it as I am with it. This is God's matter and I stand up for it because it is Godlike and not only I, but everyone would say: “This is God's matter and you will sacrifice your life for it – there your salvation is.” With this God's deed will make you famous and without it you will become infamous. You would say: ”But how should we know?” Come on, brother and I'll tell you, no need for big philosophy here: I have a loaf of bread: I'm asking you: what you think of this bread -is it nutritious or not nutritious? “Don't know.” “Here you are.”- I take a piece of the bread and hand it over to you, I give you a quarter of it to last you for four hours. First I ask you how you're feeling- “My feet're shaking, I don't feel well.” Then I give you another quarter from it and again four hours to go – if this bread can't restore your condition for four hours and more, it is not worth it: if it can – it is a bread indeed. Would you believe it is good? Well then, after four hours it will restore your strength. You can say: ”That I doubt”- it's alright, you'll give it a second try. Again you doubt – again well try. Ten attempts are enough, there is no need for more than ten attempts in occultism. Ninety nine attempts I have made -you doubt that, then I'll give you any bread, go: you're be the breadwinner from now on. Therefore the occult truths you will test for yourselves and when you 've tested an occult truth, it is a temple, don't doubt it – we don't prove ten times one and the same thing whether it is Godlike or not. God's things are true. Everything that starts with a deed and ends with a thought is Godlike and everything that starts with a thought and ends with an action, it is of a man. Right? - (It is right.) Well, why is it right? Because when we start with an action, God will think instead of us and when we think, God act for us. Therefore in either case our business will go well. I can see in your minds: you say to yourselves: ”We want more, we want something more.” Not that I can't give you more but to people that suffer consumption doctors give eggs and two or three kilos milk a day and what comes of that? They fatten and illness temporarily halts but their mind is only busy with the thought of staying alive- when they sat down and would say: ”I eat that much eggs and drink so and so quantity of milk per day.” And so they, day after day, speak of eggs and milk, so what is the meaning of their life then – one thought about eggs and milk. If you, as an occultist sit down and give it a thought: ”Let our strength be given as to fix the matters in Bulgaria”, nothing would become of it. If a nation is given the greatest fortune in the world, you will destine them the greatest misfortune, had you made them strong, you would have created another disaster for them.” Not that I say the nation shouldn't be strong but the powers should come from its inward capacities, fortune should come someway (eventually: same way). And this means that everyone should work hard for it, should make his living through hard work – now this is the law. Now the work is not divided and due to this we suffer. I leave this for now, this is not our fault but because we make the foundations for our new life, we won’t build in the old fashion. I have the greatest intention to give a new direction, a new way to things. With all that I'm saying I ignite in you a new energy, I wake something new, the Godlike. If you are listening to me, this energy will do you good and if you don't listen to me, this energy would produce a reverse effect. When I say if you listen let me put it straight: let me give you a rare seed of a famous breed and I tell you which month, which year, which day and the conditions when the Moon is in that phase and I will tell you the way according to which the seed should be planted. Why should you listen? -Because this seed could grow only at these special conditions. You can say: ”Is there no other way?” When I say: dig one hole, two inches deep, you say: “Can't it be an inch deep?” - I tell: that much dung, that much sand, then water. “Can't it be done in another way?”- It can but in the Godlike law for planting seeds all famous laws are laid and all the Virtues which we have to find soul in our mind grow at certain conditions. You can nurture a thought and a year later it would disappear: someone else have planted another seed and this thought live in you through all your life. This way we will come t these great laws we can understand. I want the occult capacities to be woken in you, without this one can not learn. At first your occult abilities should be awakened, the hidden qualities which have not been put into action which are still. We will wake them gradually for if we wake them suddenly, you will suffer too much. And other abilities are gradually built because if you start building another evil will be born in you and it is not occult. Because many occultists which have grown up in a night, have become proud. We want all this to follow its natural way so that you can make use of the good things God has invested in you. Now, don't mix your religious beliefs with the occult truths. You can use one occult truth in whatever form you like – it can't be restricted and the occult truth can't be binded. Occult truth may be applied only if we have Knowledge, if you don't have such, this truth will cause you the greatest suffering. I want you first, as students in the school to get to know each other. Let's say you are not affiliated with somebody: this is not evil but it shows that in both of you similar forces, similar aspirations. Find someone like yourself and you will find one third, resultant force to bring harmony in you. If the third can't make things out, look for a fourth, fifth, sixth...up to tenth but you can still find one who can bring balance among those who have lost it. Now many times the students say: “He is too nervous, impatient” but these words are empty. An impatient man, a nervous man, is only words. In fact there are no hot-tempered people, there are no impatient people i.e. in certain moments they are such – certain energy accumulates in the brain and this energy troubles us, this energy is a bomb. When it comes out, you are calm and in good disposition, you are a good man again. Each one of you when you are enraged, would do anything in their house, and when the energy is used up, are meek as lambs - where have all the bad things gone? We now say: “He is a bad man” but in this person there is sufficient energy in this person that must be reasonably used in its place. Now, let's return back to our subject. In this talk, (it may seem a little sporadic) all of you to rewrite it and after that all students should make summary of the main points and edit it for themselves. You should have your own notebook, I want you to do this and I'll see your notes then. You will write down the main points according to your own preferences: now we will see who are the most capable students. You'll have to do this during the summer, all the summer. I am not going to look at all this now but in the last days of spring and through all the summer – I give you enough time to write it well and then you'll take your extracts and put them in order according to your taste in another book. Buy two books -in the first you'll have the original and in the second – your translation. I want to see what kind of translation you will produce and what conclusions and applications of it you will make. Those of you who can – let them make it. Now you've understood -you will write in a notebook, neatly, it is not permitted in the classes that lectures should be written in handwrite, all must be in your own writing if you want to make a progress – if it is typed, there won't be any results – the important, the valuable, has to pass through your heart. And you will keep this book as sacred. And if you know expect someone else to rewrite it, to give it to you and make the extracts for you – what kind of students are you! Sit down and think every day for half an hour, for a whole hour. Now, did I give another exercise to you? (- No.) First two weeks you will use five minutes a day for improving your flaws – physical, spiritual, and intellectual. Five minutes a day for two weeks you will use for improving your weaknesses. You'll take this talk and the first talk about the married couples- these two talks you'll rewrite. Now I want to know how many of you can apply this to their lives. Start tomorrow: at midnight if you wake up from the first sleep, apply the law, the morning is the best time for applying it – the first time you can devote to it. Thus you will not take into consideration your own self, as a viewer you will let the God's goodness to pour on you, to give impulse to the Goodness ascribed to you. So that you can be as the newborn, without anything to worry about. You will leave yourself to God's goodness to pour out and after that you will come to your previous condition. At least you will win, your mind will broaden. At the least you will gain, will be a little greater self-confidence for your soul in these five minutes. At the present conditions it is necessary for the students to have this inner confidence because there is no thing more terrible than the lack of confidence. Can this be or can it be not? There is only one law in us: it can! And when Paul said: ”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, this is the same law. Paul has borrowed it form there: “If my words last in you and you last through Me, I and My Father will come to you and make a home in you” and he also says: ”Everything that you ask for in My name, it will be and I will make manifestation of myself.” First there must be the Word and this Word must have Truth for a heading so: these two principles must be at work in work. This is a little test – five minutes, it is not a big question – five minutes for one noble thinking. Then for these five minutes you will say one formula: “I want, God, the Virtues you have deposited in my soul from the beginning, to grow with the power of Your Love and Wisdom. And I will use all my strength at your vineyard for the manifestation of Your Will.” The class will continue throughout the summer. Those of you who stay (no matter whether I attend or not), will meet each Thursday. Themes will be given to you, about which you have to write and these works will be read. Remember this – we will overcome all difficulties. Sky and Earth will go by but not a scar from this will erase. Everything, that God said will be fulfilled without exception. There is no exception in the Great God's Law. Now, don't make illusions for yourselves, work and work, work because Life is in the future – this Life comes from now on. You will say: ”This is so natural, what would this Life be like? 'What is the analogy? When that caterpillar over there dies has come to its uttermost and says: ”It's over”, life can not cultivate in this form and start making its pupa, does it asks itself what would become of it? Something better would become – second life would be better than the first. Therefore our life has reached the utmost borders and now pupa would become a butterfly. This life would define the New life for itself and this New life would be ten times better than the present -at least ten times better. And it is worth to sacrifice everything for it – such conditions would be there that now couldn’t be spoken of. And now we say: ”We won't leave.” We can go to the woods but which is the Way? -The Way goes through all the troubles which we now have to overcome. I have seen when some Bulgarian blocks the way with his carts and oxen so that no on can pass, another comes then, puts his plough down – the same result: then third, forth, up to ten men and when we join all forces and the cart sets off. And we say: ”What one can't make by himself, ten, united by the same force over come.” And one car can go without oxen. So we have the need to believe absolutely in this occult law – there is no exception to it, it is a living law. All that have come before you, have been working and trying this. And you will try from this confidence, you'll see. So absolutely no discouraging thoughts will be there. There can be big trouble, to be short of many things, this and that – these things are of second importance, I count then as one profit though they are unpleasant in Life. They can give you some exams in occultism. If you are not prepared when they give you an exam, your brain can blow off your head. There are such exams there, they will try you out. I have told you that there are such mock exams there in occultism – they will try you to see who has convictions and who has not. In the old times in the occult brotherhoods there were often exams to see whether the student was brave: they give him a guide, folded up his eyes and left him somewhere alone, then they took off the fold and he saw people around him with masks on their faces and there was a mask, holding a lit knife in front of him. If he were scared, he would start running but if he stayed, this mask would come, would jab him, but the knife was made of paper. But what would you go through in this moment! “That's it, my life has gone”- you will say to yourself. And I often witness how you run from these false knives and say: “What a misfortune!” No, no you will stand up and wait for this paper knife to stick in you with all its strength. And that's why the Scriptures say: “Everything that befalls those who love God is for good.” Even in the occult school eccentric works come into being. Someone would say: “I came here to put my things into order and they are in a mess.” You don't know, if your works have messed up, how much would they have entangled otherwise. Yours philosophy is such: someone saves ten thousand leva, buys a good ox, this ox dies and he would say: “What a loss!” Well then, if you haven't saved that much money and the ox dies, what would have you done been? Thankful for having the opportunity for saving the money: this logic isn't good. Someone comes here and says:” The karma of my life is such”, you seek help, you enter here and your things go well. You have to thank for being in this place – if here is that way, imagine what is outside. You go into one house – no clothes, nothing - you shiver but if you come outside in the wind and rain, what would your situation be, here you are under a roof, high and dry. Don't suggest illusions for yourself that now you are in School, you know better, you don't. And besides don't overgeneralise the laws of the School, don't think that this School is made only for yourself - to sort your material things out. This School has a great purpose – by the way it purpose includes sorting your things out but this is a side thing, the aim of the School is quite different. And include this verse then: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Right and everything else would be added to you.” If you understand this from an occult point of view, the question is settled for you. So as students of the School you will be hardworking because Jesus loves hardworking students: ”Those who love me keep my commandments.” You will study, you will apply it and the world will know my teaching. When you apply it reasonably, from the results the world will know what my teaching is, that you are my students indeed and that the Teaching is a Teaching of God. Now you mix things up and bear no fruit: we talk of Love – there is no fruit, we talk of Wisdom - there is no fruit either, we talk of Truth – no fruit. No fruit -all those trees bear no fruit. This doesn't mean that you don't blossom, on the contrary, you blossom and smell good but there is no fruit. I don't say that there are no bees. When pear blossoms, bees gather honey but the important is the fruit. We come from the bees to pick up honey and many occultists have gathered honey from the blossoms of the trees. Now we have to bear fruit to these trees of God. Secret Prayer Source

Note 6 Occult Hygiene Lecture fifteen read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 8 of June, Thursday, Sofia Did you have an exercise to write? (- This time we had not.) All of you are generally acquainted with the word hygiene. It is a science that teaches about the human organisms' state of health. Now with the expression occult hygiene, we are extending the word hygiene; more meaning is applied than is usually perceived in its common meaning. When we talk about a common and an occult disciple you should note that the difference between them depends on the degree of their consciousness. For instance, you can study the influence of the common hygiene on the body’s state of health, but you will reach 120 years and you will finally lose the thread of your body and so you will have to give your body up. So the common hygiene can prolong your life up to 120 years, while the occult hygiene can prolong your life for a longer period. And not only this – the occult hygiene also gives instructions concerning the healthy state of the human mind and of the human feelings. Your mind can get ill as well as your body. The human mind can get ill, the human heart can get ill and the human will can also get ill; the only thing within the human being that cannot get ill is his Spirit. That is why when illnesses get into the Spirit, then special energies emerge to correct the damage caused. The soul suffers, the mind gets mad, the feelings get derailed, the will becomes paralysed, and as a result the person becomes disabled on Earth. Now in our class I perceive that you do not follow the correct way of understanding. Let’s assume that you are an aviator, you take off, but you must hold the control stick and it depends on your balance how you will fly this apparatus and in what way you will carry out your task. Imagine that while on Earth you start looking around and divert from your main task. How do you think you can settle your task if your mind is not functioning properly? Now you have come here to study the occultism but meanwhile you are attending to side issues, to issues that are without reference to anything at all. Sometimes I call your attention to some ideas and principles but you often ask why have I said something in this way instead of another way, and you are discussing minor issues. While you are up in the air, this is not the time to discuss why I said what I said. The main thing is that while you are up in the air you should keep the apparatus by which you are flying functioning. As soon as you land on the ground you can philosophize as much as you want to. And when I’m saying: “don’t philosophize” I mean the aim that you have – to graduate from the school and after that, when you land on the ground, then you will have nothing else to do, and you can philosophize as much as you like. The occultism never explains why and for what reason – even if you go to the greatest Masters they will not answer you. When you come to me you are talking to me as cherished children, but it is not obligatory for the Master to answer all your questions – not at all. You can go to the Master and ask him something, but in response he will look at you once and he won’t tell you anything. He does not care that you might get angry; that you might graduate from the school and not believe in God – believe in God or don’t believe in Him, it doesn’t matter to him. – “But I am not following this way.” – Follow it if you like; The Master says: “I followed this way, I studied the laws and you should study them also.” - These laws cannot be changed for your sake. Therefore I am drawing your attention to this: I perceive that your minds are rather twisted, your hearts are also twisted, really twisted. You will not frighten me with this – I am telling you these things not for my sake, but for yours – your twisted mind will not divert mine – not in the least. I will follow the way and I will be what I am because such is the will of God. Now you might tell me: “But what did we do?” – What did you do? Suppose now that two thousand years later the Invisible World sends a committee to check your work – can you tell me what they would find? If they entered through the door now, what would they find in your minds and in your hearts? This committee would check the situation impartially and what would it find? Now I am talking to you as a human being: I don’t mean to say that this committee will find a lot of nice things, neither do I mean to say that they will find a lot of bad things, but I do mean to say that here and there this committee would have found that you have neglected some of your tasks. These tasks that are assigned to you at present allow no delay and you should settle them. There are tasks, which are the order of the day – your attitude towards God is the order of the day. Do you love God, which you serve, do you serve God, do you serve Christ, do you have His Love and are you ready to sacrifice your life for Him. Then in addition, does each one of you help others with thoughts, with desires, with actions? I am warning you, many of you might act destructively, but I am telling you: you will meet me on your way and we will impose a punishment on you. Here in the School there are people who want to demolish – you might break your own head instead! - “I wonder if this thing is Divine?” Do you understand that this is a deed of your God, of that one who sent you here to Earth. Up until now we were patient and understood what you were doing, but you let yourself get out of hand that when someone looks at me he says: “Well, the Master knows a lot.” But yours is not an act of discipleship. All of you will be driven to that humbleness which God requires – He will put you in my state of humbleness. So far you are not as humble as I am. Someone might say: “Well, the Master is as plain as we are.” – Like you are! I am not like you at all because there are things in my consciousness for which you cannot even suspect – you don’t even suspect what is hidden in my consciousness. I am plain, my clothes are similar to yours, I eat and sleep like you, but if Life consisted of such things… Life does not consist of this. You can't imagine what I am – my horse might be similar to yours, but after I alight from it there is a great difference between you and me. I can make myself invisible – you might look for me in Heaven for thousands of years and not recognize me. How can you pick someone out? – You can know somebody through the Law of Love only. If you have Love you will recognize me; if you don’t have Love, then you might search the whole outer space and yet I will remain nobody to you. And all of you might know each other by the help of the Law of Love. If this applies to me then how much more does it apply to you? I regret that the occult disciples in Bulgaria are rather pedantic, that they have no respect and deference for each other, and that they have love only when they are in need. And also you commit such nuisances that the disciples from the ordinary schools in the world do not perform. Those disciples have the courage to commit them openly, while the occult disciples do them secretly. You are not obedient to me but you are under the vigilant eye of God who does not miss anything. You might say: “Tonight we will be reproached again.” This is not a reproach at all – I am just reminding you of a great Truth from which you have diverted and nevertheless you think that you are following the right course. For instance, when I am talking to someone I know whether he is listening to me or not – I have a rule and it never fails me. When God is talking to us He also has a rule and He also knows if we are listening to Him or not. Now the point is this great inner Truth – do you have such training or not? Instead of blaming yourself I recommend to you, to be fully prepared to adopt the Divine Truth and to get through the Divine thoughts. First of all your mind should become stronger as to be able to get through all the positive and all the negative thoughts. Very often your mind is not able to get through certain thoughts and as a result you suffer. There are many young men who suffer after they have read some negative book – it brings a change in their minds and they suffer for months and for years before they revert to their present state. First of all you should observe such harmony in your own self – you should be satisfied with your own conduct. I give a task and some of you put it into practice and then they say: “These tasks can be executed in this way, but they can be executed in another way as well.” And they go along the road but their tasks remain unexecuted. When a Divine task is being assigned to you, you should solve it fully in its completeness. You might say: “I cannot solve this task”, but since you have started you must solve it. You say: “We’ll postpone it for another time”; but if you yourself cannot solve it you’d better not tempt the others. If you yourself can’t keep the fast don’t say: “One can manage without fasting as well” – don’t impose on others what you yourself have not tried. I don’t want these instructions I give you now to remain a voice crying in the wilderness – I want them to have a result so that these instructions can prepare you for the mission for which you have come here. You have come here by the end of the century – you have a mission, a very important mission that you should fulfil. I am asking you now – do you know for sure what your mission is? – You must know it - no matter how small it might be; the disciple should know what he came here for even if he doesn’t know it in the smallest details – he should at least know the general outlines of his task here. In the course of his work he should keep in his mind his task and while doing this he will be linked to the Heavens. So his will, his mind, his heart will toughen and he will be linked with the Brotherhood. The White Brotherhood will give you instructions and an inner frame. They will give you this good inner frame in the evenings while you sleep – they can give it to you in your sleep. The Brotherhood can assign to you these tasks also through some suffering in your Life – let’s say they have assigned to you a task but you have diverted and have become a tradesman. Then your state will be similar to the state of that American who felt a strong impulse to become a preacher, but said: “I was not born to be a priest”; then he went to Australia and became a tradesman, but twenty years later a crisis happened and his entire wealth disappeared; then he went back to fulfil his vocation. When the Invisible world assigns a certain task, you can divert from it for ten, twenty, thirty years, but the Brotherhood will bring you back to finish your job. So in view of this you better make it your aim to graduate from the school and do not postpone your studies. You begin this job now as you have begun many times – you began but you have not finished. For instance we’ll join the occult school so that we can research the reasons for these social weaknesses. You might say: “Karma.” All right, let the reason be karma, but this statement is rather general while in fact the very reason itself must be known. If you know the basic weakness then you will know how to correct it – certain weaknesses should be corrected. For instance, some disciples have sharper and brighter minds; the minds of the others are not so bright because they are occupied – they are occupied by their feelings. A person comes here as an occult disciple but the next day he needs two or three thousand leva for bread, for his children’s shoes, for clothes; I may preach wonderful things to him, but his mind is constantly preoccupied with the thought for money – his children need clothes, so he cannot be free. Our task now is to first of all eliminate all this, but we must utilize, even the shortest time we have in our occult training, as a means to improve our condition. I watch closely now, I make an experiment and I perceive that recently a certain atmosphere is growing: all of you are becoming positive and consequently a release from struggle is beginning. All of you had accumulated a great reserve of electricity – we want to harness this electricity for lighting. Your mind had become more active in a negative sense. The main point now is in what way we can correct your weaknesses. Let’s say you have some doubt – a doubt in yourself. At a certain moment you doubt in yourself so when a task is being given to you, you say: “This task I cannot solve.” If you ignore the suspicion inwardly you might say: “I doubt myself but I do not doubt God.” But in fact you doubt God as well. I have heard an Orthodox priest who said: “Not only we are sinners, sometimes God sins as well; not only do we sin, but He sins as well.” This means that as a result of his mistakes this man says: “Since I sin then probably God also makes mistakes.” We most certainly should avoid mistakes, and if possible we should avoid them. So how can we manage to cope with this doubt? Let’s suppose that many disciples are preoccupied by the following thought: “Well, I shall graduate from the occult School, but what will happen after that? I shall have knowledge indeed, so what? – And they start philosophizing and finally work out that it makes no difference. But this is not a philosophy of Life. To that disciple who solves some simple task and then says: “What will happen after I solve this task”, I respond: you first solve the more complicated task and then wonder why. You’d better not reason but solve the first task, then solve the second task also and then ask why. And while solving these tasks you will find the reason why. This answer is - all deeds in our Life must be perfect. If someone asks me why we have to talk I would answer that we should talk until our language gets perfect, until we start to pronounce these words in the way they are being pronounced in Heaven, where once they pronounce the word it is so fine that it sounds nice for everyone’s ear. Imagine that all of you disciples who are listening to me tonight had such soft voices and that your speech was as melodious as theirs – can you imagine what kind of atmosphere there would have been tonight? If your thoughts were smooth and sharp it would have been good. At times they are so sharp because at times even the thoughts come out from the mouth as bombs. And the cadence of speech and of muscles corresponds to the cadence of thought. Now we will make use of our will. Suppose that you are in a period of suspense, you are angry because someone has offended you, and so you say: “I’ll teach him a thing or two!” Instead of teaching such person by a blow isn’t it better to teach him by words? Let’s say that you want to punish him; you can do this in two ways: you can give him such a knock on the head as to smash him as you would smash a snake’s head, or you can also take him by the leg and lift him upside-down and then leave him as he was and tell him: “My friend, do you still intend to bother me and to criticise God? I could smash your head but instead I want to tell you not to play games with me – the occult disciple.” Now you the disciples should know that there are other disciples also who one day might take you by the leg, but instead of smashing you they might lift you up and tell you: “Do you intend to study or you intend to play games instead?” That’s the way I myself would precede with you. But you might make some objection to this point: “Well, why should I be obliged at all?” You are obliged indeed, you have obligations that do not date from now – they date from your distant past and you have to pay them off. You have obligations indeed – obligations which you should fulfil. Many times you have begun and left this task; you can leave your task again now. You can solve your task easily within yourself – it might be solved by itself if you have the burning desire to solve it. In the Gospel it is said: “God is who gives.” You strive to do the Will of God, so God also has a desire to help you. Here are the vices: there exists envy, there are white lies and laziness among you as well. Then also you never look approvingly at others: when someone starts to work you crowd to hinder him and you say: “You can’t work without us.” All right then, if I go to the woods and find the birds which make nests and damage one, then two, then three of their nests and then say: “What will you do now, can you hatch now?” – I am asking you – what will be my profit if I damage the nests of these birds? If I do that the number of the caterpillars in my garden will increase and they will damage my garden – these birds will stop nesting in my garden and I will have to cope with the caterpillars by myself. It is not permitted to damage the birds’ nests. When some of you decide to work, all of you should give him countenance – cooperate with him, give him positive thought. For so many years the situation here in Sofia and in the country is identical. I think that the reason for this is a great deal of jealousy. In the other churches when the people want someone to talk to them they usually invite a preacher and he talks because he is paid for this, while in our country no one pays anything. In one town the people were not pleased with their leader so they asked me if it was possible to invite someone else to guide them. Instead of answering to them directly I said: “This is no concern of mine; if you are so stupid that you don’t know how to work with this leader then let ten of you gather and alternate with each other – you might talk one after another and so ten persons might take turns; they might be able to talk better than your present leader. If these ten persons can’t get along, then gather another ten persons; among these twenty persons there must be several persons who can talk.” But I would like the way that these people, who like to talk, to have some deep experience, to have a broad knowledge of Life. And instead of displaying themselves I would like them to manifest this experience very vividly. Apostle Paul says: “Many people do not preach Christ - they are displaying their own knowledge.” That we preach Christ implies that we are preaching the great law of Love that should put in order and regulate everything in the world. And this great law should change all the laws within us. Several hours ago I had a conversation with a gentleman who was saying: “The world cannot be put in order with Love – it can be regulated only by a whip, the whip is the only way to put the world in order!” But his brother said: “You are talking like our father talked long ago; do you have any idea how much he beat us with his stick but this stick did not put order in us at all.” If you don’t follow the New teaching you will return to your father – this is the law of Moses. Now it is good that we have begun with Christ, but our mistake is that we are constantly returning to the Moses law. We either have to start with Moses and end with Christ or vice versa. Instead we begin with Christ and end with Moses – i.e., we follow a return journey. I want you to choose several persons among all the disciples who are to serve as an example – several persons, one, two, three, up to ten persons – to take them as a model, so that they become a model for the whole class with their polite way of talking and not only with their way of talking, but also with their behaviour, with their thoughts, with their feelings, i.e. in order that they give a new impulse – an impulse should be given. Because this philosophy, the way I am talking to you, is still an introduction for the experiment that lies ahead of us. For instance I gave to the other class an experiment. To all of you I can also assign an experiment: to spend one week without any money, I mean that you should not rely on any money at all – you should pretend that you have nothing but yourself and God and your own hands to rely on, so that you can get used to this. During the whole week both the male and female disciples should earn their living during the day. The idea is not to fast but to earn the money for your lunch. The task is as follows: if for example you are an office worker, then you will give your weekly salary to the poor, so that you will be out of cash and when you reach in your pockets there shouldn’t be any money left in them. You must not rely on your friends, you should not say: “I’ll borrow some money” – no, you should pretend that you are left alone in the world. Imagine that you are in a populous town like New York or London and you are out and hungry; I am asking you how will you solve your task? You are bound to think of something. If you do so for a month, then when you get your salary you should give it away and say: “Now I’ll earn my money with my own hands” – but there might be objections that we should not tempt God. No, no, it is now that we are tempting Him because as long as we have money we do not rely on God. At present the office worker relies on his salary, the woman relies on her husband, the man relies on his customers, but no one relies on God. We often talk about faith but faith is still not a living experience. Now you should spend one week without money. For instance when you need money to buy something to eat, go to some friend of yours and ask him: “Is there some work for me here?” And when you find some work you should do it and be aware that what comes out of your hands is a result of your efforts. Now you might make the following objection: “But I write in my office is that not an effort?” No, it is not, because it is something settled – there the things are already settled. When I say labour I mean that you should work for two hours in some building. You should work for two hours and then take as much as you need for a lunch and leave without providing anything for the evening; on the following day you again should look for some job, then again you should work for three hours and leave. Some people might say: “This man goes to work and then goes off his work.” But in fact this man is strengthening his will, he is not a fatalist, he says: “Today I earned what I needed, let me see if I can earn it tomorrow as well.” He allows this self-assurance and after that he will start speculating as to what the inner conditions are in which he is advancing. In occult science, the following principle exists: if you meet someone while you are hungry and say a certain word and this word reaches his ear, he will tell you: “My brother, can you come to my place for lunch?” You will not talk about lunch; you should only know how to say this word. A hungry old woman went to a village and entered the house of a wealthy man who was one of the most cruel men who turned out each person from his house; the old woman did not say that she was hungry, but since the daughter of the wealthy man was ill, the old woman entered the house and massaged her, made this and that and thus it turned out that the old woman was a healer. Immediately this wealthy man became aware that the old woman was a healer and said: “Give her something to eat.” If she had required food in the first place he would have turned her away, but she started to work in the first place – to earn her meal with her own hands. Now all of you, the disciples, must have confidence – the occult disciple needs inner self-confidence that he can cope with all the difficulties that exist in his life. We have this motto: “No Love is like God’s Love.”, don’t we? And I perceive that this greeting has become almost meaningless when it is pronounced quickly: “No Love is like God’s Love, just God’s Love is Love.” Well, it already has gone beyond the frames of the occult science. You should stop inwardly and say: “Since no Love is like God’s Love, can I do everything for this Love? And I’ll do it.” And after you say: “Only God’s Love is Love”, say: “I can do everything and I’ll do it. There is one poor brother there, I’ll visit him and I’ll do everything for him.” – “But shouldn’t we invoke God?” – We are invoking Him. At times I say to myself: I made a serious mistake that I entrusted these people with a sacred rule that they vitiated; they also vitiated the name of God and as a result I incurred a heavy karma upon myself. So as a result of the venture I made, I said to myself that if I could have had this experience before, I would never have given you this rule; frankly speaking I would have never entrusted it to you. The disciples say to each other: “No Love is like God’s Love” but as you look at them they are at one another’s throats. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but neither of them can accept the facts. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but none of them gives up and each one of them holds his own. So, tell me please what kind of Love is this? But you might tell me: “I am a man, I have dignity, and I have personal feelings.” But is there dignity greater than Love? Let’s do the will of the Father! There isn’t greater dignity than this – to serve God driven by Love. This is the greatest dignity of man – to serve Love and Wisdom. Now I lay this accusation not against some persons outside, but against myself, for I entrusted you with one sacred rule. And then I lay against you the accusation that you haven’t used it – not because you did use it. And next time I’ll be very careful regarding the rules. And sometimes when I hear you pronouncing the word Love, I feel like someone is cutting me with a knife. You quarrel. I say: there is no such Love as the Love that stains, scratches, and cuts. But anyway I won – for I learned that there is no Love as God’s Love and that only God’s Love is Love – I made that experiment. If you didn’t learn the rule, at least I learned it. I learned it and I would not forget it neither on Earth nor in Heaven! And each one who vitiates the Love of God will by all means get his payment. And if he doesn’t understand this Love, then everything in his Life will be finished. I will call some of you so that I can personally talk with you in a friendly way about Love – I will call you so that we can chat about Love. We will talk now – don’t think that I am not able to talk, you haven’t yet seen how I can talk – I can talk far better. Now, when I talk to you about Love I shall use a special kind of language. I shall talk to you in very special way, so you might say: “I thought one thing and it proved to be another.” I hope that the consciousness of each one of you expands and I hope that you do not bother about trifles; I hope that this Love reigns and awakens your mind and sends an impulse to your heart, to heal all your weaknesses; I wish that you feel healthy, cheerful, fresh, so that you can apprehend Love and put it into practice, because you are in very difficult circumstances for the time being. It is expected that the occult disciples throughout Europe will have to pass a very difficult exam. These social struggles should be corrected by Force – Force must be applied. You might say: “God will settle everything.” God within us should be a volitional force, He should be Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice – not only He, but also the great potential psychic forces within us should awaken us, so that we can work. Now between you and me there are points of contact and they are as follows: there exists a deep well; I travel all over the desert (in order to clarify the existing relationships – they are real relationships here on Earth), I find the deep well; I know how to make the rope but I have no thread; you the disciples have this thread, but you don’t know how to make the rope. All right, I’ll say: “You stretch the threads and I’ll make the rope” – the rope is yours and the workmanship is mine. We will put the rope down, we will draw water from the well and all of us will drink; then you will take your rope with you, while I think that I have made it. Then we continue to walk and we see each other properly… These are the contacting points between the disciples and the Master. Now, this concerns only me – only your attitude towards me; this is the attitude towards Christ. He had disciples that He appointed to what He Himself could not do. Christ cannot come down now – He will send some of His disciples here to this village; Christ will not come to preach even in the town of Sofia, He will not preach even in London. In order for Christ to preach there, there would have to be some chosen souls present, who should be highly elevated, who should have such a consciousness, and who should posses such harmony, that as He descends they should be prepared to accept the words which He will use in order to let the Light in. And everybody should know Him; if He has to prove that He is from God and to heal the diseased persons, this would be a rather longwinded process and Christ will not attend to such longwinded processes. Christ is free now, so now you have to create within yourself certain conditions so that He can work within you. You might say: “We know Him, don’t we?” I don’t deny that you know Him but why don’t you make better conditions for Him? How? – Love your friend, he has a garden; plant throughout this garden – this is what Love is. Plant throughout every garden until you manage to plant this garden. We should plant throughout this Christ garden from beginning to end. Have faith in yourself – trust in one another – believe not only in yourself but believe in each other as well. The greatest trammel I come across within you is the impact of the scepticism – scepticism, scepticism. I don’t mean to say that this scepticism is imposed by the outside world, but you take it and since you are more sensitive souls, you attract the negative sides of the world – you are capable of receiving them and this is dangerous. A sensitive occult disciple is like a sponge and if he is not familiar with the laws he can sap from the outside. That is why he should be positive in Love – so that he can attract the positive qualities and throw out the evil – this is a mere science. Let’s say that now you study in the Occult School; one of the disciples in the School is talking with another one and says to a young lady: “We can go to a night-club – we are occult disciples so we will be able to learn a lesson from such a visit.” Well, fine, but if they go to the nightclub and this young lady adopts these images, these contortions that are being demonstrated there, these images can gradually obsess her mind. So I am asking where will the occultism go then? I am asking you: if these images obsess you for one, two, or three days, what will you profit from them? You don’t need nightclubs; there is such a nightclub up the Vitosha Mountain, there is another nightclub in the mountain resort Chamkorya1. Let the one who wants a nightclub, go to a hospital, to a church, to some temple. But the night-clubs where women with tambourines play Turkish dances… The nightclub is for those great spirits, who can withstand the temptations there, but you should not bring the weaker persons there, you better protect such persons. Sometimes, when a certain person is rather sensitive you should influence him gradually. Well, other arguments are being given to us – that, sometimes some drunkard might be a much better Christian than a righteous man can be. A strong will is necessary for a drunkard to become more righteous that a faithful person. There is a character in this man – he can fight with and he is stronger than a righteous man who does not have such an experience. When he sees them drink, the latter, not having such experience, might say: “I can solve the matter in another way as well.” While the other one – the drunkard - might say: “I tried and I overcame this vice so I can overcome another one also!” I don’t advise the young men to go to nightclubs and performances, because distorted and false things might obsess your minds. If I undertake to criticize all these dramas and tragedies from a psychological point of view how many of them might turn out to be true? Are they trustworthy? – No, they are not. There are things that seem true, but if I submit them to my criticism they will turn out to be untrue. Take for example the drama “Danton” and tell me if this is true? Its author has gathered these facts and has combined them in such a way that they give an impulse, but if they are to evolve in time they will not have any effect at all. When they see such dramas people often cry, while outside the theatre there are thousands of dramas: poor people are passing by, but no one is crying. I am asking you why inside the theatre they cry and outside the theatre no one cries? Because the actors are trained to present a lie, while in fact it is not real. But you might say that the drama was written like this – fine, but it depends on the actors – they are the persons who make others cry. So consequently from the occult point of view each drama should be true, i.e., we might have drama, but this drama should be composed in a specific way – it has to have some psychological aim and it has to produce a certain effect. So these authors did achieve something – I don’t mean to say that they don’t have some ambition, but the contemporary novels and dramas are not written by these occult rules. So when you go there to see these performances you should have an occult disposition of your mind and you should know what to accept and what to neglect. Even while you are listening to me you should be aware as to what to accept and what to neglect. Sometimes you are discussing some minor facts for a whole hour – I am talking to you about Love and you say: “We know what Love is.” I myself have been studying Love for so many years and yet I am still at the introduction of Love. I say for myself – I have barely got the introduction of this Love and you claim that you know it. In such case I would rather listen to you instead. Love is an alchemical law – when you feel Love you will know how to convert all the elements. And when you convert the elements containing your nectar there won’t remain any wall unbroken and there won’t remain any door unopened. For instance your friend might be in prison, but then there won’t be a prison that you can’t open, there won’t be any wrong which cannot be righted, and then facing Love any death will disappear. After you pass along the way with your magic wand you will do wonders – this is what Love is. And Christ carries this magic wand now; He says: “I was given the whole power in Heaven and Earth” and this power is the wand. And after He comes He will start waving with this wand and can you imagine what will happen? Whatever house he touches will be put to rights, whoever He touches – everywhere men will start to rise from the dead. Now you will take into consideration all this but you won’t become saints. I don’t want you to become saints just because of my words, I don’t want you to become perfect either, but I do want that seventy five percent of your gossip should stop right this evening and that only twenty five percent of them remain. Seventy five percent of gossip is unnecessary, so you should erase it completely; let only twenty five percent of the gossip remain. For if you don’t put into practice these two rules then how will you succeed? I intended to assign a task to you, but I cannot assign it to you as long as you have these weaknesses – the task might get vitiated, this is a small task. Up till next Thursday I will be constantly checking, to see if you have annulled the seventy five percent of the gossip and if I find out that you have annulled them, I’ll assign the task to you. But be careful – I don’t want any criticism in the Occult School. Let whosoever knows that much, come here, and I will put him here at the desk. Let whosoever that is so learned come here – I shall get down – we are ready to put him at my desk – let him come. If someone thinks that he knows so much; let him show his knowledge. There should not be anything in the secret room – you have Light, so turn to the Invisible world and the matter will be settled for you. And the relationships between you and me should be proper. The rule is: I must have one opinion only. I would say: “He is a good disciple, but he is careless, he doesn’t tell the Truth.” Why do you say that he is lazy? – Because no matter what task I assign him he doesn’t solve it; he is a good disciple but he is constantly dissatisfied – no matter what I do for him he is never satisfied. The surrounding people might encircle him and might do him all sorts of favours but he still goes on feeling dissatisfied. It can be like this –the same holds true for the disciple and for the Master. So now the general principle should be applied – you have to annul seventy five percent of your gossip. Now let me see if you have enough willpower to put it into practice. I mentioned the nightclubs and someone might say: “I know that someone has betrayed me.” There is no need to worry that someone has betrayed you because when you go to the nightclubs I can personally see you. And I can see what you are doing in these nightclubs – both men and women visit nightclubs. After that they say: “Our Master knows everything”, but then again they ask: “Who told you about the night-clubs? It means - you are not clairvoyant but someone has told you.” I see you, I see you in a very special way. The person, who has visited a nightclub, bears the stamp of the nightclub on his face, this is a truth. I do not enter in the Astral world, but I can tell such person why he has been at the night-club – there is a stamp on his face, the whole night-club is stamped on his face. And I can tell what nightclub he has been in and at what table he has sat and from what glass he has drunk and who else has sat at this table, I can tell him everything. His eyes are not soft but have a peculiar colour, his eyes are playful, and his eyes are roving as the eyes of a cat. And after he has been at a nightclub, his face acquires a different colour – each nightclub has a specific colour, each place of amusement has a colour. In each nightclub there live such evil spirits which exercise great influence upon your souls. Your souls and your hearts are not a toy, there exists a psychic force and it can carry you away as well. Now some of you might say: “Who might the person be who went to a night-club?” You don’t have to know who he is because one day you yourself might also go there. I have heard many persons say: “What nightclub might this be, let’s go and see what the matter is with it” – everyone likes to see what is happening there at the nightclub. In such a case it would be nice to send delegates there – three or four persons might go there and see what a night-club is and then read us a lecture entitled “What a night-club is like?”, so that the matter can be settled. Good, you are right, in the last resort it is preferable to send a commission composed of the strongest persons. So, we have a difficult task to solve, it is not easy for a man to cope with his own self, with his thoughts, with his feelings. We have a difficult task from the point of view of the law of heredity, from the point of view of the law of rebirth and of our pilgrimage in the world. It is a difficult task but it is a task that we can solve. And I believe that you are among the noble disciples that are unprejudiced, which have minds hungry for knowledge, which have noble hearts, which do noble deeds, which have an iron will, and who are ready to fight. And because of what I told you, you might draw your knifes out and make “So!” and the matter will be finished. You will not talk too much that this is the way we are thinking, instead you will all of a sudden make “So!” I want to clarify my relationships with all my disciples and friends – either your attitude will be an attitude of both disciples and friends, or we can’t have proper relationships. We must know each other – this is what the Brotherhood demands. An absolute purity, an absolute Light, an absolute Truth should reign among us! When I say Purity I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Light, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Truth, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal – an ideal for which we should strive. Whether we will attain it is a different question, but it should be an ideal equal to all of us. Then we shall have an equal opinion upon this question and both you and I will think about this matter. And I believe that we will solve our task. A secret prayer I have never seen you so quiet as you are this evening – the silence is deathlike. This is a good sign. 1 Up till 1942 Chamkorya was the name of the mountain resort Borovets (ed.note). Source

Беседата на български Thought, Feeling And Action Year 1, Lecture 15 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno June 7, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer Each right thought is an image of a Divine idea. Human life begins with thinking. When a person thinks, he realizes that he is alive. In order to be alive, a thought needs to be combined with a feeling - this means that the thought comes down to the real world, to the world of form. In order for the feeling to be positive, it needs to be combined with an act of will. And by the word “act” we understand the final limit that Spirit reaches in each manifestation. Therefore, thoughts, feelings and actions represent the stations or stops of the Spirit. Thoughts are the first station of the Spirit, feelings are the second, and actions are the third station. The Path of Spirit is harmonious but only under the condition that no external influences interfere either in the thoughts, or in the feelings or the actions. How does a clairvoyant see thoughts, feelings and actions? In certain forms and colours. Often people get sick, they lose consciousness, etc. This seems abnormal to you. Indeed, these things are abnormal, but they happen due to disharmonious thoughts, feelings and actions. The lives of contemporary people are full of such abnormalities. Someone is sitting in reflection. His thoughts are clear, his feelings are calm and peaceful, so he says to himself that he is in full harmony. All of a sudden he thinks or feels something that is not compatible with his first thought and feeling, and great disharmony is born inside him. He loses his previous balance and begins to suffer. When higher beings from the Invisible world see him, what will they say about him? Therefore, when two opposite ideas or principles enter someone’s mind, they cause discordance in his consciousness, and each state of discordance deprives a human being of his Freedom. Everyone should know this: a human being's mind should never be penetrated by two opposing thoughts. Do the following experiment in order to test the accuracy of what I am saying. Each morning over the course of a month, send a positive bright thought to the same person, and then observe the result of this experiment. At the same time give a one-lev coin to a poor man every morning, also over the course of a month. At the end of the month compare the results of the two experiments. You will have better results in the first experiment than in the second one. Why? Because in the first experiment you've directed your positive pure thoughts to someone; they've come directly from you. In the second case, however, the coin you gave to the poor man has passed through many people, many hands before reaching his hand, and everyone has left an imprint of his thoughts on it. These thoughts are not all harmonious, so they create contradiction and discord in the consciousness of the man. Many coins from past centuries bear traces of the thoughts and feelings of the people of those ages. So when I say that many old ideas and thoughts should be replaced by new ones, I have in mind the forms of those thoughts coming from the Astral and the Mental world which have been engraved on the coins, i.e. engraved into human consciousness, as if on stereotyped blocks. These forms are impure and distorted. Money itself is not impure, but carries upon it the engravings of the past. Otherwise, as a symbol money represents the life of the conscious human being who thinks. When we say that we can live without money, we mean that those thoughts from the past of humanity that have created money should nowadays be transformed. Money today is the result of the human thoughts that created it. Having passed down through the centuries, such thoughts are now so debased that they have a negative influence on human life. Nevertheless, money is on everyone’s mind today. I am asking, why can't you live without money? Disciples should get rid of the thought that living without money is impossible. Money plays an important role in human life today, people consider it almost a primary factor in their lives. But if someone wants to travel around the world, he should put every thought of money out of his mind. He can go around the world without a coin in his pocket, this is what I call a disciple of the occult. Your pockets can be full of gold, but your mind and your thoughts should be absolutely free of money. And the opposite is true: you may not have a penny in your pocket, but your mind may be preoccupied with the thought of money. This is the idea I have in mind when I say that it is possible to live without money. Occult disciples of various schools have made numerous attempts to live without money for a certain period of time. You are still candidates, you haven't become disciples yet. First you should become believers and then you will become disciples. In order to become believers, you should do an experiment to see how long you will endure. However, it is only for those of you who are ready to do it consciously. The experiment is the following: try to live without money for a month. Those who are employees and receive salaries, as well as those who have other incomes, should consciously renounce their incomes and give them to the poor or to whatever cause they find appropriate, so that they will remain without any means. During this time you will work without thinking of money. Your mind will be concentrated on the Divine world and you will allow no fear about how you will spend the day. With the help of this experiment you will be able to observe the way Spirit works. Those who are ready to undertake this experiment should know that the deadline is twelve months from now. You should complete the experiment within this deadline. Doing it in a year from now will be useless. During this experiment, imagine that you are the poorest person on earth, that you have absolutely nothing and that there is no one to help you. Those who undertake this experiment should not share it with anyone, but keep it a secret. They should tell no one until they achieve some result. Some think the experiment will be easy, because they will eat at home and won't need money for food. No, that is no solution to the problem. In order to find the right solution, you should place yourself in the position of a person without money in an unknown, foreign city, such as New York or London. This person doesn't know the language and doesn't know anyone there. What will he do in this situation? He has no other choice but to go to work at the port as a stevedore, or to find some other job to earn his living. If you are a student and you eat in an inn, you can do the experiment in the following way: give all your money to others. When it is time for lunch, you will go to the same inn or to another one and ask the innkeeper to allow you to serve the guests at the inn, and for this you will receive lunch only. After lunch, do not think of having supper. Lunch is enough for you. Do not think of tomorrow either. Every day will bring you income, but you should rely mainly on your hands. Your work will provide you with lunch. If you cannot be a servant at the inn, then go to an entrepreneur and ask him for some work on a construction site – you can carry bricks or mix water with lime, etc. It is enough for you to earn your daily food. This is the only way to test how Divine law works. At the same time you will realize that besides physical life there is another one, a higher one, where everything is foreseen and thoughtfully distributed. From the very moment of birth everyone receives a predetermined credit that he can rely on. Outside of the physical world there are other laws that regulate our lives. Humans do not know these laws, so they think that everything is arranged according to the laws of the physical world. Due to this misunderstanding of modern man, evil has emerged. Humans strive for insurance because they think that everyone should take care of themselves, that no one knows what will happen tomorrow. Everyone wants to be insured, and that is why they save money, buy and sell land, but as a result thousands of kilograms of food decay and spoil, while at the same time in the cities hundreds and thousands of people die of hunger. I will tell you something else about this experiment: for those who are afraid of going hungry, it's better not to undertake it. However, if they do start the experiment and then find themselves in a difficult situation, they should come to me and I will help them out in one way or another. I will not allow anyone to fail. And if you think that a month is too long a period, then do the experiment for a week only. Those who live with their parents can also undertake the experiment by earning their bread, mainly through physical labour. Everyone can help their parents at home in order to deserve their bread. This experiment aims to free you from your fear of tomorrow. You should rely on that Great Law in the Universe that regulates all things. When disciples are given such experiments to do, they should interpret them not just literally, but according to their meaning and purpose as well. Someone who starts the experiment but cannot earn his daily bread might say: “It is all right, I will fast today.” No, this experiment excludes fasting. You should work at least one or two hours daily, expending that portion of your energy that can later be recovered with your food. Only in this way will you learn to rely on the Great Law that drives Life. This experiment is not so difficult – you can apply it for a week. The further you go into the Teaching the harder the exams become. You will be given tasks that will make you sweat several times daily. This is the Path of the disciple. The privilege of the disciple is that he or she will go through all of the difficulties and all the suffering consciously, in full knowledge of the reasons for the hardships. If you are not in the School, you will go through the same trials and tribulations, but you will not know the reasons for them. The privilege of the disciple is in the Light which he or she has. Consciously or unconsciously, one must go through the trials and difficulties of Life – they cannot be avoided. If you go through them unconsciously, you will encounter a number of contradictions; if you go through them consciously, you will receive the Divine blessing and you will know their purpose. If you endure suffering in this way, afterwards you will attain Joy and Peace in your soul. Now, as disciples of the Great School you should have a conscious and positive attitude to Life. In addition, our purpose is not to deprive you of suffering, but to teach you how to utilize it. Suffering is the greatest good you can be given in Life at present. Each experience of suffering is in its proper place and has its deep meaning. Why do humans suffer? – This is one of the mysteries of existence. When trials come, everyone should endure them without asking why they have come. When they go away, then everyone will understand them. Christ, the Great Teacher of humanity, subjected Himself to the greatest suffering that has ever existed in the world, without receiving an answer as to why He was suffering. Instead of an answer, He was crucified, He was pierced through His chest, so that blood and liquid dropped from it, and He was left to ask about the reason for this suffering. As He did not receive an answer, He said: “Let it be Your will, Lord!” Therefore, Christ too had to go through suffering, without receiving any explanation for it. He had to pass this exam. Now, after having suffered, you want to receive an explanation immediately. No, the understanding of suffering comes after you have overcome it, after you have passed the exam. Until that time you will think about it. When you come to a certain experience of suffering, say deeply within yourself: “This is the thoughtful Will of God! This is the Great Will of God! This is the Will of the Infinite Cosmos!” Any other understanding will plunge you into sin and crime. If, during the moment of suffering, someone comes to you and explains the reasons for it, he will cause you the greatest evil. Therefore, do not regret the suffering you are given. If you regret suffering, you should also regret the Love you are given. It is a Law: Joy and Love will follow each suffering. This law can be experienced. The greater the suffering, the greater the Love; if suffering is reduced, Love is reduced as well. Therefore, suffering is a measure of Love. Love gets increased mindfully; it comes gradually. Thus, suffering and Love move parallel to each other and play an equal part in the building up of the human soul. Secret prayer Go forward in Boundless Love! Source

Note 3 Sunrise and Sunset Fourteenth Lecture by the Master, delivered to the General Esoteric Class on Friday, June 2, 1922, 8-9:30 p.m., Sofia Keep in mind that tonight we have not gathered here to sit at a laden table; that is, I have not called you here for a feast. This is not the time for a feast, nor is it the time for me to give you advice or instructions, but rather, it is a time for learning. Therefore, I want you to listen to me with your minds, to feel with your hearts and to use your willpower to apply what you have learned. The methods of the Esoteric School are different from all those methods that present day schools use. The various views we hold of Life depend on our environment. Say you found yourself 10-15 meters below sea level and looked at the world from that viewpoint, what would your views be? And then, how would you perceive things if you were to descend another hundred meters or another two, three, four hundred meters, and then went further down to a thousand or two thousand meters? As a result, the refraction of light would be different. Now, let us imagine the reverse process: how would you view the world if you were to rise above sea level and ascended into the air to a hundred meters, then two, three, four, five hundred meters, then you went further up to a thousand or ten thousand meters? What if you were to go up not a thousand meters, but ten thousand kilometers into the air? On the other hand, if we were to stand on Earth, it would act as a balancing force. Therefore, your perception of the world from the bottom of the ocean and from the highest atmosphere would be from two opposite poles of understanding: those of sunrise and sunset. Sunrise, this is up in the air and sunset is down below, at the bottom of the ocean. However, the analogy that I’ve made is not correct in all of its points of view, because our sunset is sunrise for others, and vice-versa, our sunrise is sunset for others. Henceforth, when your Sun is rising, your sunrise is sunset for someone else; and when your Sun is setting, others have a sunrise. Therefore, sunrise and sunset are relative notions, not an Absolute reality. At the place where we are now, there is sunrise and sunset. However, if you were a clairvoyant, there would be neither sunrise, nor sunset for you, for you would be able to see the Sun on the opposite end of the Earth even in the middle of the night, and so there would be no sunrise for you. Even the Earth would not move for you if you were a clairvoyant because movement exists only for those who move, and as such cannot register this movement; but for those who are able to register it, there is no movement. Because, if I move faster than a train, will there be any movement? Take the following example as clarification: imagine a point in the Universe that moves so fast that it is in all places in the cosmos at the same time. Well, if it is at all places at the same time, is there any movement then? Yes, there is movement, but it cannot be registered. How can you register it when it takes place simultaneously at all places? We perceive movement only when there is a certain relation between speeds. But if you have an absolute speed we regard this point as a constant. Now, in this world, unstable people are those who move rather slowly. Snails, for example, are quite unstable. You cannot count on a person who moves like a snail because as soon as he touches a leaf, he, like the snail, retracts his antennas and says, “This is not my kind of thing.” You, then encourage him by saying, “Listen, there are such and such laws; there exists order in everything,” and he pulls out his antennas again. However, as soon as he encounters the next leaf, he hides inside the shell and says, “There is no law here.” And this is how it goes: in and out, in and out. Why does this snail move? From an esoteric point of view we explain it like this: this snail has encountered obstacles on its way. And when you throw this obstacle into the train engine, the wheels start turning. Therefore, when the engine driver comes to this obstacle, he uses it. If he stopped every time he came to a certain point, there would be a waste of energy. However, the engine driver collects this energy, gives it a slope and the wheel starts turning. The engine driver has learned from the snail’s obstacles and says, “If you want to use misfortune for your benefit you should put this misfortune in a curvy line.” Why does the train move? Because of the snail’s mistakes; our trains are the mistakes of the snail. Often, when people travel from one town to another, there are accidents on the way, i.e. in this case the snail did not retract his antennas on time. Thus, the engine driver miscalculated the time and so he could not hide away in time, and then when the accident happens, all travelers jump out of their shells. Now I’m speaking of your consciousness, for it can be that of a snail. Since my last lecture was philosophical and critical, you now ask, “If this is not Love and if that is not Love, what is Love, then?” When I discussed Love, I had in mind your love as you express it now. I say that what you consider love is worth nothing; this is not Love. You ask, “If this is not Love, then what is?” I will tell you what Love is. Here is an example: let’s say that you have a bottle full of water. This water has been sitting for ten days and has started to smell; there are a number of tiny microscopic bugs swimming in it. I try your water and I say, “This is not water.” “What do you mean, this is not water? We just filled it from the tap.” “It might have been great water but this water today is not healthy.” I, then, take your bottle, pour out the water and you complain, ”This is outrageous! He emptied out our bottle!” Then I say to you, “Wait, come to my water tap.” I take the bottle, wash it out a couple of times; then I boil some water and scrub it inside with sand. “You will break the bottle,” you protest, but I tell you, “Wait a bit longer.” I then rinse out the bottle, I draw from the premium water and I ask you, “Do you remember how your water tasted?” “Yes.” I pour you some water and I give it to you. “Now drink from this water,” I say. This is the only way you could understand the difference between the kind of Love I’m talking about and the other one. You need to keep these two moments in your mind simultaneously and you need to be able to tell the difference between the reality of consciousness and the other reality that can be manifested. Sunrise is a moment in consciousness and this moment is only the initial one when the Sun comes up from behind the horizon. After the Sun has emerged fully, then this is not sunrise any more. Likewise, sunset is that initial moment when the Sun touches the horizon and then sinks below it. Once again, sunrise is the other moment: the moment when the tip of the Sun first appears, and then it lasts until the sun has appeared fully. Everything in between these two moments is neither sunrise nor sunset. Therefore, in your whole life you will have two moments: every day and every minute you will have either sunrise or sunset and those will consist not of hours but only of a few moments. And if you are able to fully comprehend these moments of your consciousness you will be able to think correctly because your sunrises and sunsets are different every time. Notice that in Nature, sunrises are never the same. For example, sometimes the horizon is not so clear and at other times it is very clear; sometimes you cannot see the sunset and at other times you cannot see the sunrise - these are all mathematically related. These sunrises and sunsets show the relations that exist inside our consciousness, for sunrise and sunset exist as a reality only in our consciousness. If you are not aware of this reality - that the Sun rises and sets - it won’t do anything for you. If the Sun is rising and setting, it is only for your consciousness and once your consciousness is able to perceive the rising of the Sun, then your mind, your heart and your willpower will take part in your consciousness. Therefore, your mind will dwell on the forms and the vibrations of this light that expands; your heart will dwell on the content, and your willpower will focus on the results that may ensue from the combining of the forms with the content. This is all philosophically put. Now you cannot see the relation between these two ends. I am explaining the sunrise and the sunset in relation to consciousness. I am explaining the fact of the expansion, the content, and the effects of the Light that penetrates into our consciousness. We perceive the Light that is manifested into our consciousness in a specific way. Presently, the extent in which you can comprehend Love is determined by your inner consciousness. Now, you often speak of love the way you perceive it now: you have a pleasant feeling here, in the solar plexus, or you have a pleasant feeling in the hypothalamus on top of your head. I am speaking only of these two centers, but nevertheless, this pleasant feeling is not very real, because this condition can change in a short while. I am telling you a sweet, kind, and harmonious word but we do not seem to understand each other, for the fact is that you are hungry, right? Now I will speak your language. You have been hungry for three days and you expect something, so I will tell you this: “Now I am going to apply the notions of sunset and sunrise to eating, because in eating, too, there is sunrise and sunset.” Imagine that you are poor and you have been eating only beans all your life. You are so sick and tired of it that even at the very mention of beans, you object, “Did God create all those beans just for me alone? I am tired of beans!” If you have been hungry for three days and I tell you, “There is roasted turkey,” then the turkey will be like a sunrise for you. “What about beans,” you say. Here, beans are your sunset. “Your day came to an end very quickly,” I say. In this case, the beans, in your mind, represent the sunset. If I said to you, “There is bread and a chicken roasted with lard,” you would say, “Excellent sunrise.” Then your day would be on the rise, and you would be joyful, right? I’m asking you this, why do the chicken and the turkey produce this joyful feeling in your mind and the very thought of the poor beans makes you say, “I wish it was something else.” Why are you unhappy with the beans? So then I say the following to your mind, “If you are tired, there is a turkey for you,” but I don’t tell you that there are beans. All right then, I mash the beans with a little butter and I tell you this, “I have meatballs here that were made with good meat.” However, when you eat this meat, it gets all mushy in your mouth. You sit at the table, start eating the turkey and the meatballs and you say, “Excellent meal!” I ask you, what is real here? In the first case I tell you the truth and I say, “You will eat beans,” and the second time I name the beans differently, and I say, “These beans were cooked with meat and butter,” and then you ask, “Was the meat veal, lamb or chicken? It was excellent!” Likewise, sometimes you cook bean meatballs from your actions in life and you tell yourself, “Do you know what great meatballs we have made, with such great meat?” However, all you really have is beans. But if I told you the truth, that it was beans; then you would say, “I know what kind of beans these are.” Modern philosophical systems, too, are made only of beans; those are bean meatballs they feed you, but they were fried in butter and cooked so well that everyone who eats them says, “These are excellent meatballs, they are very good. This is a great culture, a great science!” But those who know the Truth, would smile and say, “Yes, they are such excellent meatballs…” Therefore, we must be able, in our consciousness, to distinguish between the true Reality in the world and the transient one. For example, transient reality is when someone says, “There is God, there is future life.” This statement is a transient reality, because the person who says that there is future life has a distorted consciousness; he does not know what future life is. An occultist will never say that there is future life; instead, he would say this, “There is no future life, because, from a purely esoteric standpoint, if there was future life, it would be exactly like the present one.” However, if we take the word sunrise to mean expansion of our consciousness, and division, and expansion of the Divine life in us, then we regard sunrise in a wider context: we view it as reality. Because Life is one and cannot be limited; it is we who limit Life by saying that there is future life. Life is neither past, nor present, but is Life in itself. In our consciousness Life has sunrise and sunset for three and a half minutes; it only takes three minutes for sunrise. Do you know how many minutes it takes for a person to die? It is almost as much time as it takes for a person to be born. It takes a person’s consciousness the same time to awake as it takes for the sun to rise: three and a half minutes. The child is born and forgets again. And because there is sunrise, you think that the sunrise is getting born and you are happy for as long as it lasts in your consciousness. When this child is about to die, you see how the Sun is going down. There are some people who can live until midnight even after the Sun has set. After the Sun has gone down, they say, “We are going to die.” It is a fact that the Sun of those people who say, “We are going to die,” has already gone down. Therefore, from a purely esoteric viewpoint, you can be born prematurely and you can die prematurely; you can become rich prematurely and you can become poor prematurely; you can become healthy prematurely and you can become sick prematurely. Remember this fact, for all of this will remain in your consciousness. And when I say that we can do anything, it is true; we can do anything but all we need to do is leave the conditions of the earthly life. The clairvoyant, who can see the Sun in its path, has nothing to fear. And this Sun is the manifestation of the Divine in the world and into our consciousness. We are always able to see God. One of our friends who is here - I won’t mention his name - told me about an experience he once had. He said to me, ”I used to feel a light like that at sunrise. This light used to move before me. But this light has disappeared lately, it is gone.” He felt sad. Before he felt like this light would rise all the time and every time he would leave to go somewhere, the light would stream inside him all the time. This is the beautiful in Life. From an esoteric point of view, every mistake you make will cause your sun to set prematurely, and this is a great evil for your life. Even the smallest mistake will spin the wheel of your Earth and it will start moving faster. The Sun will set prematurely and it is then that all kinds of misfortune will befall you. And when I say that you should not make mistakes, this from an esoteric point of view, means that you should not let your Sun set. Once the Sun has gone down, all work comes to an end. Therefore, your Love will come to an end, too. Now, you have experienced this, at least when you love someone and feel a certain vibration in your solar plexus, combined with this tiny warmth in your heart. However, when you lose this warmth, you start suffering. A knot starts forming in your solar plexus and you feel cold; you feel hatred starting to form and you feel that the person you love is gradually moving away from you, and that you are moving away from him, too. This is the law of sunset: your friendship has set and the two of you are in the night of Life. Then the power of your mind wanes, and no matter how you pray or what prayer you say, you feel as if there is an icy layer above you and your prayer goes up only two feet above your head and descends right back down. What should you do then? I will tell you the law for this and I won’t use the same example I have given other people before. I will take snow as an example. Snow has a white gown; it is clean. Imagine that a person is like snow, but is cold. If you take a snowball and look at it, it is beautiful and white. You hold it in your hand and look at it: it is perfect, white and clean, but it is cold. Someone says, “May I be clean like snow.” All of you want to be clean and you sing, “May we be clean like snow,” but how are you going to be in Heaven? So, the snow that the Psalmist sings about is not your snow, because when we conduct an experiment and melt the snow, it loses its whiteness. Imagine that snow has its own consciousness and says, “What did you do to me? You have depraved me, for I used to be white and now I have lost my whiteness. You have ruined me.” This is a kind of consciousness. Then someone else comes who is like water and says, ”I am fluid like water, I can adapt to all conditions.” Modern people like adaptation and water will reach a balance in whatever position you put it; it will be pals with ninety-nine kings. Take a bottle, turn it on one end or the other and you will see that whichever way you turn it, the water will reach a balance: it will maintain the same position. This is an excellent example. But if we are like water, what will our life be like? As soon as there is a crack in your bottle, the water starts dripping away and disappears. Then when you look at the bottle you will find out that it is empty. Imagine that water comes to me like a vessel, like a bottle and tells me, “Listen, I am a thinking being, easily adaptable to all conditions. I never oppose anything; I am a very good person who holds nothing against anybody.” However, I take this water, I put it in my oven and I start heating it up, saying, “Yes, you are truly very good.” I heat it up, but then I see some steam coming out; its shape is changing because of the heat. It expands, rises up and comes out as steam. Water will then say to me, “You have changed my form and now I have no stability at all.” Now it looks at its relation to air and says, “I will reach God,” but as it goes up five-six kilometers it comes across a cold current and is corrupted again: it turns into hail, becomes condensed and falls back down to Earth, muddy and corrupted. Then it sinks into Earth, and finally, through great toil and turmoil, it comes up as a cold spring. A thirsty, suffering soul finds the spring, drinks from it and says, “What a beautiful spring this is!” But once this spring was white like snow, then it was fluid, adaptable like water; then it turned into steam, rose up into the air, hardened, fell down as hail and now, after having passed through all this suffering, it carries something new in itself and it says, “Brother, do you know what oven I had to go through to reach this condition as a clean and cold spring? I lost my cleanliness, I lost my fluidity, I lost my expansion, and then I turned into droplets, fell down and became muddy.” And you reply, “Oh, brother, this is all very well, very well.” “Yes, very well it is, but have you been in my condition?” And when we speak of the Love of a being, we should keep in mind that in order for it to express what we consider Love, this being must pass through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms. Make a note of this: only after it has passed through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms can it express the smallest Love. And when you have this smallest experience of Love, it will be like a spring for you; it will be the most pleasant feeling you will ever feel. At first you will feel it only for two and a half or three minutes, and then it may disappear for the rest of your life. And then, like a novel written on a white piece of paper, you will reminisce and say, “There was so much joy, so much happiness, such bliss in those two and a half minutes!” Anything may happen after that: you may become a king, you may have feasts laid out before you, or people may give you money, but these two and a half or three minutes will be the crown of your whole being, and you will say, “I have never had anything like those two and a half or three minutes!” They will be the head and all your life will be included in these three minutes. And we go through all our life only so that we can have these three little minutes. Where are the three minutes? They contain a whole eternity. And do you know that it takes the effort of all infinite eternity in order for Love to be manifested in its smallest form. Love can be manifested only through the effort of all eternity, for it needs this impulse so that Reality can pass through all these forms. And do you know now if you are disciples or proselytes? This thought is so grand that you should keep thinking about it at all times. It is a grand thought, indeed, so grand that it takes a whole eternity to be able to comprehend this profound and meaningful concept. It takes a whole eternity to understand these three minutes and this eternity means that you need to have a sunrise and a sunset. If the sunrise is faultless, the sunset will be faultless, too. If the sunrise is faulty, the sunset will be faulty, too. Your understanding of things will depend on the basis on which you build when you enter the Esoteric School. For example, some come here to study, but what they really hope is to learn some secrets. No, they will not learn any secrets, for I tell no secrets. You will need a whole eternity to learn the secrets you want to learn. Therefore, no one can take away our secret in only one day or one hour. What do these people study, I ask? You will not learn anything this way. But he, who enters with a pure heart in search of God and Love, will be able to understand a lot. And so, it is my wish now for everybody to rise like the Sun. I am saying this to the young ones; I call young those who are rising and the old, ones who are setting. But now you, the young ones, may say, “You should know that we are the ones rising.” However, once the old ones were in your place and they, too, used to say, “We are the ones rising.” Some day other young ones will come in your place and will say, “We are rising.” I ask you this: if you think like this, what is your definition of Life? You will say, “We rise correctly,” and the old ones will say, “We set correctly.” You should shake hands now, as Life will not come to an end, because when the young ones come to your place, the wheel will turn and then your Sun will rise and their Sun will set. Then, if your sunset was faultless, your sunrise will be faultless and if their sunrise was faultless, their sunset will be faultless, too. These two sunrises have nothing to do with your present suffering, of course. You may say, “This is all good, but what can we do now; we are suffering?” Here, in the Esoteric School, there is no place for sick disciples. He who is sick cannot be a disciple, a believer, or a proselyte. I would like for you to give me a piece of paper so that we can make a list of all those who are sick in the School. Here we have hospitals and doctors, and we will send all of you who are sick for a course of treatment and then you can come back afterwards. We have special hospitals and special doctors for the esoteric disciples and when you go to our doctors they will prescribe for you their own system of treatment. And here, in the School, I can see your thoughts, “This teaching is good but we have difficulties in our life.” The difficulties in your life are a blessing for you. The greatest blessing for a disciple of the Esoteric School is to have difficulties and to have great difficulties, at that! Then he passes for a hero. If there are no difficulties, then he is neither a proselyte, nor a believer. The first thing is this: if you have difficulties, you are disciples; if you have no difficulties, then you are done. The math students in the university have such difficult problems and they go up to the blackboard so many times and try to solve the problems one way or another. If you look at an astronomer you will see that he watches out for the minute, for the second when the comet will pass; he observes so closely and has such difficulties, such worries. You sit here and say, “God is good; when the Spirit comes upon us, everything will happen the way God says.” This is a childish view; God has already done and made everything that he wanted to do or make: I can see this in everything that exists. The question is; do we learn everything that God has made and done? “God can do anything.” Now, as I live, I know that God has made the body that I have. You might say, “Do I understand what God has made, do I know the laws; am I open to the knowledge that He has instilled; does His Word enter my consciousness; do I rejoice in His deeds and in His thoughts that are sent down by His Spirit?” “God is great,” you say, “He has made the Sun!” Have you ever explored the Sun to find out about its Essence? Can you visit on the Sun? An esoteric disciple of a third degree - not of a first or a second, but of a third degree - can go to the Sun. You may say now, “I am the first candidate!” You are like that American who calculated that it is possible to throw a grenade on the Moon. He measured the length of the grenade, then the space and also the slope, as he wanted to find out how long it will take for the grenade to fall on the Moon. He made his exact calculations, collected some money, found two candidates and chose one of them to enter the machine and go to the Moon. Now, you, too, as soon as you hear me talk about the Sun - lo and behold! – you are candidates to go to the Sun. This is not the way to go to the Sun. If you can transform your consciousness and if you can acquire, after nine hundred and ninety-nine trials, the smallest form of Love, you will be visitors on the Sun right away. The residents of the Sun will welcome you and when you come back you will be happy and with a grin on your face and you will say, “The Sun is an excellent place!” And you will know the reason for how and why this Light streams incessantly and what this Light means; you will know the language of Light. But you should know that in order for all of this to happen, a transformation of consciousness is necessary. You need a transformation, a change inside your consciousness in order for your mind, your heart and your willpower to be a part of your soul. Therefore, the Esoteric School is not a School for consoling people, but is a School for studying the great unchangeable laws of Existence and of God’s manifestation. It is within those laws that our Life develops evenly and harmoniously. Therefore, only through the expression of such Love will we be able to be in conscious contact with that Being which permeates the cosmos, i.e. we will be able to be in conscious communion with God. And only after going through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms, will we be able to hear the smallest voice talk to us. And, like in the book of Job that I quoted earlier, when we hear this smallest voice we will understand why we live on Earth. As soon as you understand why you live on Earth, this same Earth will stand before you right away like a living being and it will not be the old Earth, for the old Earth will have disappeared. And then, everywhere you go on Earth, you will bring a different moral: when you walk on this being, you will do so delicately and you will say, “This being is so mighty and gracious.” You will, then, make sure you do not cause this being any shock or pain and you will walk on it the same way you walk in a friend’s house. Of course, this Earth is related to our consciousness. Only when we start thinking this way, will the young and the old be able to live well. And now, because of our limited consciousness, everyone says, “I will live the way that suits me best.” I ask then, does this rule give you good results? Would Life have any meaning if all of us lived the way that suited us best? No, it would not. “So that I can live!” If you take the word “I” to mean the Divine inside you, then it is good to live according to the law of the Self, the law of consciousness. But if you take the word “I” to mean that you can use the temporary comforts of this limited life, then you have a wrong understanding of Life. Take, for example, a living example from your life: you have a son, you bring him up, educate him, send him to school and church, and this child grows up beautiful and obedient like his father and mother. The parents expect a lot from their son and they say, “Our little boy is very intelligent. He does great at school; he is diligent and earns excellent grades.” However, when he turns 17-18, he starts growing a little moustache and starts pushing his lips. Earlier, he would listen to his mother and ask her, “What can I do for you, Mother?” then he would take the water jug and go to the well for water. However, as time passes, he starts becoming absent-minded and his mother notes, “Our child has a new habit of pushing his lips every now and then.” Why does this boy touch his lips? I will not discuss the meaning of this gesture, for it is a secret that I am not allowed to divulge, but this little boy says, “I saw a young girl, I feel like wooing her.” How does he do that? By pulling one side of his moustache. Should it be the right side or the left side? He pulls it to one side, then he says, “I will pull both sides,” and then twists up his moustache. Then he thinks, “No, no, it’s better when it’s pointing down,” and then he looks at himself again. All of you here, young and old, have done this. There isn’t a single one of you who has not done this, be it consciously or unconsciously. The young ones are doing this right now. Someone wants to steal a certain young woman and he goes to her and says, “Listen, we will live together. I am very noble. Your old folks do not live well but when you live with me you will have all the comforts.” And he starts enumerating, “You will have a house, you will have this and that, we will live in the Kingdom of God like Angels.” “Really?” she asks. “Really, really,” he answers, “Don’t look at how your parents live for they are ignorant and they do not know, but see, I, on the other hand…” and he tugs on his moustache. All right then, they get married and what happens next? Nothing but the same old, fashionable lie, for they end up living just like her parents have lived. A man, who twists his moustache like that, cannot live well. Anybody who twists his moustache up cannot live well, no matter how hard he tries. I am not talking about your personal life but I am trying to explain a psychological point about consciousness. I do not know why and for what purpose, but this young man thinks about his moustache every day. Now, the young woman, too, starts raising her eyebrows and stroking them before the mirror. She tells him, “You should know, sweetheart, I am not like my mother. I am from a different culture. I will do this and that,” but she, too, does not speak the Truth. Those who stroke their eyebrows, too, cannot live well. The moustache and the eyebrows are two symbols, two metaphors. I will explain in some other way why he says, “Right or left?” This rule talks to itself like this, “I will speak the Truth to him if he touches his right eyebrow." Then, if he touches his left eyebrow, it says, “Why don’t I say a little lie to him? Some darkness won’t hurt; I can tell a little bit of Truth and a little bit of lie and that is how life goes.” For example, sometimes the young woman makes her eyebrows look thicker and sometimes she wants them thin; then she says, “Oh, this is no good and that is no good. Oh, oh!” This is no laughing matter; this is a psychological law. Sometimes you say these same things to yourself, but if you understand the law of your consciousness, you may be able to see and use things differently. In that case, a change of consciousness takes place, as well as a change in your heart, your mind, and your will, and if you have a correct grasp, you will be able to use the moment; if not, all these favourable conditions in Life will pass and you will say, “We were not successful in our work.” I am not saying that this is bad, but you should know that every tug leads to certain consequences. And the same law is at work when the young man puts it in his mind to stroke his moustache. Back in time, before the fall of man, when the original man stroked his moustache to the right or left, he also pronounced a certain formula, he pronounced certain words: particular words for when he stroked his moustache to the right and other words for the left. The young woman, too, has to pronounce certain words. And now, you do not pronounce any formulas. For example, if you are to pronounce the word Love, how are you going to pronounce it? The word Love has its key. First, you need to put in the key, then you need to prepare yourself, and only then will you pronounce the word Love; only then will it have a meaning. Another time, when you are to say the Truth, you will need to put in the key first: the key of Truth. All things have their own key and when you use it, these things will be understood in your mind. Now, I cannot cover everything because there are proselytes here. And who do we call proselytes? Once, in England, there used to live a very eloquent preacher. He was so eloquent that his entire audience, the rich and the poor, would be so captured that they would forget about everything. A thief, whose trade was not going very well, heard about this and thought to himself, “I will pretend to be a worshipper and then I will sit among these enraptured ones so I can fill up my pocket. I will have a great profit." So he goes there and sits with the rest. The preacher starts speaking, everybody is enraptured, and so is the thief. When the sermon was over, the thief thought to himself, “I missed the moment.” He left but vowed to himself, “Next time I will not become enraptured. I need to exert some willpower. I am a pickpocket and so I should not be enraptured but I should be feeling their purses, instead.” However, the second time, he became enraptured again, and so he did the third time, too, and so, finally he thought to himself, “I will not go to this devil any more, because I will lose my trade.” Likewise, when God’s Spirit starts talking eloquently like this inside you, you too, will become enraptured in the Divine Truth and so, if an evil spirit comes to you, he too will become enraptured and will say, “I should not go to his gathering because I will lose my trade.” And when he leaves, you will be free. The first thing an esoteric disciple needs is to have an eloquent preacher in himself, and when this preacher speaks, then the disciple’s mind, heart and willpower will lose themselves in this poetic expression, in this loving speech that comes out of the preacher’s mouth. And so I say to all who are in the Esoteric School: every one of you should express their nature freely, the way God has made you. And I do not want you to change; I want you to be the way you are but I want you to have an eloquent preacher in yourselves. And when your preacher speaks, you should be happy with him. I call this preacher the Spirit of great Life in all Existence. You can call him any way you like, but he is the Spirit of Life in all Existence. He can speak at any time, but in order for him to speak, a mind, a heart, and willpower are necessary. Not wilfulness, not a cruel heart, not a misunderstood mind, but a mind filled with Light is necessary, and a heart filled with Purity, and a will filled with power to put everything into practice. Now, you, the young ones, can test my words tonight by touching your moustache. Do not laugh. If you laugh that means that you have not understood this matter; you should be very serious. Think about why you want to stroke your moustache. The old ones, too, sometimes put their fingers on their moustache. Stop and think for a minute why you have grown a moustache, what was the original cause of this, why were you given a moustache. You can give yourself whatever answer you would like. And think also about why you were given eyebrows. You may not solve this problem, but some thought or some light is bound to come out of your thinking about it. Consequently, this eloquent preacher will give you a wise interpretation. Do not share it with anyone, but keep it for yourself. And so, I want all disciples who enter the Esoteric School to be rising like the Sun, because the School of Light is a sunrise for us. The Order of Light represents a sunrise, and the Order of Darkness represents a sunset. Now, I group you like this: if you are setting, you are with the Order of Darkness; if you are rising, you are with the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood of Light is always rising; the morning is their time. The Brotherhood of Darkness is always setting. Therefore, we need to have an understanding of these two moments of Life. If we say, “You have risen,” then you are of the Brotherhood of Light. If we say, “You have set,” then you are with the Brotherhood of Darkness. We know that there is no sunset in the Brotherhood of Light, and if someone says that his Sun has risen, then we know that he is from the Brotherhood of Light. Now you see what enormous difference there is in the esoteric view. The Sun’s setting shows that you are on the wrong path, and you should, therefore, turn your consciousness into the direction of the sunrise. Now, in saying that the old ones are setting, I made a differentiation. When I say young, I mean the Order of Light, and when I say old, I mean the Order of Darkness. This is a symbol: the old, in getting older, represent the Order of Darkness, but they represent it in form and not in content. They resemble the Order of Darkness in their life and so they must pray. When a man gets old, he becomes decrepit and is in a sour mood. When he sees a young one play, the old one wrinkles his brow and says, “What is this fool making all this racket for?” When the old one sees the young one push his way around, he says, “Keep your hand away from me, do not do this in front of me, for only I know this art; you should not learn it,” and in saying so, the old one is moralizing the young one. No, this is not right. Instead of acting this way, the old one should say to himself, “I used to be like him once,” and now he has moved to the left. The old one should not become angry. Therefore, we should always be young; we should never judge others. And when the Scriptures say, “Do not judge,” it means the following: everyone who judges becomes old and nothing more - this is the rule. Show me one person who judges and has not become old. He, who judges, becomes angry. This is not right; this is misunderstanding things. This is sliding down. Both the anvil and the hammer that beats incessantly on the anvil wear out in the process and no one gains anything. And the beautiful in Life is this: to think only about the great goods that God has created and to endeavor to be as wise and loving as God. And let us leave He who is all-wise to put Life in order. Because when we say that we live by God, we should do this not only passively, but we should rectify our life. A brother of yours may say, “I am rich; I have an income of ten thousand leva.” Some other brother somewhere else steals one or two thousand leva and people say, “One of the Brotherhood of Light did it.” Well, he is not a Brother of Light, but a Brother of Darkness if he stole ten or twenty thousand leva. Then I say, “Here, take this money, brother. I will even give you interest on it, how much do you want?” Then we will pay honestly, for there is no lie in us. Now, how many of you are ready to pay for someone else? I do not know. Those, who are outside, pay for their brothers who are in the School. And then, there are others, who, when they hear that someone else is paying, demand, “Let him pay for me, too.” No, no, I am pointing out an internal principle. This is a state of mind. Let us all be so loving in our souls, so as not to criticize anyone, because if we criticize, that means that the Spirit is not in us. All of you have experienced this: he, who has sinned and criticized, has lost their Spirit. When you make the smallest criticism in your soul, you will lose your Spirit; the Spirit will be extinguished by all means. And now, one of you who has experienced this, even in the smallest form, should say if this is true or not. Therefore, should the Spirit start speaking in you, you should pay attention. You should aspire for the higher, you should have a correct understanding of the Divine law and you should have no negative thoughts. Then the Spirit in you will explain everything to you and you will evolve with each day and will pass from one glory to another. I demand this of all who are young. I consider all of you young. Why? Because I count you towards the Order of Light; for all, whose consciousness has awoken, are from the Order of Light. Under the present conditions, all those whose consciousness is awake, should belong to the Order of Light. The old is an emblem of the Order of Darkness. The Order of Darkness is not bad in itself, but in Life these two orders do not follow one and the same principle; they do not follow the same laws. They have their own laws according to which they progress and acquire knowledge. Those in the Order of Light, who want to show the slightest levity, have lost the best conditions of Life for thousands and thousands of years and have no good conditions today. There was a time in the evolution of humankind when it was an honor to be in the Order of Darkness. Back then, the Light ones were setting and the Dark ones were rising. Now it’s the reverse process: now it is an honor to be in the Brotherhood of Light and it is a dishonor to be in the Brotherhood of Darkness. And now you, being disciples of the Esoteric School, should consider it a great privilege and an honor to be members - proselytes, believers or disciples - of the Great Universal Brotherhood of Light, which comes to introduce the New culture in Life. And, as such, you should prepare not in the future, but you should be preparing right now, already. You can start today, or tomorrow, or the day after, for you have the conditions to work; work quietly, silently, and wisely to put the Divine Laws into practice. You will work the way Light works. (The Master collects all the notes.) Now, I have paid you, therefore I can keep these notes for myself. Are you content? If someone isn’t, I can pay him some more, i.e. I will spend more time with him individually. Some of you have not signed your names on your papers. Those of you who have not signed, should do so, otherwise your wish will not come true conscientiously. See how you wanted to outsmart me, but I outsmarted you in the end. I caught all the trickery of the disciple, and in this case, I have backed you into a corner. So, you did not trust me completely and that is why you did not sign your name. Yes, this is not an accusation, but trickery. The facts say that there is no signature, right? Now, I will let you sign and correct your mistakes. I will not give you back your papers but I will make a deal with you: I will give you your old papers when you bring me the new ones, but I need them signed with your names. The intensity of thought everyone exerts in writing the papers will indicate for me if the work has been signed or not. (The Master picked out a paper and read.) He wants good for the entire humankind, and wants nothing for himself, and so we will fulfill his wish. It is all right, this is not a great mistake, but I need a signature of some kind. I do not mean a signature literally, but I mean it in essence. In other words, when one writes something and is afraid that others might know his thoughts, then this is the fear of the physical plane. However, when one writes something in order to express oneself, then those sentences are dedicated to the willpower, i.e. he has signed and these sentences will contribute a great deal; such sentences will live on. Now I will revise your work and I will give you explanations. I will read them over and I will see in what direction your thought was going. These psychological intentions will be interesting for me. I will take my time to turn over every leaf separately; I will read them over individually. It will take me at least three months to look over your papers but your wishes will come true in due time and space. Some wishes will come true in a year, others in two, and some in three years - it all depends. Generally speaking, everything comes true. When will they come true is a question, an esoteric problem to solve. Source

Note 4 On The Path Thirteenth lecture by Master Beinsa Douno held before the Universal esoteric class on May 26th 1922, Thursday, 11-12:00 Vitosha Mountain. Now, bear in mind that I do not wish to judge you; this is about the application of the principle of Love. If you can apply it, this is all right, but if you judge one another, you cannot have love. In an assembly just one cannot be blamed, rather it will be the case that either all are righteous, or all are wrong. If a penalty is given, all of you will bear it and if a blessing is given, again it will be intended for all of you. So, I ask of you to apply the Divine principle of Love - you should apply it, I should not impose it upon you as if I do so, then this will not be Love but coercion. I told you that if after the end of my talk you start looking for the one who is to blame, I shall not speak at all. Arrange these matters among yourselves in the spirit of brotherhood; apply the great principle of Love. Only because an organization is created, this principle will not be perfect. For you still cannot grasp how the principle may be applied. Do not grieve the Divine Spirit. What is being done is not against me but against God. Who will speak to you then? Can a commission be selected which will ascertain that the rules of order are adhered to? You can choose seven people; you are able to do this. You will obey, everything you do will be based on the principle of Love, do you understand? You should set this rule; if you do not, the principle cannot work and you will be subordinated to the same principles that the world, the state, and the church were founded upon, and then nothing will be successful. I will touch on a number of elements of Love in its new manifestation. It is one thing to speak of Love and quite another to experience it - this is what we are concerned with now. When a student or a musician makes a mistake, if he plays falsely, the teacher cannot forgive him. There are things in the world, which can be forgiven, but there are things that cannot. When someone takes money from you, you can forgive him, but when a great musician plays, he is not allowed to strike a false note; he will have to do no more than is necessary to correct the note. It is a necessary principle and Life does not forgive - we have to correct the note. Life is music and everyone wants to play it as they know. Take for instance a bandmaster; I say, according to the principle his life has to be reformed, as one can only be a musician if one has Love. Everyone has to live in compliance with the principle of Love. And if you do not wish to live like this, no one can impose it on you forcibly. Only with your good will can you live this way. And I know that you all want to live, you wish for your lives to be harmonious and for yourselves to be happy. You, the disciples have tested me do you understand? You acted as a teacher, and as you become teachers, I am prepared to leave the school. I am ready to accept from you each thought, your every feeling, all of this and no more. If the Divine Spirit speaks through you, and expresses certain Divine thoughts, then I will accept them, the source is still the same. Our desire is for the Love of God to be manifested among us in all its completeness - this is the only way to succeed. If we do not apply this principle, there will be no success but only constant misunderstandings. Sometimes when I join you I feel a heavy and disharmonious atmosphere, do you understand? Just as smoke renders breathing hard in a café, it feels the same when I am among you. You do not want this either; you suffer from it but do not know how to liberate yourselves. And I want to show you a method you can use to release this weight. This will not happen at once but I will show you a principle and you will work on it. Now I do not judge you; such was the old teaching. I want you to apply to yourselves the principle of the great Divine Love; thus, young and old have to respect each other, to honour and forgive each other. Now, for instance, when I leave you will start looking for the one to blame. If someone always has to be pointed at as guilty, the world will never change for the better. For finding somebody to blame shall not set things right - even if we hang or imprison him, someone else will take his place and there will always be someone guilty. All right then, are you ready to accept what I am going to tell you now? (Everyone replies: Yes, we are.) Now ask your inner selves this question - if you accept it and apply it in accordance with the principle of Love, this shall be a blessing for you. Sing the song “Bless my soul, dear God”. Look at living Nature around us - it is a Divine abode, a Divine home. And all the energies that are stored in it have different directions; each energy has its own channel through which to flow. When we need energy for our stomach, it comes through food, when we need energy for our lungs, it comes through the air we breathe, when we need energy for our eyes, it comes through light; when we need energy from the spoken word, it comes through our sense of hearing, when we need the energy of the aroma of flowers, we can receive it through our sense of smell. Now you have accepted a philosophy; you want to receive all of these various energies through your mouth. We are talking about Love but Love can be accepted through your mouth, your eyes, ears, nose – anywhere. When Love is accepted through the mouth, it will have one effect if it is accepted through the nose - another and so on. It depends on how we accept Divine Love. Now, you speak of Love; you still have not loved. I will conduct a microscopic experiment, I want to ask you what Love is, how you have felt it, if you have had one vivid experience of Divine Love. You have small experiences of Love, but how long did this Love last for? Tell me now, was there such an experience in your lives when Love took over your soul, your mind, your heart for a whole year, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a whole month, do you have the experience when Love overwhelmed your soul for a month, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a day? If Love swept over you at once, you would not reason at all, you would decide on the spot and your decision would not be the silliest, but the wisest one. When Divine Love operates in the world, it operates through the best methods. And you should all keep in mind that in order for Divine Love to inhabit us, the Spirit has to work on our physical and Spiritual bodies for a very long time to prepare them to accept the energy. If the intensive energy of Love were to pass through our bodies now, then it would have the effect of melting us. Therefore, Divine Love constantly adapts in accordance with the condition of our spiritual bodies and the level of development we have achieved; our Spirit works incessantly. If you hinder the Spirit, who works inside you whom will you harm? And it keeps working, conducting a sort of installation. If progress is made but you unscrew the whole installation, whom do you harm? – No one but yourselves. Say, for instance, you have a bad thought, whom do you harm? -Yourselves. You have doubts; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. You fear; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. Now fear has taken its place in the modern world. Why does doubt appear? For we know both fear and doubt. Fear is only a trait, a feature of our hearts. If you could only know how negative fear is! For instance, you fear losing your life. Someone promised to give you money, you doubt it; doubt, on the other hand, is a negative feature of the mind. So, if you can doubt that someone will pay you back, then you doubt the possibility of this happening. Thus, you transfer your doubt from men onto God. Sometimes you doubt me, I can read your thoughts: “Maybe you do not speak on behalf of God but on your own behalf”. But I always distinguish between my own thoughts and Divine thoughts. Inside me, my thoughts and God’s thoughts are strictly determined; I can then direct each of my own thoughts to the left and every Divine thought to the right, i. e. I say, ”This is Divine, and this is human”. And now were my actions inspired by Divinity or by my purely human side? They caused you to fear that you would lose something. Now, fear implies that your Love is on the outside and fear has taken Love’s place - on the inside, do you understand? And the reason why you cannot live in harmony with yourselves is because fear lives within you. If I came to your house and said, “Lend me two thousand leva,” and you have three thousand, you would say you needed it while in fact you did not. And yet you claim to be a man who believes in God and has Love. You have no Love but merely fear. If I came and asked you a favour – you would state clearly, “I am not inclined to give you anything even though I have money in my safe.” This is what an evangelist said in Varna when someone asked to borrow some money, “I have money in my safe, but I cannot lend any to you, for I do not trust you”. Why should I lend you money and then only fight over it; if you want me to give you money, as I would to a brother, then I will. Fear - this state shows that Divine Love is not working. It begins to work and then you hinder it. For example, if a sister of yours erred in some way, how many of you would gather in the evening and pray for her, saying: “God, fill the heart of our sister, let her know”? Instead of this when you see her, when you go out you would only criticize her. When you go out, do not talk about her. You do not have the courage to speak up and tell the Truth – you are not brave, you are faint-hearted, and yet you claim to be righteous. When I say brave, I do not mean you should be rude. Brave is the one who can speak the Truth – no more, no less. So, Truth in Love itself would say, “Brother, you are going one way but this method is not the right one”. (A dog barks at a cow) Now, take this Cow. The cow represents the Good inside you, and the dogs represent the lower passions – the inferior intellect, which is chasing away the cow. It is not her fault that she is here and the dogs interfere with a type of work, which is beyond them - for no one has appointed them to guard; nevertheless, to show that they are righteous, they will chase the cow away. I will tell you a truth: Life through exposing others’ mistakes will never be reformed. If we expose each other, we will never improve. Now you shall have patience. I had given you an assignment for today - to write about your biggest shortcoming, did you write? (-Yes.) Collect the papers and read them. Well, will you sell your deficiencies to me? I want to buy them, how much money do you want? No, no, I will pay (Brother Stoychev: So that you can take us for an outing for one month a year, to teach us; one month in Turnovo - for everyone, and then one month - only for those of us who are here.) It shall be done when you apply the principle of Love, it shall be done. You will experience God; we will apply the principle of Love. God’s word is law; if we abide by it, we shall see what we are capable of doing. Now, I will take these shortcomings of yours and when we enter the Spiritual School we will work without them. I will only grant you half a credit now, as I do not have much money. I have half of the sum at my disposal, I can pay it over a month and a half, but I do not have enough for three months - to be honest, I can only pay half. How do you want it - in cash or another form? I can pay one thousand leva, ten thousand leva, or thirty thousand leva. (-We do not want money.) This is what can be done. Once you fall in love with your shortcomings, you will improve. This is a separate topic and we will reach it in due course, there are methods you will use. These defects are at the same time virtues: to be selfish is not bad in itself, but to be as selfish as to harm yourself - this is bad; to have the kind of impatience that makes you run for your life when in danger is correct. But when you have taken on important work, then impatience is misplaced. When someone or something threatens you, you have to be impatient. You should be aware already how to employ some of these qualities. Now, what you wish for shall be done. What we have set out to do we can do in two days or in a month, in two months or three months - the principle remains the same, we can do it, the Scripture says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible”. And you have very rightly raised the issue of the need for you to spend one month close to Nature - you shall be patient. (Brother Stoychev: We will be here, in the woods, if the Master decides to escape we will outstrip him, otherwise if he were in the city, how would we find him? Everyone laughs and so does the Master.) Now use your intuition to choose a commission of seven people from the Brotherhood that will see to the observance of order. They shall be selected for the duration of one year, when this year ends, others shall be chosen. (-May the first be chosen by the Master, the second one - by the first, the third – by the second and so forth.) All right, I select Nacho Petrov. (The latter chooses Stoyan Rousev, he chooses Elena Ivanova, she- Cohen, he- Iliya Stoychev, Zdravka Popova and Theresa Keremidchieva.) Do they agree? (-Yes.) (Brother Tolev: Let us never again speak of the aforementioned accident, as if nothing happened at all. Brother Grablashev: If it is useful, let us speak of it.) Listen to me now, I will decide the matter: you have the right to talk about my mistakes but if you decide to speak about your own mistakes, I shall punish you. You may speak about my mistake, you may say, “Our Master made a mistake!” You may speak but say nothing but the Truth, make no exaggerations. When you speak, do so quietly and calmly, first of all address your minds to God, ask him: “God I wish to tell about this incident, may I do so?” If God allows you to speak about it, do so but if he does not - remain silent. And if something is gnawing at your mind that may be merely a worm and a worm can be of no use to you whatsoever. Now I will explain why you cannot talk about certain things when you are located at six hundred metres altitude. Imagine you are a hundred meters deep in water; will you be able to speak? - No, you will not. When you emerge a hundred metres above the water, the conditions enable you to speak - there is air. Consequently, at six hundred metres in depth, the conditions are not favourable - you will swallow water, at two thousand meters you can speak, as there is enough air. In our Spiritual School, when I inform you of an outing, it is as if we use our keys to unlock a door – you then become connected to the Invisible world. For instance, I assigned the sisters a task but you never completed correctly even one of my orders. This is exactly what happened earlier, I told you: over the period of one year, you shall all go to Vitosha but absolutely no one has to know, you can only tell me. I did not instruct you to retail it to the whole city. Consequently, you should have waited and told others about it only once the test was finished; while it was in progress, you should have remained silent. As a result, some undesired accidents occurred. So, when you are given a task, I want you to follow my instructions strictly. If we have decided on twelve o’clock - twelve is definitive! You, as you come, will judge by the results. Before you have done something you shall not draw any conclusions, the test has to be entirely carried out. Moreover, when you are being tested, you should not insist on the smallest details. One says, “We shall choose Full Moon”; no, you will choose a dark night, as only then will you see God. You should trust in God; when you look for Full Moon, this means you do not confide in him, the task is only carried out half way through. The task is that this must be done on a dark night - when it is stormy and rainy and there is thunder, then you shall go out, you shall pray and God will speak to you. Then again, you will think, “I may catch a cold.” when Divine matters are concerned, you will not catch a cold. I serve as example: I have sat by my room’s window in wintertime so many years to give talks. Had it been someone else - a professor - he would have come down with pneumonia in no more than a month. Then, how many of those who stayed outside got a cold? These are minute experiments but they are true experiments. Let someone else come and speak for an hour and a half in the cold, we will see what will become of him. You need to strengthen your faith for this principle to work. I told you: do not expect much, the results will be small, microscopic, as the present conditions do not favour big achievements. But from these small experiences we will achieve very good results in our own time. I congratulate you; you carried out this experiment with great zeal. I told you to think it over for a whole year and instead you finished it in two weeks. It can be repeated but in a new variation. Now, this test will be slightly harder but it will bring better results. The trials I give you will chase the fear away from your hearts; you will learn to trust in God. And then when you go out in a dark night, the eyes, the sight will be toned, your every nerve will be strained, your mind is present in every part of your body - this is good. When you go out in Vitosha, it will seem that many dangers await you; you might think you see a bear or a wolf, your hearts will leap. I know, for some of you, your hearts leaped twenty times. And anyone in the city, who hears that you went out to Vitosha on a dark night, will say: “He is out of his mind - to discredit a man or a woman like this.” This is why I am telling you, no one should know. If a man or woman goes, this is something you should remain silent about; once you have tried it yourselves you can speak from your own experience. We will experience more. We will create the necessary conditions for those brothers who do not have the possibility of completing the task, so long as they have Love in their hearts. I will find favourable conditions for them but they need to get in touch with Nature within themselves - according to the principle of Love. Then I may work together with them as a teacher can only work with able students. When you are alone we cannot do all the work. You need to do the work and so do I. For there will be outings, tests, which I will be the first to carry out and then I will say, “You may start now, the way is clear.” For instance, you have caused me great apprehension: during these two weeks, I could not sleep as there was such disharmony and anything could have happened. There were villains in town that had made up their minds to follow you and I had to apply/focus/ my mind to dissuade them. You think God will guard you; we have to be clever, only then will God guard us. You shall not pass a second time through Dragalevtsi, you will not take the road but shall walk out of the village; and you will enter the darkest woods - they will be the safest. So, you will achieve excellent results, these tests will give you greater decisiveness, you will become healthier, your minds will be sharper and your thoughts - more vivid. And when you come back from such a test you will think clearer. I have noticed that those who have completed the task after they return reason very well a person, who is brave, can reason very well. But now we will all decide. One thing that the Universal Brotherhood requires is for us to be completely faithful to the principles it teaches us. Faithful, faithful! These principles are absolute and cannot change. And once they set a task we have to complete it with no mistakes - once, twice, until they are satisfied; then you will see. You want tests, trials, then let us carry out this experiment: the sky is cloudy, we shall say: “May these clouds disappear at once!” the second day the skies are clear, we then say “May there be clouds!” on the third day the barometer points it will be dry, we say “Let it rain!” and it will rain. I call all these experiments microscopic and they can be completed for you to see that there are principles in the world, which we can use. In Nature, there are friends who can help us. However, this is not a matter of curiosity but a way to reinforce your faith, to demonstrate that when one loves God, one is capable of anything. Then I will not choose just any day, I will choose a day when there is great drought, when people need rain - this is when we will carry out the experiment. So, it will rain not to satisfy your curiosity but to use this Divine energy. Let us say there is drought, it is clear; we will carry out the experiment to bring about clouds, to prove to these people that we will use everything in the name of Good. A Teacher is never allowed to waste the Divine energy and neither is a disciple. This is why we will start researching all forms of Life in Nature – we will study the plant kingdom. These are features that Nature has given us. All forms save their energy. From plants, we learn how to use energy - to do a lot of work quickly. Now I will say one thing: I am truly satisfied with you. You see I am satisfied with you because you do all you can. I cannot ask for more. Sometimes you even do more than is required and this is where your mistakes come from - from excessive zeal. For instance, I instructed someone to go to the plateau; instead, he went to Black peak. This is good as well, the task is to the plateau but you insist on more. I tell you to go out of town to arrive to the destination in four hours; he did this over two and a half-hours. But you will only hurt yourself like this, take your time, do not hurry! But you are very expeditious, wishing to do it quicker. No, you will take your time. For each task you are given, you will take the necessary time – you will not shorten the time you need, you will use it to carry out your tasks successfully. You need to take account of these remarks. If you get there, in two hours and a half, this is not bad but it will result in a misfortune, you will lose more energy than you need. You may fall ill in two weeks and then you will say, “I went and so now I am unwell.” Then, when we speak of brotherhood and equality, this does not infer a depreciation of the human soul. No, we understand them as a manifestation of human individuality - if possible, the manifestation of the spiritual conscience in a superior form. Initially, you have the conscience of a child, you expect to be helped and you cry. So, the mother and the father of this child take care of it and provide it with milk. But the child then grows up, its conscience broadens and it is fully emancipated, and has become free and independent. This is why I say that our conscience has to broaden. We can achieve this and this is God’s will. When a sister has a good wish, do not obstruct her but wish her good even if she does not do well - she will do better the second time. We are faced with a big dilemma: you have one great task, but you have a past that is so interwoven that as you are gathered most of you are positively charged elements. This is why it is hard; you do not attract but repel one another. You have some energies inside you but do you know how much harm these energies have caused the world? Now we say: watermills help the world but when we eat the ground product we take in the idea of the stone’s role and we want to crush, to bring people down as the energy of this stone has been transmitted to the bread and the bread in turn has instilled it in us. This is the esoteric knowledge on the matter. Most of you are positive, so now we need to make you half positive, half negative and then our work will be successful. We will show you the principle of how to become positive or negative - we will give you the rules. Here, in the midst of Nature is where you will study this; you cannot do this in the city - only in the midst of Nature. Let us say you are feeling unwell one day; we will tell you a rule, after you work on it for four hours you will feel an expansion, a change within yourself and will be ready to make concessions. You will see the results for yourself. But this will not take place now - before we come to these trials we have to practice minor ones. As I said: you will save your time, I do not want the time you need to put into your other affairs - I only want you to dedicate your spare time, when you have nothing to do. I do not want you to say I take up much of your time - I only want your free time, one hour a day to devote to the school. This is one of the best rules. If I required ten hours of each of you, that would be something else. No, one hour. This is something any of you can do. Now let each disciple note what she wants from me - the most important things that you need, whatever each of you wants. Express it as a short suggestion. You need a Bible or a Gospel, a pen, an inkpot, or a room. You should ask for significant things, those you need - the most significant things you need. (A question is posed, “Should we remain anonymous or should we sign?”) Let them know who you are at the top but not at the bottom. Downstairs you remain anonymous, with pseudonyms. May your requests be of materialistic, spiritual or mental nature. Now, the test to Vitosha will be repeated in a different form. Those of you, who have not gone, carry out your task as a group because next week I will give a second task and we will complete this task in a week, we will carry it out in a night. I will be with you and will tell you what the task will consist of; it will not be difficult. We shall use the present weather, as it is the most favourable. Two or three weeks from now, we will still have the necessary conditions. But in a month or two there will not be favourable conditions. But now it is favourable to complete the task I will give you. Thank you for giving me a free hand so that I could speak to you. As if the disciples bind the Master and say: “Speak, Master!” how could I speak? The Good prayer Source

Note 5 Infinite Love The Twelfth Lecture of The Master before the General Spiritual Class held on 18 May 1922, Thursday, 8.30-9.30 in Sofia Secret Prayer The homework on a much-loved word or a much-loved sentence has been read. Next time you will write down the greatest imperfection that you have. Just one, yet the greatest one. You can write it anyway you like. Now, I say, he who has no courage to admit his imperfection can never know Love. Love is not for the righteous, neither is it for the loving, Love on its own cannot love. If it could love, then who would be able to love? It is marvellous to love because you are loved. Love is Love by itself. If we think in spiritual terms, when you want to love then there is something that you miss, and if you want to be loved then again there is something that you miss. Therefore, whether you love or you are loved, indicates an imperfection. You love because you are not perfect and you say that The Lord also loves. But The Lord has never said He loves anyone. Can you tell me where he said that, where is it written, have you ever seen it said anywhere that God loves? People say – some prophet came and said that God is Love. Have you ever met The Lord in person? You are funny – the prophet said so; yes, but that is on his account. One should not conclude from that that The Lord loves. Now, you have a critical mind, haven’t you? Loving means having an imperfection. Now I am talking about Love in the way it manifests on the physical field. What way does it manifest itself on Earth? How can you talk to me about that great Love – have you seen that Love? Can you tell me how Love appeared? You can philosophically say, "What is the Master talking about, this is not right.” Show me two people on Earth who love each other to the extent that they have always lived in peace in their lifetime; let’s not just talk. There are saints who loved once yet they happened to act rude just as well, only the books do not say anything about that. Many saints thrashed around the same way anyone else did. At that time people did not say they were saints; that came later. Yes, they were saints but only after they died. Of course, what I say is concrete – it is not about what is up, it is rather about what is down, amongst you as that is the way Love manifests. And we should start learning this Love the way it manifests amongst us rather than the love we know. Now, you say that you love someone, don’t you? But if the one you love ignores your love, what will be brought forth inside you? – First, embitterment will be brought forth, is that right? Then animosity will be brought forth after the embitterment, and after that animosity, you will turn your back and say, "Come what may,” and that will be it. Paul says that Love does not fall away, is that right? So I am asking if your Love falls away, then was it really Love? It is Love only if it can endure all sins in the world, all the endless sins of people – then it is the Love of Angels and God; that is Love. While love that cannot endure people’s sins is slops. This is my definition of Love, do you understand? Because a righteous man needs no Love. I am righteous, what need of Love have I? What need of Love can God have? He does not need Love but it is because of those weak beings, which wanted God to give them Life and are begging Him, forcing Him to love them. He has many important things to deal with but since they keep knocking and knocking at the door, He will finally get up; He will disturb his peace to see what they want. They say, “You have given us Life, now you will guide us.” – “I will guide you.” So, if you want to cope with your mistakes in the spiritual aspect you will have to bear yourselves sometimes. Sometimes, as you cannot stand yourselves, find someone guiltier than you are so that you can bear yourselves. No, no, when you bring out all your sins you should love yourself anyway. When things are nice it is normal to love yourself, when you are sinning, it requires substantial courage. Now, many are talking about Love. If I criticise your love, that is not Love. Someone is talking about Love, he expects me to praise him, and he says he loves me. I know why he loves me. He says, “I love The Master.”- I am a pear tree full of pears, what will he feel but love me. If I were an idiot, or a sweeper in the street you would not love me then. So I do not believe in your love, there is nothing more to it. I do not believe in your love; I believe in your love as much as this; while I have this wealth, you will love me, and tomorrow when I lose it, you will discard me. And whoever replaces me that Love will go to him. This is for religious people who only talk about Love, about God they talk; they have seen Heaven and say: “What will we be there?” That is just entertainment. I have noticed that sometimes some people analyse the way I am watching, thinking how I might see them in the same way as a clairvoyant. While what I see is them building their long-term plans and wanting to be traitors in the future. It makes no difference for a man – be he a traitor, that is also courage, he does that out of love too. I am asking you, students of the spiritual, how was evil born in the world? – When Love came down, evil was born alongside it. But is God not perfect; has man not come out of God? Now you will say, “Don’t we have Love?” I refer to Love from a different viewpoint. That root, the bitter one that is emerging inside your soul, where does it come from? I will explain Love in the first degree to you: Love that cannot be understood is hatred. And when does great Love turn into hatred? A mother has half a dozen children but she loves one of them more, hence, this beloved child becomes the reason for hatred to appear at home. The love of one of them will generate the hatred of the others – isn’t that the actual situation in that home? That is fine, but how can we reconcile those energies? I speak of Love as of energy. Now, we are in the world of contrasts – where there is hatred, likewise there is Love. Love with shadows within it is imperfect, while perfect Love has no shadows. And when you come into perfect Love you will find you are in the boundless Light – you will be all alone there, without any images around nor any Angels whatsoever, you will live in infinite Light and you will have no image of your own, either. I am asking will any hatred then appear in your soul? – No. You will be serene and peaceful, there you will feel the presence of that eternal Freedom, there you will feel Love, and bygone cosmoses will not appear. And if you want to create a cosmos, you will call hatred and Love. Consequently, when a man wants to create an image, evil is born in the world at that very moment – it is a visible image. The root of evil is the aspirations to have images. While an image is a trap – to catch a Divine soul, to limit it, to put a halter on it, to put a goad to that and to torture it as much as we like. So, love on Earth is nothing but a limitation. That is what people are doing now; they do not love each other, they just torture each other – this is what I know of them. And some people will say that they love each other. You should treat those you love with the utmost care, as your smallest mistake will bring in the greatest misfortune – that is gunpowder, it will have bad consequences. You will love, but you will be extremely careful, while should you want to be loved, you should again be extremely careful about your words and about anything in any aspect. Because forms have evil inherent in them. Therefore, some people speak about others, they comment that someone said something, but you should know when you create such forms they will come to a collision, there will be an explosion and you, who are on the Earth, will be walking in the air. So, when you come to dealing with the images of Love, you should be careful. You should be extremely delicate with Love that has images. You have, for example, someone whom you love; for you that person is attractive, is that right; while for others your attractive person is ugly. Therefore, the things that we find ugly or disgusting and bad are not an absolute rule. In spiritual terms, we do not know the measure of absolute evil in the world. There is absolute evil in the world, there is also relative evil in the world, but we do not know what measure we use. Let us take, for example, animals: a wolf’s teeth are made to protect it - if you tease it, it will protect itself, so it will bite you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have teeth”; an ox, when you touch it, it will butt you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have horns”; a horse, if you touch it, will kick you with its hoof, thus saying: “I have legs.” So all creatures have a way to protect themselves – with arms, with legs, with mouth, and not only with teeth, but also with the tongue, with anything. They have learned all the methods of protection. Now, to be able to understand the depths of this spiritual doctrine you should be able to cope with all contradictions. You should first of all conceive Love as a boundless principle that contains no evil at all – you should conceive it free of any contents and free of any meaning. Because if you recognize that there is any meaning in Love then there is content; if there is any content, there is a form; if there is a form, there is evil. Or, as we say, when the eternal gets limited, evil gets born. Now, if I leave you with this situation, I will create some evil for you, i.e. the way I am speaking to you now I will create some evil for you and many of you will suffer. Now you are saying, “Let us love each other, let us love God.” For thousands of years, we have been saying that we should love each other and we keep failing to love each other, that we should have mercy and we still don't have it, that we should be careful and we keep being careless. We keep promising and promising and promising every day and there is always something in our way. What is it that is in our way? – It is because we do not want to admit our imperfections. While our imperfection is the following: any time man finds himself limited in a certain form that is an imperfection. For example, you are limited in a body like what we are. We say that we have been created in the image and likeness of God, but if we would look at that human body as it is, we would run three hundred kilometres away from it. It is perfect to say about man that he has been created in the image and likeness of God but that by no means implies the body that you have now; when I speak of that mind, that by no means implies the mind that you have now; when I speak of that heart, I by no means imply the heart that you have now. Sometimes you have an experience like this: you feel Love as something abstract, but it only lasts five to ten seconds. It is a Divine condition – you feel as if the whole world has become reconciled, but then this condition vanishes and the old, common, gloomy condition replaces it. Then, your mind is somehow enlightened – as if everything is Divine, you can understand everything, and then that common mind comes back. We have to distinguish those conditions. That is precisely the question now: the spiritual science provides methods on the basis of which we have to transform our consciousness; our existing consciousness has to undergo certain changes. The way you are now, with your present consciousness, even if you go to Heaven you will sink anyway, no one can understand what the law is. If you place a stone on the sea surface, it will sink; the moment they place you in the Garden of Eden, you will sink through the floor – you are so heavy that the floors of Heaven will not bear your weight. Well, I am asking you, how are you going to stay in Heaven then? Now in the Spiritual School, what are you thinking about? One of you feels miserable and is trying to find a way to get healed, another one wants to become a scholar, the third one wants to become rich – everybody is thinking of material things. And you spiritualise those material things and claim that you are thinking about the Lord. But people think very little about God, very little. Do not think now that I want to smear you with my brush. No, I have not yet revealed all your imperfections, I am not smearing you but this Light shall be cast so that things can be perceived the way they are in their own reality in order that we can see what we are. Do you know how many evolutions the matter which our brains are made of, which we use now, has served, do you know how many evolutions our existing body has served and do you know that namely in this matter all the infirmities and imperfections of those who have departed have been incorporated? It is manure and we have to process this manure the way plants process all impurities. Consequently, we feel some depression within us all the time. Were that matter virgin and pure we would not feel such conditions. Even present doctors say that whenever there are such dregs in your blood they make you feel some malaise within and they have to be purged away. This means that the matter is impure. Now, I don't want you to have a weak Angel – your Angel shall not be weak. You should, like a merchant, know precisely, mathematically how much money you have; how many golden coins you have in your safe, nothing more, nothing less. You should just as well know how much debt corresponds to that money. You have gold but you also have something that is not pure. You can have one hundred thousand levs1 and make a turnover of five-six million, and then people will say about you: “He is a merchant with millions”; others may think that all you have is capital. And all virtuous people of today figure with little effective money while at the same time everyone is seen as a man of a capital of ten million. Someone is seen as a saint, another one is seen as prominent while some are seen as big fools. The latter are better, since they have courage, they speak the whole Truth the way it is: “I have that much in my safe.” Therefore, if you want to make progress in spiritual knowledge, to pass this cycle and get into the next one, you should leave your present mind, and if you do not, if you do not leave your present concepts, if you want to be delighted, you will all stay like the frogs inside this slough and will be croaking for at least another ten thousand years. You will say, “Oh, gracious Christ,” but do you know what grace is? No man who tried to force Love, to force God, has prospered2. There is nothing more disgusting in the world than a man forcing God. Can you understand this? If we say that we are an actual image and likeness of God, if we force ourselves then we can always force our neighbour or God. We force God, even when we force ourselves; it is God that we are forcing. I am asking, what objections will The Lord make to you? And you know, sometimes you keep bending the bowstring, keep bending it, keep bending it and you come to a certain point but you cannot bend it any further as it will not resist and you break it, do you know what that will cause? Now, some of you do not realise how misfortunes come. Imagine you live on the second floor and assume you are moving a treasure to the first floor. You carry ten kilograms of gold every night. What will happen to that floor in a year or two? Do you think it will resist? – It will not resist, those timbers will get cracked, the floor will collapse soon and you and the gold will fall through it. You, modern people, modern disciples have so much gold placed in your minds that the timbers are cracking and the building will soon collapse. And where will you go – to the bottom of the sea. In the same way, the world, before long, will collapse. That is why the Brotherhood of Light prepares the members of the New Culture to leave that floor. You can take it all very literally. I will give you an example. You say, “We are faithful”; enemies attack a city, you take in the facts, leave your wealth and your records and say, “Hey, brother, let us take in the facts,” and the poor man thinks that you have forgiven him. However, when the enemy withdraws, you bring your records back and say, “You still owe me.” Now you similarly turn to God, you pray, you repent, but when you find your old records …I am asking what is that love, is it perfect? Love that has no power to smooth out sins is not Love. That is the first thing, the first quality of Love. And God says: “I will erase all their sins and will dry their tears, I will wipe them.” – Therefore, that is the primary quality of Love. Where does Strength stay? If your Love is capable of erasing within you our mistakes and the mistakes of your neighbours, that is Love – that is the way I define Love. Peace will only come if Love can erase mistakes; if it cannot erase them, you should know that it is not Love. And when Christ pronounced the great rule - when your brother turns to you, you should forgive him, He must have meant something in that sense. And that is the hardest thing – it is so hard to forgive, and not only to forgive, but to forget; and not only to forget, but not have a trace left on that spot and to replace the most bitter words with the most beautiful words about the one you hated. Now, I am speaking to you as students of the Spiritual School, I am not talking to strangers. To strangers I will speak about grace, about mercy, about Love, and about why they should love each other. What I am saying to you is: if your Love is incapable of erasing your transgressions within you, do you know how disgusting it is to have a transgression from the past or from the present pestering you? You keep praying, and the Lord does not hear you. Why can’t He hear you? – Because you want to lie to Him: “Cluck-cluck, cluck-cluck.” Like that village woman throwing grains to her hens: “Cluck-cluck.” She gets one: “Oh, my chick, cluck-cluck” – she puts it in the stew pan. “Cluck-cluck”, until she eats it up. Well, what do you think, do you think that I can fit into your stew pan? Never – neither you nor I can. Cluck-cluck does not work. And then an occultist will come, some cluck-cluck occultist. We are all surrounded by cluck-cluck. And I will ask you now – to which kind do you belong, to the cluck-cluck one? I call all old occultists cluck-cluck. While for the new ones I will give you another formula – when I speak to you next time, I will tell you what that rule is. We should be openhearted, sincere to ourselves. It is time that we said: “My Love can erase my transgressions.” The question is not whether it is capable of doing that or not, no doubts whatsoever! I erase any other rules given by occultism; Love does not work according to rules. When it comes, it erases everything – it is all done. When that Love comes, you are immortal, you are infinite – that is the first thing. And there will no longer be any foes in your home, there will only be friends. Now, I want you to let this idea remain within you, do not take it out. The idea, which I told you this evening, shall not be taken out of this room and if anyone dares to disclose it outside I will inflict on him one of the greatest punishments anyone has ever seen – yes, one of the greatest punishments, one of the greatest troubles, one of the greatest sufferings. And then I will ask him if he wants to disclose this Truth again. Do not speak of Love before it is inside you, it is a shame. That is the most sacred name! Remember where it says: “We shall not utter the name of God in vain”. The name of Love shall not be uttered in vain – that is what I know. Love is one of the most sacred names with which the world was created. Because if you utter this name and you are not ready, you will create much wretchedness in your karma, many generations will be wretched. It is said: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” In vain for what? – Only when you are ready for Love, you will call it. And then you will create a world of Beauty around you, a world solely of Love, a world solely of Peace, a world solely of Joy, of Rejoicing, of Harmony, a world of Bliss. That is what you will create when you utter its name. Some of you will say now: “Do you know what our Master said?” You do not know your Master – where is your Master, have you seen him? You will say, “Yes, he is by the table”. At what table, he is not there. You think that there is a Master by the table, by you – you are so wrong. You will say: “But don’t we see you?” – No, you do not. “Aren’t you talking to us, aren’t we talking.” – We are not talking. We are talking in some non-understandable language: you do not understand even a millesimal of what we are talking about neither do I understand a millesimal of what you are prattling. You can understand your Master only when you are related to that great Love and only then does your soul communicate with him. When you find your Master and when He finds you, your Master will be blind to all your mistakes, and you will be blind to all the mistakes of your Master. The Master gets as smeared on the Earth as his disciple. The Masters also get smeared – here, on the Earth, everybody gets smeared. And do you think that those with the softest hands are the most righteous ones? Do you think that the maidens clad with the best clothes are the most pure while those in the kitchen, the poorly dressed ones, are the most sinful? Or that those working in the field are sinful? I think the opposite – the ones who are busy with dancing are the biggest sinners; the ones who are busy with praying in the church are the biggest sinners. The one working in his vineyard or working in the field, what can his sin be – he is more righteous. For example, a man will go to church and will say, “My Lord, my Lord,” his hands pressed one against the other. Who has taught you to pray this way? – “Well, my mother taught me this way, The Lord said it should be this way.” Who has taught your mother, then? The power of your Wisdom and your Love should come into your soul and erase your sins. Instead of clasping your hands, you should take your records into account in order to erase your sins. When a man wants to conceal something, he brings his hands together and raises them for a prayer, but there is something concealed between them. Then, he opens them and says, “Lord, everything is open to You, as You can see,” and then he brings them together again and says, “One day I can put something between my hands again.” A spiritual disciple using such manoeuvres can make no progress because any thought he has will produce such vibrations in the other world that will make anybody keep him thousands of kilometres away. And when the Angel approaches such a man he will take all precautions for that bomb not to explode because if it does, it can cause harm. This applies to the physical life. We have been following this life for twenty years but with the forms it has, the world cannot be corrected, no religious forms are capable of modifying human nature. And then it is said that there is a thought that is right: “When the Spirit comes.” What Spirit? – The Spirit of that great Love that will erase everything. And we will believe in God, that He has erased our sins, He has forgotten them. Someone will say, “But our sins are so many that God cannot erase them.” Then, if God cannot erase them, His Love is too weak. But if God has erased your sins and you go and commit new sins, then your karma will be multiplied ten times. So, I am leaving you in the first situation. Do not think that I want to influence you, no. I say, if you want to be followers of this Great Universal Brotherhood, your Love in the future shall be like that. I am telling thou3 all; for us to be able to make progress, by all means the Love not only of one of you, but of all of you shall be like this – the Love of each of you shall erase the mistakes. Each of you shall do that within himself rather than having others do it for him – each of you shall erase them in your mind, in your heart. And when you erase them, then the Lord will come to write. The Lord needs a clean book in which He will write his Word. And the prophet says, "I will take away their hearts of stone and will write my law.” Some people interpret that the Lord will do that – yes, the Lord will do that. Do not say now that you will do this tomorrow, or say you will do it in one year, or now, but say within yourselves, “It will be this way!” If you say, “I will do it now,” you will not do it – that is the way it has been and the way it will be. Therefore, that is Maya. And this present delusion is a delusion of the Black Lodge – a delusion of the devil, in the religious sense. He is the greatest hypnotiser – he will put you into a hypnotic sleep, then he will hypnotise you and after he commits thousands of crimes, he will say, “These are the crimes that you have committed.” And all those advertisements are devil’s advertisements. No, no, we do not carry anyone else’s advertisements. So, first of all, Love should erase all your mistakes so that you can start. For example, some of you should get harmonised so that we can apply another test. I will give you a test, a bit bigger than this one yet it will be microscopic again. And do you know what will follow next? I will give you a third test. Because if I give you the hardest test now, there will hardly remain ten of you. I will tell you, I will be open with you; if I tell you, the disciples who are here, “You will give three quarters of your wealth to the Brotherhood tonight, you will give it right now,” you will say, “We will think a little.” And at that instant you will think whether the Lord said so or there is something else concealed here. No, no, are you going to give three quarters of your wealth, or not? Now you will say, “It is easy to go to Vitosha4, but this!” You should know that this will come, too. Now, this test is nothing, it is like a song, there is a harder one, I will not tell you what it is. You should know that you will be tested – you will be sifted. Tests will come – we will see now who will stand to the end, who will feel no doubt. You are saying that you have Love, and I will try your Love. You say, “The Master says that we have no Love,” how come you have no Love, I have come to test your Love and as soon as I find that you have Love, I will swallow my words. And if you fail, you will swallow your words. We will be sincere in the test, won’t we? So, I will put you to a test and eventually, after I take you through all tests and you pass them, I will say, “Put me as well now to any test that you like.” I will allow you to put me to any test you like in turn, but it will be you first and me afterwards. Then we will finish the Spiritual School and we will enter the New Era, where, the way it is said there, “They neither get married nor will they go for a man but they are like Angels.” And this era will be. This can happen; it is in the transformation of consciousness. I do not mean human flesh; it is in the transformation of man’s consciousness. Secret prayer 1 Lev is the currency of the Republic of Bulgaria – translator’s note 2 The Master has used a verb of Greek origin that means prosper, succeed, flourish /“харосвам“/ – note of the Bulgarian editor 3 The pronoun in the Bulgarian text is obsolete - translator’s note 4 Vitosha is a mountain in Bulgaria – translator’s note Source

Беседата на български Methods Of Purification Year 1, Lecture 12 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno May 17, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret Prayer There was a presentation of the remainder of the essays on the topic "Applications of Karma in Life” Now I will use another example to explain to you what karma is. A young person went out with his friends. They stopped at an inn and went in to have a drink. This young man drank for the first time in his life and very soon got so drunk that he could hardly control his body or stand on his legs. After his friends also got drunk, they all left the inn together. The streets were muddy because it was rainy. The young man began to stagger in the streets, falling here and there and getting all covered in mud. By the time he got home he sobered up but the mud remained - the mud is his life's karma which he will have to clean up. I will not discuss the reasons for this situation, why the young man got drunk and how he became covered in mud. You mаy say that he did not want to drink, that his friends led him astray and so on but what really matters is how this young person can cleanse himself of the mud; how he can purify his heart from the wish to drink to the extent that he loses his senses. I will now give you three methods for purification: precipitation, filtration/percolation and distillation/evaporation. How will you know when to use the first, the second or the third method of purification? If water is turbid, i.e. mixed with solid insoluble substances, it could be purified by one of the first two methods – by precipitation or by filtration/percolation. When Nature wants to clean some water, She takes it to be filtered through the geological layers. In this case the geological layers play the role of filters that clean the water. If water was conscious it would feel grief and suffering during its sinking through the layers, losing its light and falling into darkness. When it sinks down, it goes deeply into the ground, passing through several layers until it meets a layer of stone or clay that will stop it, not allowing it to go further. Thus, unable to sink further, it will find an exit and resurface on the ground. When it comes out onto the surface, it will be glad to see the Light again. Therefore, grief appears at the beginning of the filtration process, while joy comes at its end. Liquidation of one’s karma represents a similar filtration process, consisting of a descent into matter, a process of cleansing and an exit to the Light again. Precipitation is a similar process, but one accomplishes it with less suffering and grief. The greater the suffering and grief, the greater the result of purification. Evaporation or distillation is another important method of purification. Joy emerges at the beginning of evaporation, while grief comes at the end. Why is this process the reverse of filtration? When water is heated, evaporation takes place; the water vaporizes and goes up into the air, i.e. it goes up to God. Water drops are joyful, because they are freed from their sins and suffering. So they spread wings and fly upwards but when they encounter a cold front, they immediately cool down and become dense, and eventually fall down again. As they fall down to the ground as rain, they become muddy and suffer greatly but they are unaware of the benefit they have brought with their fall. Just like water, you are also subjected to a purification process which is carried out in two ways. When you are under filtration, first you are sad and later you are joyful. When you are under evaporation, first you are happy and later you fall into grief. Therefore, if you are sad due to filtration, do not oppose your fate, but go further so as to reach the deepest layers within yourself, in order to be purified more thoroughly. And then you will emerge into the Light again; you will emerge on the surface of the ground and experience the joy and happiness you deserve. As a result of connecting the two ends of suffering and joy, you form a circle through which Life can run smoothly. Those who do not understand this law will notice the constant alternation between grief and joy in their lives, but will not know what its reason is. I am asking you, which of the two methods will you personally choose? Filtration is a method applicable to the human heart, while evaporation is a method for the mind. From time to time, however, these two methods will swap places - filtration will be used for the purification of the mind, and evaporation for the purification of the heart. Generally speaking, however, the mind is purified through evaporation, which is why people say that certain thoughts should evaporate and get out of their heads so that a continuous circle of motion between feelings and thoughts can be formed. When someone starts applying one of those methods, he begins to be able to see. However, it is dangerous if you come to a deadlock, if no filtration or evaporation occurs within you. Society calls this state indifference or alienation. When someone says that he is indifferent, he doesn't want to know what will happen to him. No, one should be interested in everything that is happening within and around him; one should even foresee or know what may happen to him in the future. When I speak of karma, there are several things that you should know. For example, there is karmic suffering which comes as a consequence of the past, but there is also suffering which is due to lack of foresight in some situations in the present. Imagine that you put an empty bottle of water into your pocket and go for a walk. You go to the outskirts of town, stop near a fountain and sit down to rest in the shade. You rest and ponder on different philosophic questions – about the origin of the world, the age of the stars and the Sun, the solution to some social problems and so on. Thus, engulfed in your thoughts, you forget to fill the bottle with water from the fountain and go back home with an empty bottle. The summer day is very hot and you get thirsty. You take out the bottle and see that you haven't filled it. So, in this case your suffering is due to the fact that you were absent-minded because you were carried away by your thoughts and forgot to fill your bottle. Another example concerning karma: you take a big basket and put seventy or eighty kilograms of bread in it. But you have to carry it on your back for forty or fifty kilometres. You have decided to carry this load alone in order to make more money and not have to pay anyone to help you. You meet some children on the road. If you want to make your load lighter, by all means you will need to give them some bread. Otherwise you will injure your back. So in this case you will empty your basket in order to avoid suffering. And when you reach the fountain, you should fill your bottles with water in order to avoid getting thirsty. For as long as you are rich and carry a full basket of bread on your back, you should share it freely with everyone and keep only one loaf for yourself. That is the only way to stay happy and satisfied. Consequently there are two causes of human suffering and misfortune: the first one is that when they get to the fountain they forget to fill their bottles with water. The second one is that when they were carrying a full basket of bread on their backs, they didn't share it with anyone. So when you suffer, it is not enough to argue and philosophize about the possible causes of your suffering. As disciples, question yourselves directly whether you didn't fill your bottles or didn't share some of your bread with the poor. One’s karma would not surface if there were no current reasons for its activation. You would ask: “What is the reason for the activation of karma in one’s life?” When one loses Love, karma comes to replace it. When one loses joy, grief comes to replace it. When one loses justice, lawlessness comes to replace it. When one loses mercy, fear and violence come to replace it. Therefore, your shortcomings show what you are lacking, i.e., what you have lost in Life. If an individual then resorts to injustice, violence or brutality, his karma appears immediately. It has been observed that some individuals who lose love try to seize it back violently. However a law exists to the effect that if they attempt to seize Love back or violate another person's soul, the same violence will be inflicted upon them. Why? Because violence and limitations imposed upon others are like prisons where those who have inflicted this violence will also go some day. I will tell you an occult story to clarify this idea to you. In ancient times there was an adept who hated mice. One day, he set up a trap in front of their hole to get rid of them. In accordance with karmic law, this adept, in one of his next incarnations, returned to Earth in the form of a mouse so that he could experience the consequences of his invention. He lived in the same hole at whose entrance he had placed the mousetrap. Once as he was coming out of the hole, he encountered the trap and there was a piece of salami in it. He stopped and began to investigate. He decided to go into the trap so that he can taste the salami, but what a surprise: the door of the trap banged shut and he was imprisoned there. What is the conclusion? The same person who had invented the trap in the past was put into the same jail in order to experience in his turn the loss of freedom and the limitations resulting from his invention. I am saying, do not lay any traps for the minds and hearts of others, because you will go into them yourself. You will not escape any trap you have set up in the past, not even over the course of thousands of years. It may wait for you for centuries and millennia, but it will find you somewhere in time. Irrespective of how high you may have reached, the moment will come for you to return in the form of a fly, a mouse, even a microbe in order to experience your own trap. You will be imprisoned there until you learn your lesson. You think that there is no going back in evolution. Do not harbour illusions, do not deceive yourself into thinking you will escape from the karmic law. Whatever position you may have reached, whatever height you may have attained, you will be brought back to pay your debts; then you may go further. Whatever thoughts and feelings you have created and emitted in space you will experience someday for yourself. They will come back to you and you will experience their positive or negative consequences. This is the meaning of the Bulgarian proverb: “You reap what you sow.” Everyone will reap what they have once sown. Therefore, do not think that there is no going back in evolution, no degradation. If Angels, who are much more elevated than humans, fell and lost their light when they made a mistake in the past, what to say about humans? The law of karma encompasses all living beings – from the smallest to the largest. There are no exceptions to it. Therefore if you want to eliminate your karmic debts, observe the Divine law, the law of Divine Love. Don't fight your karma, nor think about it so as not to challenge it. Think about Love and apply it as a sole device, a sole possibility for eliminating your negative karma. Someone may say that he alone is able to eliminate his karmic burden. Everyone can do this by applying Love in his life. For this reason you should ask yourself if you love all creatures in the same way. This can be achieved only if you view people as beings who can manifest the Divine. For example, let’s say that you meet a criminal who has committed many crimes and society is entirely against him. At this moment a woman appears who believes that he is a good person and speaks well of him. Why does the woman have a good opinion of the criminal? Because once he saved her from certain death. One day when she was passing through a forest she encountered a bear that was about to attack her and tear her to pieces. At that moment the robber rushed to the woman and saved her. So, at that very moment the Divine was activated in the robber. This is why the woman believes that he is a good person. Therefore, love all human beings for the Divine in them. When the Divine is present, even the worst person, even the criminal is able do some good, some great deed. When the Divine is absent, even the best person can commit a crime. Should this person be considered bad in this case? A single action which a person did at a given moment does not make him good or bad. I am asking you, what have you understood from these two examples – the empty bottle of water and the full basket of bread? What is better: to give or to take, to teach others or to be taught, to love or to be loved? Someone who loves experiences a pleasant feeling, but is the beloved one pleased? What will happen if the beloved one also wants to love? Both of them will give love but in the end they will come to an argument. If both people want to be loved, this means that both want to receive. What will happen then? Once again they will become cross with each other. Think of the question: what does it mean to love and to be loved? Or what does it mean to give and to receive? Next time you will answer this question in class orally, but do not write the answer down. Thus you should clarify to yourselves what giving and receiving mean from an occult point of view. Each thought and feeling that you have should be strictly defined. When you love, you should do so without any compulsion. The one who is loved does a favour to the person who loves him. The one who loves needs to release his burden in order to feel better. In other words, whoever loves wants to give part of his burden to the beloved. He says: “I see that you are strong, so I want to put part of my burden on your back.” To love and to be loved – in occult terms this means the right distribution of the burden between two people. Their mutual interaction is like the examples of the empty bottle and the full basket. If your bottle is empty, let another one fill it with water; if your basket is full of bread, give to others who have nothing. You should observe these two principles in order to create relationships among you based upon mutual respect and esteem. Many people have no respect or esteem, either for themselves or for others. First, one should maintain self-respect, respect for one’s higher consciousness, for the soul, and then – for others, for those around us. If you have a cat at home, how do you treat it? You touch its ears and tail, you caress its hair, so that at times the cat is angry with you and ready to scratch you but generally it endures everything. However, if you treat a person like a cat you'll insult them. That is why when you visit someone you should not express your love for that person as you would for a cat. One's love for a cat differs from one's love for a human being. Love for a human being is based on strictly defined mathematical ratios. If two individuals who are in love observe these ratios, there will be harmony between them. Nowadays when two people meet, one of them will think to himself: “I am more educated," “I am taller," “I am richer” and so on. In response the other will think to herself: “However I am cleverer," “I am better," “I am heavier," etc. As a result of these comparisons an inner fight, an internal competition between them will commence and it will spoil their relationship. I am asking, what is the reason for disharmony in the relationships between contemporary people? Such disharmony is due to the fact that human beings base their love upon knowledge, upon wealth, etc. You should consider one thing: Love is a strictly determined law that does not depend on any social situation or relationship. This law can be tested and tried. Neither knowledge nor power nor wealth can keep Love. You see this all the time in Life. Show me someone who is happy because he is powerful, learned or rich. When they enter life, many people think that love will make an exception for them. No, Love doesn't make exceptions for anyone. Every human being in life is an ordinary comma which has been put in its proper place. The comma signifies a short rest, but a comma can often be placed where there is no need for a rest. The smallest Love in the physical world represents the smallest rest, so that one can catch his breath after he has become tired. To put it differently, the smallest impression that one can receive in the physical world represents the smallest Love. When I speak to you of these new ways of looking at Life, I do not intend in the least to do away with or destroy what is old immediately. The old remains as compost in which you can plant the new. You will graft new branches onto the old tree because you need to learn how to plant the new seeds and how to grow seedlings. If you decide to destroy what is old in one go, you will hinder your evolution. How could you act so negligently towards the old, which is the result of the activities of so many great people, even geniuses? Great people are a manifestation of the activity of humankind in its entirety. In order for one great person to be born on Earth, a multitude of entities from the Spiritual World need to gather in one place and direct their whole activity and power towards him. Just like a tree sends an ambassador to another tree through its fruit, in the same way a countless number of higher entities or souls acting collectively send, i.e. concentrate their intelligence in one person or one Master on Earth and he becomes great. In that sense each person - irrespective of how ordinary he or she may be - represents a collective body of souls. Now that you know this, you should work consciously on yourselves, because everyone’s turn will come to enter into this wheel. Everyone's time will come to be set alight and for that purpose everyone needs to prepare the necessary quantity of fire within himself. The fuel for this fire are the experiences that one gathers throughout his lifetime and nothing can be achieved without them. What do you do when you see a lit candle? You want to be set alight too. Do not be in a hurry. The wheel keeps turning and one day your turn will come too, but until then one must undergo great trials and tribulations. Has there ever been a minister in Bulgaria or any other country who has not received a cross instead of a garland? In that sense everyone is heading towards a prison, either within or outside of himself. Didn't the Romans and the Jews erect a cross for Christ? Contemporary Christian nations have erected many churches in the name of Christ, but He is not inside them. A long time needs to pass before humans give place to the Divine, to the Great within themselves. During this time humans should work upon themselves, in order to create proper and pure relationships with each other, based not on violence but on the Law of Freedom. Tie yourself without getting tied; place limitations on yourself without becoming limited. In other words, when you build a trap for others or for yourselves, leave two doors open in it, so that when you enter through the first door, you can go out through the second one. In this case, a mouse, after it has come into the trap from the first door to eat the meat, can also find the second door open and go out. And when you see that the meat has been eaten, be content that the mouse has acted reasonably. Now, as I am speaking about Love, I need to tell you that Love brings limitations. Both the one who loves and the beloved impose limitations upon each other. For example, a merchant loves money and so he keeps going around in search of better and cheaper goods thus wasting a great deal of his time. The beloved also expects to receive something and thus wastes his time. So both of them incur a loss and if they don't find a way to compensate for it, karma will take its place. Therefore, karma comes as a result of a disharmonious manifestation of Love between human beings. For as long as the love between people lacks harmony, their mutual karma will keep growing and getting heavier. If the beloved does not arrive on time, he gets asked immediately: “Why weren't you punctual?” Therefore, given the current level of development of human beings and their understanding of love, both those who love and the ones who are loved limit each other. Contemporary people want to be free of these limitations, but this requires a new philosophy of Life, new solutions to the existing social problems. If you do not acquire this new philosophy, many more halters and goads will appear. What new ideas can you acquire, if your master puts a hundred halters and goads on you daily? You will certainly learn something. Halters and goads represent the trials and tribulations one must pass through in order to reach a higher level of consciousness. The present situation of humanity is temporary, transitory, but in order to go through this period successfully, one needs to make efforts to transform the forces of his consciousness and overcome the present boundaries and limitations. If you think you can solve your problems without such effort you deceive yourself. You can solve them temporarily, but later you will make double the amount of mistakes you did before. If you work consciously on yourself, you will solve Life's issues directly, without any detours and thus gain Light and a new understanding of Life. If I shared with you some occult laws and rules, given your current level of awareness you wouldn't be able to cope with them. You would say that you promise to apply them and will be very precise in doing so. No, new knowledge requires new containers, otherwise many of your containers will start cracking here and there and you will start complaining of headaches or stomachaches and so on. When the higher energy of these spiritual truths penetrates your nervous systems, it will cause total perturbation and if you have no connection to the great Divine law so that it can help you, you could simply melt. That is why disciples of the occult need a long period of preparation before they can become independent. This preparatory period has the aim of increasing their vibrations so that they can become stronger. That is the reason why occult knowledge, occult Light are not given to disciples before they have been well-tempered - this knowledge is power capable of destroying the organism of someone who is not prepared for it. The disciple needs to start with minor experiences in order to temper his nervous system. For this purpose he is first placed on a grate at an average temperature of about three hundred degrees which is gradually increased until it reaches four or five thousand degrees. Each disciple will test the level of his tenacity. Someone who can endure up to four hundred degrees can be compared to lead, because lead melts at approximately that temperature. Someone who melts at about a thousand degrees is like iron and if someone melts at one thousand seven hundred and fifty or one thousand eight hundred degrees, he is like platinum. The more you can endure the more you will learn. Do you know how many degrees you can personally endure? Have you tested at which temperature you would melt without burning? In this case alchemy aims to melt what is hard and stubborn in the human being, without burning it. If we could melt carbon in some way, we would change its state and transform it into something new, but if we burnt it, we would have an entirely different process. When I speak about the power of Occult Science, I do not want to frighten you, I want you to be brave. All higher beings have trod this path and you have to do it too. It is the easiest path. Its methods are complicated, but the path itself is straight and easy, therefore, you need to work and you need to think. Think mainly about the two sides of Love – to love and to be loved. Ask yourself the question: when and how has the wish to love and be loved emerged in human beings? What do you think: when have these two states appeared in human consciousness, in your understanding? Do the following experiment to answer this question: when after a good meal you are satisfied, take a beautiful cherry and look at it for a while. You will admire the beautiful cherry for as long as you do not feel any hunger, but when you become hungry, the wish to eat your favourite cherry will enter your mind. While you do this experiment, observe the changes which will occur in your consciousness. There are a lot of cherries this season, so all of you can do this experiment. When you are full, take four or five cherries and put them in front of you. At this time you'll love them. But when you get hungry, you look at the cherries in a different way, you want to eat them. At this moment, the wish enters your consciousness for the cherries to love you. It is interesting to observe these fine changes occurring in your consciousness. This means that the one who loves will become engulfed. In this example, the cherry loves the person, and that is why the latter swallows it up. That is the law. It shows that the power lies in small things, not in big things. When you do this experiment, you will come to interesting conclusions, you will observe how different processes in your mind develop. However in order to reach the right conclusions, you need to be completely calm. Therefore, work in a state of calmness and do not be disturbed if some issues inside you or in your interaction with others have not been solved yet. A number of methods for solving issues exist. When an artist makes a mistake he takes the brush and covers it up. When a clerk makes a mistake he takes the rubber and erases it. Covering up and erasing mistakes are external methods, but when we come to the correction of errors in human consciousness, then we have to use very different methods. Each external error is first of all an error of someone’s consciousness. Those who understand the laws will correct their mistakes through transformation of their consciousness. It is one of the most difficult methods to apply. Everything is hidden in one’s consciousness; that is why your work on yourself should definitely start from there. Purification of consciousness – that is the disciples' task. Two main methods can be applied towards this aim: filtration and distillation. Purification of consciousness means transforming your consciousness so that it can make a transition from a lower to a higher level. Secret Prayer Source

Note 7 One’s Place in Nature The eleventh lecture of the Master Petar Deunov, delivered at the General Esoteric Class on 11 May 1922, Thursday, 7:30-9:00h, Sofia Secret Prayer Silence For next time write down your favourite word or favourite sentence. So, you will write down either one word, or one sentence, which impressed you most. When the Infinite World or The Infinite confined itself, the Objective Divine World was formed. So it is from the Infinite, from the Objective Divine World, that one’s subjective, internal world was formed. It is from one’s subjective internal world that the present objective external world was created. Or put in other words, what is visible to God, is invisible to us; what is known to God, is unknown to us. So now, when someone, in an esoteric school, says “I don’t know”, this means that one is aware that one does not know. The implication, however, is that what one does not know, is known to elevated Creatures who know it. Therefore you could appeal to these Creatures who are aware of the knowledge to teach you what you don’t know at any specific moment. The same law operates when one says one has a bad, uncultivated character. So if it is bad, there are Creatures who are good, and they are in a position to rectify one’s bad character. One’s badness can be explained in two ways. If a master has made the parts of a violin and leaves his apprentice to assemble it, and if the apprentice did not assemble the parts properly, then this is a bad violin. Therefore it cannot produce the sound that is required. What can be done? This violin should be examined by the master and its parts should be re-assembled, as it is meant to be. And in the present life of the contemporary intelligent beings, who passed before us and who will come after us, there are many parts in their organisms that are not placed properly. It’s not that any of you are deficient, but there is something out of place. As long as something is not in its proper place, the qualities, the forces needed in any given case to create a character, cannot be acquired. Then such a violin should be disassembled in parts and should be re-assembled again by the master – thus it becomes a proper violin. The esoteric school should re-assemble you; this is the objective of the Esoteric School. You will be taken apart in this School – not everything, but there will be certain things, which have to be taken apart and re-assembled again. This is what is called internal harmonization. This cannot be done against your will; no esoteric school does anything against one’s will. You will knock ten times on the door of the master who has to re-assemble the parts, and you will be waiting outside at the doorstep, until the master comes and you are admitted in. In Christianity this master is called the Holy Spirit. And then when He enters in, He won’t transform the human being overnight, He shall first start with disassembling the parts. And while parts are being taken apart you will feel an internal pain, this knife of his shall start working there. There is a story about a distinguished violinist who had an excellent Stradivarius violin. It had a small defect, so he took it to a well-known famous master in Italy to have it repaired. He invited him to take a seat and he himself started disassembling the parts with a knife, but every time when he stabbed the knife into the violin, the violinist gave a moan and when the violin was re-assembled the master noticed that the violinist had fainted. At present, the human soul is similarly intertwined with the body – within this instrument, that when the Great Spirit comes to work and drives the knife through it, you would inevitably feel internal pains. If you are sick and if there is a master, then this knife by all means would be exactly what you need, so that the various misplaced parts are properly re-assembled. After repairing this part, one will feel an internal lightness, one will experience an internal enlightenment. Many times certain issues have been discussed, many speak about the Spirit, but this is an obscure concept. How many of you have a clear understanding of what the Spirit is like? Moreover, how many of you know the situation a Master is in – not by the form in which He appears, but the internal aspect of the Spiritual Teacher? How many of you have such a clear understanding of Love? All of you have had your small experiences of it, but the clear concept that generates great experiences, that engenders an entire revolution within the soul and transforms all bodily particles, so that one, after coming out of this Divine fire, feels like a newly born baby, because one steps into a new world, a world of different understanding – such an experience you haven’t had. Many times we have spoken about Love, about God, and nonetheless when it comes to taking an exam, we always manifest our old habits. We should not fool ourselves about the training we have passed, because many people are trained, but are not raised well. Many people are still in the process of transformation, but are not transformed. If you reach your hand to a tamed tiger, it can keep licking it for a long time, but just one drop of blood would immediately arouse his old instincts. You can make that old wolf behave like a dog, but it’s out of the question that wolves will grow out of their old habits. Then, if we want to get closer to God, to acquire this knowledge, which brings future happiness, i.e. this Prudent life, we shall inevitably have to observe the great laws upon which the proper structure of our present development rests. So none of you should give in to self-blaming, but should instead monitor oneself and should one notice any internal shortcoming, any part which is not in its proper place, then one should call this great master – the Spirit, to help one rise to one’s feet and to rectify it. Now, such rectification can be done either here or in the other world. This is inevitable; postponing things is not a way out. You might say “This may happen under more favourable conditions, when the circumstances are most favourable.” If a thought has crossed your mind just now, is this moment not the most favourable moment? If it is the Spirit speaking within you right now, is this not the most favourable moment? Every thought is important at a certain moment; such a thought may come and go. So, those of you who walk along this path, should develop such senses, should be so sensitive, so quick of apprehension and so delicate, because being sensitive and delicate is for your own sake. If you are delicate, if you are sensitive, if you are quick to apprehend, the nobleness of your heart, the strengths of your mind shall be useful to you and shall in turn be useful to the people close to you. Then you will have the right relationship. Two able spiritual students can easily understand each other, two noble persons can easily settle their accounts, can easily correct their mistakes, but two stupid persons cannot – one would insist on having it one’s own way and the other would insist on having it their way. So, where is one’s place in Nature? Nature under the present conditions is just one opportunity. Nature – this is the objective Divine world, it is the primary world. From this world we should create our internal subjective world. This entire Divine world that we can see externally and that is real, we shall perceive it and shall then project it externally and shall thus create our objective world. And only having created it, can we shape the character within us. God manifests Himself within all of us; we are objects to God. He works within all of us and there is no way we can escape His influence. He has commissioned you to work and you will accomplish His Will – voluntarily or through coercion, either way you shall accomplish His Will, there is no other way out. A person who believes that one can oppose God, such a person is fooling oneself – all the same such a person shall accomplish the objective Divine will. You may keep opposing and at the same time God will see to it that His work is being done. Your refusal to go along with Him shall not produce disharmony in His path. And now that we have such an understanding of the laws that form your subjective world, we realize that the objective Divine world, which descended from God, is ideal and we should not think that there are defects in it. Nature cannot have defects; there are no defects in nature. The defects, which seem to manifest themselves in Nature, are only results from these beings that manifest themselves individually. Take for example a lioness, which is so cruel to others, and then consider how loving she is to her children – this is Divine substance. She can strangle the lamb, can eat it, can be very cruel to it, but her child she would lick, she would fondle – this is the Divine manifesting itself within her. If this lamb comes to be delivered through her, she would be equally good to the lamb. Why? – Because this lamb would have come along the Divine path – and the lioness would know this by the lion’s form, which she recognizes as Divine. She has got that far to believe that only what has come out of her is Divine, while everything else which is different from her, she would consider not to be Divine. This law operates in all human beings. Now, when you enter the Spiritual School, you believe that only what your mind generates is good – again the same law. When someone writes a certain good sentence, that person likes it. Why so? – Because it came out of him or her. Had, however, this sentence come out of someone else, then the first person is bound to find fault with it. But if the writer of the sentence is in harmony with the first person or it comes from within one’s relatives, the first person would again like it. Therefore, in order to be able to understand each other your thoughts should, without doubt, flow in the same direction. You should be convinced that the Divine Spirit in any certain case acts in a particular special way in all of you. This is true – there is diversity in Spirit – each single person, or each single spiritual student has unique vocation. I am now saying that the vocation of the human being in Nature is to learn from this objective Divine world, so that one can create one’s own subjective world. Thus one can draw on these materials. Say for example you want to be good; where can you obtain materials for the Good? You have a friend of yours, who is hungry; you want to prove your noble heart, to help him – you cannot cut off your flesh to feed him; it will not be wise to take your clothes off, as you will have nothing on, while he will be clad. If two persons have only one suit, this is good, if you are naked. Because if you take it off and put it on your friend, then this is good and bad at the same time – these counter-balance themselves, so you would have achieved nothing. Therefore we shall have to obtain such materials from nature, from the Divine world, which are needed, and shall have to put them to use for the sake of the people close to us. This is to say that in certain instances God uses us as a means, in order to show our internal desires. Someone could have been asking for knowledge for a long time; and finally He would send a Spiritual Teacher to that person, and He would implant the Spirit in this Teacher, so that He could manifest Himself, to deliver what is needed. This is to say; everything given to you in a particular instance requires you to be so prudent – to discern whether it comes from God and, without opposing or contradicting it, to immediately receive it. If it does not come from God, i.e. from this real, objective, Divine world, do not receive it. Let’s assume that I bring a live pot plant to you and also an artificial false plant, I am asking you, if you cannot tell the difference, if you do not know the different features of these plants, will you not be deceiving yourselves? I give you the two pots, but keep in mind these are so skilfully made that you could go for the false one; my question is, what will you gain? No changes can take place in this artificial plant. If an idea does not develop and cannot grow, it is a false idea. The same with you: when you become so good that no change can take place within you, you are on the wrong path, you are an artificial plant. And currently the danger in the present day world is that it has become a false substitute world. Falsehood is rooted in the fact that we do not want to experience any suffering; we want to be facilitated in everything - anyone else can suffer, to us, however, life should be a bed of roses. The student of the Esoteric School should know that suffering is what results from the transformation process of any energy. It is always the case when a human being moves from one state into another, that one experiences particular internal suffering. If there is suffering there is progress, if there is no suffering, one remains in the same place. Therefore you should remember that the changes taking place within you reveal that you are walking along the path. Now, in this Esoteric School where you are, you should analyze your thoughts. This analysis consists of the following: there are a lot of lurking thoughts from the past lying low in your consciousness or sub-consciousness. In a certain situation these thoughts will come to the surface and start talking to you like a record-player and you will say, “Some spirit is telling me something.” you will know, by everything you have been told, that this spirit has been saying the same thing for years. The spirit will tell you to be good, to be chaste, and to be honest. What is exactly new about it? – “You have to improve your life, so that the Lord could love you.” What is new about it, is this something new? This is just a reflection of your thoughts. Well, how can you recognize them? – If there is an external reality, i.e. one always knows when God speaks in the objective world. It is easy to distinguish when we speak and when He does. If an internal voice tells me that within ten days I will have ten thousand leva – and there I keep waiting and waiting, and no money comes; and then another voice suggesting, “You will get married in two years, you will marry an excellent maiden” – and in two years there is no maiden; “In four years you will be admitted to a University and you will have the best of professors” – time passes, no professors whatsoever; “In six or seven years you will be Prime Minister of Bulgaria” – time passes, I do not become the Minister. Someone might say, “The spirit said this, said that, this was what came to my mind” – these are purely subjective, distorted misinterpretations of the very person. Sometimes there can be such misrepresentations that you can believe you are gifted, “I have brains, no one else has brains like mine.” But before two or three months elapse, you are given a task – you cannot solve it. You think that you are very talented, while you cannot resolve a simple difficulty; what is so unusual about you? Sometimes you think that you are a mighty hero and that you can fight the whole world, but in the evenings a lad walks a girl home, and no sooner had two other lads made advances at him, than he leaves the girl and runs away. He is strong to fight the whole world but two persons can scare the wits out of him. The student of an Esoteric School should not entertain any illusions; one should know how many people one can fight, let’s say one, two, one should also know whether one can run well – one should be aware of everything, and not be a coward. Only if one is capable of understanding, only then can one investigate the objective Divine world. Subsequently, due to these shortcomings in us, we cannot understand and cannot apply the good we have within. Why? These old thoughts, old feelings are constantly undermining the good within us. These are like a sea wave – we scribble the Good on the shore, a wave comes over and washes it away. Then we say again, “God is Love, God is Truth” – then comes a wave and washes it away. We keep writing – it keeps washing it away; we fight against the sea. And then I shall ask you who is going to win. The sea, in the end it is going to be the sea. You should not be fighting the sea. And I would now let you know a rule: a gourd entering the sea should be empty and well sealed at that; if it is full it will sink to the bottom. Empty it should be, so that it could float on the waters; this gourd, when inland, has to be full. So when you go to God, your gourd has to be empty so that you can cross this immense sea – the astral sea. If you are full of your ideas, you will sink, you will never reach God. When you reach firm ground, you are bound, by all means, to be full – this is again a symbol, this symbol you are to keep in mind. When you get to God, you shall be empty, when you leave God, you shall have to be full. If you go to God full, you shall come back empty, and having come back empty what is going to happen to you? – You are bound to experience suffering. You will start reasoning now: these are principles; you will start building upon them. Because in an Esoteric School you will investigate Life, learn about ways and methods to transform the energies circulating within your physical bodies. Do you have any idea how much energy has accumulated in you? This energy should be put to use on time. And provided you do not put to use every single energy, implanted in your bodies, others will. So, when you look upon external Nature in the capacity of an Esoteric student, you will realize that Nature was meant to create your subjective world, i.e. all these principles which underpin it, so that you could grasp it on principle. You should have very good understanding about everything. Your measure of Truth, your attitude to people, and how to judge – you should have all of these correct. Someone wants to show me that I have made a mistake. I can unmask a person in several ways. I can unmask that person so powerfully, that it would be an operation. If the bad doctor, who cuts off the furuncle, cuts twice as much healthy flesh as sick flesh, this operation is no good. One has to be a master – to tell the Truth in such a way that no single cell of healthy flesh would be cut off; no single cell of the Divine organism should be wasted, i.e. by telling the Truth one should not damage any Divine flower. And finally, no unmasking is allowed in the Esoteric School; the Truth you may say, but to unmask someone - you may not. If one unmasks someone else, one is to be expelled; anyone who dares unmask someone else will be expelled and it may take thousands of years staying outside – a severe punishment this is. And whenever you want to unmask someone, you should stop and tell yourself, “If it is to tell the Truth, the Truth I shall tell” – neither more nor less. This is a great Divine law and I am warning you about it, not to put yourselves through needless suffering. So far, you have been walking along the road of unmasking. If unmasking could remedy the world, the world would have been rectified already. One should only be told the Truth, and shown the ways, methods and paths, as to how one can rectify one’s mistakes. Well, I shall explain the principle: I go to a brother, let’s say he is a trader, has a certain business, has borrowed money from other brothers, has accumulated a debt of twenty thousand leva, then he does not return the loan, he has no money to return, and he occasionally lies to avoid paying. But no, why should he be lying, why shouldn't he tell the Truth? You will suggest that we call him to unmask him – this is the wrong path. We shall ask him to come and we shall tell him, “Brother, is it not better for you to pay these debts, can't you repay? We shall help you, and you keep working and little by little you will repay the debts.” But we say, “You must get the money whatever it takes, but repay your debt!” – This is unmasking. We shall help him. And when the Lord wanted to rectify the world, He sent Christ, He placed a lot of credit in Christ and Christ said, “I came to give you new life and with this capital you will repay your old debts.” I want absolutely no unmasking among the students of the Esoteric School. The Truth you will speak – you will call each other and you will speak the Truth in a gentle way. You will keep improving, helping each other, creating your internal world, and to gradually elevate yourselves. You know how gradually a student in music trains one’s hand. What difficulties the student encounters in the beginning, until one’s hand becomes flexible enough to play the music, until one’s fingers finally seem to become conscious of the music and only then can the musician play without any effort. Why? One’s fingers have learnt how to play, these fingers understand how playing takes place. We also should nourish such habits and should be aware of how to comply with certain virtues. One has to necessarily develop a habit, a right thought. Now, where does one belong in Nature? In order to appear, one human being has to necessarily have a will. And in order to show your will, you will start with the smallest attempt, with the smallest things, do not make great efforts. In order to get to know whether your will is strong, you will experiment with small things. Set yourself a task in your mind; let’s say to get up at 12 o’clock sharp at midnight and starting from here, from Sofia, go to the Vitosha Mountain. So, what does it take to go to the Vitosha Mountain; what difficulties might you encounter? There are no difficulties facing you on your way to Vitosha. First, you will think that it is dark, that you may lose your way; secondly, that you may come across villains, there might be bears or wolves – these are the pictures flooding your imagination. You, after making the decision to go to the mountain, will go out, but then you will come back and say. “I will go to the mountain in more favourable conditions, when the Moon is shining.” If you leave it for later, your will is weak. The Moon shining or not, you have to go. If you say you are going to do something and if you postpone it, your will is weak. If someone has insulted you, you experience a desire and you say, “I will put up with this person” – do it. You have decided on going to Vitosha and at this moment someone comes along and tells you what the weather is like and you say, “Come on, I will do it in a month’s time.” A month is gone, two, three, four are gone – you do not go. If you do not have sufficient will to acquiesce, how can you then accomplish God’s Will and what kind of disciple will you be? At first, when you enter any Esoteric School you will be put to great tests – some will be told “Your father and your mother you will leave!” Someone will say, “This is not for now.” Don’t you take my words wrongly? There will come a time when you will leave your father and mother, you will renounce your brothers and sisters – you will go. You will then think – either of the two: if you do not renounce them, you will stay at home, while if you renounce them, you will enter the Esoteric School. You now want to be entrusted with things from the Divine world. How can such things be entrusted to you – to use them for your own sake, to keep them at home? And the Lord knows that if He gives these to you under the present conditions, when your subjective world is not formed, you cannot form your objective world and all of these Divine Goods will be wasted – you will fall into your old habits. And if the Lord grants to you a small gift, all your life you will write stupid poems, dramas, novels; you may write dozens of volumes, but in ten years time these volumes will be forgotten and no one will remember of them. Yet this Divine energy has to be applied properly, it ought to generate specific results. And now you all want to be good, to be welcomed by the Lord, to see Angels etc. But in order to see Angels, you must have the predisposition of one Angel – when you love someone, that someone is ready to meet you. Angels like to make new acquaintances very much, but when they see the disciples in the present situation, they do not like to talk a lot. What can an Angel tell you when the Angel comes down from Heavens? An Angel steps in your house and there you go telling him about your misfortunes. To the Angel these misfortunes mean nothing; he will stay, will look at you, will listen to you and will leave. And you know what happens sometimes? – Just like that, the Angel will disappear before your eyes; and these Angels of yours often disappear like this. You will ask, “How do they disappear?” I can tell you how they disappear: Let’s say you are in such a frame of mind that you feel like a master of the world, you have a feeling so delightful, so noble, you have an impulse to accomplish God’s Will – the Angel has come. But that day a small reason will get you out of this frame of mind and your Angel will melt, will disappear and you will say, “Gone is this delightful state of mind.” Why? – Perhaps because someone did not pay you, someone who had to give you back a hundred leva – because of these hundred leva you spoil all your happiness. And then you will say, “I understand what Esotericism is, I have a grasp of esoteric science, I have read about it, I have done certain things.” You have read nothing, you have done nothing. If a hundred leva can knock you out, if an ordinary dish of food can knock you out, if the bad attitudes of people can knock you out, then you will be a loser, then your will is weak. The disciple after entering the Spiritual School has to be prepared to be spat upon – the disciple may be told, “You are ignorant, you are stupid.” Well, if I go to the blackboard and solve the problem well, shall I trust myself or shall I trust them? If I, after taking back my seat start playing the violin, and I enjoy myself, while someone else can say, “Your playing is no good”, shall I trust their ear or shall I trust my ear? Similarly we can experiment: I shall not invite, in this particular case, expert violinists, I shall invite simple violinists, shall take them to a menagerie or to the woods, where there are tigers, and I shall tell them, “My music is so enchanting, that it could tame animals.” If all of them listen to me and if I tame them, then I am asking you whether or not I am a violinist? – I am a violinist. My playing is worth it, because when I play, all people may walk their way at ease. This is the way – if we, in Life, can tame all those tigers, bears, wolves with our playing, there is an internal art within us. This is to say that we have an understanding for the objective Divine world, we have applied it to our internal subjective world and we can now project the external objective one. So, I want you to have a proper grasp. Goods shall not come on their own accord, shall not drop into you laps like ripe pears; these may come and go. If you want one Divine good to remain with you not only for one, five or ten years, but forever, as a companion of yours, you shall have to receive it only under the rules of Truth. Now that I am talking to you, I do not want my disciples to think that I have someone particular in mind. No, I am speaking on principle. When we talk and mean someone particularly, we mean what the Divine world is like. I believe that all of you are willing to make progress. None of you is willing to be bad or stupid – you all want to be good and smart. It is not that you are not smart, smart you are, but if you implant the brain of the smartest monkey in a child, not even once will the child be able to turn the wheel. Therefore with your present intelligence, your strength; if placed in the intelligence of an esoteric student, not once will the esoteric student be able to turn the wheel. Moreover, do you think that such intelligence is enough? No, this intelligence has to be increased thousands of times, because it has to turn a big Divine wheel. And so Paul says that natural persons have to be transformed into spiritual persons, because natural persons cannot understand spiritual stuff. And you, being disciples, have to transform your present state. You will agree that certain things, which you find delightful, you are prepared to listen to, while about things you do not find agreeable you will say, “These are out of place.” For example if a creditor of yours wants his or her money back, you say, “Now is not the right time.” Why? – You have no cash. No, no, this is the right time. You may say that a certain action of someone is not timely, but that person may also say that your action is not timely, but whether any action is timely or not, can be decided only from the Divine world’s point of view. So, now the first thing for you to do is to put your will to a small trial. Let’s see how many of you would do this. I would put to you the following task. What do you say? Shall I go ahead with the task? I am not imposing the task on you, you may do it only if your feel absolutely free and if you have a strong desire and Love within. You will think it over carefully within one year, and this is only externally, but this is a task for you to accomplish within one year. The task consists of the following: When you get up at 12 o’clock at night, climb to the Vitosha Mountain and come back. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like – it could be in winter, or in May, but you have to comprehend the task at complete consciousness, you have to be thoroughly convinced. This is the only way for you to do it; you should not be making silly attempts. This should be a conscious effort in order for you to benefit from it. If you do it unaware, don’t go at all, but if you have awareness within, you will learn something, I shall not tell you what. You will leave Sofia at 12 o’clock and will go to Vitosha, up there on the flat ground, each one individually. I am telling you, you should be absolutely free – this is absolutely up to your free will and according to the law of Love, from that it takes a deep conviction; otherwise you will not benefit. Let’s see how many of you will do it, this is a trial test – at 12 o’clock sharp you will start, whatever it may cost you. I do not know what the difficulties are for you along the road – whoever starts the journey, will get to know. You are not obliged to do it, let’s state this clearly, only these of you who are willing. No one will contact anyone on leaving and no one would know this – each one will start on one’s own, because you may not do it. Only I shall have to know who is going to start. If two of you meet along the way – this is good, this is excellent. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like. You will leave at night and come back in daytime, i.e. you will go in the evening, and you will return in daytime. You will need a good stick. You will reach above the meadow up there near the stone, above the snowline. This experiment will be done by the bravest of you, not by the cowards. Cowards should not try this experience. It is up to you personally to decide whether to do it or not. This is only a task, one of the minute tasks. It looks like I am giving you a task which scares you, doesn’t it? What if a Spiritual Teacher comes to you and takes you to the centre of the Earth? A disciple, who cannot make it on one’s own to Vitosha, will not be able to reach the centre of the Earth even if led by a Master. Those who go to Vitosha alone, if they understand, they may be with a Master. But if they keep asking themselves “Why should I go?” such questions are not answered – when you go, you will get to know. Things are never told in advance; why so? – You may or may not get to know. Chances are you may or may not get to know, but you will still learn something. One thing is for sure, you will learn how strong your will is. If your heart sinks at every step, when you return, you will have had a real experience of how far you can go. There will be another task, a more difficult one. Now you will choose the time, while I am giving you absolute freedom. The Moon shining or not – complete freedom; whatever time you choose – it is up to you to make up your mind. If I have to resolve this problem – I shall choose the worst of weather, the biggest obstacles, the most difficult methods. I shall choose the best road, but the most difficult methods. For you the road now is difficult, and I shall leave you to choose the easiest methods. I can also make it easier for you by giving you an option – you may go and you may not go, you will be free to decide, no one will know who has started, absolutely no one will know. You may say, “How can we go after 12 o’clock, we may be stopped.” At 12 o’clock sharp you will start, no one will know about it – you will leave, absolutely no one will know about this and when you return, again no one will know of this. Only your family will know, but they have to keep it an absolute secret. If two or three of you meet, this is good, but they have to keep it an absolute secret as well. (At this point a student asks: “Is it not dangerous for women?”) – There are no men or women in these deeds, there are disciples only, this is a task only for disciples. If you, after getting up, look upon yourself as a woman or a man, do not start on the road at all. After you start, if you look upon yourself as a disciple, then this is good. But if it crosses your mind that you are a woman or a man, it’s not worth going. I know that there are certain men among you, who will manage perfectly well. There are some among the men, there are some among the women as well – not all, but some. Some of the women may if they so wish, dress as men. Please note what interest this task has stirred in you, how it transformed you, what excitement it provoked. Secret prayer Source

Беседата на български The Law Of Energies Year 1, Lecture 11 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno May 10, 1922, Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret Prayer The disciple's essays were read on the topic: “Applications of karma in Life” Your essays deal with the theoretical side of the question of karma. Physical life and the physical body of the human being are often talked about. What does the physical body represent? It represents a conductor, a great installation for the forces of Nature. Two types of natural forces pass through this installation: positive and negative electricity as well as positive and negative magnetism. At present, your bodies are not physically tuned. Some are positive, others are negative; some have more positive electricity in them, others have more negative electricity. If two individuals with a positive electric charge come together, they will surely repel one another. If they begin a conversation, directly after their parting they will feel aversion and dissatisfaction. If neither can transform the other's positive electricity into negative one, it is better for them to part consciously, at least for a while, and look for a friend with the opposite electric charge. Otherwise, they will develop a hostile attitude towards each other and will act out of their hostility. Rude behavior will result as a consequence. Irrespective of whether the person is male or female, they will display rudeness because electricity moves in short waves and so does rudeness. If two negatively charged individuals come together, they will also repel one another. A certain discontent, doubt or fear will become apparent; they will be afraid of each other. Therefore, when two positively charged people meet, they will become active and will fight or duel one another, and when two people of negative electric charge meet, they will not fight for reasons of safety, but hypocrisy and deceit will enter into their relationship. One of them will find an indirect way to deceive the other one and tie him up so as to get a revenge. So if you want to duel with someone, you should know that both of you have a positive electric charge. If you feel fear, doubt or hypocrisy when you meet someone, you should know that both of you have a negative electric charge. If you meet someone whose electricity is the opposite of yours, you will love one another. The relationship of two people with the same electric charge in their organisms is the same as the relationship one has to one's own self, when both hemispheres of the brain are charged with the same or the opposite type of electricity. In order for a person to have a harmonious state of mind, each hemisphere of his brain needs to be charged with the opposite type of electricity. In the same way when two people meet who have heterogeneous or homogeneous electric charges, harmonic or disharmonic relationships emerge. For example, if the electricity in the right hemisphere is positive in both individuals, they will be rude to each other; if they both have an accumulation of negative electricity in the left hemisphere, they will be suspicious of one another. Many are worried about what to do with their negative electricity if they cannot put it to work. I will give an example from real life, so that you can see how to apply the law of assimilation to your excess energy. Suppose that one of the women in class, who is stronger in character, attracts two other women. However she likes one of them more than the other, and has a close friendship with her. She often talks to her, while the third woman remains to the side. These two friends who love one another assimilate each other's electric charges but the third woman, who is not loved as much, has surplus energy which has accumulated either in the right or the left side of her body. If the energy remains in the right side of her body, the woman will become rude; if it remains in the left side, she will be dissatisfied and suspicious, both towards herself and towards her kin. What should she do to come out of this situation? She should find another friend who will love her. That is the only way for her surplus energy to be assimilated. Now that you are aware of this law, you should be very careful not to misuse it. Whoever misuses this law will be strictly punished, as he has never been punished before in his life. Once you know this law, you are expected to use it only for good. Everyone should remind themselves not to misuse this law under any circumstances. What does it mean to misuse this law? One misuses this law if he consciously directs his positive electricity towards another person. Thus he will increase the amount of positive electricity in the other person, he will increase his rudeness and lead him to aggression and rancour. When an individual's right side is positively charged he should find a friend whose right side has the opposite electricity, so that the two opposite types of electricity can be neutralized. How can this neutralization occur? One of them can put his left hand on the right side of his friend’s head, and the friend can put his right hand on the left side of the other person's head. Thus, little by little, they will begin to feel better. Neutralization can also be achieved by simply holding hands. The aim is to transform the energies in both individuals. You can do this experiment in order to see the above law in action. It is best to do it when you are not feeling well. You should also do the experiment always in pairs – two female friends or sisters and two male friends or two brothers together. When I say that you should hold hands, sisters with sisters and brothers with brothers, I have in mind the different principles operating in Nature: Love with Love and Wisdom with Wisdom. Looking at the way you are sitting next to each other in class, I find that you have not taken this law into consideration. Students at school should take seats in an order that will promote perfect harmony between them. Because you are disciples of a spiritual school, you need to know the law of energy transformation and apply it properly. If you meet someone who violates your inner peace with his opposing energies, stay away from him. If you cannot distance yourself from him physically, do it mentally. How can this be done? Imagine that a certain distance exists between you. Therefore, when you take a seat or when you meet others to talk and communicate, always observe the law of liking. If two people like each other, there will be full harmony between them; whenever one of them thinks, the other one will think as well. However if they are not fond of each other, whenever one of them thinks, the other one will feel. Such disagreement of forces will create a number of disharmonious situations between them. Two people should think, feel and act simultaneously in order to maintain harmony with each other. Moreover, if one of them thinks, feels or acts positively, the energies of the other one should be negative. So do this experiment for the purpose of regulating the forces in your body. If you achieve positive results, I will give you other experiments to do. What indicates the presence of surplus electricity in the left side or in the right side of the brain? – When a person has a tendency to quarrel with everyone he meets on his path, it shows a surplus of electricity in the right side of his brain. When a person is in bad spirits, when he is pessimistic or unhappy, it shows a surplus of electricity in the left side of his brain. This refers to the energies of the physical body. The same can also be said about the energies existing in the Astral and the Spiritual worlds. You should make efforts to control these energies, and then monitor the results. However, you should not expect success with the first attempt. You may undergo a hundred trials, yet barely achieve one microscopic result. These experiments aim at the development of your awareness and of your will. When I say that electricity has accumulated in the right or in the left hemisphere of the brain, I mean the brain's general state. Otherwise electricity could accumulate in specific centres of the brain, but again either in the left or in the right hemisphere.When you are not feeling well, you should realize that you have surplus electricity and you need to put it to work. How are you going to do this? You will find a friend from the class or from anywhere else who is of about the same level of personal development and do the experiment with her. When you do the experiment together you will gain double. On the one hand you will get rid of your excess electricity, and on the other hand you will help your friend move onto the right path, the path that you are following. However, if you conduct this experiment with a person who is moving in a direction opposite to yours, you will link yourself with this person and will experience a contradiction. Now, as disciples you will need to do this experiment frequently. Since you do not yet abide by the laws properly, you will accumulate surplus electricity in your brains which you must manage in a reasonable way. This excess of energy is a form of surplus baggage from the past. Similarly, rich people leave a surplus when they cook a lot of food but eat only part of it. If a meal remains uneaten, after some time it begins to spoil and the servants are forced to throw it away. The same process takes place in the entire human organism because of surplus electricity accumulating in the brain. Here and there in the organism processes of souring and decay develop, leading always to destruction. However, whenever you feel an accumulation of electricity in one hemisphere of your brain or the other, you can help yourself. For example, if the accumulation of electricity is in the right hemisphere, you can stroke the right part of your head with your left hand - not with your right hand, because then you will increase the accumulated electricity. And the other way round, if the surplus energy is in the left side of your head, you can stroke it with your right hand. After you do this you will become calm and your mood will improve. In the summertime, when the Sun shines strongly over your head, you can stroke your hair with both hands. With the help of your hands you will remove excess electricity from your brain and thereby avoid a sun stroke. Apply this procedure even when the slightest agitation occurs and you will be able to observe positive results. There are many schools in the world that use these rules and methods for magnetizing and tuning, but due to improper application of the laws of Intelligent Nature, they cause great harm to their disciples. Disciples should not allow themselves to be hypnotized. Those who want to give you money should not demand a promissory note from you. If they want to do you a favour they should give you the money on trust. If they want a promissory note, accept no money from them. It is better to stay hungry than to sign anything like that. The Spiritual school recommends the following to its disciples: if someone gives you a loan without a draft or a bill, then accept this money, use it and pay it off on time. Now, I would like you to be sincere to yourself, be honest to your soul. For a period of two weeks, right after you get up each morning, ask yourself: “Am I sincere to my soul? Am I ready to do what my soul whispers to me, what my soul prompts me to do all day long? And if I fail in something, am I ready - without justifying myself, without asking my soul for an excuse - to tell the Truth as it is in reality?” Therefore, when you make a mistake, do not diminish or exaggerate it, but state it before your soul as it is, as Nature has also stated it. Honesty to the soul is a prerequisite for the development and awakening of your awareness, so that you can perceive things correctly, without things getting exaggerated or diminished. What I understand by the word “soul” is the Divine source in the human being, its highest manifestation in the physical world. As I am giving you a number of experiments, I am bringing your attention to honesty so that there will be no misuse. Why should you not misuse the experiments? Because all experiments in the School should be done consciously and free willingly. For example, when you put your hand on someone’s head, you should be aware whether you are giving or receiving something from him. If you receive, you should know if you can use what you receive. If you give, you should know whether the receiver has benefited from it. If what you give does not benefit the other and what you receive does not benefit yourself, both processes of taking and receiving are useless. In order for giving and receiving to be made conscious and to be used well, one needs to be thankful. The energy that flows through the person who gives and the person who receives is Divine. Full accounts of it is kept, it cannot and should not be spent in vain. Nature has at Her disposal precise instruments for measuring and reading how much energy is used and who it is used for. Moreover, Nature monitors the amount of energy going out of one’s brain, out of one’s hands, etc. Nature represents a great installation of energies and She renders a precise account of all that is spent. She monitors the results also which are obtained after the expenditure of this energy. This is of special importance because these results give this energy the opportunity to echo in universal existence. Therefore, it is enough for you to put your hand on somebody's head and they will already know the exact result of your activity and will hold you responsible for it. I am not saying this to frighten you, but to warn you that an account is kept of any work that you do, so you should be careful. You should work consciously, оn principal and not out of fear. The impulse of your soul should be in tune and harmony with God, with the Great in the world. This is what conscious work means. Some issues may be have remained unclear to you now, but you should know that through the experiments you will achieve clarity. If the explanations of the experiments are too long, this can also be a burden for you. What is obscure for you today will become bright and clear tomorrow, when the Sun rises. Without fear in the Boundless Love! So, when an issue is unclear to you, ask for an explanation. If you do not ask, you may delude yourself, because you will be visited simultaneously by the disciples of both Brotherhoods: of Light and of darkness. Whatever may happen to you, whoever may visit you, do not be afraid, do not be afraid of the darkness. It has its own laws and you will study them in a reverse way, by going from Light to darkness and from darkness to Light. Secret Prayer Source

Note 5 Symbolic Occult Rules and Measures Tenth lection of the Teacher delivered at the Common occult class on the 2nd of May, Tuesday, 7.30-9.00 a.m., Sofia Secret prayer This, what I shall say, is just one definition, do not write. I shall go straight to the object, this is only one notice. We leave the ordinary understanding of Life, do you understand? When you enter into one boat you will not walk around inside but will sit and when you go out, then there is the other way. When you enter into the Divine World, you will leave your ways of walking on the Earth – the earth moral is amorality in Heaven, and the earthly right is the absence of rights in Heaven. And when all of our Justice on the Earth collects, it can not make even one virtue of one Angel. We have to be humbled people, to know that we are not virtuous. From now on, this is way we will be virtuous – Virtue is something that will be created by the law of Love; on this law we still haven’t lived sensibly. Some will retort, “We live and move in God.” The occult science doesn’t deny it but you have to know that you are at one with God and to reply as He would and to think in the way He thinks. As far as the Heaven is from the Earth, so is God far from us. But how far is Heaven from the Earth? And so the title was “Symbolic occult rules and measures. Dissonances and consonance.” We will use one foreign word: so one consonance we may transform to one dissonance. This is how: you are an intelligent man with mind, heart, and will; one violinist appears before you and starts to play. It is pleasant for you to listen to his music, you say, “You played excellently.” and then this violinist has faith in you. You are the public and he already counts on your word, he says, “When I play he understands my music, my music is something!” Then, before even half an hour has passed a violinist who plays better than the first, starts to play too; you start to praise the second and then in the first violinist dissonance appears. Why? – You will look to him with mistrust. But the unhappiness doesn’t stop there – a third violinist who plays better than the first and the second comes along, you praise the third one and then they both become dissonant; but the evil doesn’t stop there – then along comes the fourth, he plays better; the three become dissonant – people don’t evaluate them. Then the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth come along; I’ll stop myself at the tenth. All nine sit as downcast hens, and one of them, says, “You have to know, I am the one who plays.” Good, the opposite process – the tenth leaves, the ninth takes his place; he says, “You, the eighth, have to know that I exceed you.” The ninth leaves, the eighth stays; the eighth leaves, the seventh stays; the seventh leaves, the sixth stays etc.; the second leaves, the first stays. When he remains, he tells you, “We understand each other now.” This law acts constantly and in you, here in the meeting, we may verify it. Therefore, what does the first one have to do? – When the second violinist, who plays better, comes along, he has to study his methods – that way he will not lose but will have one plus; when the third comes along, the first and the second will learn from him – they will not lose anything, i.e. till the tenth comes they have to master their methods. There is no reason to get angry. Now, these rules, this law, you may acquire in all religious communities, the law works everywhere. Some people say, “Don’t they preach in our church?” it is the same law – it means: “Don’t we play like the first?” – You play like the first but like the second – no; you play like the second but like the third – no. – “But like the fourth, the fifth?” You play like the fifth but like the sixth – no and etc., till we come to this which is perfect – to the tenth. We stopped there, this number we take as a law of perfection. Upon this law you will work, I shall not explain more. The second symbol: you are a young man of twenty-one years, well built, muscular; the first master appears, he is stronger than you, and says, “You will serve me, you will plough in the field.” But you say, “There is no way, I shall serve this master.” But the second master comes along, stronger than the first, and says, “You will leave this field, you will come to my field.” – There is no way you will go to the second. But it doesn’t stop there – the third master comes along and these masters start to string to ten and you say: “There is no way I shall serve.” After that the opposite process comes. The last example is clearly connected to the physical world, and the first example – to the Astral world because it touches our feelings; the first example touches also the Mental world but we will leave it for now. The third symbol touches the Angel’s world: one eloquent man appears who speaks only one word, but his word is so strong that it may resurrect one dead man. But he may say just one word, but there are ten dead men. The first comes, says the word and the first is resurrected but the others don’t move; the second comes and he says the word – the second dead man is resurrected; the third comes, he says his word – the third is resurrected; and all the ten men, when they each say a word they resurrect ten dead men. I ask who exceeds the other. Here you have only a law of harmony and agreement. The spoken word is good only when it can resurrect one dead man. Now, where this law is applied: we take the expression dead man in spiritual relation. Some man is so sad, so sorrowful, he doesn’t want to live, he has thought to step over the Divine law and to take the wrong way; you come along and tell him just one word and he will survive – you did your duties. As many dead men as there are do not strive to resurrect them, it is already vanity; the other nine men leave. Because you will learn, in every occult school the work for every one is exactly defined, there is no reason to intervene in somebody else’s work, we will do our work. If you are first, you will resurrect the first; if you are second, you will resurrect the second; if you are third – the third; if you are fourth – the fourth, etc. And when you finish your work in this way you will turn your heart to God and with Love you will express your gratitude to Him that you succeeded to say one word in place. When you resurrect this brother you don’t need a better advertisement from him; it is enough for you. If he lives forty years, when he goes around the whole world, he will be one advertisement for you and will say, “Once I was dead but one man came, he said one word to me and I revived.” The others, when they come, will ask you how it happened. – “One word he said to me, only one, he is a special man.” And people will start to think that he could resurrect others. He will go around the whole world and will talk for you and the world will think that you are a great man. Yes, a great man! The psalm singer says, “The speech of God will not go back to God without bringing its fruit.” Every speech has to bring its fruit: one seed – one fruit. Therefore, you have three symbolic examples now: the first is the young man who serves the masters, the second one is the violinist, and the third is the tenth man who says only one word. And I desire for you, as disciples of this School, to say only one word. And I meet you and you tell me: “I was dead, do you know, and so and so said one word to me and I was resurrected.” But now the desire of all disciples in the Occult school is to eat all the cream and for the others, only buttermilk remains. When you go, you will take only one spoon of cream, so when the others come to take one too – everyone has the right to take a bit of this cream. Every man who eats the cream of this Divine drink, his word is not powerful. Therefore, one act is done well only when it may enter Life. These three rules you may use. With the third example, you will harmonize the first two; the second generates all the emulations. I shall give you one theme to develop them. And so, the three themes: for the young man, for the violinist, and for the man who speaks only one word – three themes for three weeks. From them you will develop in the School one short theme for the three of them – to compare them to something, to see what resemblance it will give. Now, you may not write anything but when thinking upon these three objects, they always will remain in your mind at least one light. And my aim is not so much to write something in the book but for something to remain in the heart, in the mind, and in your will, this is. And when it remains there, it always can be understood and noted in a book, – you will say it once, will say it twice and at the end you will write something. (Some of the tasks were read – one personal sentence.) If you could apply some of these rules, you could have excellent results. Now I shall give you one exercise, it will be the following: all these one hundred and sixty rules from your works, which we read this evening, you will rewrite and in the morning, you will draw one rule, at lunch – a second and in the evening, before you lay down – a third. You will come here one day, will sit, one will dictate, the others will write. And do you know when – on Sunday you will come, you will not put it off. You will start at 3 p.m. and will write to 4, 5, 6, 7, it may be up until 8 p.m. If you tire, we may make one exception – to come on the next Sunday. But all this will happened with Love – one little wrinkling of the eyebrows will spoil the whole effect. Everyone will write absolutely alone – what you apply alone, it will be used from you, you will see how the Spirit works. Now, we will give you one more similar exercise in which the sentences will be from just one sentence1. It is one attempt. When you drive the works through your mind, everyone will correct and keep only the essence. In this School you will learn that sentence of Solomon: “There is time for every thing.” In the Divine school it is showing the time for all the things which you have to do. We have to know when to do them, every thing has its time. You will keep yourself in the School not to break the harmony. You will keep yourself because everyone may exit from the trend temporarily. Every single thought, every single desire in one given case might move you from the rails. And when you are in front of the face of God (we are not always in front of his face), you have to be careful to ensure your mind is concentrated, your heart and will too, you don’t have to see anything else. These things are important for you; in this way, you will acquire one inner experience that could be the strongest evidence for you. I want, when the Divine Spirit comes, to produce those results which are necessary for you. He knows what is necessary for you in the present conditions; what you need. Everyone needs only from one thing, from one, these things are not many. And when the Spirit comes he will bring this, the one, in you and you will revive. Now let’s get this straight – on Sunday, at 3 p.m. Can you do this work with Love? Do not think that this is an order; if you think that this is an order then don’t come. Because, if you can’t work by the law of Love then we will enter in the old law. Secret prayer 1 In original the Russian word was used (ed. note) Source

Note 6 Occult Principles Lecture nine read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 27 of April, Thursday, 7.30-9.00 p.m., Sofia Secret Prayer Some writings on the purpose of water were read. For the next time all the disciples should write a single sentence of their own. You should not write someone else's thought – each of you should compose one sentence only. You should not rewrite what Tolstoy or some of the Evangelists said, but compose a single sentence. If you cannot compose at least one sentence then you do not belong in this class. Here we don’t need persons who use somebody else’s capital. You should set your mind to work, because such things as this one said this, that one said that, or this, or that – we don’t need them. In this school there is a requirement to think. You should note two things: two opposite poles are needed for a man to think, but if you burden these poles with negative energy this will produce within you the process of stupidity or the process of forgetfulness. Let’s assume that you hate somebody. What is the object of your hatred? The hatred has to have an object, that is, within the realms of Nature’s economy this object has to fulfil some purpose – there should be a reason for your hatred. If you hate this man without reason, then you yourself are the reason of this hatred and in such case you harm yourself because all the energy returns to its sender. So these two poles should be there in your mind. You should be free of all the thoughts that are not in harmony with your striving. Suppose this: a tradesman wants to get rich and he buys one hundred pigs when their meat is expensive; like it is at present, and after he feeds them for a while the pigs get ill and all of them die, I am asking you now what would the profit be for such a tradesman. Within the realms of the spiritual world you are not allowed to keep pigs, i.e. thoughts, which get infected and die – in no pigsty can you sustain such thoughts. If you do sustain them, you are wasting your time, you will waste your capital and you will lose your mood. Well, let’s take as an example the following comparison: let’s say that tonight in our class I am telling you some philosophic or scientific study; let’s suppose that some of the disciples are hungry, that they haven’t eaten for two days, that other disciples are thirsty, and that still other disciples have rheumatism in their legs and in the meantime I begin to speak about this scientific study. I might talk in a very scientific way, but the one who is starving will constantly think about bread and will say: “All this is not important now – the bread is the most important thing for me. No matter what scientific study I am telling him – for the starving man the bread will be the most important thing. The thirsty man would say: “The most important thing now is the water, the water only”; another man will say: “I need sleep – then only can a man think”, while still another man would think about his illnesses and consider the way it should be treated. I am asking you – what can you attain in such a class? And if you ask the disciples: “What did your Master say?”, they will tell you: “I was a bit hungry, my mind was preoccupied with a very important question within me – the question for the economic improvement of the people”. Another will tell you that his mind has been preoccupied with the thought of water, the third will tell you that he has been speculating on the role of sleep, while the fourth will tell you that he has been speculating upon illnesses. And if you ask me why the various schools so often fail and contemporary society does not improve, I will tell you that this is due to the simple reason that within them there are a lot of weaknesses with which their minds are preoccupied. An Evangelistic preacher is preaching in a church; a beautiful young lady sits there, a young man comes and also sits at the desk, then she gives him a Gospel and shows him where to read from: “God is Love”. He answers her: “Let us love each other”, “Love each other” – and they start to turn over the pages of the Bible – she shows him a certain line, he shows her another line and thus they start a conversation. After both of them return, the others ask them: “What was the sermon of the preacher about?” – “We don’t know” we know what we were talking about, but we don’t know what the preacher was talking about. While the Divine is speaking within us, our minds (and likewise the minds of these disciples) are often preoccupied by something else – food, water, sleep, illnesses, verses, sentences. For all of you these things are necessary, because a man should first of all be fed, have enough water, rested and be in good health, i.e. a disciple who is hungry should not come to our class; a disciple who is thirsty should not come; a disciple who has not had enough sleep should not come; a disciple who is ill should not come. And when two persons discuss the Bible they should do this at their home. Now, this talk is held within each soul and I want you to think while I am talking. You should act properly because the laws according to which we are living are not personal but impersonal. And what you know before God – it is for you only – whatever knowledge you have, whatever social position you have, no matter if you are a minister in Bulgaria or the king of Bulgaria, it is of no importance to Him. Have in mind that the Invisible world does not care what you are – the only thing which concerns the Invisible world is what you are as a soul, that is, what your character is like. When a member of the Invisible world descends he is just looking for a soul and is interested if this soul is inhabited by the Truth; when he comes here he wants to know if your mind is filled by the Light; when he descends in your heart he wants to know what feelings preoccupy your heart. If these three elements – Light, Truth and Purity - are present, he might stop and have a talk with you. For the Invisible world all these situations are funny. When you occupy a higher position or you are some learned professor and you solve some mathematical problem, these scientists of the other worlds consider all this a theatrical amusement. Our science here is a child’s play to them – in your terms it is such a child’s play to them that they would burst out laughing while they are watching how easily we are solving the questions of what immortality is, what God is, what the Angels are. These moments are so funny like for instance it was yesterday when I was watching with the help of a small magnifier a bunch of ants in the garden of Tsar Boris. They thought that there was a fire and they were trying to put it out. I focused the magnifier on the straw and it started to smoke, they started to secrete; to spit out their essence in order to put out the fire. I took away the magnifier and they were delighted, they said to themselves: “We managed to put the fire out.” I focused it at another spot and again they started to secrete and they finally said: “We put out this fire also.” But any form of acid cannot extinguish this fire. The essential, the Divine in man cannot be put out by anyone. But this essential, this Divine thing has its own time and we should use this time to evolve it. You cannot always think, you cannot always feel, you cannot always act – you can do such things periodically in the course of the year. The time for the thought is fixed – sometimes you can think, but sometimes you cannot think – the thoughts come to you periodically. The same is with the feelings, for instance you say: “It definitely is Love – he is so emotional.” The feelings also come at intervals. The awakening of the human will comes at intervals too. The disciples of the Occult school should study the law of this periodic influx from the Mental, i.e. Intellectual world, the world of the ideas; then there comes the influx from the emotional world or from the Astral world and also the influx from the Causal world – the world of will. And the person who understands the law makes use of it. Now, the influx of this energy, the influx of the mental energy, for instance, causes some damage likewise water can cause damages. But when does water cause damage? If people who live near by forests want to have rivers and they clear the forests in this region and meanwhile the year happens to be snowy, with heavier rainfalls and as a result there will be heavy floods. But if all the region is afforested these floods will not happen. Well, you must know that there are such forests around your mental rivers too and sometimes you can eradicate all these harmonious thoughts - the forests. And then within you arises something about which you say: “I can’t refrain myself.” What do you mean with the phrase to refrain yourself – if you were a wise man you would have preserved your forests, because if you leave the stony ground only, you will need at least thirty years until these forests grow again. In order to abstain, certain conditions should be met. But this abstention is not like the abstention in the materialistic teachings. You should dwell especially upon this great law of the human thought which comes. There is a stream of feelings and this stream floods periodically. Sometimes these two streams – the mental and the emotional – coincide and this is a happy occasion, while sometimes they do not coincide. I want you to make use of all this. I perceive that all of you have habits from your past – restrain them. You should say: “There is still another way to do that.” There are things that can only take place in certain conditions. I have often been asked: “Why don’t you read us such a lecture at such and such a time?” I tell them: this lecture cannot be read then – each lecture can only be read upon a certain opportunity. And each truth in this world can be told only at certain conditions. If within a certain society a desire arises to like music, this society will create musicians but if the music in this society has been neglected, then all the musicians will perish. First of all certain conditions must exist so that a special talent can appear in someone. Well, you want to be talented, don’t you? The talents are not being created at once – the talent is an accumulation of the energy within the human soul for thousands of years. And it might happen so that not a single gram from this energy has come to your present life. So if you don’t add this very gram in order to attain this active ability and if you don’t apply in practice the energy that amounts to one gram, your whole life will be lived in vain. Then you might think: “Mister so and so is talented, disciple so and so is talented.” He is talented because he has worked in the past – nothing in this world is without a cause. The talented people in whatever field they are talented, have worked in the past and what they have now is what they deserve. So you should evolve what had been stored within you. You discuss this problem and you say: “Can’t this period be reduced? – Yes, it can be reduced. One of the rules for action that you should have in mind is: if you lead, walk fast and if you follow behind, i.e. if you are last – walk slowly! If you invert this law – if you are in front but you walk slowly and if you follow behind but you walk fast, then you might cause an accident. And nowadays the world is suffering from the fact that the father and the mother who are the heads of the family walk slowly while the son and the daughter who are from the rear walk fast. And that is why a crash occurs. The masters walk slowly while the disciples walk fast – again a crash occurs; the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast – also a crash occurs; and all the people are asking themselves what the reason is. I say: the reason is that the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast. An American cowboy (the American cowboys differ from the Bulgarian herdsman in this that they pasture their herds on horses) rode through the steppes of West America and he saw a large buffalo herd approaching. They ran and he galloped also. As the Turks say: “Run without stopping.” And he ran ahead of the buffalo herd. If you ask him why he ran he will tell you: “Because the buffalo herd was also running.” If he stopped running the herd will not stop – it will drag away the cowboy with all his cattle. The forces in Nature resemble this buffalo herd. When you come across a Natural force you should gallop on your horse. What is this horse – it is your mind. If you can gallop you will be saved; if you lag behind you will be dragged away. This is the first rule. Well, Christ tells this in his proverb in a slightly different way: when you are invited somewhere – take the last place. Why? If you don’t trust in yourself to move quickly, then stay last in line. Let me interpret these words that are symbols or quantities: what does the movement mean? – If you are at the head, if you are in front, then move quickly; if you are at the back – then move slowly. This is a symbol; this is a conversion of these quantities. If you are in the lead, you should be good, you should work with the Virtue and as for everything you have taken into your head, don’t postpone but do it; if you are at the end of the line and you get angry, and you want to do something bad, then stop yourself, be in no hurry – that’s what this means – nothing more. Only the man, who is good and wise, moves with a great speed. Only Love, Truth, Wisdom, Virtue, Justice – all the virtues are moving with a great speed while all the wickedness, all the weaknesses are moving at the lowest speed. So if you have these weaknesses you better not come forward because you will be dragged away by the buffalo herd. Well, in this respect you have to overcome great difficulties. Because when the human mind and the human heart begin to work properly, great obstacles will emerge. And the more difficulties emerge the more you should know that you are on the Way and so you should not stop. If you are in a hurry and you stop to sit as the tired traveller would stop to take a rest, you will by all means catch cold and you will lag in your way. The traveller should never stop under any tree. No occult disciple is allowed to sit in the shadows – we do not recommend the shadows. You should always be in the Sun, i.e. your thoughts should be bright and sharp. You should know that having come to live in Nature you should first of all repay your coming here. How can you pay Nature? – You should by all means pay a small tax – don’t think that everything is free of charge. At least Nature will make you pay rent for the house you lived in. If you have incarnated several times and if you have lived about one hundred years without paying this rent you will have to pay a pretty large sum. And this rent means that every day we should do something for Nature. For instance, if while you are a disciple you get up in the morning and say to yourself: “At least today I shall invest within myself a positive thought.” and if for a period of ten years each day you invest a good, an essential thought, all these thoughts could become a whole garden in which a lot of fruitful plants grow. Take for example the noblest feeling that we have – Love – the noblest feeling that exists in the Bulgarian schools nowadays – if the most talented disciple somehow insults his master, this disciple will get it – he will become good-for-nothing; and if the master insults the disciple, he will become good-for-nothing also. If you convey this law all over your life you will see that it is the same everywhere – the Love of today cannot pass her exam. For example let’s say you are listening to a talk, a lecture: the master, let’s say, is telling you about the creation of the world or about the origin of the sexes, or he is telling you about the origin of karma. Each person can consider these questions from a different point of view – each person can examine them in three different ways. If the professor is explaining about the creation of the world, we must have in mind that this professor has not been there with God while the world has been created, so he is only speculating; if he explains the karma and its origin – he has not been present from the very beginning when karma evolved; when he is explaining about the origin of sexes he also has not been there. There are things in the world that have been born but we have not been present at that specific place. Someone might say: “I have existed.” You might have existed, but you have slept in your room. We may exist but at a certain moment, when some manifestations in Nature take place, we most probably have been in a sleep state. And all the people have such a sleep state. You might be a disciple in some occult school and when you are being told these things there, you might start thinking in what way can these forces be evolved so that you can make use of them and improve your condition – if you do this it is good. Otherwise you should have the knowledge to elevate your mind or your heart in order to refine yourself. But the meaning of life is still not in this. You might have a brilliant mind and nevertheless die as a wreck, you might have a noble heart and nevertheless die; you might have a strong will and nevertheless die. Now the contemporary occultists say that one can achieve anything by his will. Just twenty five percent of this is true, but you are not the only one who believes this. Let’s say that there are about five hundred million Christians in Europe and that each of them has a will; all their wills, however, do not function in one and the same direction. Suppose that one hundred of you are applicants for some professor’s department and that all of you have an iron will; how many people with an iron will might sit in this chair? Each one might say: “I can do anything by my will.” Okay, then, what will you do? Well, let’s say that you have a strong will and you strain your will while someone else has a weaker will, but he has gold instead and he loads the will of the minister with money and thus wins the right to sit in this chair. It is very easy – you will gild the minister’s will and he will seat you in this chair. All contemporary societies have observed this law – they nail their will now with iron, now with gold, but people have not yet nailed their will with Love. You still don’t have a will of Love. For twenty years I have been testing the disciples here in Bulgaria but I have not found a single disciple with a will nailed with Love. I have found many Bulgarians but in this respect not one of them have proved reliable and they had not withstood. That is why I say that as disciples in the Occult school the Bulgarians are very unreliable and that they do not endure. And for this reason alone in the past not a single school has remained here in the Balkans - all of them moved to the West. You can repeat this mistake even now, but then this teaching will go to the West or to the North and if it leaves, then this place here will be devoid of occult meaning. And if you do not make your aim to strengthen your will now, then the Balkan Peninsula will have the same fate that Palestine had. But let’s leave that aside. You only think of yourself, but if you would like to be disciples of this School you should think about what the Divine Will is and about what the will of the Great Nature is that let you in its home. What is the very first thing? – It is as follows: what is the Divine Will or what is the will of Love, because there is one Love will in Nature and there is one Love will in God. And when this one will come you should forget everything – you should leave all the negative thoughts last in line while you in front should move with greatest speed. Now when I say such things you might understand the question quite individually. Because you are patriots you might say: “What will happen to Bulgaria?” – In the Invisible world they are not interested in nations – such is the law. You should always know that an occult stream, which comes from space, is a prerequisite for this nation to evolve properly. Due to the great struggle in the Astral world if you do not amalgamate your will with this stream you might divert it. Consequently it will be used by those towards whom you divert it while those from whom the stream was diverted – will suffer. Then I contend that the river Nile is diverted from the central part of Africa – it is diverted from the present culture and in future if people from the central part of Africa come and divert it again it will start to flow in its original bed. Consequently you as disciples should take care not to divert the stream in which you live. Sometimes you say: “I don’t want to study; I can manage without any School.” Without any School the man is fit for nothing, i.e. you should have in mind that in case some of you think they can enter the Heavens without a School – this could never happen! The Earth is a school and those who do not study and think that they can enter the Heavens without studies are deceiving themselves. So, no matter how we look at it, you are required to learn. The law in the Invisible world is so strict that you will not be allowed to enter there as fools, no way. For millions, for billions of years they will keep you on Earth but certainly they will make you learn. And after millions of years, with maximum persistence, they will make you learn, they will make you! If you learn earlier - it will be good. Someone might say: “I will not learn.” – You will. – “I can’t transform my heart.” If you do not transform your heart, then they will transform it. If you don’t transform your heart yourself then this transformation will come from somewhere else. There are two ways to set things right: either you set yourself right or they will set you right. For I perceive that some of you are slacking off. Now we shall put into practice one law – I am beginning with the practical trials. We shall start with minor trials, don’t be angry later on – we shall put these trials into practice. Then we shall say to the one who is weak: “Queue up last”, while those who are strong – they will queue up in front so that a crash does not occur. I am warning you: all of you should move slowly – some of you will walk behind while others will lead the way – you should go rightly. Now, if you want to progress, if you want to learn something, you should by all means be true to yourself. Thus you will free yourself from your outside thoughts. I want at first to awaken you, because most of you here are hypnotized. You are hypnotized, do you see what I mean – you are hypnotized! Some of you do not realize that you are hypnotized. There exists such a kind of hypnosis – I can hypnotize a person and tell him: “You will fall asleep after ten hours.” For the next ten hours he is awake, he walks, he talks, but when the tenth hour strikes, he falls asleep. Some of you are hypnotized to fall asleep after ten days, others – after ten years, while still others – to fall asleep after one hour. Now you think that you are masters but in fact those from the Black lodge who understand the laws hypnotize you. They have hypnotized you, they know that when your opportunity to get something new comes they will hypnotize you at that very moment. During the moment of your greatest opportunity they will perturb your consciousness. And very often you say: “When such hour comes I’ll pray”, but as soon as you are about to pray you fall asleep or quarrel and everything fails. The disciple should have in mind that he himself will also start along this way. I lengthened the lecture by one hour… You should keep these laws and you should know that a still more strenuous struggle is in store. Now an awakening should come into effect – an awakening, and each one of you should pray in his heart that God awakens him right on time, so that he doesn’t miss the opportunity. The psalm singer says: “God, put a guardian from behind and in front, put a guardian to my mouth.” Let us explain the phrase “put a guardian to my mouth”: the mouth is a symbol of Love so that we, upon a suitable opportunity, can make use of this Love that comes out of our soul. The Word is a herald of the Divine Love. Why is the Word necessary? The Word is necessary in order to enable us to herald this Love, so that the Divine Name should be glorified in the name of Love. As soon as the Divine Name is glorified – the culture will come, for only with the Divine Word will a culture come in the world. And when we acquire knowledge about these laws then we will start to work wisely. We will work wisely indeed! Now, one of the two weeks passed and only one week remains. The exercise does not pass very successfully, to tell you the truth, you do not execute it very successfully. Some of you are skipping, especially the lunch – many of you have skipped this lunch, you do not observe the twelfth hour, but the twelfth hour is a very important thing. Take care not to skip the twelfth hour during the second week. Well, someone might say: “I didn’t skip it.” – I am glad that you didn’t skip it but I insist that no one skips it because we don’t like people who skip – no skipping of any kind is allowed. Some of you do not take these things seriously and you say: “It’s all right; everything is fine without it as well.” In this respect those disciples who are Bulgarians need a lot of punctuality and accuracy – a presence of will is required. If there is some weak point in the Bulgarians it is their will. I would like that you become as punctual as the Germans and Englishmen are – to be punctual on the dot, not to be a single minute late, to attain this character of punctuality. So the least possible thing now, the most important thing: I want that all of you will be punctual. I also notice that when you come here to the classes you also come a bit later and those of you who are late usually knock at the door. Then some of you enter through the window. I praise those of you who enter through the window – it is a form of bravery and I praise them – this thing is good, this thing is not bad at all, but you will not be able to enter through the window every time. When the window is opened the disciple will manage to jump over – he wants to get educated, but sometimes the window is closed and then he will fail. As a last resort I permit you to enter even through the window, but I prefer that you enter through the door. Each disciple should be at his place five minutes before the Master enters. So for the next time you should occupy the places according to the following plan: the first row of chairs should be occupied by women, the next row – by men, one row of women then one row of men. Did you understand me – you shall sit in this order. And if I come and find you disorganized we will keep silence for three hours. I’ll keep silent and you will keep silent also – you will speculate deeply, do you understand me - we won’t talk at all. The only punishment which I’ll impose on you when you make some mistake will be that you will get a gathering of silence, of contemplation for a whole hour – this is good. And I wish you’d make some mistake – then we shall contemplate for one hour, we shall convey in spirit to the Invisible world, we will contemplate; how pleasant it will be. So, one row of sisters, one row of brothers, disciples-brothers, disciples-sisters – up till the end; and those sidelong will sit in such order. This will be valid for the next Thursday only – we will make a change in the regular course of the things. A secret prayer. Source

Беседата на български Analysis Of Words Year 1, Lecture 8 to the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno April 19, 1922 – Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Now I would like each of you to write one sentence in your notebooks which includes the first of the proposed words from last Wednesday - that is the verb “Come!” Your sentence structure should be simple, with one conjunction only, without attributes or direct/indirect objects. Now let's read the sentences you have written. Here are some of them: “Come to God!” “Come to Truth!” “Come onto the Path!” “Come into the steps of your Master!” I am asking you, can one really come to God or to Truth? Motion is a spatial process, while Truth is not spatial. In this case, can one really come to God or to Truth in time and space? Being disciples of the Spiritual school, you should learn to think and speak precisely, using strictly defined words in the same way that mathematicians are strict and precise in their work with numbers and formulas. Each word that is used should express its exact meaning. Now write some new sentences using the verb “Come!" The motion expressed in them should refer to strictly defined time and space. What is the definition of verbs? Verbs express actions and states and all actions are related to time and space. Which world includes time and space? Time and space are related to the material world. As a matter of fact, only physical bodies require space and a certain place. Therefore, volume and space are characteristics of the physical or the spatial world, for example, the world of forms. I am asking you now about the meaning of the word "Love." Is Love spatial? Love is not spatial. Love knows neither time nor space. Love has neither beginning nor end. In that case how can you know something that is without beginning or end? How can you know something that does not require time and space? It remains unknown. But if you begin to feel Love, this is the first moment that defines a state of Love. Is there a relation between states and space? When you say about someone that he is a person of substance, it means that inwardly he has much at his disposal. What was the second word that was written? It was “harmony" followed by “symphony”. What is the difference between “harmony” and “symphony?” A symphony comes as a result of harmony. These words are outside of spiritual science because they have meanings which are different from their literal meanings. When you examine a certain word, you have to pay attention to its root and origin. You must also consider its conceptual meaning, in other words, you should know the idea that is expressed by the word. In this sense, "symphony” is not a precise word. We say “symphony” and “symphonic orchestra." Which of the two words is more precise, "symphony” or “harmony” ? Harmony can exist between two tones, whereas symphony cannot. Which are the most important words out of those you have read? The words “persistence” and “perfection" express the result of something. “God” is a very indeterminate word. “Love” is a good word. Humans are able to love, but whom? Are they able to love one another? First they should love God. Before you utter the word “God,” you must say the word “Love.” To say the word “God” without love is like reading a book without light. To pronounce a name, or to go somewhere, you should first have the impulse in your consciousness. You cannot enter onto the spiritual path if you do not have the impulse to do so. This motivating force can be conscious as it is in animals, self-conscious as it is in humans, and subconscious or superconscious as it is in Higher Beings. Any movement in a certain direction is caused by an inner impulse that aims at some fulfillment. If the word “mother” is pronounced without love, it loses its meaning and content, as a result of which it will produce a certain disharmony in human thoughts and feelings. In that sense Love is a key to Life, like a musical key for the tuning of instruments. Therefore, the word “God” becomes meaningful only when it is pronounced with love and tenderness. Love is the key for the notes of Life. First you should use the key of Love and only then you can pronounce the word “God,” for only in this way will this word be filled with meaning and content. And when the word “God” is full of meaning, it will also give meaning to the other words: “come,” “harmony,” “symphony,” etc. So, you know now that in the flow of speech words are ordered in the same way that tones are ordered in musical works. The poets among you who have not realized that words play the roles of keys in human speech should learn to regard them in this way, in order to know how to use them and where to place them. What inspires poets to write poems? Love for their native land, for their mothers and friends. Therefore love and affection represent a path leading to a particular destination. You cannot begin a journey every time, but when you do begin it, you should have a defined direction and destination. What is the destination of an apple seed when it is placed into the soil? It moves in two directions – upwards, to the centre of the Sun, and downwards, to the centre of the Earth. In your opinion, what is the destination of human beings? – The Sun. No, a human being first strikes roots inside itself and then thinks about how to come to others. To come to yourself in your language means to come into yourself. Two other verbs originate from the verb “to come”: “come in” and “come out.” First you have to begin, so as to come in and then come out of a particular place. Once you have decided to come into a place, this means that you have already started on your way. If at any moment you want to come out, it means the same. Therefore, whatever you do, thinking or feeling, it has a starting point. So the word “to come” is like the placing of a key. Keys are needed everywhere and in everything. When you say that we should come to God, you are not precise in one aspect, namely that we should know the direction and the destination of our movement. If someone wants to go to the town of Russe, Varna, etc., the name of this town determines the destination of one’s journey. Therefore, when you say that you should come to God, you must know the direction and the destination of your path. Which path leads to God? – The inner path, the path that is lodged within ourselves. Do you have any experience in this matter? – We have not experienced such things yet. How can you then talk about the experience, when you have not yet gone through it? You should learn to think correctly. Everything you speak about should be experienced and tested by yourself personally. It is not good to think without having a thought. What does it mean “to think without a thought?" Thoughts consist of two components simultaneously: feelings and actions. Without these two components thoughts are not proper. It is akin to saying that you love without Love. If it lacks an impulse and a method, it's not love. Love says to you in a symbolic language: “Come!” In other words: “Put the seed in the soil! Sow a feeling in your heart! Sow a thought in your mind!” Therefore, we treat each feeling as a separate seed to be placed in the heart, so as to bear fruit in the future. We will judge the quality of each seed by its fruit. The words “Love,” “to love,” and “I love” have two significant elements: the first element is growth, and the second one is the “ripening” or the result. The letter “ч” ("ch") in the Bulgarian word "обич" (“obich”, Bulgarian for "love") shows that the seed should be put into the soil, so that it may grow and develop. But that's not enough, for the seed should also blossom, set and bear fruit, and its fruit should ripen. This means that the seed has to overcome all difficulties: winds, storms, snows, frosts, droughts, etc. The letter “a” in the Bulgarian word “obicham” (I love) shows that the seed will produce good results. Once we have the results, we can test what Love really is. Any results by which we can judge the reality of things, without falling into contradictions, indicate that we are on the Path of Love. Thus, the first word “come” means that you will begin to seek Truth. When you find Truth, you will begin to love it. When you love Truth, it will free you from fear and falsehood. At present you are not able to tell the Truth. Suppose that a teacher gives an easy problem to a student to solve, but the latter cannot do it. The teacher asks him: “Why did you not solve the problem?” Since the student does not have the courage to reveal the real reason, he finds a number of other excuses to present to the teacher. Thus he resorts to falsehood. This student's self-conceit does not allow him to tell the Truth, because it will discredit him before his classmates and he'll lose their esteem. He will lose nothing in respect to his classmates, but he will lose in respect to the Truth. As I am giving you these exercises, I can read your thoughts and see your ambitions to display your knowledge. But this is already a lie. When you write on a topic, you think you have said a lot. One can say a lot in theory, but the theory will fail in the first clash with Life. This indicates the existence of a great difference between theory and practice. Someone says that evil does not exist in the world, but when he is robbed he changes his stance at once. After that he becomes firmly of the opinion that evil exists in Life. If theory and practice were in unison in this person, then even after he had been robbed, he would not have thought of evil, or admitted to it. He would not have cared whether his money had been in his or in someone else’s pocket. This indicates that people say one thing in theory and achieve something different in practice – there is a dissonance. You would say: “How dare they take my money! Didn't they know that I needed it?” So what? They took your money because they needed it as well. “But this is not right!” What is right is one and the same for you and for them. Whether you get the money or they do, it's the same thing. That is just how it is - if you think as philosophers. However, in practice it is different. This is where evil is hidden. If a hungry person sees that someone has more than he can eat, he has the right to take the surplus food and satisfy his hunger, but if someone who is not hungry takes the food, he will commit a crime because he does not need it. Therefore, only those who are hungry have the right to take bread from someone else’s bag in order to satisfy their needs. Those who do not have such needs do not have the right to steal. Please observe the rules that I am giving you. They are maxims that should be used in Life. You would ask: “Who has the right to eat?” Those who have starved for three days and have prayed to God for bread have the right to sit at the table first. Those who have starved for two days have the right to take the second seat. Those who have starved for one day may take the third seat, etc. Therefore, an individual's right to take this or that place is determined by the extent of his need. In that sense we consider hunger to be a deep inner experience. Only those who are hungry deserve this experience. I am asking, why do people not tell the Truth? Someone goes to buy a cloth. He trusts the merchant and buys a pure woolen cloth on trust. Once he is home, however, he realizes that the cloth is not made out of wool but out of cotton instead. This individual then meets a friend of his and shows him the cloth, telling him that it's wool. His friend likes it and buys it, but later on he also realizes that he has been cheated. He resells the cloth to another friend and so on. In this way everyone gets cheated. I say, check the quality of things before you buy them! Those who are not experts in certain fields should not go shopping alone. Thus people will learn to tell the Truth. Only those who know and understand the quality of certain goods should become traders. Otherwise, they will forever justify themselves, they will cheat others in the same way that they've been cheated. Only those who know and understand the subject of farming should become farmers. The ignorant should stay away. Only good disciples should attend school in order to study. School is a place for talented and gifted students. It has been written in the Scriptures: “Freely you have received; freely give.”1 Only talented disciples receive free schooling. A teacher in music will take up a student and teach him for free, but only if the student is gifted. Why? Because the student’s heart will be burning with love for music. Mediocre students usually wait impatiently for the end of the lessons so they can get away, while talented students are very single-minded. They think mainly of one thing: their work. Mediocre students are double-minded, thinking of at least two things simultaneously. Therefore, talented individuals and those of genius are distinguished mainly by their thinking – at a certain moment they have only one thing on their minds, the one thing that is most important. If you go to God with your gifts, burning with an aspiration to study and grow, He will take you as His disciple and teach you for free. Now, since we are speaking of Truth, the Invisible world will put you unexpectedly to a test so that you can see for yourselves the extent to which you can tell the Truth. It will be a great surprise for you, but you want to know Truth, don’t you? It is not easy to know Truth. It is even more difficult to realize when and how to reveal Truth. I will give you an example of this. A young person had three good and faithful friends who had sworn their friendship and loyalty to him. One day he decided to put their friendship to a test. So he killed a calf and put it in a sack, then went to the first friend and told him: “A creditor of mine came yesterday to get his money back. As I did not have the money, I killed him and I have hidden his corpse in this sack. What will you advise me to do now? Give me a piece of advice, please!" – "Get this sack out of my house right now! Hurry up, because we will both be blamed if someone finds it here!” Then the young man went to the second friend, told him the same story and asked: “What is your opinion?” – “I do not want to interfere in this. Treat the dead body as you wish.” Finally he went to the third friend with the same story. “What shall I do now?” – “Listen, my friend, I am going to help you. I have a secret place in my garden that no one knows about. We will bury the corpse there, and no one will know what you have done; your crime will not be discovered.” I am asking you, whose love was the greatest? The third friend demonstrated his readiness to sacrifice himself for his friend, which means that his love was real. He took part in concealing the crime and was prepared to share the penalty. The first one will be the main criminal, the killer, and the other one will be the concealer and accessory after the fact. In such case, he will share the penalty with his friend. Through this example I wanted to draw direct attention towards extraordinary Truth, not to ordinary Truth. Real Truth will free you; ordinary Truth will limit you. The Master may also come to class with a dead calf in a sack in order to test his disciples whether they would reveal the Truth or not. He may say to one of them: “Listen, I killed a person and put his body in this sack. Tell me where to hide it and keep it a secret.” He may tell the same story to another disciple, yet ask him to share the information with everyone in the street. When both disciples are called into court to reveal what they know, the first one will say that he knows nothing. The second one will say that he knows about the crime of his Master. Finally the two disciples will fall into contradiction. I regard the next two cases as symbolic in Life. The Master gives a full bottle of water to one of his disciples with the assignment: “Do not tell anyone about the contents of this bottle, keep it a secret.” Then he gives a full bottle of water to another disciple with the assignment: “Tell everyone that the contents of this bottle is water.” Therefore, when someone keeps silence, he will receive the maximum amount; when someone speaks, he will become empty. When people do not reveal the Truth, they fill themselves; when they do reveal the Truth, they become empty. It is a Law. This is the deep meaning of the words: “Tell the Truth!” or “Do not tell the Truth!” Keep quiet and do not utter a word when you are empty, and when the Truth is not in you – then your bottle will be filled. When the Truth comes to fill you, then speak, tell the truth to everyone; thus you will empty your bottle and it will begin to refill. We will stop here. I spoke to you mostly about the first word, “come.” I also spoke of some other words. Today we spoke of seven words altogether. We will discuss the remaining words throughout the year. They will provide us with material for many lectures. Be ready, for the Master may come to you with a sack and order you to hide a dead person. Consider well what you should do, because you could go to prison for more than ten years. It is not easy to tell the Truth! You may see all of this in a dream, realize you've concealed a crime, and go to prison. When you wake up, you will say: “Thank God, it was just a dream, not reality.” Many events and situations in Life are like this, as though happening in a dream. Those who awake from the dream and are aware of reality are on the right path; those who are not awake live unconsciously and feel fear and horror. They ask themselves: “What will happen to us?” I wish you to awaken from the deep sleep into which you have fallen, and to realize that much of your experience is not real, but fictitious. Secret Prayer 1 Matthew 10:8 Source

Note 2 Methods Through Nature Seventh lecture given by the Teacher before General Esoteric class on the 13th April 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret Prayer First I’ll start with a few notes. When a young shoot grows out of the ground, it is vulnerable but Nature sends him subtle swaying and motions on the air. The work of air currents make plants strong, the human mind does the same thing for the Spiritual body of the human being. And when you enter the Esoteric School, you will be exposed to different winds from different directions. Bear that in mind, this is the law but do not fear it. Anyone who enters this School and fears some cracks not wanting to feel the draught does not understand the law. To winds you will be aware of from all directions, from east, from west, from north, from south, from everywhere. And to other winds we will be exposed and sometimes these winds we’ll be warm, sometimes cold, sometimes they will be accompanied by mild rains, sometimes with sleet, sometimes with hail. In all these situations you will find yourself; that we have to bear in mind. What happens in Nature, will happen in your soul also. If does not happen, you are not on the right path. If someone preaches you a teaching without hardships, without winds, without sleet, without hail and rain, this is not the Teaching of God; this is not the Teaching of Universal White Brotherhood. These are principles; these are states, which you have to keep in mind and to try. If one of you doubts this, you have the time to try them but you will note this fact, because we are coming closer to carrying out research in one positive science; laws don’t resemble the laws in modern science. This science, to which we introduce you, there are no exceptions to the rule, everything is defined there. When I say precisely defined, I mean, that it is limited. No, there are two contradicting opinions in the occult science, in the Occult School: the Infinite includes the finite in itself and the finite includes the Infinite in itself. And then I say that the situation is such: only the Infinite can appear and this, which is finite can not appear: only the strong person can make themselves known, the weak can not; only the strong light can show itself, but light whose vibrations are weak, can’t show itself. Therefore I want you to be strong people, not hesitating, do you realize this? It is expected of us to be the strongest, the brightest, the most gifted, the most talented. The one, who is not capable of working on purpose as to acquire abilities, as to show his or her talent and the incapable to waken his or her ability. You don’t have to discourage yourself because of this, it is only one situation. So each one of you will bear in mind the thought that you have to be strong but not to force yourself, to uplift yourself. Therefore each person, who has the force to uplift himself or herself, will have force to lift his peer but everyone who forces himself or herself, forces his peer also. This the laws of the White Brotherhood say. They watch how what we do towards ourselves and thus they are aware what our situation towards others will be. If I force myself I can talk in a very pleasant, very sweet way but it will be of no use – the law is true. Therefore you will have strength not to force yourself but to uplift yourself. This means moral – to uplift the contemporary moral in the world, to uplift ourselves. That something was said by this scientist, that prophet or saint that the world was made in such and such way, you have to rise up the general status, upon the common view. Let us not misrepresent Christ's true words! I ask all those contemporary people, did they live in Christ's time, did they hear what did He spoke, what did He say? They say: “We didn't hear but it was delivered to us.” This thing, which was written by this apostle, does it seem likely to be true to you?” - “This man there said that.” No, this is not the case, we have other proof for what was said by Jesus, we have an archive, where all words of the Christ are written in golden letters. Do you know in what grand book on what sheets are written Jesus words? There all words are written, all followers, initiated into the Occult school read from this great Gospel – this is a Gospel. And now they want to convince us that the Gospel is sacred, given to us by the Holy Ghost. No, it is not, the Gospel, which Jesus preached is from the Holy Ghost. The Gospel, which Jesus preached printed itself on the sheets of this great book. What Jesus spoke, all his great teachings are printed on this book, word by word, as each word spoken before a phonograph* is rendered. [* Phonograph – the original term for the gramophone, discovered by Thomas Edison in 1878 (editor's note)]. This Gospel I can understand! And how many words, how many parables, how many things are recorded on the sheets of this book for which the world is thoroughly unaware of. So, firstly in the Gospel it is said: “Be strong because God lives in you!” But why is that? Such is the law. People are so weird. - “But – someone would say – apostle Paul said that when we are weak, then we are strong.” Yes, naturally, apostle Paul was an occultist and do you know what he did want to tell you with this? It means: When I think as a human, I am weak, but God, who lives in me, makes me strong. When someone is strong, he is conscious that God lives in him. I am Weak as a human but because of God, who lives in me, I am strong. When I say that God lives in me, this word is again not understood. God can not live in me or inside you. You have not yet revealed yourself, how will God live in you? In the Scriptures somewhere apostle Paul says: ”You are a Temple of God.” What is God's temple? - Your soul. Your soul is something great and therefore we are now building these little temples in which the soul will lesen itself. This, which is eternal, the boundless will smaller so that it will enter in this small temple of Love. The soul knows the laws of growing smaller, this little soul can become finite and infinite at the same time. For God it is easy to be boundless and infinite, so it is easy for him to become boundary and finite, for us. When they tell me that one being is finite, I understand much – I understand that the greatness, the Intelligence and the God's Love are that large that He reduces himself in that small being as to try from all his or her joys and sorrows to uplift him or her as they can understand His greatness. This is the greatest, the most wonderful miracle of God. Thus I understand God, this God I recommend you -God, who can descend to your plane, from there He would lift you up and could make you like Himself. In what sense will you be like Him? - You would be like Him powerful, you could understand life and the other beings and you could uplift them also. This is what Jesus has taught. Now, what we have is not morality. We leave aside the current morality and give you new principles, which you ought to have so that you can develop. When you work on the principles inside your soul, we will become strong and powerful – strong and powerful as to overcome anything. Now, I am going to explain the word patience from the esoteric point of view. Each follower of the School of Universal White Brotherhood has to be patient. But how? Some, for instance, restrain themselves and say:” I was patient enough, I restrained my rage.” Restraining your rage is not being patient. Patient person is the one that constantly pays his or her debt to those who came to him or her – he has strength in himself. To restrain your rage is not patience but torture. Now the preachers want to convince us that the silent are patient. Such person is not patient. When someone else is glad and joyful, he thinks of something totally different. When someone comes to a patient person, this person asks him or her: “What do you want from me?” “You owe me.” “How much?”- And they pay. They constantly sing their songs. And now, when someone comes to him or her, they say: “You are dishonest.” They keep silent, pay nothing, restrain themselves and say: “They called me names, so what? I am a very patient person.” This is not patience at all, you are a person of torment. But here, in this School, there is no torture. Before you enter this School, before we are initiated, there will be torture but when you are in, you have to be patient, glad, to master all the world. Thus you will understand patience as followers. When someone comes to me, I ask him: “Are you patient?” This means that he or she has to give me. Someone says:” You have insulted me.” “What does insult means?” You have debt, you owe me, ask how much. - “That much.” Immediately you ask how much is the interest. “Ten or twenty percent.” I won’t utter a word, right away I will open my purse and say: ”Here you are. Are you content?” “I am content.” I will shake hands with him. Someone else will come by you; you will open your purse, you will pay and the matter will be settled. All followers will settle in such way the matter between yourselves – you will open the purse and you will pay. When the time comes, you will pay – this is the teaching, which Jesus has taught. And if this teaching has been applied, the Christian world would have risen, would have been righteous. And what are you doing now? You are still dealing with the question whether God saved us or not. Since he has sent us Saviour to the Earth, we are saved, we are saved since we have been created by God. Therefore Jesus has foreseen everything. Jesus is manifestation of this Love, He sends Love to those He has initially saved. But because they are not yet ready to comprehend this Love, they are in conception(???). These people don't reason over this philosophy. When the mother breastfeeds her child, and what when this child is in her womb, does he or her suck from her breasts? No, the milk will stay for the mother, she keeps it for the time when her child will come. Therefore during the time of our embryo condition, until we were born, God has waited upon us to show his Love towards us. For those of us, that are born there is milk, for others – there is stale food. The more you go further, more goods you will try. Therefore we are in this period when God's love has been shown to the followers; this means we are in the most wonderful state, when God show his will to be perceived by the followers. What is better than that when the father says to his son: “Son, take your pouch and go to school.” And Cosmos with all its suns and planets is create as one initial school. And all of you will ride to all planets, suns and the Moon: everywhere you will go to study, different directions you will take during these excursions and then you'll meet again. But you will ask: “How many years are we going to meet after? ”No, it may not take years: one journey that amounts to ten million years we can shorten to one or half hour, another journey that amounts to half an hour can be prolonged up to hundred million years. It is a matter of motion, of quickness -it depends on what train we'll take with what speed, with what quickness. That is the question: what train will you choose- if you take a train with a great speed, the suns will pass by you too quickly, we won't be able to look at all the beauties and you'll tell yourself: ”We have passed around the Universe and we have seen nothing”; but if we take a train, which travels at a low speed, you will stop at one place, at other you will stop, each planet you will see. Among the spaces between these planets there are such worlds which the contemporary people don't even suspect - they think that all is what they see and that's it. No, there are other worlds that can' t be seen with contemporary telescopes. Einstein says that there is no time and space; I understand his language: there is no time and space but there are states. So, the first stage for the follower is to be strong. You will have in your mind the thought to be possess Strength. Then for acquiring this Strength we already have methods, there are laws how to acquire such Strength. We will put you through a test and we will see whether this Strength, which you will acquire, is for your uplifting or for your constraint. If you use it for your constraint, then an usual force will be given to you, however if you use it for your uplifting, Godlike force will be given to you. When I speak of love, I mean that only the Godlike Love is the one and only, the greatest law in the world, which can guarantee this Force. If you have such Love, this Force will be guaranteed to you, if we have an ordinary love, an ordinary force will be given to you, and such force all of you have. Now these are the items you have to include in your mind. This is the teaching that Jesus has taught. It is the simplest teaching, which Jesus has taught to the people then. Now have you understood which person is strong and who is weak? Strong and weak. Everyone, who doesn't use his or her force, which they possess, becomes weak. Since you don't use your Godlike force for your uplifting, you are weak and the weak, when he or she uses a little Force, which they have, becomes strong. This is the same law, which you require when you give conditions for the development of a grain of wheat and then his force enhances and increases. According to the laws of mathematics, on Earth, the part can not be equal to the whole. In the occult science, in the occult mathematics, however, there is another statement: each part is equal to its own whole and the whole is equal to its own part. Then, how are you going to equalize these contradictions? Therefore the relations of this kind of mathematics are not mechanical but are organic and psychological – then the process is therefore inward. Now, how can this be mathematically expressed? If we decide to prove this, we need a number of lectures, a number of formulas of this complex mathematics and after all processes have occurred, the question is again unresolved. This is only a statement, which in present conditions of Life can not be explained. And the truth is as follows: the weak, the microscopic person in the world, if he or she follows the great Godlike laws, one day can be strong. This is necessary for us – to be strong. And so Strength is one of the qualities of the God 's Mind, therefore the Force is motion. All these motions have to be mastered by humans. (The works on the theme “The purpose of the Five Senses” were read. A commission by three persons was selected, men, who will extract the most important from the works read). By men I mean intelligence at work, Wisdom at work because for Love there is not yet place. Now, when Love comes in the world, we cry when we have to think. You will make a good conclusion because when students do their best, can say some good things, can't they? I will give you another theme and this is: The use of water. Write down the themes, even those of you, who don't write because they are in connection to each other. Secret Prayer