Jackline Spasova-Bobeva

Note 4 Negative and Positive Features Of The Disciple Sixth Lecture of the Master, read before the General Occult Class on April 4th, 1922, Tuesday, in Sofia Secret Prayer Before we finish reading what is written, I shall make a few notes. You know how tin plating of pots is done, you have seen how tinsmiths tin-plate – they stand in the pot and clean it out so that the tin can fix well. Without cleaning out the pots, one cannot apply tin. When you enter the occult school, thus, they will step onto you, they will turn you around and unless you are thoroughly cleaned, you will not be fit for tin plating. There are some traits in you, and some views that you should part with. One of them is conceit. This is an animal side of human nature. You will find conceit in all animals, it is found in birds, dogs, horses, and oxen. When the dog is conceited, it raises up its tail, saying: "I don’t care". When the peacock wants to show off, it spreads its tail, ‘tr-r, tr-t, tr-r’ – this is an animal’s act. Conceit is an animal itself. So if a disciple entering the occult school holds that animal feeling inside, then great suffering is in store for him. He will clash with reality where people, observing his weakness, will start mocking him. Modern people suffer too most of them are neurasthenics. The neurasthenia marching through the world today is mostly the result of human conceit. If somebody is a tradesman, and his business is going down, he begins to worry – how can people think he is a poor man! Everyone wants to be what one is not. Religious people too, conceit has made them what they are not. Conceit has brought hypocrisy into religion. Hypocrisy is born from conceit. A conceited man striving to prove he is unlike others is a hypocritical man. Now you enter an Occult School where Light is so great that all your shortcomings will come out on top leaving you feeling like a scalded fowl. As disciples, you must know what scalded fowl is. Not by me will you be scalded but by the White Brothers who are very good. One, who has conceit, will be thus fleeced and left to wonder how that happened. And so you will give up conceit. But if your love for it is great, when you enter the School, you will leave it outside like a piece of luggage. You will pay a storage fee when you finish the School and then you can put it on again. For the outer world, you may need it, but there is no need of it in the School. And so conceit is displayed by the disciples. You may start asking, for example, "What do you think, that you have reached success in the Occult School?" This is pure conceit. Whether you have succeeded or not, we might as well know right now. Step in front, hand him the violin, give him a hard piece, come on, play it! If you can play it, you have succeeded. – "But I know music." You might know the theory of music but you don’t know how to play. Sometimes it’s better to play than just know the theory. It’s good to know both, though. Therefore, if you know how to play, you will play. Then, there are others who ask: "Do you think we have mastered Love?" I can right now very easily examine how much your Love is worth. Someone says, "My heart is burning in Love." But tell him to give this brother a thousand leva now – that’s it! He bows his head – that’s it – he does not know how to love, so much for that. A thousand more leva and a thousand more, and when his pocket is empty, he asks, "Well, what’s left for me?" If you want to have something left for you, stay outside. We want you to enter this Divine School with empty chests so that we can fill them up. If you come with full chests what can we put in? We do not want people with full purses. The world asks for full purses but we ask for the opposite. If your purses are empty come, and if not, then we say, "You are wrong." And so you will keep away from the feelings of conceit and hypocrisy as from fire because not only will they give you nothing but they also will bring you down to the level of animals that only know how to snarl at each other. Two people, as they meet, snap at each other: "Beware, I am not one of those weak heroes but a great one!" The same with the fowl – having seen a bull, there it hops - this is the feeling of conceit. The bull rams it with its horns - that is the end of the fowl. The fowl doesn’t understand, it thinks it can fight a bull. But to fight a bull you need knowledge. And so, you come into this Occult School to learn how to fight the bull by the horns because you will meet spirits from the Black Lodge who have great knowledge. Do you know what knowledge this is? Sometimes the White Brothers go to their schools to learn. "The sons of this century are smarter that the sons of Light". And the sons of Light must learn from the sons of darkness. The knowledge and principles are the same in both schools, only differently applied. The acting forces are the same, there is no duality, but the way they are applied matters: some forces can be applied in one way – to the left, and others – another way – to the right. Yet we may as well draw a lesson, we may learn from a Black brother, even from the church. This is now said here in this hall. If you talk about it outside, you will be cursed by every church, do you understand that? This is not a symbol. You still don’t know the origin of the Black brothers, do you? And why are they black? – Because they shifted to the left, and the others to the right. I will not explain this. A person has a left hand and a right hand. Why, aren’t both hands in place? We use our right hand today but there was a time when the left hand was at work. Is it a sin, then, that a person has one left and one right hand? No sin, these hands are just in place. It’s only that the left way passes through the centre of the Earth while the right one – through the centre of the Sun, they differ in that. Walking the left way you will go down into the deepest matter, in the greatest contradiction of Life, you’ll have to fight, the Light will fade, while taking the right way you will go through the thinnest matter, you’ll cross the centre of the Sun. You will not be afraid, because you will be protected. There must be no curiosity in the Occult School, no curiosity is allowed there. Curiosity is for the outer world, it is allowed only there. To have a deep desire to learn, the keenest desire that is burning in your heart – that yes, but simple curiosity is not allowed. Curiosity is born from conceit, too. So you will have a burning desire to learn, and as for curiosity, conceit, hypocrisy and others of the same kind, features of animal nature or coming from lower cultures, such features we need not. Now you may say: "These things have been told to us." Yes, but you still don’t know the perturbations conceit causes in the human body. You still don’t know the consequences of hypocrisy – what perturbations it causes in the human heart. You still don’t know what curiosity produces. If you knew the consequences that are produced in the body, you wouldn’t even smell them (unclear). Now I do not want to be in contradiction with your feelings. Religious feelings you will keep apart. I am now talking to your minds – not the lower, but the higher minds. You must think and feel. I am not talking to your hearts either, this is not my intention. You hearts are for you and for God, aren’t they? You need Light, you need Knowledge, and having the Knowledge you will acquire Wisdom. When you have Wisdom, you will know how to work your hearts. Now, you know that line from the Old Testament, "My son, give me your heart." This is an internal process of the Existence, a process to be realized in the future. It has no objective application yet, but a purely subjective application and to work this heart we need knowledge – great knowledge I should say, in order to be able to prepare the forces that are inborn in our hearts for the future culture. And for the present all religions are generally dealing with the man’s heart. All preachers are seeking to bring about certain effects, they threaten with hell – that there is hell, and pain. But this is kid’s stuff. We do not shake the big stick at a disciple entering the Occult School; we just say, "If you do things this way; these are the consequences. Since you have this body with these substances and compounds, if you act like this, here are the consequences for your body; if you enjoy this you can do it." The disciple will know the reasons and the consequences, and will examine diligently his body and his heart. So, you must all have a burning desire to learn. And coming into this School you will lay aside, if possible, all your views – whatever you have read in books, whatever I might have once said. I want you to pass all this through your own minds, do you understand? And you will. Do you know why? – Because sometimes you may pass my words through the dense medium of your lower minds and you will comprehend them one way, but then you might pass them through your higher minds and then you will obtain a different comprehension. Further on, you will have to apply each comprehension immediately, not in the future. As you apply, you test – small tests from which we shall judge. I am not saying you don’t have application – you do, but not these occult applications. You will find a special application. In this Occult School you will have ways, and methods to remedy some of your weaknesses that exist as a remnant of the past. Now, you might sometimes place a bet: "This is what a man of science said." But what has been said shall be tried in this School, shall be put to the test. In the School, you will always verify these things and will judge what is said by the results you can achieve. If you don’t have this disposition, then hypocrisy and conceit will be born. Then, a common weakness of all disciples is the following: sometimes a disciple thinks he knows more than his Master. The rule in the White Occult School is: A disciple may never know more than his Master. This is a law of the White Occult School. Jesus said: "The disciple never stands higher than his Master". Should he begin to think he knows more than his Master, then he is to the left; should the Master begin to think he is not like his disciples, he is to the left too. The first one uses the knowledge for himself, and the other one does the same. But in the School of the Worldwide White Brotherhood everything is used for the Lord’s Kingdom – for bringing the Lord’s Kingdom on Earth. And once the Lord’s Kingdom comes to Earth then everyone, masters and disciples will have the best opportunities to show their knowledge and create something better in this world. And then, there’s another thing that I want: those who come to the School now, will test their will. There will be insults but once you enter the School, you must step up higher; you must lay aside all your feelings of insult for an hour. Someone comes in, the others give him a bad look, and he says, "This man insulted me." No, no, you must test your will. If you cannot subdue this feeling from the insult, which is an animal feeling, then your will is weak, you won’t succeed. You shall capture this feeling – the insult – as a creditor, and you’ll say, "Pray wait for me outside for an hour, outside the entrance hall, and once I am out, I’ll pay you." Now, we don’t want you to reform your lives in an instant, but just to keep one disposition of yours out in your entrance hall for an hour. If you can keep it out for an hour, then you will be able to keep it out for two, three, four, five hours; if you cannot keep it out for one hour, you can do nothing. And when you enter a school if you do not take this into consideration, the others will always lay these obstacles before you, using the law of suggestion. Between men and women, for example, an argument might arise, and they come hurt to the School; but you should know that on entering the School you are no longer men or women. We have no men or women around here, we have disciples. You are men and women outside, but in here you are souls. We don't recognize men or women, young or old, we only recognize disciples who desire to acquire the Divine knowledge and to use it for the improvement of their souls, for the advancement of the Lord’s Kingdom on Earth – that’s what we recognize. Now, you may say: "This has been said many times". I am telling you again, and as for those who would not believe my words, we shall start the tests and he’ll be persuaded. You have to know this, it is not a threat but there are laws that must be observed. I am not saying this place is a School. No, this is your meeting. From here you will step into another place, and as for the School, we could move it to another room, or a third, or a fourth, or a fifth one. This hall is not an occult school. Even if we were to build a special place it still wouldn’t be an occult school. Now, you are going to say: "We have now formed the School, for we have closed the door." We might close the door ten times, it still wouldn’t be enough. I can see – many of you always have their doors open. The outer door here is closed, but the doors of your houses are open and there’s constant movement in and out. Each of you must close his own door, and you must say: "For one hour you will wait for us, we are busy now but in an hour we’ll be back, and we’ll be at your disposal". I want you to do the first test now. Thus, when you come on Sunday to the School, you should be able to fight. It takes fighting, heavy fighting, but you must overcome. Don’t think that by just coming here you will change this condition all at once. We want you to fight and to win in this fight. Someone says: "Let’s get this over with, let’s banish this devil". But you shared your table with this devil in the past, he is your friend. As a friend, tell him: "My friend, we shared one table once, but I have come to know feasts spoil Life, I have taken another way, and being my friend can you now join me on this new way?" – "I can’t." - "Then wait for me outside for an hour, and then we’ll talk again." And, being your friend, he’ll listen to you. So you shall learn in the Occult School not to insult anyone. You do not say to a man: "You are such and such". No. No. I shall give you this example; it’s from the age of Christianity: one of the great Masters, well acquainted with occultism, after having taught his disciples for a long time, sent them to town to preach. Two of these disciples met two pagan priests and on seeing them, said, "Well, children of the devil, sons of Satan, you who corrupt the world …" They approached them with their walking sticks and cracked their heads. The disciples came back with heads cracked. These priests went to the Master of the two disciples; he came out and asked, "My friends, where have you been?" – "Why friends, how’s that? An hour ago we beat two of your disciples." – "You have done well." Disciples I call them, for they are sons of the White Brotherhood. And when Archangel Michael was sent for the body of Moses, he never said an evil insulting word to the devil but said, "Let God forbid you." And you now have the weakness sometimes to bristle up at the devil and speak evil of him. No, no, you must be noble. Say to him: "You are an excellent worker – you do things the way you understand". He is convinced, believes in his understanding and wants to persuade you in some way or another, and gives you proof. Each bad spirit, as it comes to you, says: "Don’t be so stupid, not all shall become good". And it gives you proof. Then you become convinced and say: "You are right". In the White Brotherhood, however, there is other evidence and we must prove it. There shall be perfect harmony in the School, no bad spirits should disturb you - they know the law. Both the first ones and the second ones learn – this is the law in the occult science. Once the disciples go out into the world, there is a dispute among them, but in the School, as long as they are learning, there is no dispute. But these are things we know so we place them where they belong. That’s what they said about the pious Jehovah; the representative of the Black Brotherhood appeared at the God’s council and said to God, "Have you noticed the way Jehovah walks?" Then, he was also present at this council in the School, and God asked him, "What about you, have you noticed the way Jehovah applies this teaching?" Hence, there is absolutely no dispute among the Black and the White Brothers in the School. A Black or a White Brother – they love each other. They love each other at School, but once they are out in the world, their interests collide and each one works for his own interest, so much for love! We shall prove which principle is right. Both these and the others believe, but the faith of the former differs in many ways from the faith of the latter. So, as disciples of this School, you shall be broad-minded rather than bigoted. A Black Brother is also an advanced spirit, these are real things. In School you must think that everything in this world exists because it is necessary. And what is necessary is useful for the development of the entire Cosmos. Therefore, for knowledge to exist in the world there must be two processes – some pots are made for glory and others for infamy. If you make a pot and you put your slops in it, and the other pot you fill with milk, then I’m asking, are the pots guilty? The pot with the slops is the black Brother, and the pot with the milk is the White Brother. Whose fault is it? Is it the pots’ fault? No. And the one who uses the pots is equally pleased to have a pot for slops and another pot for milk. He finds them very useful, for he needs one place to put the slops and one place to put the milk. But if we don’t have slops we throw away the pot, and if we don’t need milk, we throw away the second pot, so we have no more pots. The same goes for the good and bad people in Life; these are only ideological views at the present stage of development of human life. Now, those of you who wrote about the purpose of the human’s/man’s tongue may read (are welcome to read). Next in turn, write something about the purpose of the present five senses. This will be a common topic for all who can write. What do you think; did the organ appear first or the sense? – The senses appeared first. Therefore, each sense corresponds to a certain idea. At present, man has only touched the five senses and has reached the field of Truth. So he has reached the lowest field of the Divine World. Man needs another two senses. Then those of you who volunteered, let them write, let’s say, which world touching corresponds to; the taste, the sense of smell, the hearing, the eyesight – determine which worlds, and which fields they pertain to. You may read some theosophical, some occult literature, see what is written there, then express your own understanding, what it is that you think. Write briefly, as briefly as you can. When you write on these topics, don’t we say: "No fear and no darkness!" Furthermore, don’t write long, for too much writing is conceit. Don’t use redundant words, because they come from the devil, or if said in the occult language, redundant words shift to the left, to the School of the Black Brothers. They enjoy talking a lot and everyone who talks a lot helps the Black Brothers. Both the one who talks a lot and the one who doesn’t talk at all – both of them help the Black Brothers. And the one who talks less but wisely, helps the White Brothers. Less means the essence, it’s the essence we need. You may say, for example, "I love you a lot," – so you commence to speak like lovers do – and "I am ready to do this for you and that for you." You will do nothing. "I love you and can do anything for you." – Test me, nothing more. When you test, you’ll know. Only I can love. Should ‘I’ be said? – You will say 'I' and you will understand the Divine side of you. You may not mention the ‘I’ but mean it in your minds. In English you have to say ‘I love’, while in Bulgarian just ‘love you’ is enough; in English you must use the ‘I’. In School you shall endeavour to be determined and always speak your mind. Now, we have tried the results of not speaking one’s mind. Every senseless speech is a shape where you allow space for a bad spirit to inhabit you. That is why every shape you form must be full of Divine matter. Empty words themselves always draw great misfortune. When you pronounce an empty word, something pins you in your heart and you start thinking: "I shouldn’t have said that". Why do I want you to write on this topic? – That you may advance, that conscience may awaken in you. I want to convince you of one thing: you are not such fools and so ignorant as you may think you are, there are many truths inborn in you from the past. And if you are true to yourselves, as you sit down and think, some inspiration may come upon you. Then you may say: "The Spirit inspired this in me," as if the Spirit has some special regard for you. Do not deceive yourselves, the Spirit has an equal regard for everyone, but what the Spirit suggests, you cannot perceive. But you may say, "The Spirit did not will" No, no. The Spirit wills but you shall work your soil, you shall plant it, cultivate it and then the Spirit will will. So, I’m saying that in all of you there are some inborn truths that have to rise up – there are noble thoughts and features from the past. These features can be created today as well. Even the smallest effort that you can do is in your favour. In several lectures, I shall talk about and show you the weaknesses you should be aware of. Not that these are your weakness – they are common for the entire White race but you should constantly strive to keep away from them. And as you become able to control these weaknesses we can proceed to the microscopic truths – to the small truths with which we shall start doing our observations and our trials. Then each of you will be given small tasks to solve on your own and to examine things by yourself. But I am still warning you now – don’t expect that Heaven will open, don’t expect to find the answers to all the great secrets of Nature. No, others may expect this. When a master is tempted by a disciple offering him a big salary to teach him, then the master is unworthy of his position. There may appear a master in the Occult School, he may be offered one or two or ten million leva to teach – nobody is going to say anything to him but if he decides to teach for money, he’s done with. And if such thought enters a disciple’s head, if he is tempted to acquire the Knowledge in order to use it for himself alone, he is done with too. Thus, you will be completely unselfish! First rule: be sincere with yourselves, do not deceive yourselves. You can deceive me, but I don’t want you to deceive yourselves that’s why I am going to be very strict. Never deceive yourselves. Apply this law – be utterly true to yourselves, no exceptions allowed. You must admit in your minds the Truth such as it is, don’t change it in any way just consider things as they are, neither more nor less. True to yourself - this is the first law of the School. If you can apply this law, the rest will be easy. This law lays a basis on which to build up further. Now, why am I often so strict? – I am sorry that I have opened this School, to tell you the truth. Do you know why? – When I come here I experience a painful feeling. These desires you have accumulated cause me the worst suffering. And now I have to make an effort to talk to you. To tell you the truth! And if you do not observe this rule then I’m leaving you to learn as well as you can, I am determined. I don’t want to torment myself in future nor do I intend to let my disciples torment me. Two rules: neither do I want to torment myself, nor for you to torment me. I have completed my evolution; I need not be tormented any more. What I know I can teach you but your thoughts and your experiences are being transferred upon me – I accept all your thoughts and I experience them inside of me. I don’t want, though, to experience your thoughts. If you are sinners, I have nothing to do with your sins. I could endure your good will, better, but you are judging me in your minds and telling me this or that, I don’t want to hear, my soul is fed up with reproach and ungratefulness. The one who is grateful – good for him, and the one who is ungrateful – good for him too, I still have nothing to do with it. You know why? – I serve a different law. I am answering you now: I don’t want to grieve in any way the One who lives in me, I am not letting this happen! The One who taught me, the One who lives in me, I do not allow any reproach on him. I can bear anything for Him; where His name is concerned, I am ready to give up anything. "But what in thousand years – will circumstances be allowed?" (UNCLEAR) All the same, as for His name, I don’t allow it. I notice everything and I’m telling you: in the School I absolutely don’t want you to criticize me, or have doubts, just try out things! As I have said before: If I have hurt anyone let him come to me without criticizing me - I will pay him ten times his worth and get this over with once and for all. All matters must be settled between you and me, nothing more. Tell you what, should anyone do otherwise in future, I will turn my back on him and never speak to him any more. This is a rule of the White Brotherhood. Why? – This is an internal law. The One, who lives in us, the Lord, has a way that He follows and He will not wait for us. The Sun rises, the Earth turns around and everything follows its destined way, we cannot change the laws of Existence. – "But that’s what I think!" Yes, but the Lord thought millions of years ago when He created the world, so we shall act as He intended us to and as He acts. You ask me sometimes to teach you how to act. I am not doing as I please, I am following God’s ways and I want you to do so too. I am not the one to change God’s laws, neither you, nor the Angles or any other creature in the world will be able to change them in any possible way – they are inalterable. You can react somehow but to reverse them is impossible. Then you will stumble in yourselves. If you want to be a disciple, this is one of the rules of this School to follow. The School was opened several times around Europe but closed down again in wait of better times, because disputes arose. It was opened and closed down several times and may be closed down again now. But if I do it now, you shall teach yourselves, I am not teaching a second time! That’s why I want you to be upright at such a time when those above you have decided and have will to teach you. Mind you, I am not talking to you on my behalf; I am talking on behalf of the Worldwide White Brotherhood. If they are well disposed to you, then you must be loyal to them too. You must learn these great truths from their point of view. Exercise your minds, test everything. Now, from these words of mine do not conclude that I’m talking about a certain person, individually. No, what I’m saying is: it is from lack of knowledge, from ignorance that you do things, which are not allowed. And I want now to give you the first rules, the same way they are given in music. First of all, when the master comes in, he shows you how to hold the violin – horizontally, then he places the bow in the correct position and finally you play the G tone and hold it for a long time until you learn to move the bow properly. The bow represents the will. Then you start studying the tones, then the positions and when you have learnt them, you go on to playing a certain piece. Now, your minds and your hearts can advance only under such proper guidance. Only then you can perceive those great thoughts that God created, only in this way can you learn to think and feel correctly. Have a will. You have a will, you all do, but you must guide your will to work for your advancement. Now, don’t think we don’t have laws through which to get free from certain things. We have laws; I can get free of your thoughts in another way too. Do you know why I am referring to this? There is a wish in me that you don’t suffer, for I don’t want to cause you more suffering in Life. First rule: since you suffer a lot, I don’t want to increase your sufferings. If I put on a shield to repulse your thoughts back, we shall not get to the point. It’s better in such cases to close down the School than to cause rows. So, the first rule is: you’ll harmonize your thoughts and feelings for at least one hour. For an hour, I ask for no more – one hour in a week, do you understand that? Seven days, twenty-four hours a day – a hundred and sixty-eight hours. If you can’t do this, what else can you do? From a hundred and sixty-eight hours weekly you are required to spend a single hour in harmony – as true disciples you must. This is not much; this is a very short time – who will not allow himself an hour? And when I enter the class I want to feel a pleasant atmosphere, to feel good, and I want you to feel good too. If I am to come in and become dissatisfied then you will be dissatisfied too. Two feelings of dissatisfaction make a positive figure – both sides lose. Then all truths you may have said will lose their effect. Now, you may say: "Who could have insulted the Master?" No one has insulted me but I’m telling you, in your ignorance you have the weakness to incline sometimes to the left side rather than to the right one. Not knowing it yourselves, you sometimes walk to the left. You may say: "I do not know". No, you don’t, but you have to learn. You as disciples have to know which way you are on – the left or the right one, and not to wait for others to tell you that. Every day, the merchant has to know what he earns and what he loses – by reviewing his records, he must know if he made a profit today or he lost; and at the end of the year he sums up the profit and the loss. Every day we have to know whether we are more to the left or to the right, where God is. If you know this, you win – you will straighten up your thoughts, because there are many good things from the past inborn in you. I don’t find you incapable, I find you wayward. You are capable but also wayward, and waywardness is a feature of animals, not of humans. This waywardness of yours is an animal feature. Every man whose mind, heart, and will have started working properly can no longer be wayward, all his acts and deeds are based on the law of reason – he will know what to do. No waywardness shall be allowed in this School. So now, you are capable, and as for your waywardness – leave it outside. I am telling you now some negative features, and in the second lecture I’ll tell you more. I’ve told you by now four negative features: conceit, hypocrisy, curiosity, and waywardness – they are animal features. You need them in the world, but in the School you have no need, absolutely no need of them. And after attending our School for a year, I shall want you to be distinguished. We shall come, and decide, and mark the beginning – this is a School now. Someone says: "Show us the shortcomings". Fine, I’ll show you a lot of things. And when you get over them, then I shall show you some more negative features – not now, next time. Keep these features. Don’t fight conceit, and I’ll tell you what to put in its place, and in the place of the waywardness, hypocrisy, curiosity – I’ll tell you how to replace them. For I want you to be…I’m not saying good disciples, but I do not know which word to use now. Upright? – But are you all well-behaved? – You are all well-behaved. I am telling you, I am calling you the disciples of Love, do you understand that? Therefore, as disciples of Love, as I name you, (as disciples of Love, with this name I baptize you) – you shall follow the law of the great Divine Love. You may say: "I am the disciple of Love, I do not need conceit, I do not need hypocrisy, I do not need waywardness." Now, keep these four features and when one of them comes to you tell it: "My friend, I am the disciple of Love". When conceit starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love", when hypocrisy starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love", when curiosity starts speaking, answer it: "I am the disciple of Love". Thus you will speak in a friendly tone: "I am the disciple of Love", and nothing beyond it. So as they keep coming to you, let your answer be such – they come, you say: "I am the disciple of Love". Until they tell you one day: "We are, too, the disciples of Love", and it will be over, the victory will be yours. These are living creatures that you were connected to in your past lives. But as you abide by the Law of Love, they will say: "Since you are the disciples of Love, we shall become ones, too". It just occurred to me, let me not be misunderstood. By saying that I shall close the School I mean that I shall talk and preach with symbols, and not the way I’m doing now. The method is different in the School but I shall not use that method. We are going to work by the old method, follow the old path – we are going to hoe, we are going to plough, we are going to make a path and thus things will go. Now, I believe, the next time I will find you two degrees up. You are below zero today, the second time I want to find you at zero, the third time – at plus one degree, at two degrees, at three degrees and every time up by one degree. Little by little I want you to advance; it’s not much that I want. Now, I am greeting you with the words: No fear! And you answer me: No darkness! And thus we shall work; on my arrival I shall greet you: No fear! And you shall answer me: No darkness! Source

Note 4 THREE KINDS OF DISCIPLES Fifth lecture given by the Master Beinsa Douno in the General Esoteric class at 7:30pm, on Thursday, March 30, 1922, in Sofia. Secret Prayer There are three categories of disciples in the Spiritual School: listeners, believers, and students. What is specific about the listeners? – Listening. What is specific about the believers? – Faith. And about the students? – Studying. Therefore, these three attributes are the making of a disciple. The disciple starts with listening – this is the first step; the second step is faith; and the third step is studying. Nevertheless, the disciple does not stop at these. Consequently, you have to learn to listen – for this is one of the first attributes. The Esoteric describes, “listening” as the state of concentration of the mind, or the focusing of the mind in one direction without interruption. The second attribute of the disciple is faith – not doubting what one studies and listens to. Once the disciple is in doubt, the corresponding learning process is stopped. This principle is valid regardless of the direction of the studies – faith accepts no doubt. You could have misconceptions, but these are outside of faith. Then, the disciple stands out with a desire for learning, i.e. the disciple wants to have Knowledge, which comes from Wisdom. Consequently, the disciple cannot doubt this Knowledge, which differs from the commonplace knowledge you have now. Now, these are introductory notes, which you have heard many times, but you should now apply them in the Spiritual School. Telling someone that they are listeners might offend them, but they should know that listening is one of the great traits of a person. To pay attention and to listen, and to know how to listen, this is most pleasant in Life; it is the art of the ear. Once we get to faith, we will deal with the upper part of the brain. With these three attributes of the disciple, you touch the brain in three ways, the centre of faith is situated on the surface of the human brain, studying is located in the front and listening in the back, thus forming an equilateral triangle. Listening is located in the back of the brain, from where all the troubles in Life come. Now, we asked the first question, what is the purpose of the disciple in a Spiritual School? Only the Spiritual School can give a correct and positive answer. What is the purpose of a person? Only the Spiritual School will give you an answer, which can satisfy you. Once you get this satisfaction, there will not be indifference in you, and you will not think that now you know, instead you will get a new impulse to work for your advancement. There are many obstacles in your life that makes it hard for you to grasp the great truths in the knowledge, which you can get from a Spiritual School. For example, right now some of you are sleep-deprived, as they have not slept well last night; others have not had good food, so they have not eaten enough; the third have had some unsuccessful business deals. Overall, all of you always have some obstacles, and if you do not yet know the law of how to free yourselves from such temporary disturbances, then the Truth cannot touch you as genuinely as it should. The purpose of the Spiritual School is to prepare your minds and your hearts, so that you can understand and apply the Truth. This is also one experiential school. I am talking about the Spiritual School of the Universal Brotherhood of Light, which will show you the spiritual path to applying the Truth to Life – not finding it, but applying it. Now, these are general statements. In one of my previous lectures, I defined the life of a person into three categories – sleeping, eating, and working. The first task of the disciple is to understand these correctly. Sleeping applies to the astral or the corporeal life of the person, i.e. to their spiritual side. A person learns spiritually only in their sleep – this is how it is – you can learn spiritually only while you are sleeping. Therefore, if you do not know how to sleep, you will never be able to learn spiritually, you cannot be knowledgeable people, and you cannot be disciples. And when I say that you have to learn how to sleep, I mean to say that you have to put your body in such state that, when your soul, your double leaves the body at night, you can find your Teacher. For the knowledge is taught in the Spiritual world, not on Earth. Here we have a repeat on what is taught there. This is why I say that first, you have to learn how to sleep relaxed. You have to apply your will power. Maybe you cannot sleep that well for a night, then another, and a third one, but you should try to learn to sleep well in the period of one year. If you cannot apply your will power to sleep, then what type of heroes will you be? First thing, you will have to accustom your body, so that it knows how to rest. We will give you exercises, so that you learn how to relax. You want to listen to me now, but you are tight – your legs are tight, your mind is tight, you are in a painful state. This tightness of your muscles will always stimulate your lower centres. It will bring the astral powers to the lower layers of your brain and this will give birth to negative, most low-minded thoughts and feelings. For instance, the faces of some of you are so serious, because this is how you have become accustomed, but this is just something you have learnt. In the Spiritual School, you will learn to have your face quiet and calm, clean, and natural, very natural. Imagine that you are satisfied with everything, as if you have everything that you want – how will your face look? This is what the face of the esoteric person should be. Imagine that you are expecting a friend of yours, whom you have loved for years – your heart is trembling, you are expecting your friend. The opposite state: imagine that you have received a death sentence and they will hang you tomorrow. What will your state be then? Now, you apply this death sentence in yourselves once almost every week, and thus sometimes you commit suicide. Well, what will the look on your face be? You kill most of your most noble feelings and thoughts. You hang them for nothing, as if these feelings or these thoughts are responsible for some of your bad circumstances. In this School, you are absolutely not allowed to hang any thought or wish of yours. No, it is not allowed – everything will grow and develop as God wants it to or as His laws dictate. If you pass a single death sentence, you will definitely have mischief. You will sit down calmly for five or ten minutes and in a most comfortable position, and you will start picturing the most beautiful images. Relax your arm freely, then lift it, and then again let it drop freely. All your muscles have to be relaxed. You have to start to control all of your muscles, all of your nerves. You will also have to learn to walk – there is a correct way of walking in the Spiritual School. Some of you hit their heels hard when they walk, like the military. The heels of their shoes are almost worn off, is not this true? Those, who walk like this, are the disciples that smash stones. In the same way, these heels of yours will smash the most beautiful thoughts and wishes that you have in your brain. Others among you step on the front side of the shoes, where their shoes wear off, which shows their enhanced caution. They are sly like a fox. There is no need to be afraid of the world, as it is created so that there are no ambushes awaiting you. If you walk according to the Divine law, you can walk calmly, for there is no danger. The Brotherhood of Light knows each of you once you get in the Spiritual School, and respectively takes care of you – you can walk everywhere safely. As the Psalm singer says, “I will be under God’s wings,” – under His wings. They insist that there is Divine Providence, but once we come here to apply it, we do not believe in any Providence. I will make an attempt to show you that you do not believe in the Divine Providence, not that you do not want to believe, but you are not ready for this Absolute faith. Imagine that we create an artificial fire in this room. If you cannot concentrate, there will be such a hassle – you will forget that you are disciples, and everyone will try to leave the room as soon as possible. Therefore, we will try to free ourselves from those most instinctive feelings. Sometimes we tremble and get scared for no reason. In the Varna high school, one of the teachers liked to remain in the classroom long after the bell rang; he did not leave immediately. One day the students devised a plan on how to get rid of him. They investigated and found out that he is very afraid of frogs. One day they brought ten or twenty frogs and put them in the desk in the classroom. When the teacher opened the desk to take out the class book to note who was absent, the frogs came out. He left the room immediately and went right away to the director’s office trembling. Why? – He said, “Director, frogs.” – “What frogs?” – “Frogs!” Well, there is nothing dangerous about frogs. This story is to illustrate that many of our misfortunes in life are due to frogs. If it were a snake or a scorpion, I will understand, but what will a frog do? It will jump. It is the fear that does the rest. Therefore, you will try to be fearless. This is a habit that we have to acquire – to be fearless. Not that there are no dangers in Life, there are, but these dangers come only if we break the laws of Living Nature. If we are living in harmony with these laws, there is absolutely no danger. Back to the first thing – sleep, it is one important factor for the disciple in the Spiritual School. If you cannot sleep peacefully, you cannot be a good disciple; i.e. you can be a disciple, but not a good disciple of the Spiritual School. Now, regarding sleeping, you will make as many attempts as possible. For example, you will attempt to fall asleep five minutes after you have got into bed. This is not training – this is will power – to be able to fall asleep in five, or ten to fifteen minutes at the most. Today, some of you go to bed excited and start making plans about what they are going to do the following day. So, half an hour to an hour passes by. In addition, this surrounds you with an unhealthy aura. You get up around 2 o’clock in the morning, walk around and say, “It is not working!” In the morning when you get up, you feel indisposed, those hostile feelings overwhelm you, and you look for someone to fight with, so that you can let the feelings out and feel better. If through your will power you manage to fall asleep in five minutes or ten to fifteen at the most, you will get up refreshed and cheerful the following morning, ready to start your work. Sleeping right is the most difficult art – I have experienced it – it is one of the most intricate arts. You may take some sleep medicines, but the goal is to learn to sleep correctly without them. It is an art to still find yourself lying on your right side when you get up if you have fallen asleep on your right side; or, if you have fallen asleep on your left side, to find yourself on your left side in the morning. These days everyone is beginning with the broad aspects of the esoteric science, with the great powers of Nature – we want to have this, we want to have that, with a magic stick like in the fairy tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.” But no one gives a magic stick to those, who have not learned how to sleep. This stick is not in the physical realm; it is up there, in the other world. This stick is your will power, but not the current, common will power that you have. I say, a person, who can hold back their tongue at a given moment, who can hold back their hand at all times, who can hold back their heart or direct their mind from one state to another, this person is stronger than the army general, who has won the biggest battle on the battlefield. As you read the Scripture, you find the same law there. The Brotherhood of Light, the Brothers of Light always pay attention to our acts of self-restraint[*]. Not self-restraint because of fear, no, no, but self-restraint because of Love. Self-restraint because of fear of the law is not a science. You may have self-restraint and you may have it for other reasons, but true self-restraint and patience come when you have self-restraint in accordance with the law of Love. Now, we will learn of course, we have time. I will not talk to you about Love. You will explore this Love in new colours, and new shapes. And maybe these Brothers will give you the opportunity to make a few experiments. Tonight I was walking down the street with a friend of mine. I told him, “I will make an experiment.” I stepped on the sidewalk. There was an officer coming right towards me. There are two ways of passing people in the Esoteric. The first way: I can order him to turn off the road and so he does. The other way is for me to decide for myself, “I will step off the sidewalk.” And so I did to make way for him. At that moment, he stepped off the sidewalk too. I said, this is the right way. Then I stepped back on the sidewalk to let him pass. You will learn to yield according to the law of Love. If someone walks towards you – you will yield, the sacrifice will be on your behalf. The disciple will yield the way – this is a rule in the positive sense of the word. The disciples will yield in the name of Love they will make way. If they make way, their way will be open too. “How you measure others is how you will be measured.” If you measure with the law of Love, this is the measure with which those, who watch from the Invisible world, will reward you. Still, you can achieve this only with good sleep. I do not know how many of you sleep well. Sleeping well will improve your heart’s condition. Sleeping will not improve your body – it will first affect your heart, and your feelings. Food is necessary too. Eating correctly is what provides the material for building up your body. So, if your sleep is normal and correct, eating shall definitely be such as well – it follows the same law. Now, contemporary science makes the following correct conclusions. Science has made the following experiment: people with pure blood, who differ from people with impure blood by the absence of waste deposits and sludge, can withstand whatever microbial organisms they are exposed to; such people do not get sick and do not catch a cold, while people with impure blood get infected very easily. In the Spiritual School, the law is the same: in order for you to be healthy, the flow of your Astral[†] body has to be correct. Jesus has said, “If you do not eat my flesh, and if you do not drink my blood, you do not have life in you.” This flesh and this blood are indeed the rational Word. If the rational Word does not permeate deep through your body, you cannot be good. I have said this before and I will say it again, the power of the rational Word is mighty. I do not remember the author, but there are many things written in English, which present facts about will power. Some of them come from readings from the Gospel and give examples of how people have cured themselves through will power. A woman, who has been sick since she was twelve, read one of these books and the parts talking about how to cure oneself through will power. She said, “Starting today, I am healthy!” She said so, got off her bed, and began working. This is to make an internal change with your Astral body and in your heart. This will power has to be really strong and absolutely without any doubt. In the outside world today, in order to strengthen people’s faith, you have to first present arguments and facts, which have been logically substantiated. In the Spiritual School, the process is reversed; you have to believe first, in order to get clarity on the facts. Consequently, you will apply your faith, and through that faith you will question, explore, and clarify facts. Hence, you will undertake the re-evaluation of all of your old thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions – you will prioritise all of these. You will not discard all of your old thoughts, but you will preserve in yourselves only those thoughts, on which you can always count – thoughts acquired through your life experience. A friend of mine was saying, “I,” he said, “may doubt anything, but I have one such experience that I cannot disown even if they cut me into pieces.” You have to have a central thought; and if you cannot find this central thought now, you cannot be disciples. If you want to acquire this central thought and then become disciples, you will not be able to. I am telling you: each of you has this experience. You will find this thought hidden some place within, and through that central place, you will begin to explain every occurrence in your life. And this, which you acquire now, will be in agreement with that central thought, which will shape your future. But the truths that I will tell you are so simple, that if you make that bargain we discussed, you will look like that rooster, who was digging a pile, dug out a big precious stone, and said, “Was not there one grain instead?” He kicked it, “Was this what I managed to dig out? Was there not something to eat?” For this rooster did not know that if he would sell that precious stone, he could turn it into power, which could render his life with happiness, and supply millions of roosters like him with food. These esoteric truths, which you will be told, are so simple that you will say, “Is there not something more substantial?” Well, I am asking, what is it that is more substantial than Love in Life? There is nothing more substantial than Love, nothing more resilient than Love, and nothing more pleasant and happier than Love. “But we do not know the laws that Love follows.” These pleasant feelings, which you have, appear and disappear; the bright thoughts, which come up in your brain, appear and disappear; why? You think that this is the law. This is not the law, but there are other beings in this world that play with your brain – they push it here and there, play with it, and sometimes when they push it, there comes darkness. You are in a nice mood, a friend of yours comes along and whispers in your ear, “You are so ugly today, you have grown ugly!” Before you know it, it feels as if something pierced through you. So you are walking along, but you feel indisposed. “What is the matter with you? Is someone sick at home – your husband?” “No, no,” you are ashamed to say. “You have grown ugly,” so you believed it. You must have at least one mirror to see if this is a fact. Some even think that they are heroes. Here are what big heroes they are: here, in Sofia, three administrative workers were making a joke with a colleague. They decided to send him on a sick leave, saying, “Today we will make him not work.” The first one met the colleague downstairs and said, “You are so pale. Are you sick?” “No,” but he almost believed it. He just got to the first floor and the second one met him, “You seem very sick to me? What is wrong?” When he climbed the stairs, the third one told him, “You will faint as you are walking.” He then went to his boss and asked for a sick leave. The boss let him go, but when the former figured out what happened, he punished the three people to work on behalf of their colleague. These are facts. For example, you have a thought and you say, “Nothing good will come out of me.” This is like the first one who meets you downstairs. “Nothing good will come out of me. Why am I going this way? Science is not for me.” Both the second and the third one are capable of making you leave school. Once you are walking on the path of God, you might also meet three people, who tell you, “You becoming a religious man – this is not for you!” And then you might drop it. Do not succumb to these temptations! The disciples in the Spiritual School have to know the very Truth, the great Truth, as it is; they have to know the facts as they are in Nature; they have to know the laws, the principles, neither less nor more – to neither exaggerate nor understate them. I want all of you to be valiant, but not ruthless – not to exaggerate or understate your mistakes. You have to note every single mistake as a mistake, and the opposite – every virtue, whatever it is, as a virtue, and we have to all rejoice when we see a virtue regardless in whom we see it. Because Good is Divine, while it is those mistakes that mutilate people’s thoughts. A mistake, regardless of how small it is, has to be noted as such. Another rule in the Spiritual School is that no one has the right to remind a disciple of their past mistakes – this is a crime, notice it! If Nature has once erased it and turned the page, do not go back to that page saying, “Do you know what you did once?” Today the Brotherhood of Light requires this from you as disciples. If God says[‡], “I will erase your sins, I will forget them,” you will not remind others of them. Today disciples often say to each other, “Do you know how much you offended me five years ago?” “And you? Do you know what you told me ten years ago?” Tonight I am talking to you as disciples about what disciples in this School should be like. What you are in the outside world is another thing, for there everything is allowed. In the outside world everything may be allowed, but in this School, in this life, not everything is allowed. So before we go forward, you have to know that if you make these mistakes, you will not achieve huge success. You will be able to achieve success knowing that in the School of the Brotherhood of Light you are not allowed to give promises without fulfilling them. Not promises – once you say it, you do it! You will say, “I will live by the law of Truth,” and you will live by it. At one given point, you say and you do, nothing more. But there is no promise in the future, there is a promise in the current moment – if you say it, you do it, nothing more! The disciples are also not allowed to say what they will do – say it and do it! The Scripture also says[§], “God said and so it was. He said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Everyone will follow this law – once you say, you do! Now, we do not want any promises. We want only one thing from you – to apply the great law of Love, to apply the great law of Truth. Then, every day based on the situation, say it – do it, say it – do it. Do not give any promises! We will not keep you to your word. We do not want to remind you what you have promised, but if you have promised, do it. In the outside world, you can give promises, but we do not want any promises in the School. Promises give only to those people who do not have Love; promises give only to those people who do not have Truth; there is nothing more to it. No promises – this is what distinguishes the School of the Brotherhood of Light, for it has Absolute faith in its disciples, do you understand? Since the School’s existence, there has never been a time when a disciple has been able to lie to their Teacher. There has not been a single case when a disciple has lied to their Teachers. Not a single disciple has allowed himself to lie to the Teachers, but the Teachers have also never allowed the disciple to lie to them. Now you may ask me, “If I get into this School…?” There is not a single case in the history of this School when a disciple, who got in, turned back. Why? For where Love is the principle, there can be no turning back, without any exceptions. All exceptions result from the lack of the first principle – Love, and of the second principle – Truth. If these two principles are not applied, the Wisdom becomes distorted, the human mind becomes distorted, the human heart becomes distorted, and these are now people or individuals outside of the School. Then, as Paul says in that chapter[**], “Whom God called, those he chose.” In other words, there can be no exception. And I do not see the reason why exactly a human would give up walking on this great path of Life, where one can find one’s happiness. You will drop your old concepts. The concept of growing old, the concept of dying, becoming poor, the concept that we are stupid people, that human essence is such and such; you will put these away, close them in your closets and put a sign, “Do not touch.” Those of you, who want to be disciples, will do that. Some ask me, “I am old. Will I be able to do it?” Well, since when have you become old? Some say, “I am young. Will I be able to do it?” Everyone, who has lived in Love, is young; everyone, who has lived in Truth, is young. Everyone, who has lived in Love, is smart; everyone, who has lived in Truth, is smart – this is how it is. The moment you leave Love, you are old – you will feel an internal weakness, no meaning in Life; you will not have a purpose and you will become a pessimist; you will say to yourselves, “There is only death, but…” These are all initial notes. I want you to test them, and then to comprehend them. We will walk on a positive path without exception. You will say, “I cannot go without exception.” Yes, you can, and this is how it will be! This is a great Divine school, where there are absolutely no exceptions, not even one in a million do you understand? The only School, in which there are no exceptions in the world – none. Once you get in, all the Brothers believe in you – their life is like God’s life. When I say “like”, I mean to say that God’s life penetrates through all of them in its Fullness. Moreover, it is without rules or compulsions – everyone knows their roles and everyone adjusts according to them. They have absolutely no written rules, but they all know their roles so well, as if they have established the best organization and the best rules. And if you get in this Brotherhood of Light, you will never know who is who – the first or the last, a master or a servant. If you are among them, you may live together for years and say, “Who is your leader? Who is first among you?” Today, if you walk in a school anywhere in the world, you would know who the leader is. Thus, have in mind: do not think that in the School, where you learn the truths, there is a department and a teacher like me sitting on a table, surrounded by disciples, as you are surrounding me now. It is one thing here, but it is another thing there. You will say, “How so?” When you learn to sleep, you will know how. However, when these truths come to Earth according to the conditions of our current life, we have to look for the ways, methods, and formulas to express these truths, which are currently inaccessible to our minds. Well, they are inaccessible under the current conditions, but they will become accessible. You will have to study Light and its influence over your body system. You will also study the influence of colours and living centres. Let’s take sunlight: everyday at certain hours of the day, at noon, but mostly in the morning, certain waves periodically come from the Sun. They bring positive thoughts – intelligent thoughts from the Sun. There are negative events from the Sun too, which, however, do not bring negative thoughts. I brought to your attention the other day that if you fall asleep in the Sun, your body will definitely attract these negative waves, the so called black light, and you will feel indisposed when you get up. That is why the Esoteric disciple is never allowed to sleep in the daylight – no sleep during the day – you should sleep at night without Sun. You can warm yourselves in the Sun, but your mind will be present at all times, so that you can attract the positive waves of the sun energy. If you start to train your concentration as disciples, the spirits that play with you and make you fall asleep will visit you. You will concentrate without falling asleep. During the concentration, you will do the following: when something says “phoo” like a wave while you are sitting, you will resist it and will not allow yourselves to doze off. This “phoo” is a wave, a black wave that passes through the centre of the Earth, surrounds you and you fall asleep. Once you doze off (in the Sun), you learn nothing. You will not let these waves seize your brain. We will begin to study Light and the days of the year – which days and which hours we can use for work, the ways and methods for strengthening the activity of our brains, for enhancing our breathing energy, for fixing our digestion, etc. We have to start somewhere because you are now impoverished – every person, who is dissatisfied with life is impoverished. The first thing is the disciple has to be satisfied. These here are rules to apply to temperaments. You will practice them. Some of these rules you will practice here, but most of the work we will do in the other world – you will do the work while you sleep. The Scripture says[††], “God speaks during dreams one, two or three times.” He always speaks in dreams – He spoke to Joseph in his dream, to the prophets and people with revelations, and to John when he ascended[‡‡]. If you want to improve your situation, or to know how to fix your life, you need to have one such dream and you will immediately get the best advice on how to improve your life. Now, you can read some of the papers. (Two papers were read.) You will not have enough patience to listen to all of these papers. Some of you have become quite excited about following the School. You should know one thing: those of you, who do not show up three Thursdays, will not be allowed to attend the School in the future – this is for everyone, who is absent three times. Now you will say, “There could be exceptional cases.” Those, who are absent three consecutive times, are the ones who lose their right to attend. Do you now get the inner meaning? It means that if a disciple has forgotten three times that there is School, if that thought has escaped one three times, one is banned from attending. You will have in mind that in this School there is no room for exceptions or benevolence – without exception. This has not been imposed, but once each of you decides, you have to faithfully follow. There is one important law – what you have decided within yourselves, you have to be able to accomplish it. Not what we impose on you, but what you have decided to accomplish; accomplish it! You have to accomplish it; otherwise, all of the science in the world will be useless to you. A person, who promises without carrying it out, is like a leaky container – you can pour in as much as you like, but soon or later, it will all leak outside. We do not want any commitments from you, but once you decide to serve Love, you will be heroes and will say, “You might crucify me, but there is no turning back from this path.” Once you say so, once you are walking on this path, God is with you. The slightest hesitation and you are lost. Do not then be upset with anyone and do not say, “Why has God abandoned me?” In the Spiritual School, things are set the following way: it is not God, who has abandoned us, but it is us, who have abandoned God. And He says[§§], “Since you have abandoned me, I will not be occupied with you.” Of course, I do not consider your presence on Thursdays your only time in the Spiritual School. No, for your whole life is one Spiritual School. If you think that you are in the Spiritual School only on Thursdays, you are wrong. No, no – your whole life is one Spiritual School. Consequently, you will be in agreement with the Spiritual School that you serve – this way you will have results. From this point of view, you will resolve all other matters, regardless of what they are – individual, family, social, or national; you will resolve all matters by yourself, always from this point of view. Now, I will present for voting whether you want us to read through all the sheets. Will you have enough patience for all of the papers to be read? Since they have been written, we have to read them. Then, we will read them all next time. You will learn to have patience, so that you learn to have benevolence. There are valuable and smart things in here. And understandably so, when someone has invested their heart and mind, this is something beautiful. When we love someone, even if they say stupid things, we say, “This is so beautiful!” And when we do not love someone, even if they wrote smart things, we say, “I do not want to listen!” But these here are all smart papers. Now, for next time I want ten of you, who apply voluntarily, to write something on the topic “The Purpose of the Human Language.” So, ten people will write on this topic – five brothers and five sisters. They will start with this evident language – it is the topic. This language was born, and came from some kind of an idea. Let those of you, who will write, raise your hands. (Five brothers and five sisters respond) You will write succinct, one page. Do not be afraid – the moment you start writing you will get on an esoteric wave, for you will get inspiration. No one should be forcing themselves. Everyone should write as much as their inspiration gives them. If the inspiration lasts for ten lines, this is how long you will write. Have in mind that the Spirit in the Spiritual School speaks only the most relevant things. These Brothers do not like to talk too much. Let someone take the initiative to be a secretary or a record keeper – to keep these sheets of papers. Secret Prayer [*] “Vuzdurjanie” in Bulgarian [†] “Astralno tyalo” in Bulgarian – what is meant exactly in English: “Astral body” or “Ethereal body”? It is astral body. (ed) [‡] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [§] Same as the previous note [**] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [††] Please note: the quotes from the Bible are not exact, as they should be if coming from the English version of the Bible, but they are translations from Bulgarian [‡‡] The translator is uncertain if “ascended” corresponds to the specific situation with John [§§] Please note: uncertainty with the translation of God’s words

Беседата на български Note 6 Old and New Life Year 1, Lecture 5 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On March 29, 1922, Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret Prayer Now you want to know what to pray for. This question is similar to asking about the typical characteristics of believers, listeners and disciples. Faith is a characteristic of believers, listening – of listeners and studying – of disciples. Therefore, disciples will pray for their studies. The disciples’ essays we read on the topic of 'Will' and 'The Colour White'. Next time please write on the topic: “The Distinctive Characteristics of Good and Evil.” You should note down the most essential characteristics of Good and Evil, as you understand them. How did you complete the exercise I gave you last week? Did you manage to get up on time, all of you? Everyone should have suggested to himself that he needs to get up on time. All the tasks and exercises given in the Spiritual school should be performed consciously and not mechanically. These tasks and exercises aim at raising the disciples’ level of consciousness; moreover, they should be completed with Love. A disciple will achieve nothing if he does not work in compliance with the Law of Love. He will only make ordinary experiences and achieve ordinary results, which can be achieved in ordinary schools. If Love is in your soul, you will be able to get up on time and you will feel a great joy within. If Love is not in your soul, you will hesitate whether to get up or not, you will think what the weather will be like, etc. Meanwhile, temptations will come and you will need much more time to overcome them. Temptations, doubts and hesitations are weeds in the Astral world. Therefore, when exercises and tasks are given in the Spiritual school, weeds are also awakened together with Life, and these weeds begin to grow and develop. In this sense, weeds are in fact very dangerous for the development of values and virtues in the disciple’s soul. I will use the following analogy to clarify this thought. Imagine that you have planted a little flower close to the roots of a big oak. What do you think, will the flower grow well? It will not. Why? Soon it will wither, because the oak will take all the nourishing juices from the soil together with the sunlight, leaving almost nothing for the little flower. Therefore, keep in mind the fact that the old man who lives inside you together with all your old convictions and views of science and Life represents a big tree inside you similar to the oak. And if you do not move away from the roots of this tree, you will not succeed in any task you take up. Why? The big tree will suck the juices out of your Life. Occultists called this tree “The Tree of Knowing Good and Evil.” Consequently, you should stay away from this Tree, so that you can grow freely and properly. This is what is meant by doing away with one’s karma. Karma is like a tree that has its own demands and wishes, so that it may grow and develop. The tree representing your past life must be uprooted and replaced by a new one. Whoever has tried to uproot this tree knows the meaning of the expression “taking the devil’s nail out of you”. If you try to do it, it will cause you great pain. When you see that it is painful, you will start cutting it. No, whether it is painful or not, you must get rid of this nail, you must take it out of you together with the roots. And it will be your salvation as a human being. If you begin pulling the nail out but then you leave it because of the severe pain, this will cause you even greater pain. Whoever wants to become a disciple should do away with the devil’s nail in one go. I am saying: If you cannot uproot the old tree in your life, at least move away from it. And then plant the New life, the new ideas and thoughts far away from the old ones. Thus, without wanting it, you will have a double standard of living. In this situation you will notice that in the days when you are in high spirits and have noble feelings you are ready to manifest the Great and the Beautiful in you and to tell the Truth; and the other way round - in the days of indisposition you may not even understand how you have said and done unwanted things. And when you remain alone, you are discontent with yourself and wonder how you have succumbed to the temptations. It may happen to both young and old people – it happens to all humans due to the old life in them. When people hear about Truth, they say: “Truth is inapplicable to Life.” This indicates that the Divine life requires advanced souls. Contemporary people cannot serve the Truth of God, because they lag behind in their development. The Lodge of darkness contributed much to this by creating a number of religious systems that delayed the development of human souls but in my view, it is easier to live for Truth than for the world; it is easier to serve God than to serve the world. Many people think that it is easier to live for the world than for God. Why do they think so? Because the world demands its right by force and imposes it by violence, while Divine Truth demands its right by Love and in a voluntary way. As you can see, violence has a much stronger power over humans. They do both good and evil by means of violence. However the method of violence is temporary; its results are fruitless, yet it has brought enormous suffering and misfortune to human beings. As you have not learned to work out of Love, out of free will, you will see that many disciples will leave the Spiritual school in a few years with the excuse that Spiritual science is not for them. A Hindu master went to France to establish a spiritual school. In the beginning five hundred people, who were noble French people, joined the school. But when they heard the rules of the school, they left one by one. Only five disciples remained by the end of the year, one for each one hundred. Why did so many disciples leave the Hindu school? – Because it demanded from them persistence, effort and hard work. Nowadays many people are attracted by the systems of the East and by Hindu teachings. But you should know that many of the Hindu rules and methods do not comply with Living Nature. For example, if Hindu breathing techniques were applied in the West, they would bring negative results. Why? – Because these systems were created during the descent of humanity into the material world, i.e. they are in compliance with the law of involution. And because the Fifth human race began its development according to the law of evolution, i.e. on the Path of ascent, these systems need some transformation in order to be of use today. To clarify this I will give you an example from Hindu philosophy. The Hindus say: “You cannot do without a Master”, i.e. you cannot develop spiritually without a Master. In our view, the Master is a being who thinks. Therefore, we present the same idea in the following way: you cannot do or you cannot develop without bright thoughts. So, if someone wants to study, he or she definitely needs to have bright thoughts in order to be able to аcquire knowledge аnd then the Truth will be the same for both the Master and the disciples. In that sense a talented disciple needs a good Master in the same way that a good Master needs a talented disciple. This law should be applied everywhere in Life. The disciple needs a number of protection rules before joining a spiritual school. For example, on entering the school many disciples begin to complain that they are still young and lack their natural way of living, so one day they leave. This shows a lack of understanding. The Spiritual school aims exactly at teaching young people how to live. Therefore, the Spiritual science has the task of both correcting old people's way of life and teaching young people how to live. It is a law: the old should be rectified, the young should be taught. If the old religious beliefs and the old views of Life emerge in young people, they will hamper them. For this reason young people should be taught how to live properly before they come to such a situation. Many contradictions will appear in both old and young people, but they could easily overcome such contradictions if they knew their origin. The New life and Truth coming to the world will remove all these ailments and contradictions. That is why, when these contradictions emerge in you, you should not be tempted, thinking that the new life and its new ideas are not for you. If you say so, you will pass judgement on yourself. According to the laws of the Spiritual school, the disciple creates one’s fortune or misfortune alone. I will give you a brief explanation of the relative truths in Life. Take the Sun as a point in space. We will direct a lever to it in order to show that the planets of the Solar system are located in a straight line. Imagine that this lever can go around, what will you notice during its rotation? The planets that are more remote from the Sun will go faster; if the lever turns faster, the planets which are closer to the Sun will go slower. According to this law, the faster the motion of a body, the bigger its distance from the centre, and the other way round – the slower the motion of a body, the closer it is located to the centre. But it is just the opposite in our Solar system at present. According to the evolutionary law, all bodies that are close to the centre move faster and those bodies that are remote from the centre, move slower. If you apply this law to religious and worldly people, you will see that it is true. You will notice that worldly people, who do not think of God and do not pray, are more lively, energetic and diligent than religious people. They begin their work right after they get up in the morning. While religious people on getting up in the morning start praying, reflecting, meditating and walking, but they do not start working. Worldly people think that religious people are lazy and unwilling to work. When someone becomes spiritual, actually this person does not want to work or works little. Why? – Because he used to work a lot when he was a worldly man. And today he says: “I have worked enough by now, so this time I can take respite from the toil.” That is why religious people talk about relaxation all the time . I say, humans will come to the state of relaxation one day, but they should not be in haste. Many occultists make a similar mistake when they want to ignore science. They prefer to reject official science completely and to use only their spiritual knowledge. But by rejecting this and that they see that nothing remains in the end. If they think that they have come to the centre of their knowledge, they deceive themselves. Each centre represents a planet on another lever, which is connected to many other systems where movement happens according to completely different laws. One thing is required of the disciples: to be aware of each of their actions in order to put them in the right place. I would like you to be like artists in this respect. There are masters of painting who can make use of any line or trace on the canvas, no matter how crooked it is – they use it as part of some complex figure or take it as a model for an object. You may also try to give some meaning to your thoughts, feelings and actions, using them in the same way that a master uses every dot and line in his work. Therefore, instead of fighting your past, it is better for you to use the experience it has brought to you as a foundation for your future. The second experiment that you will do as part of your given task will be tonight (on Wednesday) and tomorrow evening (on Thursday). Do not go to bed before 12 o’clock at night in order to do the exercise. Set your clocks to show the correct time in order to observe the determined hour. You will start the exercise at 11.30 p.m. and it will last half an hour until 12.00 p.m. The time for the exercise will certainly not correspond exactly to physical time. There will be a slight difference. Try to guess if the time is around 12.00 p.m. or not by following your inner sense. If the time is exactly 12.00, you will feel a small inner joy. If the time does not coincide with your guess, you will feel an inner discomfort. When you start the exercise, first you have to pronounce silently the names of your classmates. Then you should send to each of them in order the following two formulas: “Without Fear and without Darkness!” and “Without Fear in Boundless Love!” In the first experiment you sent good thoughts to each one of your classmates but with some exceptions – several disciples were not precise. When you pray, if you feel inner joy, this means that you have turned to God. Man's turning towards God is similar to the way flowers turn to the Sun. It is enough just to think of God and He will radiate a ray to you which will penetrate into your soul. The rays which emanate from God are essential for the development of human souls in the same way that solar rays are essential for the development of flowers. Disciples of Spiritual schools receive a very different kind of knowledge and understanding of God compared to that acquired by ordinary people. Humans always need to give God some shape or form. But I am asking you, what form can you give to Light? Light itself creates forms. How does it create forms? When Light encounters some obstacle, it creates a certain form. Therefore, if you want Light to create some form, place an obstacle in its path. If you make the media of your thoughts thinner or denser, these thoughts will be immediately refracted. It is important for disciples to understand their relationship to all of Life, their participation in the Great Divine life, their destination and their tasks as humans and as beings who have come to Earth to live. When a disciple becomes aware of all this, he or she will be able to fulfill his or her own destiny. The conditions and possibilities available in your present life give you only one path of proper development. Future conditions, life in the future will bring human beings more ways to develop properly. Divine Love is the only proper way in which human beings can develop. It gives them the possibility to grasp the highest and the noblest in Life and to love one another in its name. People today love one another in an external way, but that is not love. Loving people means loving what is noble and Divine in them. Until you find that Divine element inside you and start loving it, you cannot love other people either. All suffering and all contradictions in the world are due to the fact that you seek Truth and Love outside of yourselves. First you will discover them inside you, afterwards in others, and finally you will find them in the external environment as well. When two beings become aware that they have a common Divine source within themselves, they already know each other, they have two, three, four or more points of contact, and they form planet systems. That is why, if you look for the Divine inside you and inside others, you will not need to dwell on the trivialities of ordinary life. I will draw a picture now that illustrates your inner state. Imagine a magnificent feast in a big, rich palace where many guests are eating, drinking, singing and rejoicing. The main entrance of the palace is closed because all the guests who have been invited to the party have arrived. However the palace also has a back door which is only used for the closest friends of the host. The host has promised to one of his friends to converse with him. What should he do in this case? He should leave the guests in the palace to have a jolly time and go out from the back door in order to talk with his friend, undisturbed by anyone. This means the following: when the beings in you are feasting, drinking and enjoying themselves, do not pay attention to them, but rather leave them alone and go out from the back door where no one will see you, so that you may converse with your good Friend. The feast and the entertainment of your guests should not bother you. You should not worry that they may learn about your conversation with your Friend. They will not even notice that you are not with them. If you want to go out unnoticed, offer them more food and more drinks and they will forget themselves. If you wish to get rich, this means that you want to send all your guests away, you want to be alone, so that you may freely go in and out from the back door to converse with your Friend in secret. Some disciples delude themselves in their wish to get rich at once. That is why they say to their guests: “Today I have an appointment with a friend, come next time.” When they say this, the obstructions follow one after the other. Leave your guests to feast and drink, do not turn them back. So what if they feast and drink? In this way they will keep busy and will not disturb you. Otherwise, requiring this and that of you all the time, they will not leave you in peace. These guests represent the world in the human being. Irrespective of how connected you are with the world and what may happen to it, this should not concern you in the least. The world should not hinder you. You have a back door and you can always go out from there. The main entrance is usually closed, but the back door is always open. You may go in and out from this exit whenever you wish to. I am asking you the following question: “What is your purpose in life?” This will be a topic for reflection until our next lecture. Since you are young people, I would also like you to get rid of your pessimism. Absolutely no pessimism shall remain in you! Be lively, bold, determined and have a serious attitude to Life! When dark, obscure thoughts and wishes attack you, say to yourself: “This state is not mine. It is due to the guests in me who are discontented, because they have nothing to eat and drink.” You will always be discontented if you live with old ideas and views, if you maintain the ideas of your grandparents. Each time an old man asks for something and does not receive it, he gets offended. He says: “What is this, I am an old person, I want something, yet my wish is not fulfilled!” In this respect young people do not need external help. They are able to plough, dig and carry water – they can do everything alone. Since they can do everything for themselves do they need to worry and be troubled by trifles? However old people who cannot do anything alone are usually cross with those who do not help them at a given moment. Therefore, if you want to avoid the state of being cross and offended, think that you can do everything alone. When I say that you can do things alone, I have in mind the Law of Love. Everything is possible in Love. Those who live in the Law of Love can do everything and will always be young. When they lose Love by leaving Its law, they get old and need external help. Make an attempt to apply this law, in order to see that it is true without exception. Have a reflection on the arrangement of the world in the Great Law of Love. Once upon a time, the prophet Elias slaughtered four hundred prophets, believing that he could liberate Israel, but he did not succeed. He was not frightened by his deed but by a woman and so he escaped. Then he had to go to the desert to complete a forty-day fast and after that he was shown the way in which the world had been organized. He spent some time in the mountain among the rocks where a big storm began and then a fire emerged, but God was neither in the storm, nor in the fire. Finally he heard a quiet voice, i.e. the voice of Love, the voice of God. Just then the prophet understood that human beings could be perfected only by the quiet voice. The storm represents the method used by contemporary people. The storm represents the modern life of people. The fire represents the suffering experienced by human beings. However the world cannot be arranged properly by means of storm or fire. The storm can destroy rocks and uproot trees, but in no way can it organize the world. When Elias heard the quiet voice, he closed his eyes and understood the deep meaning of this voice. Now I am also directing your attention as disciples to the quiet voice – to see what it can do. Until today you wished to be strong like the storm and the wind, so that you may show others who you are and what you can do, but we want to teach you how to speak quietly and to see what you can do in a quiet way. You should keep in mind the following: do not tell others anything until you have studied and tested it well for yourself! Do not offer anyone from the fruits of your tree until they have ripened. Until then you do not know anything for certain either. After the disciple has sowed the seed and the fruit has ripened, he should bring the fruit first to his Master and only then - wherever else he wants to. The disciples should bring their first fruits to the Master. They could bring the rest to any other place and in whatever quantity they want to. However if you hasten to bring others unripe fruits, tasted and examined by no one, you will be confronted with a number of contradictions. So, do not hurry to tell others about things you haven't experienced or tested for yourself! They will probably listen to you without making a comment, but they will secretly judge you anyway. They will say: “How strange! What kind of meaningless things people occupy themselves with!” Thus they will introduce a conflicting thought into your consciousness. You have been experiencing such situations for thousands of years, since you have started living on Earth. Is it reasonable to experience them again? The aim of this School is to give you methods and rules of transforming your old life into a new one – something that alchemists teach as well. They also taught people how to become young. For this purpose they made a series of experiments with them, applying many different methods. For example, they would close an old person hermetically and subject him to different chemical reactions. As a result of these reactions that old person would become young and regain power and energy for work. You will also be closed hermetically in order to become young but it will happen in the future, not in the present. Go home now without fear and without darkness! What thought will you send to yourselves tonight? Make a wish deep in your heart that true knowledge would penetrate into your mind and consciousness. Perform these exercises in the best way possible because your power lies in the exercises you complete. Without exercises, all your efforts will be fruitless. Someone may ask why he should do the exercise at 12.00 o’clock at night and not at 1.00 a.m. You should not concern yourselves with this. You should get up at the stipulated time, reflect for half an hour and write down precisely the thought you have sent to your classmates. For this purpose you should have a notebook or a pocket book handy to note the progress and the results of the exercises. Suppose that one of you is sent somewhere in Bulgaria to start an occult class. What will he do? If he does not know a lot, he will search for some methods and rules in books. He will open for example the book “Light on the Path” and start reading: “Eliminate all your wishes!” I am asking you, what will remain of you if you eliminate all your wishes? It is the wrong translation of an occult truth; occult truths cannot be translated literally. The elimination of your wishes is not a physical act of murder but actually means you turning to God. If a thought, a feeling or a wish of yours goes down to the Earth, make it go the other way – upwards. When someone wants to get his money back from a person who owes him money, if that person does not want to pay, he goes to him and starts threatening him with court or with death. This is violence! What would he win if he sued his debtor or killed him? As he is walking and thinking his thought suddenly takes a different direction and he says: “I am not going to sue or kill this person but talk to him in a friendly way.” As soon as he sends his thought upwards, he achieves his aim and get his money back. In the same book “Light on the Path” we read the following: “Only the person whose tears have ceased to flow from his eyes will find the Truth.” I am asking, what will happen to the Earth if all springs dry up? Therefore this thought hasn't been translated properly either. That is why when you study spiritual science you should look for the hidden inner meaning of each truth. Others say: “You can only find the Truth if your tears cease to flow from your eyes and your feet get washed in blood.” People who read these sentences think that they have understood a lot but these symbols need a deep inner translation. Only such deep inner understanding can bring benefit to a person. That is why this book should be translated thoroughly; all the rules in it should be carefully filtered and carded. This book is like uncleaned wool that should be carded and picked thread by thread, so that you may separate what is clean from what is unclean, shake the dust off and then offer pure and high quality food to your mind. It contains expressions and formulas from both the Astral and the Mental worlds, but when these are brought down and put in the language of the physical world, they create a confusing mixture - something like onion stew from the point of view of modern culinary art. People often receive information about different diets and foods in an intuitive way. For example, some mediums recommend that you should drink wheat juice but they themselves do not know what is hidden in wheat and whom to recommend it to. Only people with a disposition that resonates with the energy of wheat should drink that juice. Take anything – oats, leeks or anything else – it is good to be attuned to the energies of the respective food. That is the inner meaning of nourishment in general terms. You should know this and apply it in your life. Without knowledge you will always come to a number of disappointments and wrong interpretations. For example disciples often encounter the following delusion: people claim that spiritual science is not appropriate for young people. This is not true. In my view exactly the opposite is true. Why? Young people have stronger personalities than the old. In this respect poor, ordinary people are stronger than rich, learned and religious people. These people are poor and ordinary just in their appearance, but inwardly they are like rich fields of well-ploughed and processed land. That is why in this age beings from the Higher realms incarnate mainly in poor, ordinary persons. This is not an absolute rule, but it is observed in most cases because in such way the Invisible world intends to elevate weak, poor and ordinary people in the world. Therefore, High beings incarnate mostly in poor and ordinary people, while lower beings incarnate mostly in rich and learned people. Consequently, the stronger spirits dwell in young people today and they are the ones that should study spirituality. That is why they stay away from churches. They are brave, determined and break away easily from the old forms. Old people are discontented with the young, they scold them and stand in their way. However young people should be really very careful, because the Lodge of darkness has prepared many traps for them. Its aim is to catch them and keep them in slavery which is hard to escape. Many old people show that they do not understand Life properly when they say to the young: “We were young like you before, but we got old. You will also get old one day and you will also put up with the conditions of Life.” Which life do they have in mind? - A life that is full of mud, alcoholism, robberies and murders. When you encounter it, say to yourselves: “We know this way of living, we have experienced it before, it is not new for us. Now we want to study the New life, which we do not know.” Those who think in this way are young; those who don't are old. Young and old age are determined not by the number of years, but by a person's way of thinking. I say, the most important thing for you is to help one another. The New teaching expresses itself in mutual aid. When someone is indisposed, you should support him with your good thoughts and wishes. How do modern people behave in such cases? When they see a young person who is discouraged and disheartened, they try to convince him to go and get some entertainment in order to feel better. This is a delusion. You should know that the world is not just a place for entertainment. Life does not have only one expression. Each soul carries its own happiness lodged inside it. If you live according to the Great Law of Love, when you enter the world that is not prepared for this law, you will provoke conditions for the manifestation of egoism, i.e. of the human ego in the strong individuals around you. But in other conditions, among advanced souls, Love will create a beautiful world, a world of elevated and pure relationships. Nowadays, contemporary people have little inner light in them, so they are forced to protect and lock themselves, considering that their position in the world is dangerous. Indeed all human beings today are locked up inside. Many spiritual disciples think that they are weaker than others. It is not true. Power is not an external feature. You should be brave and determined. And always keep in mind this sentence: “The soul is all powerful, but the flesh, the animal nature in humans is weak.” The Divine in the human being is always strong, but its animal nature is exposed to temptations, weaknesses and failures. Christ said: “Work and pray not to fall into temptation!” You say: “We are young now, how will our life continue?” If you follow the Divine path, your life will evolve in a beautiful way. If you deviate from this path, you’d better go to the graveyards, hospitals, coffee bars, war fields and among the bankrupt traders to see what would happen to you. However, as long as you follow the Path of the Brotherhood of Light, you will be protected from any evil. If sometimes the White Brothers do not assist you, it is because you cannot always use rationally what they give to you. Here is an example of this. Suppose that you have a friend who is a drunkard. From time to time you get some money from the Brothers. But when you receive it, you bring it to your friend. How will he spend it? He will go to an inn to have a drink. In this case, both you and your friend will not win anything. What will the benefit of your help be then? That is why the Brothers of Light will cut your budget and you will suffer. Why will you suffer? Your friend should not drink. The person who wants something from you in order to satisfy some of his vices is not your friend. Only the one who is ready to make a sacrifice for your elevation is your friend. The New teaching demands sacrifice not through extortion or violence, but in a voluntary way. Only sacrifice out of Love and Good will is appreciated in the Brotherhood of Light. You ask: “When are our Brothers ready to help us and to make a sacrifice for us?” When someone has a strong aspiration in his soul to become a disciple of the Great School, then the Brothers of Light are ready to make a sacrifice for him, to help and to guide him. If you ask your helper: “Are you ready to sacrifice yourself for me?” – He will immediately drop a curtain before you and stop his aid. Therefore, everything depends on your attitude – the attitude of the Brothers of Light to you is the same as your attitude is to them. Knowing this, you should lay your relationships with them on good ground if you want to receive their aid and guidance. Whatever you build each day will be examined stone by stone and if it is solid and clean, it will be used as a building material for the Divine edifice, which you are also called into as collaborators. Secret Prayer Source

The First Obligation of the Disciples (4th Lecture of the General occult class, March 15, 1922, Sofia) Before we proceed to read that which you have written, I wish to make a few short remarks. The knowledge which you can receive in a school of the occult will affect not only your present but also your future lives, for thousands of years to come. Every school of the occult or Great divine school of the occult is accompanied with great difficulties. It is not easy to become a disciple of such a school. You may go along in such a school as ascatechunen. A disciple is only he who can deal with the problems of this school as a mathematician who fully understanding the rules of mathematics uses then to solves his problems, or, as a musician knowing the technique and the theory of music; is able to cope correctly with the exercises of his instrument. The disciple must be aware always about his position in the school. He should not keep any illusions. The first rule of the school of the occult is: the disciple must have great humility, not submissiveness, but meekness, realizing the great idea that the eternal, the boundless cannot be contained in that which is limited. He should not be tempted to think that in such a small head, in such a snail brain he can collect all the secret knowledge. Tor the present this is impossible. Comparison has been made that the human brain has a great capacity to collect much knowledge. This comparison is the following: if we collect all the present knowledge it may be contained in 90 volumes as large as the bible and print it in the human brain, there will remain still space for 900 more of such volumes. Thus, calculate 90x900 and you will have the proportion 1:10. This indicates that man has not achieved half of the knowledge for which his brain has the capacity. The disciple of the school of the occult must realize where his place is. He must know that the disciples of the lowest grades are different than those of the highest in the knowledge, i.e. that their knowledge and power are nothing compared with that of the advanced disciples. In one respect man may know much and in another may be ignored. This should discourage you but he who wants to learn must be aware of it. I will repeat again the idea, that people become old only when they think that they know much. He who wants to become old this is the easiest thing. On the day (when) you come to think that you have finished learning everything you have aged. In order to rejuvenate you must think that you know very little and like a child you will become receptive. Such an aging I call premature. For this reason I wish that all in this school are young. In order to be young you must think that only now you begin to study the great divine teaching. The teaching which the world gives is an introduction to the divine teaching. Then you finish all schools of the world: elementary school, junior high, high school, after that college, and even after that you get your master’s degree and become the most educated man, this is only an introduction to the divine knowledge, which you must start learning. Therefore, if you have acquired this introduction you can become a good student of the divine school. For this reason I recommend you to gain of the worldly knowledge as much as possible. Some people say that they do not need worldly knowledge. If you lack this knowledge you cannot achieve the divine knowledge. If the worldly knowledge is difficult for you, the divine knowledge is thousand times more difficult. The fee for one of the modern colleges is $4,000/yn. yet to study in one of the divine schools you may not be able to enroll even if you would pay $8,000 or $10,000 or $20,000 or $100,000 or one million or even 100 million dollars. Do you understand that? If the question is about money this cannot be achieved with paying any amount. In a divine school you will pawn your heart, your mind and your will. Then you will pay for you heart and your mind in order to show what a hero you are. You will keep your will but your heart and your mind you will pawn. This is the reason why in Scripture it is said: "My son, give me your heart." You ought to pawn your heart Naturally this is not pawning as it is understood in worldly life, any school of the occult you must approach with respect and reverence. It is an inner process. You cannot be undisciplined there. If one enters there he must do this with all the nobility of his heart and mind. One must be aware that this is the greatest and most noble work. Upon the knowledge, that is the building materials which he will gain, will rest his happiness, because upon this knowledge, he will build his future life, his future home. One may ask, "Is this not possible without this knowledge." No, it is not. You may enter it with awareness or not, yet all will pass through this divine school and will finish it. Some are aware that they have entered the school and others have entered without being aware of it, without knowing. The religious people say "We do not need much knowledge, we can go by without this school." This indicates that they will go through this school without awareness. Those who have fear will be lead over a bridge by night so that they may not be afraid. Those without fear will pass the bridge by day. The fearful need to have their eyes covered. If someone asks "Is this not possible without this school?" I say it is possible with covered ayes, and also without this cover. One of the rules says we do not require much. True, very little is required. Each disciple is expected to give one hour of his time each day. Seven days, one hour a day, is seven hours work, and this time which you would otherwise waste is the time which you will dedicate for study. This hour you will dedicate consciously for love’s sake. Again I wish to repeat that if you work without love you cannot profit. The rule in the divine school says that the knowledge must be acquired according to the laws of love. If you acquire knowledge without love it will not bring you any profit. Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians says: "Whatever I do if it is without love I gain nothing." If we do it with love we gain. In this school of the occult you will become acquainted with all the religious systems, situations, laws, why did the religions appear, by what conditions, etc. This tray there will be no misunderstanding: if we are on the right or on the wrong side. From the occult point of view we think about right and wrong differently. According to the understanding of the occult school contemporary law is lawlessness. Someone may say: Isn't there law? Law! Your law from the viewpoint of the occult is lawlessness, Therefore, in order to have a correct understanding of the great divine evolution of things, we must have that true knowledge, true understanding and only then we will be able to examine the questions philosophically. We are not afraid of questions. Some questions we can solve very easy, others will have to remain without answers. Why? Because in every school of the occult each question must be treated at its proper time and not when the time is not right. There are questions which have not been asked at the proper time. There has been asked: "Is there a God or isn’t there?" This, too, is a question not asked at the proper time, because for me, since I live at the same time in this and in the other worlds, and commute with all these angels, if I am asked: "Are there any angels?" I keep quiet. Someone will try to convince me that this is nonsense, I keep quiet again, because I can see what is the nonsense. Then someone may ask if I can see all this. As much as he has the right of doubting I too have the right to be doubtful about his understanding (concepts, comprehension). Two equal quantities with opposite directions do invalidate each other (mathematics). In a different question is if someone asks how one should live, how life may be improved; such questions the school of the occult can answer. How to renew our life, how to improve our mind, how to purify our hearts, how to develop our spiritual powers, all this can be answered, and the proper methods be given. Those who enter the school of the occult must realize that they are disciples and the disciple must be without prejudice. He must be pure like a clean garment. Only the old people who have lived long on earth say: A man must not be naive. From the viewpoint of the occult we prefer to be naive in certain respects. And thus everyone of you must part with his prejudices. And of that which has been taught does not give the proper results, he may make his own conclusion. Only small, microscopic experiments will be made, we don’t need to do great things. I will tell you to plant one grain of wheat and then I will ask you if it has come out. Yes, it has. Then, how much did it yield, has it ripened? Is this seed real? Because what happens with one seed happens also with 10 million such seeds. Yet we will not expect immediate results. Someone, when he enters the school of the occult may think that he will draw aside the curtain, and at once everything will improve. He who thinks that the curtain will be opened at once, I would want to warn him not to waste his time. This must be understood. I don’t want anyone to become disillusioned. If you expect great things I may advise you where to go. There you can achieve the great things. First, we will proceed to study basically modern man such as he is to learn about his present state with the powers which develop in his organism which reveal themselves in his mind, work in his heart and become realized in his will. After we have studied man in this way we will proceed in a different field, which is wider and more pleasant. The study of man is in one respect pleasant and in another unpleasant. When we study the positive properties of man it is pleasant, yet when we study the negative ones it is very unpleasant. It is difficult to come to know man. You will find yourself in a school of the occult where all positive and negative sides of your character will be disclosed to you as in a mirror, to see your own thoughts. At such an examination your temperature will fall to 35 centigrades below zero, you will freeze completely; you will lose all the desire to live. For this reason in old times many disciples have lost their minds. Yet we will not do this. In a school where much is given one may come out either with a great mind or he will lose his mind, it is like gambling. The method which we will apply here is one of the least dangerous. Yet when I say it is not dangerous don't think that you may pass easily. Here, too, you will pawn your heart and your mind. There are all kinds of cupboards and keys, and every day when you say "I want back my heart," you will be able to pen them yourselves, when you would want and take your mind and your heart; the other way, where one has made great achievements, it would be indifferent. Then, when you complete the school, the Great Master will come and He Himself will open. And, if you ask me about all these modern men who are mentally sick why they are in such a state, I would answer: they are pupils of such schools which they have not completed. At the beginning you will, implant in your mind the idea that you must complete the school, in whatever way. Religions say: "We must fulfill the will of God." We say: "The earth is a school and we must finish this school in anyway." Silent Prayer. Source

Беседата на български Note 3 Qualities and Manifestations of the Will Year 1, Lecture 4 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On March 15, 1922, Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Silent Prayer Essays were read on the topic: "The Place of the Will". For next time, write a summary of this topic. On my part I will speak scientifically about what the will represents from a phrenological point of view. In your essays you dealt with the question about the will from a psychological point of view. For next time, I would like three people among you to write something about the origin of the color white. Examine this question from a naturalistic point of view, as it appears in nature. I will suggest to you an idea of what the color white represents. Imagine that on a white canvas you make a hole. What do you see from a distance? From a distance, the hole looks like a black spot. This means that everything which is not illuminated appears black, dark. And vice versa - if on a black canvas one made a hole and illuminated it, it would look like a white, bright spot. What can a white surface be compared to? Тhе оld scholastics compared the human brain to white paper that you can write on. Now we will examine the qualities and manifestations of the will. The will manifests itself in three worlds: the mental world, the world of the heart (i.e. the world of feelings and desires, or the astral world) and the physical world. The term 'will' implies a process of limitation. Imagine that you are a wealthy, prodigal man and you spend a lot - 50,000 or 60,000 or 100,000 leva. You run out of money so you turn to friends here and there asking for money, but they all refuse to lend you any, so finally you decide to reduce your expenses. You will turn inward and try to find the source and the means inside yourself - you will start having less food and drink, dressing more modestly, etc. You can achieve this only by applying your will. Therefore with the help of your will you can get smaller and larger, i.e., contract and expand. The first process that the will starts with is restriction. Without restriction, the will cannot manifest. Above all, the will represents strictly defined movement in consciousness, i.e. inclination in consciousness. Therefore, as long as things are not restricted, no inclining or movement could happen. As soon as things are restricted in a narrow space, movement itself will follow. Yet from a purely phrenological point of view, not all people have an equally well-developed will. Therefore, one needs to be familiar with the qualities of the will in order to know which will is strong and which one is weak. Besides, one has to know which will is cultivated, i.e. educated, elaborate, and which one is simple, i.e. natural. Now, as students of an occult school, you have to be acquainted with the indications of the will. As with everything else, the will also has its indications in the body. For example, can you expect any philosophical thinking from a man whose forehead is only two centimeters wide? A man's forehead needs to be at least four centimeters wide in order for him to be able to think. Knowing this, many of your illusions in life will disappear. If you live with illusions, with misconceptions, and yet occupy yourselves with the occult sciences, you will run into a lot of jeopardy. Why? If someone thinks of himself as a man of genius, the occult will make him understand that he is not and he will become discouraged. The disciple has to know that genius is in him in the state of an embryo, like the germ inside the seed, and that time has to pass until it germinates, develops, and manifests itself. Consequently, there are men of genius who are in the process of growing, and there are also those who are already fully grown. And so, if you say about a man that he demonstrates genius, this means that he has completed his growth and is manifesting already. In simple, uneducated people, genius is in an embryo state. A long time needs to pass before the genius in them manifests. In general, every one hundred years, a man of genius is born in the world. Every one thousand years a saint is born. Every two thousand years a great master is born. Every year a talented man is born. Every day a common man is born. Every hour a foolish man is born. Therefore, he who hurries, who wishes to attain things with the speed of the hours, falls in the category of the foolish people. He who counts the hours when he studies about God, is foolish. He who counts the days, falls in the category of the common people. Therefore common people are born under common conditions. In general, people need to work in order to develop their will. For this purpose they have to have certain methods, certain rules. According to human understanding, only he who has a strong will is physically strong and can cope with the difficulties of life. When you meet such a person, he immediately draws his sword. Thus he tries to show that he is a man with a strong will who copes easily with life's difficulties. When the writer takes the pen in his hand, he manifest his will. This indicates that he can work. Unlocking his cash register, the shopkeeper displays his will. Money represents a stimulus in people's lives. Reaching for bread in his sack, the poor man also displays his will. When opening the book and starting to read, the learned man manifests his will. Upon entering the laboratory, the chemist manifests his will. Therefore there are many different incentives in life that make will manifest itself. That is why when looking at his head, one should be filled with faith, not discouragement, knowing that he has something he can rely on. One should feel brave and resolute like the soldier who, upon touching his sword, relies on its sturdiness, knowing that he can work with it. First of all, you ought to have faith in yourselves, in your mind, knowing that you can work with it. Secondly, you have to have faith in your heart as an emblem of your feelings, believing that it can withstand all difficulties and suffering. Finally, you have to have faith in your stomach, knowing that it can process the food which it has been given, and send the necessary nutrients to the whole organism. You have to have faith also in your hands and your feet, knowing that you will be able to work with them and go wherever you desire. The head, heart, stomach, hands and feet represent a talisman in a person's life that he can rely on. The head can solve all problems. For this reason, one has to protect one's brain so that it does not become demagnetized. In times of great disturbances, the brain can lose its power. The reasons for such a shock to the brain can be of emotional, intellectual, or physical nature. We have such an example with a certain Russian violinist who, upon hearing a famous violinist play, instead of becoming inspired, became discouraged. This means that high mountain peaks need to stand at a distance away from big cities and not cast shadows on them. In other words big authorities, great men should keep away from common people in order not to cast their shadow upon them, not to impede their progress. A person can rely on a man with authority to become inspired; the latter should awaken the former's mind without limiting him at the same time. If in the presence of a learned man you cannot think freely, this learned man cannot be an authority for you. Only God can be the true authority for people. In spite of that, He has hidden Himself so that He cannot be found - from time immemorial people keep searching for Him and still cannot find Him. If you were asked now where in the body the will was located, what would you answer? Just like you know that the brain is in the head and is the place of thought, the lungs and the heart - the place of feelings, in the same way you should know where in the body the will is located. The more a person feels, the more he expands. It has been noticed that when a person is sad, he sighs deeply. Therefore a person's sensitivity is hidden in the lungs. That is why in order for sorrow to be balanced out, one has to breathe deeply. Reactions and obstacles happen in the stomach. A person's will is expressed in his hands, feet, tongue, eyes, ears. Generally, the senses are places of the will. The will acts and manifests through them. In a painter the will expresses itself through the brush. In a public speaker the will expresses itself first through thought and then through the tongue. Therefore the will can enter any part of a human and guide him from there. In that sense the will is the external, i.e. manifested, objective aspect of Creation. And so every external body part is related to services or functions which are executed internally. For example the forehead is the expression of thought, the nose - of the feelings, the chin - of the will. The same distribution of functions is marked also on the fingers of the human hand: the first phalange of the thumb is the expression of the will, the second one - of the human mind, and the third one - of the feelings. It has been noticed that when the will starts to weaken, one folds his hand in a fist, i.e. he hides his thumb with the other fingers. When someone starts to lose weight, he clenches his fist, i.e. hides the thumb between the other fingers. When one goes insane, he holds the fingers of his hand open. A person who keeps his thumb always on top, over his fist, is someone with a strong will. The human fist is like a hammer that you can work with. That is why you should consciously avoid hiding your thumb between you other fingers. Once you start hiding your thumb, you become demagnetized. Therefore, keep your thumb always over the fist, over the other fingers. Only then do the centers in the head connected to the thumb awaken. The thumb is the most important finger in the human hand. It stands out everywhere. Without the thumb, the other fingers have no meaning either. In the presence of the thumb all other fingers gain meaning. You need to work on the shape of your thumb. When the shape of the thumb is beautiful, you will be able to influence your will in a positive way. When you study the pathological actions of the human will, you will notice that the first phalange of the thumb in criminals is small and rounded. Such people may not be criminals today, but carry the traces of their crimes from previous lives. When one's will develops properly, the first phalange of the thumb grows; when the mind develops well, the second phalange grows. In this respect, a person's thumb is a barometer by which one can judge the development of his will. You would ask: Is it possible for a person's thumb to grow in the space of a single lifetime? Of course it is possible. If in the space of a lifetime someone's thumb grows by half a millimeter, that person has made great progress. If you work consciously, within a few years only you can notice that your nose or your thumb has become prolonged. If the first phalange of the thumb is very long, such a person is self-willed. The second phalange should normally be longer than the first one. This indicates that the mind has dominance over the will. Also the third phalange, the area of feelings, needs to be broad. The will represents the physical aspect of a human being. If the will predominates, such a person is considered stubborn, self-willed. Once he decides upon something, right or wrong, he does not give up, by all means he will do it. Pride is a prevailing characteristic of such a person. He thinks that he cannot make mistakes. Whatever he says is right. It is usually the intelligent and educated people who are flexible, while the ordinary, uneducated ones are self-willed. One can try and train one's will in small things. For example, say to yourself that you want to get up exactly at four o'clock in the morning and see if you will succeed. If you say that you will get up at four in the morning, temptation will come immediately and you will say to yourself: "Who gets up so early in such cold weather? It is very cold outside and I may catch a cold." No, once you say that you will get up at four o'clock in the morning, you will get up, get dressed quickly and walk around the room. If you do that there will be no danger of catching a cold. Many students of the occult do not succeed because they cannot concentrate. While a disciple is concentrating, his thought must pass unobstructed from one state to another. A person who cannot concentrate falls asleep and his consciousness descends into a lower field. In this descent the pictures which one could see get interrupted. This kind of falling asleep happens due to beings who try to induce a state of sleep in people, in order to prevent them from seeing more. Knowing this, people should consciously try not to fall asleep. As soon as they start to concentrate, most people fall asleep because they have many enemies who deliberately hinder them, causing their consciousness to descend to a lower level than the one it was at. As these beings start suggesting certain thoughts to people, the latter start falling asleep and fall in their adversaries' hands. Therefore, no falling asleep is allowed to those who wish to concentrate. They have to be silent and calm, and not think about the outcome. Nature Loves perseverance, consistency, and not capriciousness. Do not think that you can subordinate Nature to yourselves. This is impossible. If people harmonize with Nature and approach her with sincerity and consistency, she gives them exactly what they need. Be like the student who persists before his teacher, who studies and is always prepared to do any sacrifice. When the student perseveres, the teacher is also ready to give. Nature acts in the same way. Once it sees that people are prepared to sacrifice everything, she too is well disposed to give. If people are self-willed, she also deprives them of whatever they want from her. Therefore, if a person receives 99 refusals to the fulfillment of a good wish and still continues persisting, only then can he be said to possess a strong will. And finally, after the hundredth attempt, he will prevail. Now, in this life, you have a number of karmic obstacles which you have to overcome. Some of you have greater obstacles, others - smaller ones, but with the help of your willpower you will be able to overcome them more or less easily. When they arrive at certain situations, some people get discouraged and give up working. They justify themselves with the fact that they are still young and need to live it up. One day when they are old, they will think about this matter. If they still do not succeed, they will postpone everything for another lifetime. No, start working now without any postponement. If you put things off for the future, you will run into the same law. Start working consciously, with self-restraint and not self-torment. Free yourselves of all that hinders you in life. Work for the attainment of that which you are lacking. And so, when you work on your will, you will first learn how to manage your physical selves, the body; then you will learn how to control your feelings, and finally - your thoughts. You have to direct your will purposefully in that direction. Only in this way will you manage to recreate your body and bring the necessary elements to it to make it stronger and more conscious; only in this way will you increase the endurance of you feelings and the power of your thoughts. All of you who choose to enroll in this class should set aside two positive hours for work out of the twenty-four-hour period of the day. It could be one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. During these two hours, send yourselves one positive wish for the reinforcement of your will. For the time being, it will be sufficient to set aside two hours one day of the week only; it could be any day you like. And then, when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed, turn to your inner selves silently and calmly, making sure you are in a harmonious state of mind, and make a positive wish for yourself. After that, send a positive thought to everyone in the class. Your success in this work will depend on the good disposition of your heart and mind. Nothing can be achieved without the right mindset. So let's do a small experiment - keep sending positive thoughts to everyone in your class during these two hours. You will start with small experiments and gradually proceed to bigger ones. If a student cannot write the first letter of the alphabet and later on the second, third etc. so that he can combine them in syllables and words, he will never learn how to write a whole sentence. You will do the same with your classmates. Imagine everyone personally, place their image on the screen of your inner mind and get in touch with them through your positive thought. Rest your thought on each person for some time in the same way that you water your plants each morning and evening. When you water your garden, you take a watering can and walk from plant to plant in a successive fashion. In esoteric science, however, one is not allowed to water plants with a hose. It is easier to water flowers with a hose but the results are not good. Walking from plant to plant with a watering can is slow, you lose more time, but the results are excellent. Therefore you should use 10 seconds for each student, half a minute at most. Should you use a whole minute for each student, you will get tired. The experiment should be done in good spirits with no fatigue. Whatever positive wish you send to yourselves you should also send to the others. This will polarize your will. Once you have trained yourself sufficiently in concentration, you can do this experiment for longer periods of time as well - you could spend two, three, up to five minutes on each person - according to your ability. It is important to avoid any impatience, any desire to finish with the experiment sooner; in that case spend no more than ten seconds on each person. Now, which day of the week would you like to choose for the exercise? (-Thursday). This means that tomorrow morning between five and six o'clock, and in the evening between eleven and twelve o'clock you will do the exercise. Do not go to bed before you have finished the exercise. You need to be alert in order to perform it well. For now, promise that you will do the exercise this week only. After that, you will promise to continue with it for the next four weeks and later - for a whole year. It is good to begin on a small scale and gradually increase it. Some people promise to continue doing something for a lifetime but end up doing none of it. Q:(What thought should we send?) Whatever you wish for yourselves. When you become still and peaceful during concentration, the thought will come by itself. Whatever thought comes to your mind, write it down. The thought will be short and clear. You may not manage to express the thought very well, but it doesn't matter. The right intention is what matters. When a child has the desire to draw, his desire is proper but it hasn't found the right expression yet. One day it will. When you project your thought, say the following sentence: "Without fear in boundless Love." This sentence will serve you as a method of self-protection. Silent prayer. Source

Note 4 The purpose of music Eighth lecture by the Master, given to the disciples from general occult class on 20.04.1922, Sofia A secret prayer Tonight I am going to speak about the purpose of music. Entering into an occult school will completely change your inner world. After attending an occult school you will not be able to recognize yourself. You will not be the same personality. You will not be the same man, who entered it. You will go into it as a worm, with many legs and you will go out as a butterfly. That is the reason why cowards were never allowed to attend this kind of school in ancient times. As this transformation would scare anybody and a person would lose his previous personality. It is the biggest mistake to teach a man to sacrifice himself, if one thinks only of how to keep his wealth. If he does not love knowledge, to teach him how to sacrifice himself, is a big absurdity. He says, “Money is signification of my life. If a man has money one’s life is full. If a man has no money there is no sense in one’s life.” Contemporary men say, "For us life is in our present shape, when we lose it everything will finish.” This is just an introduction, a preparation for the next step, because in every disciple a desire to go faster exists. After becoming a member of an occult class, he starts asking, “Isn’t it possible to take two classes in one year?” They want to leave secondary school for 3-4 years, to become clerks as soon as possible, once they have their wages to proceed faster in their careers and to receive their pensions till the end of their life. In doing this, they think that they have done everything. Religious people do the same. They want to become moral as soon as possible, to be rich in ethics and when they go to the invisible world to say, “We differ from other people.” But in this school you do not have to go so fast. One can attend it for 100, 200, 300, 500, 1000 years - it is nothing, these years are like one day. One, who enters the school and cannot stay in it for 1000 years, then he is not a disciple, and he can do nothing. 1000 years – this is for the disciples, I do not say anything about you, because you are not yet disciples, you are just listeners. For you, the law is changing. But one day, when you become disciples, you will need these rules. First of all, you must learn how to control your mind. To conduct your mind, to conduct all your feelings, power, and skills - you must conduct all of them. If you cannot do that, you cannot be a disciple. You will attend the school, but you will learn nothing. This evening I am not going to explain why it should be this way, just it is necessary for it to be this way. All the rules and methods of conducting the mind start from here. Indians have their own methods, Egyptians had theirs, people from Babylon - theirs, Asian and Jewish – theirs, but all those methods were different. Western occultists had a variety of diverse methods, too. If you want to do research on all these methods, it will take you a hundred years to make a decision - which one to choose. Because the brain itself is an organ of the mind, you must learn how to conduct single organs, organs of particular skills. Those, who are not familiar with this fact, can consider the brain just as grey matter. Just from the physiological point of view blood is the main part of cerebral vessel, there is a flow and ebb that create thoughts. But it is not just the flow and ebb of blood. If you stare at the human brain you will notice thousands of fibres that come from it and flow in all directions of the body and there are certain circuits of current in them. Some people can observe this using a microscope thin skin of a frog’s leg and see a lot of streams, up and down. Others, who observe the brain, can notice similar streams, providing thoughts. For example, if you have a religious thought or feeling, these streams are different from the ones, connected with scientific thought. And all these streams are connected with the blood. When a stream enters into the particular centre it awakens and blood flows into it. And now where is the problem that can appear when we study the occultism. Because, the back part of the brain conducts a purely physical reaction in a human body, this way the blood, flowing into it, first of all wakes up primary feelings. And the streams from the spinal cord wake these primary feelings. It can be a problem for all occult disciples, if these hostile feelings and thoughts attack them – because some have never been thought of before - but they exist in them. Some will say: “I do not need this - all the devils attacked me since I have entered this school.” This is the place where the devils are settled - these devils are residents of the back part of human brain, whole tribes live there and when human thought passes through, they influence it. There are various methods of conducting the human’s brain and those, who want to do this, should study them. Now, you think that it can be achieved in one, two, three days, in a week or in a year. No. If you, after practicing it for three or four years, can conduct you mind, it will be a huge achievement. If you have this power, you will control your temperament - you will be able to polarize and to transform the energy of the brain from one place to another. It is said, that these people have huge self-control. And an occult disciple does not need just huge self-control. He has to understand some laws, to find out which buttons to operate and how to do this. Now, first of all: do not be choosy. You know what does it mean to be choosy - for example, when you do a very small job, but you think that it is very important and that a great idea will come from it. Thinking this way you provoke your brain. For this small job you do not have to stimulate your brain too much. For the small job you need small efforts. If you have acquired something, do not exaggerate it. Do not think that you are a big talent or vice versa - that you do not have any capability. If you think that you are a big talent, at the end of your life you will become very disappointed - you will find that you have been wrong. There are people who do not think that they have some talents, but at the end of their life they realize that they had a great talent that was not developed. So, first thing that is required from you is to realize for yourself what your obligation is, and what you have to do. In an occult school it is made very clear to everybody what to do. The disciple there does not attend the class using their feelings, he has to understand the purpose, like a student at secondary school or university has a schedule for each day on what to do. And everything must be defined. He can not say: “Whatever God has given to me”. Not what God has given us, but What God required from us when He created the world, we must do that. He established everything. To conduct your brain you do not need to be choosy, vain, proud, coward, and angry - these are worms, destroying your ability to think correctly. Vanity is a perverted form of a previous idea. Initially, it was the following idea: to have your friends’ good opinion, to have your relatives’ good opinion, to have good people’s opinion, to have God’s good opinion - this was the initial thought. Later on, man, losing his primary state, turned this good idea into vanity - he did not want to have this good opinion, but to show it off. For example, if somebody visits that kind of person, and if the visitor is a king and the man is a teacher, the vain man will show him his office and will say, “This office is very special, there is no other like it, and these bottles are unique, and you cannot find this stuff anywhere else". If the vain man is a farmer, he will show his fields and will say, “Look at them, how well they are ploughed," and so on, if this is a vain woman, she will say, "You can not find a dress like mine anywhere, and my tailor is the best." This is vanity. We must say “This is a simple dress and it was made by a good tailor, it suits me well, but to say that it is something very special, no, it is not.” And if somebody is a priest how will this vanity be shown? He will say, "I read the Bible on Sunday, but nobody else can read this holy book the way I read it – I gave such a unique sermon that the audience was so charmed, and will remember it forever." This is the way I describe vanity. Now, pride presents itself in a different way. The haughty man will present himself like a modest one, but his real thought is that there is nobody like him. And he wants other people to admire him. He will get dressed very simple, not in rags, but anyway to attract people’s attention. The haughty one behaves as a modest person, but you will recognize him when you put somebody else on his place - then he will show his pride. The haughty man is the most jealous man in the world. He can not stand it when people admire somebody else. If somebody says, "That is a very clever man." Somewhere in the world, the haughty one will reply, “Is he so clever, maybe he is not, do not tell me, please, that he is.” If people say that somebody is a very virtuous person, he will say, "Well, is he? Do not say that, nobody on the Earth can be so virtuous.” Even if you speak about God, he will say, “Even God makes mistakes.” The pride in him speaks in all similar situations. Most of all, this feeling exist in religious people. There are not haughtier people than the religious ones, in this matter they are followed by scholars. The most dangerous pride that exists is among the religious and scholars, and the biggest danger in an occult school is from pride. And for that devil we have put a special sieve at the door and it will be impossible for him and a proud disciple to come in. And in this way pride is one of the dangerous qualities in men. As a result of this a man, who develops this quality, like it is said in mythology, he will start eating his own offspring. When someone is overconfident, he himself eats his children: when he sees that somebody is a scholar – he goes back home and eats his children; if he sees, that somebody is religious - he goes back home and eats his children. He wishes he had the opportunity to cut off all people’s heads. And he wants just his head to stay on its place. Now you will analyze yourself. I want each of you to know your dealings - you must not just be strict, but be fair to yourself. An advantage for each disciple consists in this fact. To set up harmony among us we need a key word. And I will tell you what this word is - this word is Love. There are two keys in music - violin key sol and bas key - fa, just using this key you can read the piece of music. And so, the disciples must have this key and the teacher must have it. Sometimes a disciple comes to me and asks me, "What to do?” I reply. “You can do nothing.” - “Why?”- “You do not have a key.” All your thoughts, desires, and actions must obey the Law that God established, it cannot be changed. Now, pay attention to this - there are two influences in the world. If you do not obey the Sacred Influence, if do not obey the sensible life then there will come from the centre of the earth influences such as magnetism, and electricity, the lowest influences from animals. The lowest creatures will influence you, and because, when somebody enters an occult school, sensitivity develops and you will be in condition to accept thoughts from the lowest creatures, from the animal kingdom. There is the possibility that each disciple can be affected from his past low state. When all instructors warn their disciples, they warn them about these states until the disciples start to understand their own mentality, to have power over these streams from the Sun and from the centre of the Earth, and after that to recognize those keys and streams from the animal kingdom. For example, you are angry with somebody and you think, ”I wish I had a rope to hang him, to strangle him.” Where did this thought come from? This thought comes from a spider - when it finds a butterfly, it enlaces this butterfly. Therefore, you have entered the kingdom of spiders. Sometimes, another thought appears in your mind. “I want to stab him, to give him a poison, to poison him.” Where did this thought come from? It is from the snake, from the scorpion - all these creatures want to poison their prey. You will accept these thoughts and after that your mind will go into this stream, and eventually, you will commit a crime. Now I can analyze all your thoughts, all the lower and higher thoughts that you have and I can tell you where they come from. You can say: “God rules this way”. No, God has ruled everything very well in the life, the Great instructors or the Great Master of Life have put everything in order very well. When you enter this system the Great instructors will show you exactly the right direction to go. Now religious people say, “We do not need the Truth.” Why do we have to know it? From an occult point of view there is another explanation. The Sensible world needs Truth the same way as the Physical world needs Light. Truth has two kinds of beams - the white and the black, and if you are not prepared for them, you can easily be affected from the negative side of Truth. Now, this fact is a bit low-key to your mind. Why? What are the reasons? An occult science answers this question. What are reasons for separation of both brotherhoods - The White and The Black? Initially, they were one brotherhood; they went together in one direction. But when they came to a certain point, they differed from each other - one turned left, at the same time the other went to the right. Why? – Some accepted the black beams of Truth, whilst the others - the white ones. These beams exist in the Sun - even in sun light there are white and black beams. There is a so called white and black Sun - from the white and from the black sun simultaneous come two streams that join together. When I say black streams, I mean that the vibrations of these black streams are not so smooth. All evils and all wicked actions and negative qualities are the result of these vibrations that come from the black beams. What actions do these beams have? - If you cannot control your mind, in each moment of irritation, hopelessness or whatever quality that irritates and distracts your mind, you are a conductor of the black beams. This is why it is recommended to be positive when we are studying the Bible. In occultism you cannot say, “If God says, I will believe in it.” If you believe, you are on the right; if you do not believe, you are on the left, because unfaithfulness in one thing is at the same time a belief in another. Now all these energies that are coming, these two streams, go through the human brain. Therefore, you will constantly research the methods that you are passing through. For example, when a religious thought comes to you, it will not appear in the front part of your head, but in its upper part, perpendicularly. When a scientific thought comes it will stand not horizontally in your head, but it will moves in a circle. If you take the rays, coming from your eyes, and place them on one surface, all these energies that come from one angle, from above, act in a straight way, and all those, coming from other angles influence negatively, they are the energies from the black rays. If anger comes, it will appear in the area around the ears. If you get angry very often, you will have a pressing feeling in your ears or you will have earache. If your pride increases too much, you will feel a painful stagnation in the back part of your head, in your brain - this is an overload. Now what I am saying is that Nature does not like disharmony. All these energies, going into the brain, have a purpose. But we can transform these centres in our brain; they can be positive or negative. When a centre in our brain becomes positive, it accepts the white beams of Light the positive side of Truth - and then you have an advanced state, a positive mood to God and your brain wakes up. When the religious feeling is negative, you will have an inner ambition to serve God, without realizing why it is necessary. You say: “Man must serve God.” Why, how - you do not know. In this case religious extremism appears and you will stick to form and rituals: you will go to church, will light a candle, and consider it a big offence for that man, who does not light a candle. You can steal a sheep tomorrow, but it is not considered as a crime, because you can light candles; if you think that lighting a candle is the right way to serve God then it does not bother you when you do other offences. Occult science does not accept this moral. Now, these energies, which accumulate in your brain, can be a set back for your development, because, do not think that you can feel free from them. This brain, that acts here, on the Earth, on a physical level, has its mirror image in an Astral level and when you go there, these energies that are stored in this world, will be experienced again in backward way - all the things that are happening to you here you will experience again there. Now, the first thing you must do is to conduct your brain. What does it mean? It is not easy, because we have a lot of habits. The disciple, who wants to attend the school, must manage these habits. You say: “One has to be patient.” Sometimes, a man can be patient and he can have negative results. In the occult school we want positive results for those who are patient. On the other hand, when he keeps giving in he will become a weak person and will not develop his mind; patience cannot be the basis for weakening the mind, but for strengthening it, for developing it. Even I sometimes get worried about it, because there is a danger in an occult school for reducing one’s mind, because that way other negative streams are stimulated. For example, somebody read a book somewhere, but he did not check the results of this method, which were described there. And vice versa, a lot of eastern methods have been used in England and America, but the results have been negative. Now western occultists want to discover a native method. We will follow this natural, innate method - the best and safest. It means the following: please, pay attention to the following matter; you are not going to imagine where God is sitting and what His personality is, but you will always think that God is a sensible being that organizes everything without any mistake. And having this thought in your mind it will develop and it will balance it. For example, you can do an exercise: get up in the morning, read a prayer and think that God is Love and that no anger, no revenge, nor unhappiness exists in God. Then you will place in your mind positive qualities about God, Who is Wisdom, and all the mistakes existing in our world are men’s mistakes, and that everything God created is good. You can say: “But we know that”. No, even though you know it, you must do it for practicing to control your mind - this is the simplest, the most expedient, one of the best methods. And the scripture says: “You will become the same person, like your friends”. Notice, that God has this kind of mates. When you think this way you will challenge all streams, coming from God and passing through many areas - they will break into your mind and will create your thoughts. This stream from God will not come straight to you, it will first pass other people’s minds and after that it will come to you. This thought will pass all the minds - from noble people to primitive - and after that it will come to you. Then your Spirit will start working on following the laws, it will start finding streams of these minds and will practice. It is like a gardener, who has dug a lot of small ditches to water his plants. This way your mind will practice. Well, Indians have their own method, but I am not going to speak about it now. I am speaking about one of the simplest, but the most effective method. Everybody can use it, without any danger, and the result will be at least 75%. I will repeat: you need this harmony between each other. It does not exist now. And I want this harmony in this School. Harmony exists in the following: to respect each other, to know that you are sensible spirits, who God provided with an intellect and you can operate it. Some soul can be dirty, but the one who understands the laws will not see the soil. Consequently, an occult disciple does not have the right to judge others. He will say: “My brother, you have become a bit dirty, let me clean you up.” And he will not say: “You are this and that”, he must not say that. I do not have the right to judge you. The Great Master, always keep silent, he does not say anything, he does not speak about the faults of others - he sees all of them, but he does not speak about them, and does not judge them. When people see the results of their faults, he says: “This is not the way.” And you, Bulgarian, can be sent to become critics in the other world. Bulgarian people are the biggest critics. I have never met others like you - you criticize everywhere. It is an outstanding feature of all Bulgarian people. And it is because Bulgarians have a very weak religious belief, since the time of the first sin. Bulgarians suffer, because this belief is very weak. Among all the cultures in the world, the weakest religious feeling exists in Bulgarian people. This is a fact, that I estimated measuring with the centimetre. When it comes to determination and firmness, everywhere I put 7 cm; when it comes to religion, it goes down with 2.3 cm, and when it comes to mercifulness, it goes up a little. I say, here it is a sin - because one does not have gratitude, he becomes a critic. Bulgarian people get disappointed very quickly; there is not any holy thing for him. Go to any café in Bulgaria and you will see – the Bulgarian man will never speak about his wife with respect, not one woman will speak with respect about her husband. When a woman comes, she will talk about all the negative features of her husband; when a man comes he will do the same. Not only they do that, it is the same among you. This way you cannot be occult disciples, I am telling you that. If you enter here like men and women, I will tell you the truth, you cannot be occult disciples. If in the future you feel like men and women, you can stay outside, but not inside the School. A disciple man and a disciple woman, when they enter the School and are wife and husband, they have to respect each other. If they start saying: “My husband, my wife is this and that,” they are not disciples. If you are brother and sister and you start talking about each other: “My brother or my sister is this and that,” you will be sent out of the School. I am saying: the person who attends the School must be a model for others. At School I will say nothing about your faults. I will put on other glasses - there are different glasses at an occult School, they are called love glasses. They are invented this way: we see the good side of your faults. And we judge the results this way: if for example I take an adze in my hand and cut wood in two, three, four, five, six or more pieces and if from these pieces we make a cart that people will use this adze has done its job - we judge from the results. But when I have cut the wood and nothing good comes out of it, I say the purpose has not been fulfilled. We can say at the end what the consequences will be. I want everybody to be very attentive. We will start from cutting wood, to see what will happen. Now I see in your minds a question:” Is it not possible that it can be easier, can somebody influence us by hypnotherapy?” No, the safest method is when you think in the morning, that God is Love, Wise, and Kind - this is the first prayer. Every morning, when you get up think about God, that He is Love, He is Wise, and Kind, and you will immediately feel better, you will activate your mind. After doing this, there are other methods. We will start other special methods, we will start like the Angel, who went to Kornelij, and brought him the essential thing - it brought that Light in his mind and said to him: “Call Peter, he will teach you the essential thing”. When a man learns the essential thing, there will come an occult Master, whoever he is, it does not matter, to teach him basic rules, which he has to follow. Now, I want this first rule to be done by all of you in the duration of two weeks. You will take a notebook and in the morning, after getting up, think about this Sensible Being. Write in your notebook the date you started and after doing the exercise whether there is any difference or not, and what you felt. Do it three times per day, in the morning, in the evening, and in the afternoon. In two weeks time we will see the result of it. And, you have to take a notebook. Somebody can say: “Is not is possible without a notebook?” - No, it is not. Take a small notebook, put it in your pocket and you will make notes in it. If you miss an exercise, be honest and write in your notebook that you have missed it - do not avoid this. If somebody misses it and after that does not make a note, if he forgets to make a note, it is dangerous. If you miss an exercise, make a note about your fault, this means nothing. Be honest in all your exercises, if you want to have results. Do these exercises for two weeks. You have some old beliefs that are hard to change. Somebody can say: “Is not it better when I get up in the morning to say a good prayer?” There is no better prayer in the world than this, to say that God is Love, God is Wise, God is Kind; a better prayer than this I do not know. When you have thought about God, that He is Love, your heart will have warmth; when you think that God is Wise, Light will come to your mind, there is no better thing. And I have said, Light in your minds, cleanness in your hearts, Truth in your souls. Light will give you Knowledge; Cleanness will give you Strength and striving, whilst Truth in your souls will give you Freedom. This is my rule, which I have already given to you. And so, whoever wants to have Light in one’s mind, when he is thinking about God Who is Wise, immediately Light will come into his mind; when one thinks that God is Love, warmth will come in one’s heart, and when warmth comes, immediately Cleanness will come. You wash your clothes using hot water, don't you? Without warmness, it is not possible to receive Cleanness, do not forget that. When you get up in the morning your old teachers will come and say to you: “It is not the time, you can sleep a bit more”. No, when you wake up in the morning first say this pray. But when? – When you have gone to bed on time and when you have slept very well. When you first wake up do this exercise. If you have woken up and then gone to sleep again, the law is different: after you first wake up do not go to sleep again, get up and do this exercise; after doing it do not go to bed. You will say: “But if it is 1 o’clock?”- At 1 o’clock you will not wake up, you will wake up at 3, 3.30 or at 4 o’clock. When you do not sleep well you will wake up at 1 o’clock, or 2 o’clock. Whoever sleeps well will wake at 3, or 3.30 o’clock, and aristocrats will wake up at 6, 7, 8 or 9 o’clock and will say, ”We have overslept.” And so you will do this exercise early in the morning, at noon before 12 o’clock a.m., do not do it after 12 a. m. This exercise can be done everywhere; you can stop whatever you are doing for one, two, five minutes. It does not matter how strict your boss is, you can get your pen to work and you can concentrate your mind on the upper world that God is Love. Nobody will notice that you are doing this; there are no circumstances that can obstruct you. Even a woman, while cooking can do it, she can stop stirring in the pan, the meal will not overcook in this time. If it burns I will pay for it - but it will not. And so, I want your help for restoring the harmony. If you do not restore this harmony, it still will be restored, because it is coming. It is the same with violinists, those, who are good musicians know how to tune their violin. And for the others, who are not good, somebody else tunes their violin. And if you leave this, somebody else will do it. We, at least, must find out how to tune our violins. Now, have you understood the first rule? In the evening, 5 minutes before going to bed, do this exercise. Now, let no one at this School say that he has a special opinion about it. Here everybody has a special opinion about this. Whoever wants a special opinion, it means the following: "I will get what I need from this School, and I will have a special opinion of the things that I do not need.” Whoever wants to have a special opinion about this exercise - he is out. Any disciple, who is not ready for this exercise, is not ready to become a disciple. Now, I want to help you do this exercise, and it does not matter that I have done it so many times. I will do it with you for two weeks. Some of you might hesitate that a disciple must do it, but the Master does not. I will do it with you. (Some disciples asked: “When shall we start?”) - From tonight. In your notebook you will write what time you have done it during the day, you will write three times during the day. If you do not have a watch, you will write that you have started it. Write in your notebook just one letter to describe the feeling after doing it. If you feel Love, put the letter L; if you feel Strength, put just the letter S. Write just your experience, and just with letters, if you do it in another way you will deviate. Doing this exercise you will have new thoughts that you have forgotten, new feelings, something noble and gentle will appear and you will go into these streams. I am giving you this exercise, because you are entering the School now. You cannot have this exercise every time you want, you must know that. The next time, even you are ready to pay 1000 leva, you will not have it, do not think that you always can have it. This is a very special exercise and if you do it properly… Well, you can say: "Next time!” No, everything in Nature has its own time, if you do not do them on time - the door is closed for you. If you do not do it on time, the door is closed, you have to wait; if you start knocking, they will reply, ”We do not know you,” you are too late for this knowledge. You have to be grateful that you have this exercise for two weeks, for two weeks only. In two weeks you will stop, do not use it any more. If you want it after two weeks, it will not be available to you any more. You can say: “But we know all this”. You do not know it. - “We have thought about it.”-You have not thought about it yet. There is a big difference in accepting the Light, coming directly from the Sun, or if it comes through ten mirrors and you accept just its reflection. If you accept it directly or through first reflection(Unclear. This part of the sentence seems to be in contradiction to the previous sentence), this Light will come from the heaven to you. Well, do not simulate, that you will stay in special opinion. (UNCLEAR) Do not exaggerate! This is going to be an introduction to the exercises that we are going to do regularly. We will have a lot of exercises. Well, for this idea to grow up we need water, don't we? Let's read about water then. There were twenty lectures given about the topic of “Purpose of Water”. Secret Prayer Translator Maria Ivanova

Note 6 The Four Rules Third lecture of the General Occult Class, given by the Master Beinsa Douno on the 9th of March 1922, Thursday, 7.10-8.00 pm, in Sofia The song “Bless, my soul, the Lord” was sung quietly Secret prayer Order, system, and discipline are needed from all of you, but not imposed by me. I want each of you to impose your own discipline on your thoughts and feelings. And those, who cannot impose it on themselves, don’t let them come. If you cannot impose such discipline on yourselves, do not come. And if someone allows himself to come without this discipline, then I do not answer. I want Absolute harmony! Outside you may find fault with me, but here I do not answer for the consequences for one who criticizes me. When a person enters the House of God, he should know that this is a church; when he comes to the school, he should know that this is a school. If you come here to compare your knowledge, to see how much you know, you need not come. You want to be friends with me, don’t you? But we can be friends only when we observe the law of the Absolute Love, when we observe the law of Wisdom, the law of Justice. They are equal for everyone, no one is excluded; the law is absolute there. Love is absolute and relative; there is Absolute Wisdom and relative wisdom, Absolute Truth and relative truth, Absolute Justice and relative justice, Absolute Good and relative good. We follow the Absolute not the relative; the relative is outside in the world, let’s make that clear. Because in the Absolute there is one opinion only, while in the relative there are many opinions. And you should know: only in this way can you have the assistance of Heaven. Heaven is a place of order and system, a place of discipline. In Heaven, there are no such orders and such policemen as on Earth. There are no written laws there; everyone has the laws written within – either in his mind or in his heart or in his Spirit, in accordance with the degree of growth of the being. Now, my wish is to free you from unnecessary sufferings and difficulties. If a pupil, who goes to school, has a corn, scrofula in his leg or a stomach ache; will he be able to learn? He should be free. If this pupil is hungry, if he has not eaten for three or four days, will he be able to learn? That means that there should be food, there should be clothes, and there should be everything he needs. So, if you come with your worries here, we have no need of you – this is not an orphanage, this is not a place of refuge. Your coming here on Sundays may be considered as coming to a place of refuge, but at present it is a school – healthy people are needed. A person who is ill should stay outside and a person who is healthy should come. So, all of you can be healthy. If you are ill, there is an excuse but the ill should stay outside. In a spiritual school people become ill by themselves and recover their health by themselves. Now I will answer this question outright. Were you ill when you left God? – You were healthy. Therefore, what is the reason that you are ill? Were you uneducated or educated when you left God? You were educated, not uneducated. Your present ignorance is due to you having eaten and drunk everything. And in eating and drinking everything, you have become impoverished on the physical field. Now we will address ourselves to the positive Life. Let us leave the remote past and the distant future and take up the present. When a contemporary author decides to write a book in the form of a short story or of a novel, he has two subjects – a male character and a female character. The male character is a man and the female character is a woman and the author allocates all other characters round those two and makes his story interesting. Now I am asking: why does he need these two characters? The male character presupposes the female character and the female character presupposes the male character. Once you take away one of the characters, the other disappears without saying. People also have two characters inside them; what are they? I will tell you: the first character is the mind and the second character is the heart. The author, that is to say the Spirit allocates the rest of the characters round these two. The Spirit, the author, is who selects the two characters - the mind and the heart - and on them he builds up his story; all other characters are arranged round them. Now, this author selects his characters; he defines exactly what the heroism of both characters will be and he endues them with certain moral qualities. For example, he will give the male character power, courage, resolution to win and he will give the female character greatest sufferings in order to withstand; he will put her into the greatest temptations and she will endure them; he gives her a negative part. Well, then what should the qualities of your mind be, what should the male character be? Your mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute. Should the mind say: “This is not for me”, it would be deprived of its heroism. Once your mind looks for the easy way in the world, only a star-fish or a sea mushroom may come of you, nothing more. And when an Angel comes down to Earth to take a look at people, He recognizes what each one wants through his mind. If a disciple, who enters the School, seeks the easiest way, nothing will come of this disciple. If he comes to the difficult problems and he gets round them or gives them to be solved by others and he enters with someone else’s solution of the problem, we know what would come of him. And all those now ruling the world, who are at the head, have come out of such schools, where they have only solved easy problems. And then, what should be the qualities of the heart? They correspond with the female character. The mind should be powerful, courageous, and resolute and in the heart there should be plasticity, endurance, and patience. These are the qualities that the disciple should acquire. No one was born with them, everyone acquires them. There are conditions for this and you should acquire them in order to be able to comprehend the Great Nature. Now, what do you think; if this male character has hesitated five or six times and departs from his vocation, what is in store for him? Once and for all, he has lost the good will of the female character and he is finished. The reverse is true also – when the female character departs from her principle, from her vocation, she has lost her heroism, too. Do not be in error and say: “Is there not a blessing?” This is another question. In mathematics, problems are solved in one way only, no exclusion is allowed. “But it is only one unit, one mistake!” This unit, this mistake does much harm when it concerns a great number which is reiterated in the calculations. And so, you will study your male character, i.e. your mind and your female character – the heart. And then you will ask me: “Where is the human will?” In my opinion, the human will is a child of the mind and of the heart. Therefore, if a person has will, I understand that the mind and the heart are productive, that they have worked in compliance with the Divine law. If there is will, this shows that the mind and the heart have been going the new way; if there is no will, this shows that they are childless; these people have lived a wrong life – this is the interpretation. In the Spiritual life, a person without will is degenerating. This is the definition of will, but it is not like the definition of contemporary philosophers. Now, in order to be able to understand your mind, in order to be able to understand your heart and your will, you need four other elements. These are the so called temperaments. There is a nervous or mental temperament, which belongs to the brain; there is a sanguine temperament, which belongs to the lungs and to the respiratory system; a choleric temperament, which belongs to the muscular and bone systems; and a phlegmatic temperament, which belongs to the stomach. When the nervous or mental temperament is of high quality in the display of the forces which form it, the thought flows plastically, fluently, the mind is productive, no darkness is ever noticed in it – it will work always, you will be quick and deep in your thought. This is only when the mental temperament is of high quality. All temperaments can be of high quality, of middle quality and of poor quality. Once the temperament of the mind is of poor quality, you will have to work for a long time. Since the main role in this temperament is played by the brain and the nerves, hence you will have to learn to regulate your electricity. The brain is a place of electricity. Sometime we can make a trial, as this is a wide field. The different regions of the brain accumulate and collect various types of energy. Even an experiment could be made to show that if certain energies are taken away or transmitted, your mental mood will change at once. Let us presume that you are afraid of something, you cannot live at home, and you want to leave. If someone, more courageous than you, puts his hand on a certain part of your head, where the centre of fear is, he will take away the respective energy at once and your fear will disappear; and vice versa, if a coward puts his hand on that place of someone’s head, that one will become cowardly. So, fear can be transmitted and can be taken away from you. These are currents within the brain; when we come to these currents, they can cause certain movements in the corresponding centres and a moving in the consciousness will appear, accompanied with danger. Also, let us say that someone is merciful or compassionate; this energy is also located in a certain part of the brain. If you decide to do a good deed and a person with negative qualities who is not merciful, comes to you and puts his hands on the centre of mercy, the same wish not to give anything will be generated in you too; and the reverse, if someone does not want to give alms and someone else, who is very merciful puts his hand on that centre, a wish to give alms will be generated at once in that person. So, someone says: “I am not in mood to do this thing”. I am asking: has it come out of your mind, is it yours? You should know whether a thought is yours or someone else’s. “I am not in mood” – he says. Yes, but this not any kind of philosophy. This indisposition may be someone else’s and if everyday you live someone else’s frame of mind, what experience could you have? The answer is none. The Bulgarians say: “Someone else’s is always someone else’s; it can be taken away even on Easter”. No, you will keep only that which is inside you; only yours, only this, which has passed through your mind, has been ascertained by your heart and has been applied by your will – you might work on it. I wish that what you learn in the School, to pass through your mind, through your heart and through your will. I do not aim at persuading you to do this; this thought is far away from me. In this Great esoteric school the experience plays the whole role. Food recommends itself, does it not? I do not recommend it, I say: “Taste this food!” You will judge the food by the results. From what you are taught, I want you to form an opinion as to whether it is helpful or not, by yourselves. I call the first temperament - the mental one, dynamic. Therefore the head is dangerous, it is a dynamo. It is like a mace and one who has a strong head, if he is not good, he can do great harm to someone with this mace. The second temperament, the sanguine one - I call it gaseous, it has the property to expand. And hence it is necessary, because when a person possesses this sanguine temperament, he gives expansiveness to his dynamic force – the head, its form becomes larger. This temperament develops as well, that is why we should use breathing as a means of its development. In those who have weak breathing, who are narrow-chested, whose lungs are not developed, whose blood vessels are weak; in them this temperament is of poor quality and consequently their mental system will not function properly as well. There is a relation between the temperaments. And so, first, you will try to develop your lungs in compliance with your nervous system. The lungs and the circulatory system are included in the sanguine temperament – they form it. Next to the first two temperaments comes the phlegmatic temperament or as some call it, the vital or the life temperament. I call it an accumulative temperament - which thickens. It is the temperament of the stomach. When a person has a normally developed stomach, eating is done correctly – neither too much hunger nor too much overeating. Therefore this temperament is necessary to accumulate energy. And those who are denied the vital temperament often wither like flowers; they are short of soil around and begin drying up. It is said: “It is no use being fat”, but also it is no use if the stomach is quite small. In the case of this temperament the size is not the important thing but the structure of the stomach and it has the quality of good eating. If you want to reorganize your stomach, you should eat on time and should not overeat. And last is the choleric temperament; the temperament of the muscular and bone systems, the temperament of physical man. I call it executive. It bears the executive side of human life. Everything that has to be done in the world is always done through this temperament. Those, in whom this temperament predominates, have sinewy muscles; their bones are sound, somewhat coarse; their tongue is slightly unbridled; they do not argue by words but by hands and legs. Now, each temperament has its own field of action. When the choleric temperament is predominant, the relative centres in the brain – around the ears – are developed. Because each outside centre has its representative up, in the brain, these parts are well developed there. The upper part – the imagination, is well developed in the case of the sanguine temperament. In the case of the phlegmatic temperament, the temporal parts are developed, and this shows that when such a person smells a dish, he conceives the pleasant desire to enjoy his food. When the mental system is predominant, the entire structure of the front part of the forehead has a nice shape. You should study the temperaments and should start developing them. If you cannot build a certain temperament, cannot carry its inherent properties, you will remain with a shortage. An enduring person can be one who has vital or phlegmatic temperament. Even the well developed person may not be enduring, if he loses the qualities of the vital temperament. He cannot be nippy if the sanguine temperament is not developed in him. Also, his mind may not be bright, may not be quick to grasp, if the nervous temperament is not developed. First of all you will start cultivating your temperaments. Now, there is a certain measuring regarding the temperaments, but if I give you the combination, you may mix up your conceptions, being not acquainted with these laws. For example, the width of the nose in its lower part and in the temporal fields will show to what extent your vital temperament is developed, because there is proportionality between all parts. The width of the nostrils is in correlation with the width of the hand as well as with the face. Also, your fingers will be organized according to how your stomach is organized; your entire hand as well as the soft parts of the fingers, which correspond with the lungs, will be organized according to how your lungs are organized. One, who comprehends this, will know in what shape your stomach is, will know everything just by looking at the parts of the hand; in this respect it is open and above board. And you, as disciples, are faced with a very serious work. Now, I want to specify the following: in this school you will use for work only your spare time – the time which you do not know for what to use. I do not want you to leave your homes. How many hours can you spare: one hour, half an hour or more? You need at least one hour and it will be better still if you can spare one and a half up to two hours per day, but not to leave your work and to cause rows, I do not want any rows. The capable disciple needs a little time as does the assiduous one. You know the saying, don’t you, about the tortoise1 and the rabbit that were racing? The rabbit was running very fast but it slept at many places while the tortoise was going slowly but did not have any rest and left the rabbit behind. So, sometimes fast people are late more than slow ones. It is also true that the most talented pupils at school, who are very promising, in Life give nothing. It is not that they could not give but they get complacent from praises. Now, many say: “Let us be praised!” No, praising is very dangerous. You should speak favourably of someone once per year, on Easter only, but to speak favourably of him every day is very dangerous. On Earth, it is very dangerous for man to be praised. It is dangerous also to blame, there is no need to blame. The one thing is as dangerous as the other. Both blaming and praising are egoistically motivated. Why do we speak favourably about someone? In order to bribe him – our motive is not because he is high-minded but because we want to bribe him. Sometimes we say: “You are very bad”; thus we want to influence him. But he says: “I am not so bad”. In the Esoteric school, neither methods are used – it is not allowed either to be praised or to be blamed. Now, we have abilities, put into us and everyone is ever so rich in them. These abilities should be developed. Some have more conditions for this and others have less. In the present circumstances you cannot be all alike and cannot achieve the same results. Even, from among ten persons only one or two are capable, they can achieve a great deal; only they are the stars, the rest have supporting parts. If we do not achieve much in this life, we will achieve a lot in the next one, but we should not lose heart from this. When you have your term, then you will be ready – this is how a disciple should look at it. He should use the present for the sake of those distant purposes of his life. One day we will be called and will be told: “Play your part!” If we are prepared, we will play it. Then you will have your turn. And so, in order that you could develop your mental or nervous temperament, you have to learn to control your thoughts by all means. It has been spoken many times about self-control. Self-control is mastery for the disciple. Worries will come, trials will come and they are a matter of course. They will come but when all these disturbances appear and you obtain a certain good, you will have succeeded in controlling your thoughts. Each of you should have a note-book, this is a must. Once you yield to temptation or sometimes get anxious, note how many minutes you needed to calm down. Once you start getting angry, say to yourself: “At 10:30 a storm arose in me and after five-ten-fifteen minutes, half hour or one hour this storm blew over”. Someone says: “This anger will pass by itself”. Right, the anger will pass in itself but it can carry everything away and then it is dangerous; but if you set it to work, everything will stay. It is not bad for anger to come, but it is dangerous when it gets away with everything. You should set this energy to work. Or, once a good thought comes to you, note how much time you needed to attain it. Do not note all thoughts; one thought per day is enough. If it is negative, note how much time you need to transform this state, to achieve a pleasant mood inside and to say: “Thanks, I learnt my lesson well”. This means to solve your problem by yourself, does it not? And it is remarkable, that as soon as a person enters the spiritual Path, troubles begin to happen at once. Take your child, who has been calm and has played; you send it to school and teachers cause it trouble at once. Returning home, it cannot play, it starts thinking about the subjects he has to study and you say: “My child studies a lot”. And the mother worries that her child studies too much. It is not dangerous to study a lot. Now, you may think that this is a simple work. No, this a fundamental work! Tolstoy2 gives a story. I am not going to give you the whole story but only a part, clarifying my thought. It is the following: a person wanted to become clairvoyant and he thought that in becoming clairvoyant he will be able to use it. And he did have such a moment indeed. He saw that a thief was going into a house of a rich man with the intention to rob him. And the clairvoyant decided to do a good deed. He went to the rich man and poked him to stand up and see the thief; the rich man stood up and killed the thief. Another instance: the clairvoyant saw that two young people love each other; at one time another young man came nearer to the girl; the clairvoyant went to her beloved telling him to save her; the young man went quickly, they quarrelled and killed each other. The clairvoyant wanted to arrange their lives. A third instance he saw that someone was going to steal shocks from a field. The one who possessed this field was poor, so the clairvoyant went to him and told him: “Do you know that your sheaves are being stolen?” The poor man went, caught the thief but they quarrelled and killed each other. This is not any science. That is why it is said in the Scriptures; “If someone is going to commit a crime, let him do it while the disciple should go his way.” I like the example from the novel of Victor Hugo “Les Miserables” with Jean Valjean, who was caught with the candlestick in hand and was brought to the bishop. The latter said: “He did not steal it, I gave it to him”. This is a high-minded example! The error of all esoteric disciples is in your delving into a small error of others and saying: “Why should they do it?” We do not look into errors; in an esoteric school it is never allowed to look into the negative qualities of others. And if someone comes to complain to you that he was robbed, take money out from your pocket and pay him. Say: “How much was taken?” – “I lost five hundred leva3. “I will pay”. And the matter is settled. I want the disciples in this School to correct the errors of others by doing so. “How would I correct the errors of others?” How? – Do not allow these negative qualities in you. Never think of the errors of others, if you want to ennoble yourselves. Do not think of people ever, absolutely never! Now, this is for the disciples in the School, not for the outside world. The rule for the world is different, do not apply this rule in the world, the law there is different. But the one, who wants to be a disciple in the Christ’s school, he should never dwell on the errors of people. They will appear but never dwell on them. God also does not dwells on our sins – everyday He creates new things; creates the new. Now, there are many people who are dwell on the errors of others and say: “Is this right or not?” In Absolute right there is only one rule and I wish that you all apply this rule: always to bring into yourselves something new, something good. You will not become perfect disciples at once, I do not want this from you, but you should know how to solve your tasks, how to be accurate. Under this rule, you will have as much as you are allowed, never postpone, and never put off. Do not have a bad opinion of yourselves; but have the same opinion which God has of you. If you say: “I am very bad” and you mean that God has made you bad, you are very wrong. And if you mean that you are very lazy, this is another question. Say: “I am capable of doing it, I am capable.” So, you will work on your temperaments: on the temperament of your head, the nervous one; on the sanguine temperament; on the phlegmatic temperament, as well as on the motive or the choleric temperament. And you always will distribute your energies evenly. In this way your face will start taking on a regular form. In those, whose temperaments are distorted, asymmetry appears: fingers bend, hands and legs are crooked, and disharmony appears in the display of energies. And so, mind, heart and will have four elements and you should work with them. You will put dynamism in every thought, that is electricity. After that you will expand this thought, then you will give it weight and last you will give it strength of motion or, as I call it, growth. Once your temperaments function in this way, you will be able to do everything. It is necessary that these things should not just be sown but should be raised to bear fruit. Some writers write well because they have put into their thought all these qualities. The mind is the male character, the heart is the female character and the child born by these characters is similar to the father and the mother. When I speak about the will, I mean the child of the mind and the heart. Often after my Sunday talks, after preaching a fine lecture, I have noticed that two people argue, they quarrel about something and I say: this is how they have understood the lecture – both are offended. And at once they say: “Excellent lecture!” and they do not quarrel; they have understood it well then. But once they quarrel, the lecture has not been excellent. If people quarrel the lecture is not first-rate. So, the path you will go on is a path of work and perseverance. I will be punctual; I have only five minutes more. Then you will relate both talks - the previous one was about sleeping, eating and working and the present one is about your mind, your heart, your will and the temperaments. Now, I will give you a task. Let each of you write ten lines on the topic: Which is the best mind. Let each one write what it means according to him. And then I will let you, the disciples, review it by yourselves. There will be one or two meetings – the disciples will review what they have written. And so, the topic is: Which is the best mind or what are the qualities of the best mind. It is very clear; we likened the mind to the male character. You will describe as an author describes the main qualities of the character – the mind and the character are similar. Now, next time those of you, who can write this, will bring their sheets of paper and from what you will have written we will extract the essence – what you think of the mind – and will figure out certain rules: how the mind should be cultivated. Everyone will write without reading what is written to anyone else. You will write half a sheet, ten lines, not putting your names on the paper. We will read who thinks what of the best mind. We will have one exercise and then we will engage one of you, who is most capable, to extract the essence from all these thoughts and to make an overall description, a summary about the best mind. Secret prayer The song “Love is spring” was sung 1 Originally in the lecture is about frog-rabbit race. 2 The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy 3 Bulgarian currency Source

Беседата на български from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE TWO PATHS Year 1, Lecture 1 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Clas) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno on February 24, 1922, Sofia What is the main intent of the students entering school? They want to become a learned scientist, to attain knowledge, cultivate what is invested in their souls, minds, and hearts. And after they attain knowledge and develop their talents and abilities, they should also preserve them. For this purpose, good soil is needed for every thought falling in it, so that it may bear fruit. Therefore, as disciples, you also want to study and engage with science. What is to be understood by the word “science”? If we consider the meaning of the letters used to write this word in Latin and some Slavic languages, we see two different concepts hidden behind it. From the combination of the Cyrillic letters in the word “science” it can be seen that the Slavic people search in science for some method of reconciliation of the contradictions in life. Yet, the spelling of the Latin word scientia used by the Anglo-Saxon nations for the notion of knowledge and science, shows that they focus on studying the relationships between the various material forms and the eternal changes occurring in Living Nature. The first letter “s” in the word scientia means “infinity.” Therefore, from an esoteric point of view, science can be studied either in order discover a method of reconciling the contradictions in life, or in order to find out a way of using the forces of Nature. However, someone who studies science only for the purpose of manipulating natural forces may encounter a big danger hidden in the possibility of a spiritual ego appearing in that person. If they begin to see themselves as superior to others and acquire an inflated image of themselves, they say, “I am in command of powers, which I can use at my will.” Therefore, there are two categories of people. In the first one, people have a sense of superiority and the belief that they can achieve anything, that they possess considerable knowledge, and so on. Others, like the Slavs for example, search methods for resolv- ing the conflicts in life, meanwhile healing the pain in their hearts. In this respect, the Slavs are closer to Truth. So, if you wish to study esoteric science, you should, first of all, come to know yourselves. Socrates said, “Know yourself!” What is the meaning of these words? What should you know about yourselves? Do you need to know the Sublime or the basic? “To know yourself” implies coming to know the Sublime or the Divine within you; in other words, coming to know God in your inner self. When you come to know God from within, you will be able to recognize the conditions which can contribute to your spiritual growth and development and you will make the right choices. These choices give direction to your growth and development on the one hand, and on the other hand bring balance to the forces acting and operating in you. Imagine an evolving person with a well-developed mind and heart - all expect him to realize his potential. But one day something unexpected happens to him and his physical form is destroyed; nothing remains of it. What is the cause of this misfortune? The cause is the Creator who has made this form. Many people would say it was his destiny. When a potter makes a warped or a poorly-fired pot, whose fault is it? The potter himself is at fault. What does he do with such a pot? He breaks it apart, mixes it into slurry and makes a new pot - better fired this time, more beautiful and solid. Therefore, the Sublime always shatters the form of what is lowly and remakes it, sculpting it so that a more beautiful and perfect form is made. What else could be done with the failure pots, but to shatter them in order to remake and transform them into new ones - more durable and perfected? Often the young think of themselves as being smarter than the old people and say, “The old folks have outlived their time. We will show them how they should live.” And yet, these old people said exactly the same at one time. After them, come the young who do not approve of their lifestyle and think that they can set it right. They, too, will grow old without having set their own lives right. And so, one after the other, the young generations who desire to show the old people how to live, take their turn but do not succeed. Why? It is because they too, like the old people, use the same old methods. I say: Old methods cannot resolve the fundamental issues of Life. The young need to guard themselves against repeating the weaknesses of the old. May they learn from their experience and see what they missed so that their life has become unsuccessful. There are many serious reasons for the failure of the older generation. They represent an entire history that needs to be studied. Now, I am going to give you a topic which all should think about. It is about the best method for work. I would like everyone to make a decision about what the most mindful method for work is. Esoteric science is based upon experience and for this reason, knowledge is valuable only when it can be applied in Life. It is exactly what determines your place as disciples. When a student wants to enter a school of music to study playing the violin, he is given an instrument to play and from the way he performs, it is determined which class to join. If the student proves to be mediocre, the professor advises him to apply to another school and not waste his time. In one of my next lectures, I am going to speak about the conscious relationships between human beings and Living Nature. But first, you should make a presentation on the following topic: “The most efficient and mindful method of spiritual work.” It is a privilege for people to express opinion on a given topic: it is an extraordinary occasion. From an esoteric point of view, the best method is the one which can be applied in real life. If a given method is not applicable, it leads astray and diverts from the purpose of one’s work, not bringing any effective results. You are not all at the same level of development, so every one of you will propose their individual specific methods for work which are applicable to their life. Some of you are materialistic idealists, giving preference to material achievements in life; while others are idealistic materialists, giving preference to ideas. This is the main difference between all people. Idealists state that ideas create everything. Which ideas do they mean? They are not speaking about their own ideas, of course. There are ideas higher than the human ones. These are the ideas coming from the Great Divine Source. And so, in this School, you will learn how to use the methods applied by Nature. As flowers utilize the rays of the Sun, you too need to utilize the forces of Living Nature. Then you will be able to fulfill whatever purpose you were born for. This Law has an application in the human body as well. Each organ of the human organism has a specific service. For example: legs walk and also carry the whole body weight; arms work: they grip, lift, and move various loads; eyes see, ears hear, and so on. Therefore, every organ in the human body has a specific function. In this respect, every human being represents a special part of Nature’s all-inclusive organism and, as such, it needs to fulfill its function. Those who find their proper place in Nature and understand their purpose in life, will be able to perform their mission as part of the Great Divine Organ. Now, as students in this School, you can raise some questions which are of interest for you. But you can also raise questions which are related to your needs. For example, what is the main concern of a hungry person? Bread! A hungry person wants to know what kind of bread will be given to him: warm or cold, fresh or moldy. If you are determined to create something of enduring value within yourselves, you must apply the same Law with respect to knowledge. As young people, you should not re-peat the mistakes of that gypsy who ate some grape leaves as a first meal followed by some bread and cheese. He went to the vineyard to work and took with him a bag with some bread and cheese for breakfast. After working for a while, he felt great hunger. He looked at the bread and cheese and concluded that it would not be sufficient to satisfy his hunger. So he picked some grape leaves and started eating them. Finally he ate the bread and cheese and told himself, “This was an excellent lunch.” No, I do not advise you to gulp first some grape leaves and then to nibble a little on esoteric knowledge. Beware of this mistake! No mistakes are permitted in spiritual work. If you make a mistake - correct it. The crime lies not in you making a mistake, but in leaving your mistake uncorrected. As soon as you become aware of it, correct it. If a negative thought comes to your mind, there is nothing bad about it. Yet, this negative thought needs to be transformed. The striving of your mind, heart, and will should be directed toward the correction of your mistakes. In this way only you will build up a character that you can always rely on. Now, you should keep in mind the following: when students enter school, the teacher is friendly and attentive to them at the beginning. The further they progress in their studies and the more difficult the material becomes, the more demanding the teacher becomes, especially toward those who do not study well. It means that the teacher changes his attitude toward the students who do not make efforts to study. The first thing that is required of a student is to be capable of studying. Therefore, you too need to learn and study very seriously indeed. Each science has its principles, which must be learnt and observed. Self-control is required of the young: not superficial, external, but real self-control. There are two kinds of self-control. The first one is external and superficial - whereby one’s inner balance is always disrupted. The other one is inner and deep - whereby one’s inner balance is always preserved. I will give you an example of external self-control. A young man became engaged to a beautiful young woman who seemed to have a good heart and a good deal of self-control in her actions. Often he boasted about his fiancée to friends. One day he brought a friend on a visit to his fiancée’s home and introduced her to him. They sat and conversed for a while. Then the fiancée brought a tray with glasses of water and jam as a treat. The young man purposely tripped his fiancée to see her reaction in this situation: she dropped the tray, everything fell down - the jam and the water spilled onto the floor. The fiancée kept total self-control and presence of mind saying, “It is okay.” Calmly, she bent down and collected the glasses, wiped up the water and went out of the room. The young man turned to his friend and said, “She is an example of self-control and a noble character. She is the ideal young woman.” Yet, after the marriage, things did not go as he had expected. Once he asked her, “Where has your self-control gone?” She replied, “You should have gone to the other room to see what was going on in there. Only the timber of the furniture could tell you how angry I was!” I say: This is not true self-control. Someone wants to open the window. He pushes it, but it does not budge. He pushes it for a second and third time, but it still does not open. He begins to get agitated and angry, so he pushes it even harder, as if it is the window’s fault. First of all, the window is not conscious and cannot understand that someone is irritated with it. You can say the same about esoteric forces. Some of them are forces of awareness, of reason, and others are only partly so. Saying that certain forces are forces of awareness means that they move in the same direction as us. By contrast, forces lacking awareness move in a direction opposite to ours. Therefore, everyone needs to know if a given force is in accordance with their individual development. In the same way, you should observe whether your thoughts, feelings, and actions keep in accordance with your development. Whenever you are aware of a certain thought or feeling, immediately check it and decide where to place it: left or right. Disciples need to learn how to sort things out by knowing the exact place of each of their thoughts, feelings, and actions. In this respect, some will succeed 25, 50, 75 percent of the time, but the most successful will do it all the time. The spiritual student should work to gradually increase this percentage and not to fall into error and delusion. And so, after each lesson, we will proceed with the experiments; that is to say, after each lesson you will be tested - not only theoretically but practically as well. All theoretical knowledge needs to be applied in life where it will be further developed and tested. Those who want to study esoteric sciences should know that they will be subjected to certain tests and trials, which they should pass well. You would say, “We have difficulties anyway.” Yes, but now you will understand their meaning and purpose. When you understand their meaning, you will be able to use them as methods of healing. For example, someone complains of pains in different parts of his body: his hands and feet hurt, his head and back hurt, his stomach is upset too. So, the Invisible World will create from all these smaller aches one bigger pain in order to direct his mind to it and make him start the healing process. Thus he will forget about the small pains and begin working intensely in one direction. This means that the greater hardship directs one’s energy toward one center. Otherwise, a dissipation or scattering of one’s energy and concentration occurs. Nature acts in the same way. She creates a great pain for someone, within which all is healed. But you have not yet come to the “great pains.” When you reflect upon the topic that I have assigned to you, write as little as possible, only about the essence of the idea. Each one of you will decide for himself what the best method for work is. It is of no importance for you what scientists have said on this subject. Sometimes it will correspond to your understanding, to your nature; but other times it won't. It is important to align your work not with the methods of ordinary scientists, but with the methods of Living Nature. Only in this manner will you work your way toward the essential principles of Life. Each one should apply these principles, each one should work with an individualized method. It depends on your conscientiousness, dedication to work, and your deep desire to achieve something valuable. Many will say that they lack the favorable conditions for work. In this respect, the Americans set an example. In America, there are college and university students, who engage to work in kitchens, in various offices as servants in order to finish their college or university studies. It is good to have favorable conditions in life, but any conditions should be utilized mindfully. Even in the most difficult conditions, one can spend at least 10–15 minutes reading and studying. What hinders a housewife from focusing her mind on the Divine while she is chopping onions or cooking a meal? Both bad and good situations are set up for the purpose of placing the spiritual students in the position to cope with various difficulties. Only in this way they can grow and develop rightly.

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE AWAKENING OF THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Please, be so kind as to listen to me. I am not going to speak long. It is not necessary to speak at length to a wise person. In such a case, it is enough to speak a little but understandably and sensibly. Since I have great respect and deference for you, I would like to speak to you briefly and understandably as to people of awareness. Life on Earth is like music going in three directions. Expressed in musical terms: sometimes it goes along a major course, as the military would express it; sometimes it follows a minor direction and that is the way, in which sorrow manifests itself and sometimes it moves along a chromatic scale, in which the two previous scales are included. These are three great methods or three Great Laws that regulate our life. When we do not understand the deep intrinsic meaning of Life, we tend to emphasize nonessential things and then we ask ourselves why Life is arranged this and not another way. Keep in mind that I share the positive outlook of a science, which has been applied and ninety-nine times verified in life so there is no doubt in even one hundred millionth part of what we say. Doubt is a sign of ignorance in this world. I do not say that ignorance is something bad; it signifies a process of development. All little children are ignorant at birth so their consciousness needs to be gradually awakened and developed. So, the human consciousness (to express myself in a strictly scientific language) passes through three stages: essential, substantial, and material. The essential part includes the Principles of Life; the substantial one contains the Laws of Life; and the material side consists of the facts of Life. Therefore, a Law is formed by the classification of facts in the world, in other words, when we model the particular small experiences which we attain, we say that the Law is expressed in one or another way. Currently, modern people of science claim that the Law is something mechanical, but actually the Law represents a living essence. The Law can only exist through those beings who have awareness, whose consciousness has passed over the material stage and has gone from the facts to the Laws, from the individual to the collective consciousness, and from the collective to the universal whole. We ask ourselves: what is most important for us after we have manifested ourselves on Earth. In the present conditions, people believe that the most important in the earthly life is material security. Therefore, all nations - both separately and collectively, are striving for their material betterment and security. And so, we have today the so-called economic struggle. The nations’ aspiration for material wealth is an evident trend. It is a sign that the human consciousness passes from the material to the substantial stage, that awakening of the collective consciousness of humankind is taking place now. So far, the humankind has been living in the collective subconsciousness, which is like that in animals. But from now on, the entire humankind is passing from individual to collective consciousness; that is to say, people begin to realize that they need one another. Until now, everyone has been living only for themselves; everyone has been seeking for their own salvation. And yet, now, an inner impulse toward the betterment of the collective conditions appears throughout the entire humankind so that the conditions might be improved not only for one social class but for all. Moreover, it happens in a conscious way and we need to let go of thinking that we can improve our life individually. No, humankind itself ruined its conditions thousands and thousands of years ago. There are reasons for this, but I am not going to explain them now. There was a time when the Earth resembled a paradise. The vegetation was abundant, there were thousands and millions of fruits and people ate only fruits. But then the ice age came on Earth, due to certain physical reasons. The fruit-growing was reduced and as a consequence, people began to eat meat, exterminating not only animals but each other as well, becoming even cannibals. For this reason, the expression, “I will suck your blood out,” exists even to this day among people. Well, I ask: What is the gain of the bloodsucker? What is the gain of someone who destroys the other person? This is a wrong understanding of Life. Not only that people, in general, do not get along with each other, but also the forefront religious and spiritual leaders who believe to have a connection and communion with God and the right to lead, they too, have lost the right understanding of Life. I am telling you the Truth. It is not that others do not want to tell you the truth or intentionally hide it from you, but that is what is natural for them. If someone has a thorn in his foot, he will get agitated. He could calm down only when the thorn is removed. Therefore, if people of today are bad, it is because they all have thorns in their flesh that disturb their peace. Apostle Paul said that he had a thorn making him restless. I have not met at least one person without a thorn pricked here or there. As long as this thorn is with us, we cannot think clearly, nor deliberate properly. Our philosophy is distorted due to this thorn. Remove this thorn and you will have the correct philosophy of Life. An Englishman, who was a merchant, asked an English preacher to tell him the basics of the Bible. The preacher told him this and that. The merchant objected, “No, no. Tell me specifically and in a few words, what this teaching is all about.” He wanted to see the kernel, like that of a nut, and in this way to grasp the teaching. Finally, the preacher told him, “Get yourself a Bible and you will learn many things from it.” The merchant purchased a Bible and read many things in it, but since the time when he acquired it, his affairs had begun to deteriorate and he suffered many losses. “Ever since I purchased this Book, many misfortunes have befallen me,” said the angry merchant to himself. One day, he threw the Bible into the fire. As the Bible was burning, a small shred from one page fell to the side and was salvaged. The merchant took this shred from the page and read it, “God is Love.” Contemporary Christians are asking now: What is Christianity, what kind of religion is it? And they go around saying that Christianity is this and that. No, no. God is Love that will unite all people to live in Love, Peace, and Brotherhood. Their job and social status are of secondary importance, never mind if they are kings, rulers, or in any other high position. All people should live in Love and mutual respect. Everything needs to be distributed in a brotherly way: not in a violent but in a voluntary and conscientious way. As soon as we consider this, other issues will also arise: Is there life after death, which religion is the most appropriate, and so on. I say: Only One Teaching exists in the world that can improve life and this is the Teaching of all-embracing Love. It is not the today’s love of different classes, but the principal Love, including self-sacrifice and comprising the love of mothers, brothers, friends, saints, and the most enlightened people in the world. After this Love comes to live in us, our eyes will open. Many in the world of today do not believe in the sixth sense and clairvoyance. In fact, everyone can have a spiritual sight. When a young man falls in love with an unattractive girl, obviously he sees in her certain things, which no one else can see. He compares her to a precious gem. It is because we see the endowments and gifts of the people we love. Where are they? There is a place where we see these hidden gifts. But when we do not love some people, we impute the worst qualities to them, saying that they are such and such. One Great Law is beginning to act in the world today. Keep in mind that the world is going into a new phase and in no more than ten years this process will be amplified. This Great Law gets to be applied in all humans, acting both in human minds and hearts. One can see that this Law is in action by the fact that all people of today are restless. Why are they restless? If they were poor, you would say they had become restless because of their hard work. I can understand this. But why are the scientists and rich people restless too? They have their worries, religious people have worries too - all are troubled. Why? It is because they have only beliefs but not faith. If a persecution for faith existed today, I am not sure how many would endure. Many people are Christians today because there is no one to persecute them. And yet, it is in times of troubles when a person’s faith is tested and becomes evident. Self-sacrifice is tested in poverty and deprivation, when hard times come. If people sacrifice their life, that is a test to their character. Now, what is the greatest good in the world? Is it the well being of the individual, nation, society, and the entire humankind? It is the same: the individual is a microcosm of the entire humankind. Therefore, a nation in its development represents the humankind but in a smaller form. Consequently, when we speak of an individual, we imply that a person represents a seed. When we speak of a society, we assume that this seed has sprouted. When we speak of a nation, we mean that the seed has begun to develop. And when we speak of the humankind in its integrity, we understand that the seed is branching out, blooming, and bearing fruit. If we understand Life in this way, we become aware that every one of us is an essential member of the humankind. We do not consider the humankind to be divided into halves: as if one half is created to live in paradise and the other half - in hell. I know this: As far as we are aware that God is Love, we all live in paradise, but without such awareness, everything is meaningless. We shall have Love so that we might come to know God. Within Love, every human being and every form is a factor. These forms in which we exist today are not finished. Do you think that you come to Earth for the first time, that you are born for the first time now? No, all of you have a long history of incarnations and if someone can tell you this history, it will be interesting for you to learn who you were in the past and who you will be in the future. This is an important process through which you are passing. For example, an elevated person of noble character will be aware that all should live in Love. No matter what one’s position is - one should use all living conditions so that to contribute to the common good. Only Love gives these beneficial conditions. I am not going to explain to you the causes for strife in the world. In my view, these causes arise naturally. I will illustrate them with the following example. Take two trees planted close to one another. Notwithstanding the multitude of leaves, flowers, and branches they have, they live comfortably, brotherly and speak to each other. But suddenly, when the wind comes up, their branches and leaves intertwine and get entangled in each other. Then the wind grows stronger, a storm erupts and the branches batter one another violently. They begin asking one another, “What are you doing?” My question is: What is the cause for this, is it internal or external? The cause is external. The cause for people’s misunderstandings today is also external; this is the economic situation. This is the “wind,” causing misunderstandings and fights among people. Some people may ask: How long will the storm last? A storm can last 24 or 48 hours, 3 days at most; and after that, all leaves will come to rest. The storm brewing in the world is pushing and sifting us at present. There will be many fractured legs and heads. For this reason, do not be angry; this storm will soon subside. In 45 years, this social storm will pass over, but only if people become wiser. However, if they do not learn a lesson from their experience and improve their living, this storm will last even longer. Should they learn from their experience, the duration of the storm will be less because the Great Law, which governs the world, is wise regardless if one is a believer or not. There is a Great Intelligent Power, a Great Law in the world that compels both believers and non believers to think and act in the same way. I often see people who do not believe in God and do not go to church, but yet, they are going to jump in the water and risk their own life in order to save someone. It is not the existing mechanical law that acts in such individuals, but another one - the Law of Self-sacrifice, which is innate to their nature. Therefore, they bear within themselves something greater than the conventions of religion. Religion appeared in the world at a later time. Some people ask, “Are you religious?” A person can be religious and still be dishonest. Religion is not a label that indicates whether a person is honest or not. To verify this, visit, for example, all merchants who go to church and say they believe in God, then check the status of their accounts and the principles of doing their business. It is a different Law that is governing their world. Love should come to live in their hearts and they need to awake, as to stop cheating their brethren. It will make them regard the interests of other people as their own interests and consequently, they will no longer sell inferior merchandise to their fellowmen. It is only when we regard our affairs this way that we would attain mutual understanding. If we want to take position on the grounds of nationality and begin asking: Are you Bulgarian, are you English, French, German - we would never come to a mutual understanding. We say, “It is not good to be a Bulgarian.” This opinion would represent some individual ideas but not the collective consciousness, so it would not be a manifestation of the Divine Law yet. The Divine Principle has not yet been revealed in nations. In these nations of today, each one is looking out for its own affairs. There is not a chosen nation, which to be preferred over the others; each nation has its own place and role. For example, if I raise my hand and extend one of my fingers and if this finger believes to have supremacy over the others, what will happen? This finger is showing only the direction of things, but one cannot work with it only; work is accomplished by using all fingers, each finger in its own place on the hand. Only when all fingers act together, we can rely on our hand as an emblem of the willpower: then we can fulfill our obligations as the hand is doing its duties. Therefore, a nation can find its place, when it realizes its position as a part of the humankind, as an organ of the whole body, as to fulfill its obligations at the right time. People of today are still supporting the old god. We know who he is. Do not be offended. This old god has brought all wars, violence, and misfortune. On the other hand, there is absolutely no lie in the God of Love. He regards all people, including even the smallest living beings, with the same Love and compassion, always ready to help them all. Whenever a small being whose form has been destroyed comes to Him, God gives it a new form and says, “Do not be afraid. Go forward and continue your work.” Now I am asking: what have we gained by the end of our life after living on Earth for about 50–60 years? Let us assume that mother has given birth to a beautiful daughter, who has become an excellent young woman, she dresses well and many young men are surrounding her, so she is happy. I ask: How long will this last, 5–10–15 years? Gradually, her face will get wrinkled; she will lose her beauty and freshness; she will not be as pretty as before, and the young men will abandon her. Another beauty will appear to replace her and finally, she will be discontented that her life has become meaningless and she is no longer happy. She was contented at first, but afterward her life became meaningless. She is like that European writer who first wrote a book affirming that life is wonderful and humans are most elevated among the living beings on Earth. But after passing through a crisis and reflecting people’s disappointment, the same author wrote another book stating that the world is bad and there is no being on Earth worse than the human being. Therefore, when everything goes well in our lives, we say, “Everything is beautiful. God is very good.” Should a tragedy, some misfortune, or unexpected event befall us, right then we say, “There is no God in the world more unjust than the present One.” The world follows its predetermined course. Some time ago, a well-educated and intelligent woman came to see me. She wanted me to answer her question, to resolve a predicament, namely the following: When the exhibition in Anvers took place, her husband was still a young man and was in Anvers at that time. He heard about a man who lived in the town and who was a sleeping prophet and fortune-teller. Her husband got interested to learn his fortune from him. He went to his home and the sleeping man told him the following, “You will marry very young. You will have four children. One of them will die. Your marriage will be of love and you will have a happy family life for 10 years. After that, a blond woman will visit your home. She will ruin your marriage and you will get to live with her. If you pass this trial, after 10–15 years you will return to your first wife and you will live very well.” “Truly,” said the woman, “one of our children passed away. When the child died, I found among my husband’s papers this slip of paper on which his future was described. This blond woman came into our home and ruined our life.” She asked me what she should do after that. Should she leave her husband? I told her to observe whether the remaining part of the prophecy will come true. She asked me to what extent such things are possible. I answered her: Life is not predetermined fatally, but still there are a number of reasons that predetermine people’s destiny. Our life, the way it is unfolding now, is also predetermined by a number of preceding causes. If we make use of them, we can improve this life; we can stand against the evil in the world and conquer it. The Hindu people call this karma or the Fall of man. We can struggle with this original sin. Those who can fall and sin - they can also rise up and be victorious. However, contemporary religious people go to extremes in their beliefs saying that religion will completely improve our lives. This is half true. Religion cannot improve life completely. Their assertion is only half true because we, ourselves, are also factors for our own destiny up to 50 percent. However, the other 50 percent of factors, which regulate our life, exist as well. I say: Destiny and Nature exert 50 percent influence in our life; we, ourselves - 25 percent; and the society - 25 percent. Therefore, when these three factors begin to work together, in esoteric and moral sense, an upliftment and improvement will come to life. For this to occur, many people should come to work in one direction without fail. When the spring is in, has it come with only one flower? No, it has come with millions of flowers and abundance of blossoms. After that the bees will come and unrest is stirring up everywhere in Nature. Thus the unity has been created. Therefore, from an esoteric point of view we are like little flowers that have just come out; that is to say, our consciousness is at such a stage of development, that we have only now begun to discern good from bad. You say at times, “One is always compelled to tell little lies.” No. Absolutely no lie is permitted in the conscious way of living. As in mathematics, no mistake can be admitted because any error in architecture or mechanics will bring undesirable consequences. When we allow a lie in our life, it will bring the same results to our being as incorrect calculations of an architect would show in a structure. Spiritual people of today observe some rules as musicians do. Give a musical composition to an orchestra and all will keep timing in the performance. Give an image to a few great artists and they all will paint it according to the same standard. Give a problem to several mathematicians and they will solve it complying with the same law. When we come to the spiritual life, however, we say, “We do not need music. We do not need calculations. God will solve everything.” No, friends, strict mathematics is required in the spiritual life; all things are strictly determined there. Whether one person or a whole nation is well or unhappy - it depends upon certain things, which have already happened. And so, this Great Law regulating the life of the contemporary European nations has put them in their deserved places. The present civilization, which is almost at its end, began in Egypt, went through Syria, Persia, Rome, England, Germany, and America - now it is returning again to Russia and the Eastern continent. From there, it will move in a different direction. This Wave coming into the world at this age and motivating the humankind is not mechanical. All of you are destined to participate in it, whether you want it or not. And we should better participate consciously. How is a nation’s dignity defined? Why are the English of noble characters? It is because their collective consciousness has been awakened. They make some mistakes, but then they correct them easily. One can find the greatest number of spiritual practitioners among them. Each nation which collective consciousness has awakened, realizes to a certain degree that it should comply with the common cause. The English have understood this to a certain degree. The collective consciousness is awakening not only in the English but throughout the planet. It makes its way among all poor people, among poor widows and orphans. Do you know the situation, in which you find yourselves today? You are in the position of that American preacher who had the custom of gathering poor children every day at his home to give them a meal. They usually said the prayer “Our Father” before eating. One day he found an orphan child, brought him to his home for a meal, and before they ate, he told him, “Let’s say the Lord’s prayer.’’ They began, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name.”[1] But the child stopped and stayed silent. “Why are you silent?” The child replied, “So it says that God is our Father?” “Yes.” “Then, it means that you are my brother!” With these words, the child wanted to say, “You are a preacher; you sleep in a warm bed and have good food. Yet, look at me brother! I shiver from the cold and go to bed hungry.” Thus the preacher got aware of his own situation. Well, now we should do the same. Christ came to save the world. We pray, “Our Father in Heaven...” There should not be poor people in any nation. It is shameful to have poor people today! There should not be poor widows in any nation. It is shameful that today our sisters and brothers must sell their honor for their daily bread! Thousands of our brothers and sisters are selling their honor in the brothels right now. And we preach in the church that there is God, there is Christ in Heaven. It is true. Christ came to Earth for these destitute women and men in order to save them; He did not come for the righteous ones. Therefore, today we must have the courage to correct our past errors. We are to correct them no matter how. We need to embrace our brothers and sisters who have fallen. All people are suffering today because of their misunderstanding of Love. Deprive any flower or plant of sunlight and you will witness the abrupt change that will take place with it. Deprive any person or being of Love and the same Law will apply. So, we should speak of God not as of some distant being of the future, but as a Being, Who is working in our hearts so that we might fulfill His Will and abide by His Law willingly. All of you are invited now to this Great feast of the world. God of Love is calling you to come regardless of your position or creed. He is calling you to advance a step not as Bulgarians, neither as Evangelist, Orthodox, Catholic, or Muslim but as intelligent beings and brothers who have one and the same Father with the same blood flowing in your veins. It is the same blood flowing in the veins of all people. If we can grasp this fact, it is the basis of the New Teaching, it is the way how religion could be reformed. If religion does not comprehend this Great Law, it will pass away within one hundred years in the future. I am telling a Great Truth. The clergy needs to understand this and put a sign on their churches, saying, “God is Love and we will all sacrifice ourselves for this Love.” All bishops, priests, mothers, fathers, teachers, judges should write down this Law. The common principle is Love. And when we all meet, we are going to recognize one another as brothers and sisters. We will have a different kind of knowledge then and a different science; then the barriers existing today between us will disappear. A New Life will begin bringing Peace and Joy: Peace to the mind, Joy to the heart, and Power to the human will. It is the time now when we need to live in this collective consciousness of the humankind, knowing that death does not exist. The human soul and consciousness do not pass away. The human body is transformed; its form is changed, but this is not essential. The human being changes many bodies and many organs, but it is not lost as a developing soul and consciousness in Nature. This is a fact without any exceptions. Verify the Truth and you will see. Verify the Truth invested inside yourself, seek your ideal in you, in your souls. You cannot find these ideals outside yourselves. Truth is in your souls, minds, bodies, just as the life-force is in the seed: the seed is planted in the soil, from which it draws essential substances to create all its organs and grow up. In the same way, all forces, which our bodies have inside, are used by the human spirit to create all organs of the human body in accordance with the same Law. I would dwell on the following question: How many years were needed for the creation of your hands? The joints of your fingers reveal the number of the millions of years of existence of the human being; they speak of the history of humankind, its development and the conditions through which it has passed. If I tell you that the human finger recounts the entire human history, you will say that this is impossible and it is nonsense. True, it is so for those who do not know the Laws of Nature. One day I went for a stroll with some friends in a pine forest. We stopped at one pine tree and I said: The rings of this tree indicate which years were damper and which were drier. This can be observed from the rings and you can verify this fact. Therefore, when a year was very rainy, the distance between the rings is greater and vice versa, when the year was drier, the distance is smaller. So, it is possible to calculate mathematically the humidity in a given year. This is how the moisture is reflected on the trees. In the same way, certain events: individual, social, and national are reflected in our bodies. Are you aware of this? We are bearing the sins of the entire humankind. Do not think that because we live far away from Africa that we do not carry the sins of the African people. Yes, we do. Inner forces connecting people exist and they are interweaving their lives. Therefore, when we become aware of this Great Law, we are going to understand that people need to create good living conditions for all so that today’s misfortunes might be avoided in the future. I said many times: Only mothers are in the position to create. Every mother, who conceives a child should say, “Daughter, son, it is my wish that you would live in the future according to the Law of Love and represent it fully.” If she says this, she will have daughters and sons who are heroes, who will live according to the Law of Love. Every mother should instill this within her children. When young people marry, they should say, “Our sons and daughters will live for Love, for the God of Love Who unites all people.” The new generation will be a bearer of the new ideas of Divine Love. The way it is now, we cannot do anything to re-educate people, if they were born in an unhealthy way. People can be re-educated only in their mother ’s womb, in God’s Love. They cannot do this by themselves. It is only mothers who can recreate and re-educate them. People themselves represent a factor of 50 percent only for their re-education; otherwise they are like a ship without a rudder, which is tossed by the waves. Therefore, conditions for women need to be improved in the future. Women after conceiving should be placed under the best conditions. The conditions for children must be changed as well - not mechanically but according to the Law of Living Nature. And Nature is alive; she is excellent. I read in her book what beautiful methods she has! If the Bulgarians apply the methods of Nature, they would improve their situation. Great wealth is hidden in Nature. The Bulgarians can pay all their debts within ten years, but they shall begin by studying the Living Nature. But what are the Bulgarians currently doing? They are awaiting their salvation to come from somewhere, from a place from which it will never come. Salvation will come from the Living Nature that has invested her forces here. Humans need to put these forces to work; they need to begin working according to the Law of Love, for the good of others. In this way, their blessings will come. And so, this Great Law is calling people of today to brotherhood. Only then, will we have a New Science of brotherhood. But what is our science at present? It is like the story of a little lamb that a child looks after, kissing it, and adorning it with garlands. One day, the mother comes and says, “For my little darling to live, we must slaughter the little lamb.” The child will cry. You say, “This is the way one should live.” How do you think your offspring will be educated? He will ask himself, “How can God Who is so kind allow the lamb to be slaughtered?” You say, “Well, my dear, God has arranged it in this way.” No, it is not God Who has arranged it in this way; we have arranged life in this way. We must free ourselves of this delusion today! May we not believe that God has arranged the world in this way. No, these lambs should not be slaughtered. We now have a culture of killing and maiming the legs of this or that person. Only gunshots can be heard. They say it is for our country. What benefit have wars brought to humanity? Absolutely none. People have become embittered and wars have brought the depravity of today. The future wars will bring nothing better. We can fight, but in what way? We can fight but not kill. The Law of Love is now appealing to people. To undertake this Great Work the most gifted people, the best and greatest persons must come: mothers, fathers, teachers, priests, and free-thinkers. If they do not come on time, others will come in turn. Now I am going to summarize my conclusions as follows: I had not the least intention of compelling you to believe, rather I want you to try. Practice and more practice is needed, nothing else. The inner experience does exist. Every plant needs to find the right soil and the appropriate conditions for its growth; in the same way every person in the world needs to find the favorable conditions to grow and develop. Never think that the conditions of your life are unfavorable. These are merely inner, subjective opinions. In the present stage of development of the collective consciousness, every person is in his exact place. But we delude ourselves when we think, “Why am I not like that person?” Do not look at someone only superficially. Perhaps he is wealthy and able to eat a great variety of food. However, he is not happy: his inner life is in disarray, his heart is ailing and his stomach does not digest well. Although the poor man lacks abundance, he is healthy and enjoys his food. Happiness is determined by one’s state of being - to be contented with the received at a given moment. And when people unite, they need to share the same ideas. All your ideas need to be right. I do not say that they are always right, yet individually, they might appear to be right. Therefore, with respect to the individual, social, and national good we need to correct our beliefs and bring in the new ideas that are coming into the world from Above. In the same way as plants grow and create their form, we shall create the right foundation for our thoughts and feelings. Someone may complain that life is very difficult at present. No, as I said before, we are currently having the most favorable conditions of Life. You are in the position of the Hebrews on their exile from Egypt. You will lack meat and other things in the desert, but you will have water, clean air, and no Pharaoh to give you orders. It is better for you to be free in the “desert,” than to be slaves who eat meat and indulge in all pleasures, while the Pharaoh with his whip beats you, demanding from you to make bricks and adobe. Sometimes we also say, “There is no way out. We must make them.” No, we will no longer make bricks and adobe. The long path through the Desert to the Divine Life is waiting for us ahead. May all young people who can walk take backpacks and set off ahead of the rest. Do you know what you will be like? When you meet someone, you will continue freely on your way. At present, when you see someone, you withdraw out of fear that he might rob you and you hide. You say to yourself, “He might be a thief.” I say: The world of today is full of thieves. Show me at least one person who is not a thief. Who of you have not thrust hands in your father ’s pocket? Who of you have never partaken of a forbidden fruit? Yet in the future, when we enter a garden with ripe fruits, we will ask for permission as per the Law of Love, “Brother, can I pick some fruits from your garden?” or “Will you give me some fruits?” And he will answer, “Of course, brother, come and help yourself.” When I go to visit a friend, I will ask him: Brother, may I stay overnight in your house?” “Yes, you may.” This is how it should be according to the New Teaching. But what would the answer be today? “Sir, there are hotels; go there. We do not have extra rooms; there is a housing shortage; and so on.” And the matter would be closed. When you meet someone now, you begin questioning him, “Are you a Bulgarian? Do you believe in God? Which party do you belong to?” and so on. I do not want to say that these things are bad, but they are not essential. We need to be imbued with that noble feeling of brotherhood so that when we meet a man or a woman we see in their face a brother or a sister. If you can learn this feeling of brotherhood, you will place humankind on a new higher level. Misconceptions will then disappear and the right aspiration will come. This is the Divine Teaching, which is now coming into the world. Share it with the little children and they will manifest it in ten years. In ten years, the “caterpillars” will emerge from their cocoons and will fly away with their wings. The caterpillars will say, “There is no need for cocoons!” This Law is coming into the world now. The facts are being summarized now and New Laws are being established. We are going from the material to the spiritual world and all things are passing from the individual to the collective. In other words, we should not only think of the insurance law, where one is concerned to leave an inheritance of several millions after death - with shares for this or that cause. And all this for the sole reason that people say about the departed one to be a person of noble character. No, in the future people are not going to die and there will be no need for gravestones. And so, experience Love as a striving in your heart, as a feeling in your soul, as a force in your mind and as a principle in your spirit: this will bring salvation to the humankind. Therefore, we shall come to know Love in these three aspects: as a striving in the heart - an irresistible striving to descend [and serve those in need]; as an uplifting feeling in the soul; and as a force that brings expansion to the mind. Thus we become aware of the Intelligent Principle within ourselves allowing us to know why we live, why we have come here and from where, and what our purpose on Earth is. Lecture held by the Master Beinsa Douno at the gathering on August 19, 1921 in Veliko Tarnovo. ----------------------------------- 1. See also Matthew 6:9–13.

Note 3 Influence of Harmony in Life Guidance is needed for all that I have told you. You have to realise that the laws in Nature shall not alter to suit your understanding. All of you have to keep in mind that Nature shall not introduce special laws for you in order to provide for you. Speaking about harmony we understand the presence of consciousness in the life of human beings, we understand life where the soul has developed the human ‘I’, has developed the human consciousness, that a human being is a separate entity in the world, that a human being is manifested. People should realise that man is a separate being. Now, imagine a musical note: it may be half a tone, a quarter of a tone or an eighth of a tone or a sixteenth of a tone. This note is just one symbol, one character and it has no meaning by itself. However, if this note is placed onto the staff, and if you place the clef, determining its scope, at the beginning, it already gains meaning. Likewise no other note, placed in the staff can have any individual opinion, neither can it say, ‘This is what I think.’ The note is bound to think the way the clef dictates and the tone of the note under this clef cannot be altered. When you enter the Divine Life, you will see that there is a Divine clef and that you are placed into this staff in line with this Divine Harmony clef. You climb upon it and you say, ‘Do you know that I have a particular opinion?’ The ‘I’ means to produce the vibrations corresponding to this law. If you are not willing to comply with the law of harmony, of the Divine, you should climb down the staff, i.e. out of the clef. Once out of it, you may create whatever confusion you feel like, but while within the staff you will do as the Spirit tells you to, i.e. the bandmaster. He will move you, he will place you higher or lower and if you listen to him, you will pass through all the situations in this law of harmony. This is what I call conscious life in musical terms, which means that we are guided in our walk along this curve, we climb up and down, but the movement is harmonic. This is how you should look upon the issue. This is philosophy and if anybody does not understand this philosophy, they get pulled by the ear. If for instance, a note is placed on the staff in the form of a fourth of a note, but it is willing to be half a note, the bandmaster will take it to task and will tell the note, ‘No, not half a note, but a fourth of a note you have to be!’ – ‘See, I want to be bigger, I want to last longer!’ No, you will be as big as you are supposed to be, neither bigger, nor smaller than what you are supposed to be! Well now some of you want to be bigger. These are wrong religious views. Life comes down to accomplishing what God created according to law and order. This harmony is equally required for your individual life and for your family and public life. It is required for your mind and heart too. Your mind and heart cannot develop outside harmony. Now, it goes without saying, you have experienced the crash taking place in your heart when you fail to observe the law of harmony. Any disharmony is expressed in tears. As long as there is harmony, the heart is full of Joy; as long as there is harmony, the mind is full of Joy. The first clef to the internal harmony of Life is Love above all. What do you call the first clef in music? This is the G/sol clef1. Indeed, people need salt. This is just a coincidence: the G clef and the table salt. Note that when people sing the tones – C, E, G, B – the G sol comes third out of these four main tones. For the time being we are placed on this clef. We all want to tune according to this G clef, and the meter will be ¾. In music not only those who understand the characters and know for instance, the meaning of the G clef, are called musicians. Musicians are those who know the notes, who can sing any of them and who can understand the relations among the notes from G to G. This is what I would like you to understand about the G clef, to sing the tones correctly, very harmonically. You have to plant this idea into your heads – that when it comes to the G clef, there is only one opinion and there is no way for you to have any reservations about it. There is no reserved opinion in Love, no special opinion in Love, because otherwise it means that you fail to understand the great law. All the great masters who understand music correctly, when they come to the clef, all of them work very well, they know what they are doing and only sometimes they have to correct a note or two to place them where they belong, according to the requirements of the law of music. This is what I call a teaching; this is what I call progress, development of the consciousness etc. So now, you will look for the mistakes behind each indisposition, every instance of disharmony that occurs among you. You will start with the G clef. I would like to see whether you women would be able to rectify your lives in consistence with the G clef. Now, I do not mean rectifying your life, but your thoughts, your feelings and wilful acts are not ordered in accordance with this clef. A transformation of the thought is needed; everything should be arranged according to this clef of Love. Or you will say, ‘How well we know this Love!’ You have not been arranged as yet according to the G clef. Do you know what wonderful harmony exists once you are lined next to the G clef! This is the most inspiring state, the noblest state of man! When one is lined next to this clef, one experiences an upsurge of thoughts, of feelings, of one’s consciousness. Such a person no longer suffers neurasthenics, or any other diseases. This is the G clef! If some of you have these qualities in themselves I can tell you that you are tuned to the G clef. If you are not, do not beguile yourselves about any other clef. Well, harmony is needed for women in general: harmonic thoughts, feelings and actions. This is the greatest stuff that one can study in Life. The only thing that shapes man is harmony. You may try out this law. When there is harmony in your mind, in your heart, in your will, everything is within reach for you, you can do the cooking for half an hour and you say, ‘Today is my lucky day!’ This is just a small harmony but see what effect it can have! It speeds up all the work. Sometimes it is the workload that can be reduced; sometimes it is the time that can be reduced. If we, using our objective mind, lose track of a certain phenomenon, it takes years until we get to know it completely again, while by using human intuition, what has to be studied for two entire years can be studied within a minute. Well, this great law of Love smoothes everything. If some time is required to rectify any of your mistakes, when Love comes with its brush, it can be rectified immediately – just for five minutes. And now start singing! This is the instantaneous healing method. Introducing harmony in Life is what I consider an instantaneous healing method. Since the language of the Scripture is very allegorical, a prophet said there, ‘I attracted you by the law of Love’, i.e. by the G clef he attracted them. As soon as people start understanding one another, harmony can perform miracles. For instance you now say that the Orthodox, the Evangelists do not have the knowledge you have. But the issue is not that you differ only in this - you have to be able to sing according to the G clef; to have a substantial feature distinguishing you – harmony among you. If harmony prevails, if you can operate with the G clef, then you will have one substantial feature, then you will be able to say that you understand Life and that you are different from the others. Well, some of you resemble those singers who are asked to attend a music school or to join a choir, they sing for a day or two, and then they leave the choir and say, ‘Our voice is not good enough’. Why is your voice not good enough? Because you are not in harmony. Harmony should be introduced first and then your voice will become good enough. When harmony is introduced, then feelings will come; having achieved harmony, righteous deeds will follow. All of it depends on this Divine harmony. As soon as you are tuned to it, as if by waving a magic wand, everything will come out right. If there is no harmony, you may toil for years, but you will accomplish nothing. Now, all of you think about yourselves during your lifetime, i.e. you keep saying, ‘I am thinking about this, I am thinking about that.’ But as far as I can understand people who consider themselves very spiritual, keep thinking of themselves only. Contemporary people think about others only when they have too much to carry upon their backs. They say, ‘Shall we do you a favour – shall we give you some of our luggage?’ People who say that they are ready to sacrifice themselves, only think so, but show me people who are actually ready to sacrifice themselves. These are very rare to come across. On one’s own free will, this is the Divine way in which one has to think about God. Sometimes, when a person insults us, we fly at that person - even the most advanced ones among us do it - later on when we come to realise what we have done we say, ‘What I did was not right!’ And this we do not only once, twice or thrice a day; and in the end you keep asking why God does not come. Well, how can He come?! Love is the law of harmony; get into harmony and He will come; as long as you are not in harmony, He won’t come. I now want you to master a power in your consciousness that is able to keep hold of the harmony without you considering what the world is like. I want you to do something by virtue of which you can convince your God, because if you insult Him, you thwart all of your work. Keep telling yourself, ‘I am waiting to turn the wheel!’ It can only be turned when you are lined according to the G clef. Young people now make excuses that they are inexperienced, while old people – that they are nervous. God excuses neither the young nor the old. Whoever comes to school must study. If you are old and you consider yourself old – this is a disharmony. If you think you are young, this is also a disharmony. As soon as you think that you are old, this means that one day you will rejuvenate; if you think that you are young, this means that you will grow old some day. And this comes down to playing with a ball: youth – old age; young – old… What does young and old mean in music? Youth is the beginning of music, and the old age – is the end. The young are in the beginning. What is your understanding of music? When the musician gets old, there is no longer applause, but as soon as music is played, the audience applauds in admiration, ‘Encore! Encore! Play again!’ and then the musician starts playing again. Hence one can grow older and get younger several times in a row. This is the musical approach to it: there is no old age the way you imagine. So along these lines young is understood to mean a person having reached the prime of one’s age in music, and when a person develops one’s feelings and abilities to their best – this is called old age. A person is then at the peak of one’s power and might. Outside music, the most powerful, the mightiest is understood to be the oldest, most incapable and it is labelled ‘an old person’. Hence, as soon as you tune yourself to harmony, you will alter your views. When I say young I imply that you are in the beginning. While the old ones you will place in the highest degree of harmony where your soul can reach. It is not that now you do not invest effort, you do invest a lot of effort, aspirations and all this is good, but your aspirations, your desires should be directed intelligently into the great striving of Love. You may have your aspirations, but if you do not choose the timing required by harmony, if you do not comply with the operating laws, all your labour will be lost. You may now ask, ‘Why do I not grow today, why do I not have such a view, why are my thoughts a little bit disorganised?’ Harmony and harmony again is what you need! You have to recover harmony by all means, whatever sacrifices it may take! Once you recover harmony, whatever sacrifices you may make, nothing is wasted. Harmony should be restored in your souls. There is also the point that because you do not understand Life, you believe that society will deliver the rewards to you. Society can only spoil you. You make friends in groups and if you fail to understand the law and society, Life will place you out of tune. You tune somebody in, while they tune you out. You say, ‘Let’s tune ourselves!’ You tune that person, he takes you out of tune and you spend the whole day tuning: tuning in and tuning out. You start anew on the following day, you pull the string, and sometimes when you make it too taut it breaks. However, these four strings that you have to play on are the four temperaments, which need tuning. The first one is the sanguine temperament, i.e. lively, airy. People of such temperament have rounded faces, fair hair, blue eyes, they are like butterflies – bounce from one flower to another, they make promises to everybody, while they can hardly do one hundredth of what they have promised, they are very generous, they give everything. The other string is the so-called choleric temperament. Such people will be better off if they develop their liver, muscles, and nervous system. They are energetic – wherever they pass they set everything on fire. These are dark-haired people having oval faces, thick furry eyebrows, wide noses, well developed muscles on their arms and when others do not obey them, they bang fists on the table. The third string is the phlegmatic temperament. These are people of the benign womb, having round faces resembling the Moon, only the eyes can be seen. Their arms are short. They walk slowly. These are people of English2 temperament: they find it difficult to sit down, but having sat, they find it difficult to get going. They never worry. The fourth temperament is the melancholic or the nervous temperament. The brain-nervous system prevails in it. People of such temperament are of delicate built, with rather thin eyebrows, most often having hazel eyes; they are people of the thought, they are quick of apprehension, impressionable, agile, nervous, they have a fluent thought; these are the bearers of thought and philosophy. These are the four temperaments, which have to be tuned so that there can be harmony among them. When these temperaments, these strings, are fine-tuned, then notes start perching upon them, but as soon as the violinist takes the bow, they all start bouncing and if some of them are not tuned properly, then there is a certain disharmony. The cases when you are not tuned indicate that two of you of equal faults are brought together, two persons of sanguine or of phlegmatic temperament. Crossing of breeds is the key, so that there is peace. For instance, if I place all of you lean people together you will be jostling around. You will not be able to stand one another. For example you sometimes say, ‘I was somewhere, but I felt as if I was set on fire.’ But of course, as long as three people of the same temperament are together, it’s only natural that they should feel as if they were set on fire. Temperaments should be crossed so that these can develop harmonically. For instance, the sanguine temperament enhances the development of the respiratory system: breasts are enlarged, blood-circulation is improved, breathing is good and such people never suffer from anaemia. When you want to improve your muscles and ligaments, you will call the choleric temperament. When you want to develop your digestive system, you will call the phlegmatic temperament, and when you want to develop your brain – the nervous temperament. Your feelings, thoughts, and actions should be located on these four strings in order to start playing the music of Life. So, from the point of view of harmony, if you are too active, you will call the phlegmatic temperament to contribute some strength to the stomach, to achieve balance. If you have too much fire, you will call the sanguine temperament to blow some of it away, to scatter it around. You know what the law is, don’t you? When it is too hot in the room, you should immediately open the windows; air comes in and brings in refreshment. Well, the sanguine temperament is air, which refreshes everything. When it gets cold, you should ask the choleric temperament: it will in turn, make the room warmer. Well, it takes a long time to study this law of harmony. Easier said than done! Above all you will take it into your head that harmony is necessary for your development. All obstacles in your life come from the lack of this Divine harmony. And you should remember that harmony is always the result of the intelligent beginning in man, of the Divine Spirit that works in your Spirit that guides you in all of your endeavours. There is a creature within yourselves, which keeps telling you, ‘Hang on! Think a little before you start doing the work!’ You struggle, and when you have tuned yourself into it, it says, ‘You may go ahead!’ Sometimes you resemble recalcitrant children: although your mother tells you not to go out, you still open the door and there you are in the open. You come back in the evening all in mud, your clothes tattered, your mothers give you a good thrashing and then you say, ‘When I wake up tomorrow, things will be all right.’ Such has been your life so far. There is nobody among you who has escaped the thrashing. You have all been thrashed. Now, the law of harmony demands that you pay attention not to the people singing out of tune, who cannot sing the tones properly, but to be attentive to the singing of the best singers; they will teach you how to sing the proper tones. Hence, from an esoteric point of view, when we say that we should not be dealing in other people’s mistakes, this means that we should not be concerned with people singing out of tune. There is nothing to listen to in relation to them; we should be listening to people singing properly as it is them from whom you can learn harmony. Well, all of you can be musicians, and nobody has the right the say that they are no good for this purpose. You are required to do it! Harmony rules out the words I can’t. Those of you who want to live and to develop, they have to say, ‘I can!’ While those of you who do not want to, they have to head for the cemetery. Those who cannot are expelled from school and there starts the reverse life. Harmony exists only when you say, ‘I can’. Now, it does not come to hurrying, there is no hurrying about it, but you will do it from the beginning to the end. Some people say, ‘I want to get to that end to see what is there!’ I say, ‘Like the beginning, like the end’. What is in the beginning, the same will be at the other end. You beguile yourselves by saying, ‘Let me go to Heaven to find out what is there.’ Well Heaven – it is the end of this music. If you are virtuoso performers, you will come to Heaven till the end of the music and there will be applause for you. If you are not virtuoso performers, you go to Heaven and say, ‘Down, down to the Earth!’ This is what heavenly Life means: this music is the same from the earth to Heaven and when you turn around, there will be applause up there, and you will then be asked to go down to earth. The beginning is like the end. Some say, ‘Let me have a poor start so that I can have a good finish.’ If you start all right, you will end all right; if you start poorly, you will end poorly. This is according to the law of powers. So, music is the only circumstance that pre-conditions one’s development on earth. Therefore, apply music! You are indisposed – start singing! Sing and fear not! Sing any song to introduce harmony into you. This will be of help to your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions as well. If you cannot sing alone, go to the garden, sit under a tree and if there is a wind, you will discover such music listening to the crackling leaves that you will gradually subside and will be carried away by this rustling, which I call music. The vibrations coming from the rustling leaves influence your mind. You will regard music as an important factor in your life, in order to get rid of these misunderstandings, which currently exist among you. You often stop and say, ‘What’s-his-name does not sing well, he sings out of tune.’ Yes, he does, but you do not sing well either. There must be someone else, who will say, ‘Let me make the tones properly and we shall tune ourselves all at one go!’ It’s not the point that whoever sings out of tune. The point is for all of us to be tuned properly. When there is a tuning fork, we shall all start singing properly. I certainly do not intend now to correct the clefs of all of you, but I talk in general about your mistakes. When you go back to your homes you will see where the G clef is and you will correct your mistakes. Sometimes teachers correct the mistakes on the blackboard and students correct theirs according to the blackboard. This is the better way for you to correct yourselves. You often say, ‘I’m in low spirits, I’m not in the right mood.’ But you have to know that Divine Love is harmony, it cannot tolerate disharmony. I now talk about harmony in terms of relation, because it will be your solid foundation when you start organizing yourselves consciously. Do you know what organizing means? All the cells are consciously organized in this Divine organism and all work properly. We are Divine cells in this Life and each one of us has to understand and perform one’s mission properly, one’s present application and to want neither more nor less than the work assigned to one. No one should distance oneself from the Divine Plan. Other people may comment about you, but try to accomplish what you are aware of deep down in your soul and you won’t be far away from the Truth. Follow your plan and nothing will impede you! You have seen soldiers marching – all in the same beat. Similarly when you are alone, you may walk the way you feel like – you can walk more slowly or you walk faster, but when you join a company that has a pace of its own, you will keep pace with the others. If you do not keep pace, you will fall behind. So, when you tune yourself to the Divine harmony, you have to change your pace: you have to start walking in harmony, properly. Well, do you realize what it means to adapt your feet, to start walking properly? This means that your virtues should start walking properly. The legs of the human soul – this is Virtue; the arms of the human soul – this is your Justice; the ears of the human soul – these are Wisdom’s wise thoughts, and the mouth of the human soul – this is Love through which it speaks! This mouth is the external aspect of Love, through which the Divine Love will flow out. The one Love will come in service to the other Love, which will come through it from the outside. Therefore, you should now form the ears of your soul, so that you can be wise; you have to form the mouth of your soul, so that you can be in Love; so that you can be good, virtuous; you have to form the legs of your soul, so that you can be just; you have to form the arms of your soul. When you go to the other world, you will see for example that some have no ears. All the virtues that we practice in this world are meant to facilitate us in the making of certain organs. Why should one be virtuous? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have legs. Why should one be just? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have arms. Why should one be wise? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have ears. This is to say that everything in the world, being done by Divine Harmony, is directly related to one’s soul. So, all the effort we make has a good impact upon us, on the people close to us, and on the Divine principles. This is what is meant by God’s manifestation in your deeds. For instance, let’s say that all of you, who are here, are given work to do. How would you start doing this work? Let’s say, for example, that you are entrusted with about a hundred orphans and you are asked to help them. What will you do? How will you organize your work? You will start electing committees of five to six or seven women each and you will delegate everything to them. They will start quarrelling whom to appoint chairperson, whom to appoint secretary and they will waste the day in such arguments. Afterwards money will have to be raised and meanwhile you will be waiting for things to happen. Then they will quarrel again who should deliver this money. Well, again the seven people elected in the committee! Well, what about the rest of you? What will you do? How can you deal with this business in the most practical way? You will distribute the children among you. You will again be quarrelling who should take which child, where should the most intelligent children be sent. Potluck – whichever child falls to you! When one has learnt one’s lesson, one is always lucky. When one has missed the opportunity to learn a lesson, then one is confronted with something that is not called luck. You will have to resolve the issue according to the law of harmony. Let’s assume that you are all married and have children. Each mother solves this problem. Imagine that each one is entrusted to rear several orphans. There is a committee appointed at home for this purpose: there is a chairman a chairwoman and the children are taken care of. This is the situation in the Invisible world. Then the others, who are not married, say, ‘We will be given children in the future.’ The single ones can find other work for themselves. Nobody should be idle in this world! We have to benefit from this conscious Life, from the Law of harmony right now under the present circumstances, not under any future circumstances. Intelligent people use the current circumstances, while naïve people – the future circumstances. Intelligent people learn from their past, while the stupid ones – from their future. Now, I would like you to smooth any possible disharmony existing among you. Any disharmony that you have created should be smoothed overnight. I allow you only one day, not longer! Only one day I allow to women to smooth all and every misunderstanding or disharmony. So, within one day you should tune yourself to the G clef and should smooth out any single disharmony! Every one of you should smooth things over – agreed! Try to imagine the following case: let’s assume that you lived in disharmony with four sisters of yours and three brothers at a certain place. They beat you - you beat them. One day you decide to go to another house. Well, if you haven’t tuned yourself to the G clef and move to another house, are you sure that you won’t feel worse there? You know that singers, who do not sing well on the stage, are asked to step down, while good singers are much in demand and they are asked to sing again and again. The good life – this is the Divine harmony, which means that we should accomplish harmony in real Life. This is why this harmony is needed and it is only through harmony that you can make up for the lost harmony. But it is harmony that brings in the New Life. You are now thinking how you can smooth the disharmony. It can be done. You will direct your mind to God! You should remember that He is the Great harmony and you will be thinking of Him only! You should not imagine God as a white-haired old man; you should think of God in terms of Great Harmony, where every living creature pays attention to Him. Therefore, we all aspire to Him and everybody wants to understand Him. Think about the Great harmony and you will immediately feel light as a feather! Do not try to understand what God is, what His form is, but think of Him as Great harmony and you will immediately feel as light as a feather. Because if you keep looking at the face, hair or beard of the singer, you will immediately distance yourself from the harmony, but if your ears are strained you will understand what it is. When we come to the face, it represents a special harmony for the eyes. If you are clairvoyants, you will see that the face is not still at a single place, but it is moving, many fast motions take place within it. But since these movements are so far from us, it seems to us that it is still. Everything is in motion in the Invisible world. You will first turn your heart, your mind, and your soul to the God of harmony, i.e. to the god of the G clef, to whom every living creature is tuned. You will turn to the laws of harmony. You will listen to one of them and when you receive it, you will start singing together with this great choir. I give you one day to do this! There is only one day for you to tune to the G clef! I show you one shortcoming: without trying what I have told you, on leaving this room, you say, ‘This is what the Master says’. Do not say anything to anybody until you try it for yourselves. Do not go spreading around what I have told you before you try it. As soon as you have attested it, you may spread it around; it will then have a double force. You may spread around what I have said and what you have said and attested. Do an experiment and when it proves right, tell other people about it so that they can also test it. When other people also do the experiment and find it successful, the result will be three times stronger. When this third person tells a friend of his and when the latter completes a successful experiment, the effect will be four times stronger. The fourth person will tell a fifth person, the latter will tell somebody else etc. By doing so you will achieve a gradually intensifying effect – it is similar to a big wave. While how do you act now? One of you has heard something from another one, but neither the one nor the other has tested it and they keep asking themselves, ‘What was it? Let’s go back!’ Both of them have forgotten about it. And they start shuttling again. You have no time to spend on shuttling. Your cloth is fully warped, the staff is set, and you need only to weave. Weaving means harmony – to weave some cloth from one point to another. To sing, to weave, to live – these are all synonymous. You say, ‘What shall I do?’ Sing! ‘Is life a song?’ Well, if you can’t do this, then start weaving. If you can’t weave, then start eating! This is what weaving in the staff means; the staff is the warp, while the yarn-beam is the clef, placed in the beginning of the staff. When the cloth is woven, it is taken off the yarn beam and it is sold. Then you hear other music. Music changes under various clefs. The first rule, in order to tune yourself to this clef, is as follows: all of your misunderstandings and all of your disagreements should be smoothed and should tune into harmony. Or put in musical terms, you should all tune to the same clef where you do not sing the individual tones correctly or where you do not respect the time, where somebody sings faster, while somebody else sings behind time, where you do not meet each other. As long as you tune into the same clef, you will understand that God is Great harmony. We shall tune according to Him, we shall sing and dance together with God! Yesterday I told the men that I leave it to the women to tune them. I told them nothing else. Now we shall see whether you can tune them! Mind you do not do as that servant by the name of Stoyan, who the priest sent to the vineyard to dig and cut off the twigs. So Stoyan, scissors in hand, went to the vineyard and cut the twigs off; he cut almost all the twigs off as he did not quite know which twigs should be cut off and which should be spared. He came back home and the priest asked him, ‘Stoyan, is the vineyard weeping?’ ‘You should go and see it and then you will be weeping!’ was the reply. You may ask Mrs. Doinova when she cuts the twigs off her vineyard, how deep she cuts the twigs; she is an expert. Likewise, you should also know on what place on the staff exactly you should stay. So far you have cut the twigs right to the branching, but you should no longer do so. You should cut only those twigs that are not to bear fruit. You all need harmony; we can understand each other only in harmony. When we all are in harmony with God, we shall understand Him, you will understand me and I will understand you. Without harmony, Life is incongruous – the same is true about society too, and about science, and in trade and everywhere. Harmony is needed everywhere if one wants to succeed. Regardless whether you are getting dressed or whether you are cooking or sleeping – harmony should be everywhere and in everything. If you do not sleep in harmony, you will have a hangover in the morning. If your Life is harmonious it will be glorious even in its smallest manifestations; if there is no harmony – it is pointless. Now, all of you will apply harmony – both young and old; the young from the beginning while the old – from the end. The young will be the first notes in a musical piece, the middle-aged – the notes in the middle, and the old ones – the last notes. When the entire piece is completed, then there is a lot of noise, tumult, and applause. The piece ends with the oldest. It’s no good if actors are hissed off the stage. Sometimes you will hear applause; sometimes you will hear hissing. I wish there will be applause for you, not hissing, because if there is hissing, you will get off the stage and will have to be reincarnated once again. Now, you will get together and shall think over what you have to do to get organized in order to understand what women can do. We have to work in the external world, don’t we! Say for instance you have a field to dig, or a vineyard to cut, or a garden to till, fruit trees to grow – how will you distribute this work? The stronger ones will dig the vineyard, the weaker ones will reap the field, the weakest will clear away caterpillars, and the tired ones will be sent to taste the fruit, to pick some and to fetch some for you and you will then enjoy the abundance at the table. This is the way to divide the work among you. It will take an intelligent approach to the work, if you want to be in harmony. If you are not in harmony, your work will fall to pieces, you will be in doubts, you will be disappointed, you will be roaming from one place to another and your life will become pointless. You women, who study harmony, are required to work. Let’s assume now that there is a women’s meeting; how will you have it organized? If you think in terms of who will come first, the young will have to be your priority. The young are in the lead in music. Well, you organise a meeting; you place the young in the front and they come in the beginning. Let’s assume that you have to carry five hundred sacks; then the old ones will come to the front, while the young will be left behind. If it is an issue who comes first, it is easy to verify who comes first. First is a person who comes first under any circumstances in Life, while the one, who cannot work, will be left behind. If somebody is the first to sit at the table, but the last to go to work, then this person is not in the first place. Some say, ‘I’m in the first place.’ I’m glad that there is one who is in the first place. Come on, let him place the sack upon his back and sing a particular tone from the G clef. If he sings all the tones from the beginning to the end accurately, this means that he is in the first place. If he sings half of the tones accurately, while the other half – out of tune, this means that he is only halfway in the first place. If he makes only the quarter of the tones accurately, he will have a poor mark of two, if he makes only one tone accurately, he will have a mark below poor – one. If he does not make any tone accurately – his score will be zero. This is what Christ’s words, ‘So the last shall be first, and the first last’ mean. What does Christ want to tell us? Those who were first when they came to the sacks, became last. Afterwards when it came to eating, the last became the first. Last with the sacks and first at the table. So, Christ’s words ‘The last will become first and the first will become last’ are merely principles that are articulated. This is not funny; this shows our weakness. Sometimes we do not estimate our strength, but when placed to work, we say, ‘I thought I was right, but I will be left a little bit behind now’. When it comes to eating you say, ‘I am in the first place, remember this and do not forget me!’ When it comes to the sacks, you say, ‘I’m very weak, I admit my weakness.’ Well, it is also good that you admit your weaknesses! You say, ‘My back is rather frail.’ Well then you cannot be in the first place. Now, you will work according to the law of harmony. As soon as you step on the Path, you will see that there are no privileges or demands. Privileges are bestowed only to the people who study, who are able; for people who do not study, who are not able there are no privileges. Those of you who sing well, study, and are worthy get privileges; those who do not study, who are not worthy get no privileges. When you enter this school you will do your best to learn; others can give you nothing if you do not learn. We do not benefit when other people eat. We benefit from what we eat. Other people cannot learn instead of us, you have to learn for yourself. This is a necessity. You have to remember that knowledge does not come the easy way. You will study, and you will study hard, according to the law of harmony. You will learn according to the law of harmony and your progress depends on you, nobody else can tune you into harmony. Some say, ‘Let’s get harmonized!’ Each one of you will harmonise yourself. If you harmonise yourselves there will be harmony; if you do not harmonise yourselves, there will be no harmony. All the people in the world have their own worries. All of us have a retired devil within; and all of us feed the devil in our houses. The retired devil is a resident of yours and whenever he visits you, you treat him at the table. When you are in a difficult situation, you tell the devil, ‘Come out to get my things straight!’ The devil comes out and says, ‘What are you, rascal, looking for?’ The devil gets your work done. While at times, when you have made a mess of things, you tell your good spirit, ‘Listen, can’t you come out for me? I made a mess of this job, there is nothing else I can do, come and help me!’ When the good spirit starts talking to you, the good spirit tells you, ‘OK, I will postpone your policy.’ So, much depends on which resident you will call to help you. Now, you will call the good resident according to the law of harmony, and the good resident will tune you to the right tone and will show you how to go about your work. This is what you need. People who are not in harmony are not accepted in Heaven. This is the law and there are no exceptions to it. If you do not get in harmony now, while you are on the earth, you won’t be admitted when you go up there. If you are in harmony you will leave your house singing, you won’t cry and you will be greeted by songs up there. If you leave the earth with no song, when you get to Paradise you will hear, ‘We do not admit people who cannot sing.’ Heaven is a place for songs and harmony; there is no crying there, no grief or sorrow. Everywhere one can hear songs of all types – from the gentlest ones to the wildest ones – everyone can choose and listen to their taste in music. Now, we on the earth will also start doing all our work singing, but you will apply harmony. I shall not preach to those who do not apply harmony. This has nothing to do with my School. If I catch some of you opposing this, I will expel them according to all the rules of the Divine Science. When they learn harmony I will admit them again, but until they learn harmony they will be outside the School. You have to remember this and there will be no exceptions to it. This is written by God in His School. His laws do not change for anybody and nobody can violate them. All schools have to obey the law of harmony by all means, this is a must. As soon as one makes a mistake, one is immediately expelled. And you know only too well how often this happens. You then start singing and rejoin the school. The moment you make a mistake – you are out again! And when you get out, you can tell the difference. Therefore the law should be applied internally. Your Spirit, which guides you, will get you out of this. When I say that I will expel you, I mean the law that operates in the Spiritual World. It is the same law for everybody. Teachers do the same: they make no allowances for students making mistakes. Neither teachers, nor students are given allowances. If a mistake is made – the person is out, if the person corrects the mistake, the person is admitted back in again. Because the entire Heaven shakes when in disharmony. This is why people who are not pure are not admitted. You will keep this as a rule; this is a conscious law. It is up to you whether you will be in harmony or not; you are the person deciding whether you will be in or out of harmony. So I am telling you to apply this great law of Life. It is needed on the earth; this is a practical law. Do not think that it is strict; it is a great law that teaches us order and discipline. Adam was happy in Paradise, but the moment he tasted the fruit of disharmony, he was immediately taken by the ear and thrown out. This is certainly a very severe punishment, because he infringed upon harmony many a times. If you sing one note incorrectly you will stay one day out of school, if you sing two notes incorrectly, you will stay two days out of school, if you sing three notes incorrectly – three days out of school and so on. You will stay out of School as many days and as many notes as you have sung incorrectly. When you correct yourself you will feel blessed. The law is absolute – no disharmony is tolerated. If you do not love me, you will tell me, ‘Be patient for a while!’ If you love me, you won’t tell me to be patient and if you love people do not make them suffer your foolishness. In this respect you will do your best to introduce harmony among you. You need harmony. If you fail to introduce harmony, there is no other way that you can help yourselves. You may pray here, but the moment you leave the meeting, harmony is unbalanced. You have to keep it in your mind that God is an eternal harmony. This thought should become part of your flesh and blood; you should be able to hear it everywhere! Then you will be strong enough to fight down the temptations in the outside world. I now interpret Love for you in the G clef in the first degree. You say, ‘Let’s love one another!’ But to be able to love, you have to know where the G clef is and to tune yourselves to it. You will then be in harmony and will start with Love. When I talk about Love, I mean that it precedes harmony, while harmony creates the conditions for the manifestation of this great Divine Power, which brings in health, and health in its turn brings in harmony. The external harmony prepares the conditions for Love, Love brings in Life, Life – health, while health brings in the internal harmony within us. So, the external harmony is formed internally. I want you to apply the Teaching I am talking about today. I will test you and I will appoint a committee to test you on all the notes, and there will be tests for everything from the beginning to the end. A committee from Heaven will come here to test you. It will visit your homes and you will sit for your exams in harmony, you will have to sing. Make sure there is harmony at your homes when the committee comes to visit you, so that your homes can be blessed. If the committee on coming does not find you well prepared, there will be no blessing. Make sure you do not regret it later on. One committee will be sent from Heaven. How would you verify this thought? This committee is a little bit difficult to understand: this means officials from the local authorities and it can have three, four, five or ten persons on its panel in harmony. They will test you on harmony – how you sing, how you live, how you feel, how you think and how you act. This is the thirteenth year. If you do not achieve any results, you won’t go any further. If you get from the beginning to the end of singing, what do you think will come out? Applause or hissing? A new course, a new clef starts next year. If you do not adjust to this clef properly, you won’t pass to a new clef, you will have to redo the same clef. If you pass the exam, you will start learning the new clef. This is what I want to tell you; what I am talking to you makes sense, you have experiences, you have lived, you know these things and you now recall them to mind. You will remember certain things, which you have forgotten, when you find yourself driven to the wall. That wolf that is used to eating sheep says that roots are not food, but when he goes hungry for five or six days, he calls to mind the delicious roots and finds them. Likewise, when you feel cornered, you call to mind what you used to know. You know these things but I will remind you of an old Truth which you have forgotten. Christ says, ‘When this Spirit of Truth comes, it will make you remember what I have said in the beginning’. This is written in the soul, in the mind and you know it. Do not be disconcerted and do not say, ‘I can’t sing properly this tone, this I do not know.’ You know it; you will remember it! You will open the book to the right page and when you review the year, the month, the day, the time, and everything event by event as it was, you will say, ‘Aha, I can remember, I can see clearly now’. This is a small reference for you. It is good if everybody goes into the reference chamber and works a little bit upon oneself. Do not think that you lack abilities. You all have abilities and feelings, but you have to do some work according to the law of harmony. When you work in agreement with the law on harmony, everything comes out ten-fold, while when you work outside the law of harmony, life is difficult, unbearable. You eat without harmony, you sleep without harmony, you live with people in disharmony, then life is difficult, grievous and you start singing the songs ‘Doichin has been ill for ten years’ or ‘Hard times, indeed’. This is what life without harmony is. So, I gave you one clef now, a very simple method and easy to do and you will apply it. Outside this thought of harmony you shall not reflect on what God is. You will understand God to be one Great intelligent harmony, which is spread everywhere in the Universe, all over Nature and among all things alive. Every evening you will concentrate your mind and your thoughts on one tone of this harmony. As soon as you have grasped one tone, you have achieved a lot. A tone per day! You quarrel with your husband, with your daughter and you say, ‘My husband does not get the tone right’. No, you have to say, ‘I will sing an accurate tone of the G clef and I will show him how to sing!’ But you start, ‘What are you rattling on?’ He rattles on, she rattles on and what comes out of two people rattling on? Two chatter boxes. You will calm down and you will tell yourself, ‘Love – this is the G clef! You have to take the tuning fork!’ You take the tuning fork, you tune yourself and you tell your husband, ‘Love and agreement, Love and agreement!’ You will sing and you will sing, you will increase your tone and before you look at him he will be smiling and singing ‘Love and agreement, let’s make it up!’ This is Divine – to listen to what God says from above. When one lives in this way, life becomes intelligent and easy. While now you go from one house to another and keep telling each other what you experienced. You keep walking all day long, you tell ten people what you have experienced and still you find life difficult. If you live in harmony you won’t be telling anything to anybody and your soul will feel light as a feather. I will now give you an exercise. We shall see whether you can apply it. Can you do the first exercise? You will think about the words Love and agreement for two minutes. (For two minutes everybody is silent and does the exercise.) You will do this exercise ten times everyday for two minutes and you will see the results. You will do your best to have harmony in your mind all the time. Your mind has to get accustomed to this. It deviates a lot, but when you concentrate for a minute or two on harmony, your mind will get accustomed to concentrating; it will start adapting. When you do these exercises, your cells, your nerves will start toning up and if you have a headache or any other indisposition, it will pass away and you will feel healthier. If you do these exercises more often, you will start healing yourselves. This is a good healing method. Every healing is cleaning; and cleaning means health. When you spend all your life in this way doing the harmony exercises, everything within you will be cleaned and your soul will be as white as snow. When you do several such experiments and when you see the results, you will let me know. And when you are convinced of the good results, you can then help the people close to you. Lecture delivered by the Master, on 20 June 1921, Whit Monday 1 The G clef in Bulgarian is called the Sol clef – after the 5th tone of the diatonic scale in solmization. Throughout the text I will use the G clef – but right here I have also used its other name the Sol clef Because the pronunciation [so:l] stands for the 5th tone and for the Bulgarian word for salt - sort of close to the pronunciation of the English word salt. 2 or Anglo-Saxon Source

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE NEW HUMANKIND Today I am going to speak about the New Humankind. I will present this subject to you in a new perspective. The New in the world is symbolized by the rising Sun and the old - by the setting Sun. That is a Law in Nature. It is not only me to assert this Law, but every mother and father does. When a young woman and man marry, the first child they will have is the rising Sun, the hope for their future. If we think that the new brings some mischief, disorganizes the society and entire humankind, it is a wrong understanding of those Great Principles that govern the Living Nature. But if we have such concepts, why then do we want those children who bring trouble to their parents? How many days and nights has the mother spent without any rest and sleep for this newly born that does not know yet to speak, for this new concept to be raised! This new concept is at first undetermined, but the mother has the ability to comprehend, listen, and understand the messages of this new being, of this little baby. Similarly, there are individuals in any community and nation with receptive souls, whose consciousness is developed and whose hearts are elevated to a higher level. They are able to grasp this new concept and to become its “children” and bearers. Contemporaries usually do not accept the bearers of the new ideas, so they say, “These people are anarchists, communists, heretics, sectarians!” But all these labels are only words without any meaning. If we reason in this way, I ask then: What is the difference between these three persons: a communist following his views in life, someone who is living according to his old views, and a third one who is applying the new views? The difference is that the bearer of the new ideas feels uplifted and vigorous in life thanks to the vitality of growth. The other one, who lives with the old ideas, feels worn, exhausted, his strength is failing, he is afraid of the future and he is concerned with the old age. Therefore, he is striving to become rich and begins insuring himself through banks and insurance policies. I say: These are the old people, this is what brings death and this is the graveyard of humankind. But graveyards do not bear new ideas to humankind; they create only suffering and misfortune in the world! Kings and priests, musicians and poets - all lay buried in the graveyards for their wrongdoings. If you ask me why people die, I will reply: It is because of their old ideas. How then can all humanity resurrect? I say: Rejuvenate, become bearers of the new Divine Teaching, which symbol is brotherhood. What does brotherhood imply? Those who call themselves your brothers and sisters must be ready to sacrifice everything for you - their life, wealth, and honor. When a great nation comprehends this concept of true brotherhood, it must be ready to sacrifice everything for these new ideas. If there is no sacrifice, there is no brotherhood, no equality. Those who preach about God and spread the great idea of His Being without sacrificing their wealth, honor, and life for Him, have not grasped the Great Teaching of Life. This is brotherhood and equality; and this is what Christ has preached. Let us go back and apply Christ’s Teaching because it will bring salvation of the world. What did Christ teach, what did He preach? He taught the great idea of the New Humankind! What will be the distinguishing features of the representatives of the New Humankind? The Jewish prophets, being farsighted, stated two thousand years ago, that God would create new hearts of flesh, but the Divine Spirit would dwell in them and all would come to know God. Therefore, nobody will doubt the existence of God. Everyone will be under their own fig tree without any fear. Peace and love will reign among all; the weapons of war will be turned into tools and ploughs and people will no longer make war. Christ has established two principles related to the New and the old humankind in the following correlation: the person of knowledge who understands the meaning of Life built his house on a rock, in other words, on the firm principles of Living Nature. And the person of ignorance, who does not understand the meaning of Life, built his house on sand, so the winds and floods carried it away. Storms and floods affect those people who live without any principles. They usually provoke all the unrest in society. They bring down the house built on a sandy foundation. Therefore, these two cultures, the old and the new one, are founded on two main principles. The contemporary old humankind is still serving its egoism and that is why brotherhood cannot exist. The New Humankind will serve selflessly. Egoism is predestined to become the servant of humankind. The new ideas do not cover only the personal and social good of humankind, but of all sentient beings. By “sentient” I mean the living beings altogether, as no being exists without any sentience. If someone talks to you, but you are deaf, you cannot hear the spoken and wonder why you do not understand this person. The problem is not with the speaker, but with the listener whose ear cannot receive and comprehend what is said. The blind cannot perceive the world in full either. It is not that the world is dark, but the visual senses of this person are underdeveloped. Therefore, the present society needs to develop these feelings following the Great Law of Evolution. Nature of today is not what it was a million years ago. There are great turns occurring every one hundred million years in Nature. If I ask you about the age of our Solar system, you will tell me, one hundred million years according to some contemporary scientists; two hundred million - according to others; five hundred million - according to third, and so on. The esoteric science states that ever since the creation of our Solar system, two hundred and fifty billion years have already passed. These statements can neither be proved nor disproved. They are only assertions that can be proved only in certain conditions, if we accept the explicit axioms and fundamental principles. But in general, in order for a truth to be understood, some information is needed. There are only a few proven truths in the world. Try, for instance, to prove an idea, which is dear to you: does the human being have a soul or not? I can tell you that half of the contemporary intellectuals deny this idea; the other half support it, but cannot prove or disprove it. If we ask someone about the soul and how it looks like, the answer usually is, “There is a soul, but I do not know how it looks like.” We can prove the existence only of those things that have form, content, and meaning; as to the things that have no such parameters, we can neither prove nor disprove them. I am presenting an idea, which is familiar to your souls because what I speak about is inherited in you. You have certain ideals, aspirations, yearnings, but they are being expressed in various ways. And every one of you has an aspiration that is unique. The young man, for instance, is looking out for his beloved. The old man will say, “This is nonsense. Once upon a time I also busied myself with such things, but now I do not need any beloved.” But it is not so for the young man. Night after night he does not sleep, gets up early, walks here and there, looking out for his girl with the dark eyes. His mother and father wonder what is happening to their son. The son says, “The new idea will bring new life to me - that is what I am looking for.” Who is right, the young or the old? I say: the young. Once upon a time a fox passed by an apple tree and saw high on one of its branches a piece of good cheese hanging. The fox looked at the cheese, but continued on its way saying, “That is worth nothing.” Why? It is because the cheese was high up in the tree and the fox could not reach it. But if it had been down, within reach, the fox would have said that there was no better cheese than this. New Humankind is mentioned several times in the New Testament, in the Revelation. The Evangelist John, two thousand years ago, saw the pregnant woman as a bearer of the great idea about the New Humankind and he also fixed the number of the chosen ones, who will be bearers of this idea, at 144 thousand. If you add these numbers one to another, the total is 9: 1+4+4=9. The number 9 signifies results from the evolution of those who have all positive and noble qualities attained. Some would say that these 144 thousand individuals are in Heaven. No, they are living now here, on Earth; they have come back to Earth and incarnated among the learned people. Some of them are writers; others - poets and scientists, but they all are guiding the humankind on the path to the new ideal, on the path to the Divine. They stand against the darkness and fetters, which impede humankind. And this unrest, this great change that is coming, is due to them. They will turn this world upside down. Do not take this for a bad omen. In Bulgaria, when a person drinks a lot of water and chokes, he is turned with the head upside down so that he could vomit the swallowed water. The contemporary knowledgeable people, too, have swallowed a lot of unclean water and they need to be turned upside down so that this water might flow out. When everything unclean has flown out, they will be turned once more, this time with their heads upward and only then the New Life will begin. Some of you may say, “We do not care for this New Humankind, when we witness the present suffering.” We need to understand, however, that suffering is necessary for the development of character. We have only now, in this age, begun to suffer and we have become more sensitive. It is true that modern people suffer more, but this is a noble suffering, which will put the society in order. Does every pregnant woman not pass through some suffering and some painful experience? She suffers until the baby in her womb is formed, but when the child is born, she is released from suffering. Therefore, the suffering shows that we are pregnant with a Great Divine Idea and like that mother we are ready to endure all suffering. But when the child is born, the sorrow will disappear and will be replaced by joy. Often we ourselves cause our suffering. I will illustrate this with an anecdote from the Bulgarian life. A villager liked eggs very much and looked for every occasion to get some as a meal. However, he did not succeed every time because his wife was very stingy. She was big, well built and when her husband dared without her knowledge to enjoy one or two eggs, she gave him a thrashing. One day she fell unconscious and died. The man told himself, “Thanks God, finally I can eat eggs and there is no one to stop me anymore.” He took seven eggs and buried them in the hot ash under the fire. At that moment several women, his neighbors, came to share his sorrow for the loss. When all of a sudden he heard steps, he got startled. Forgetting that his wife was dead and fearing not to be beaten, he slipped the eggs quickly into his bosom. The women told him, “Your home is under such a plight, like under fire [colloquial expression in Bulgaria].” He replied, “Yes, there is a big fire in my home, but the one that burns in my chest, in my bosom is even bigger.” People nowadays say, “We go through so much suffering.” I say again: The baked hot eggs in your bosom are the cause for this suffering. Remove the eggs from your bosom and your suffering will stop. The term for this in modern science is obsession. Do you know what a fixed idea is? I will give you an example of someone who suffered from an obsession. A gentleman made a circle by touching his thumb and index finger of his left hand and then moved the index finger of his right hand into it, trying to catch it. So, he tried unsuccessfully for two-three years. Finally, he went to a doctor who immediately figured out how to help him. The doctor stuck his own index finger into the left hand of the patient; the later grabbed it immediately rejoicing that he finally succeeded in his attempts. By this, the man was healed and free from the fixed idea that had been bothering him for so long. Similarly, people of today who have some fixed idea want to catch their finger, but cannot succeed. However, this finger is created for another kind of work and not to try to catch it. If you want, you can catch hold of it in another way and not as this man. New Epoch is beginning on Earth at present and today’s esoteric science says that a New Wave is coming from the Sun. If I use new words, you may not understand them and my lecture will become obscure. This advancing Wave that is coming now affects the human brain - that is why some people become eccentric under this influence. Eccentric are those people who are either too silent, or very talkative, but their speech is incoherent. These are extremes that exist among people, but there are also norms of the proper development. Some say that speech should always be logical. In my opinion, there are three types of logic in the world. The first I name purely materialistic logic; the second - logic of the conscious life; and the third - Divine Logic. The Divine Logic does not allow any lie at all. Therefore, to operate within the last two kinds of logic, you should have a noble and sublime soul - in other words, you should be ready to sacrifice yourself for your fellowmen and live not only for yourself. Another thing that should be done is to prove where the Truth is. The verification of Truth requires time and practice. All modern scientists who propose various theories and investigations in medicine, industry, physics, chemistry, or in any other field of life need time in order to apply their theories. A theory could be very correct in its mathematical calculations, but if it does not give results when it is applied, it is not acceptable. For instance, an Englishman has studied one subject for 25 years and he was working on the make-up of a flying machine. For this purpose, he had made a profound study and when he was sure of his calculations, he gave an announcement in the newspapers. However, he missed something: he did not put all this in practice. When the experiments with the flying machine began, it did not work, though the data and calculations presented by him, were observed: the wheels were moving, but the machine could not fly up. The inventor was booed and this ended his work. But new investigators after him began to study Live Nature and bird’s anatomy: bird’s wings and tails. People mastered the ways of flying and based on that practice, they were able to build the working flying machine. How great was the joy of humankind when the mechanism of flying was discovered! But all these flying machines: balloons, airplanes, and zeppelins were not used for the benefit of humankind. You saw how they had been used in the last wars and how dangerous these machines could be. People ask me to reveal a big secret to them. I say: One of the greatest secrets is to learn how to heal oneself by flying up. This is how, if you are neurotic, you can heal yourself. If a wife is not well, let her try to fly for half an hour and she will come back healthy. If later on, her husband falls ill, she would also place him in a balloon to fly for a while so that he might return healthy. Such healing is easy because in the higher strata the air is much more pure than below. Here, where we live, the air is full of carbon dioxide. And if we are neurotic nowadays, this is due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, which we breathe and which acts as a poison in our body. Do you know what you will feel when you enter a big modern city? If you had a developed sixth sense or psychic sense like some people, when you look at a city, you will be nauseated by the air pollution and stench and will not want to live there anymore. Our modern settlements and houses are a reflection of the contemporary humankind with its unrefined sense of smell. And as a result, life there becomes more and more unbearable. But the New Divine Ideas that are coming will bring the New Life into the world. The existing death, misfortune, suffering, insanity are the result of completely other mental causes and not of those they are usually ascribed to. The present day life in its forms as well as the contemporary social system should change. And the people bearing the new ideas are right to insist on this change. This change occurs gradually in Nature, but it will happen in your life as well, either gradually or instantaneously. On this occasion Turks say, “Allahan zoru da var.” This is translated that if someone’s head is thick and does not take any advice, when God tells him what to do one or two times, then the Law of Karma is applied. Therefore, brotherhood is the fundamental idea of the New Teaching. Brotherhood needs to be applied in households. Mothers and fathers should understand this fundamental Law of Brotherhood in order to create new conditions for upbringing and educating their children. For instance, if a young man is unruly, doing mischief, how is he treated according to the old ways? He is punished and imprisoned. In prison, he loses his health and after that the state must take care of him. This youth could have become an excellent citizen. He had an outburst of energy, which must be cleverly put into action. You say about him, “Yes, but he is a sinner, a criminal.” The society had created such conditions, which he could not handle. And so, instead of studying the Living God and Nature as to act accordingly, we are opposing one another, thinking that there are many laws in the world. Living Nature has only one Law applied to all - both rich and poor. The poor person says, “This wealthy person has everything he desires to eat and to drink, lives in the lap of luxury and I have nothing.” But you do not know that the suffering for this wealthy person is only on hold for 45 years. Does Nature not take equally the fat of the poor and rich? What does Nature want to say by this? She tells people, “You have not yet learned the Law of Brotherhood.” If you read the first chapters of the Genesis, you will see that God says to Adam and Eve, “You will eat of all fruits but one. The day you eat of this forbidden fruit, you will die.”[1] The forbidden fruit is a symbol of today’s egotism. For example, someone who wants to exploit others and live on their toil; someone who takes the bread of the poor widows and orphans to satisfy one’s own needs; someone who wants to be at war with so many nations - such person is eating from the forbidden fruit. Therefore, you should all be persistent in that Great Teaching. Has Christ ever taught people to wage war, fight each other, or pray God to help one of the fighting sides? A thousand, two thousand years ago, this had some meaning, but now it has outlived its time. Where is the true faith, which is being paraded; where is the genuine Christianity? I speak to those who name themselves true Christians; they should act according to the Christ’s Law. And those who are not Christians should act according to their beliefs and laws. Someone says, “I am not a Christian.” What then are the laws and beliefs according to which you live? “I am a free thinker.” Then act according to your free thought. We should give the right of freedom to every person because there is something good, something noble within each human soul. Give everyone an opportunity and they will be able to advance; yet, under unfavorable conditions, people often fall down. I have used this example before and I will give it again. A famous Italian painter wanted to paint the image of Christ and so he walked around the town looking attentively at all faces, hoping to find the suitable one. And he found a youth of about 20 and painted Christ after his image. The work was a success. After some time the same painter decided to paint Judas and began looking for a suitable model. He found a young man and asked him to pose for the picture. The young man said, “Sir, that is strange, some years ago I posed for you for the image of Christ and now you want me to pose for Judas!” In just few years, the sinful life he had lead changed his face so much that he looked like Judas. If a young woman follows the wrong path in life and ends in a brothel, do you think that her face will not have an imprint from this life? Such a destitute woman told me one day that while she had money her husband lived with her, but after he drank up all her money, he left her to her fate and she turned to a wrong path. She said, “I want to join the church, but they do not accept me there.” This woman has the longing for a pure life, so when her conditions change, she will raise herself up. And of those “free” women who wish to serve their sensuality, people say, “Such women are needed in the world.” I say: No, we should take our sisters out of the brothels, not rape them, but guide them on the right path and show them how to live. The bearers of the new idea, the altruistic feeling, and the Divine Teaching are coming now and they are the ones who will defend all fallen and unjustly treated people. These people are not like anybody; they have signs on their faces, in their eyes, on their hands. You will recognize them. Here are their signs: if a doctor is the bearer of the New Teaching, when he comes to your home, he will bring all the medicine you need and will take no money from you, but will say, “I serve for free.” If he is a priest, when you ask him to baptize your child or perform a burial service, he will not accept any money, but will only say, “I serve the New Teaching.” If he is a trader, as a representative of the New Teaching, he will trade honestly; if he is a teacher, he will teach for free. You will object, “If we all work without payment, the world will fall apart.” Yes, the present world will be transformed and new beliefs will spring forth. Some will ask, “How is it possible to work for nothing, how shall we live without money?” I ask how many thousands are being paid to parents to rear and educate their four or five children? Is there a law by which mothers and fathers are obliged to get up five-six times at night to watch over their little children? There is no such law and constitution, yet in spite of this, the work of parenting goes on more smoothly and naturally than any other work subjected to the state law. Therefore, mothers and fathers represent the first Law we must observe. I say: You are on the right path, if you live in the same way as parents and children live in a household; as brothers and sisters live together. With respect to the New Humankind, no great disaster is to be expected. It is true, there will be a great collision in the world, but it will affect those buildings that have no solid foundations and those rotten trees that have no healthy roots. A great paradigm is coming, which will overthrow them all; it is a Law or a ventilation that is going to clean up everything rotten - only the healthy ones will remain in the world. When suffering is coming your way, do not ask about the reason. I say: The Sun causes all misfortunes on Earth; it is the reason for our suffering, but also for our happiness. It creates the floods, epidemics, and all diseases in the world; it causes the earthquakes too; in other words, it is the reason for everything that happens in all of Nature. The Sun says, “If you are wise, you are going to use my energy properly and I will shower you with all blessings; if you are not wise, I will inflict the greatest suffering on you.” The Sun can change its energy, but it will still shine and the Earth will still rotate. I am telling you this: There is a statement in the advanced esoteric science about the exception; or the irregularity that appears for example, in the movement of a wheel, once in every one hundred million revolutions. Our planet Earth is also such a wheel and after going one hundred million times around the Sun, its rotation will change - this will manifest either disastrously, in a descending line, or beneficially, in an ascending line. Such exceptions or reversals have already happened to the Earth and a new one is forthcoming. Our Earth has almost reached this number of rotations and is approaching the exception. I am not going to fix the date when this cosmic event will take place. You may not believe me now, but when this day comes, you will have the proof then. We can apply this Cosmic Law also to the Sun. After it makes one hundred million revolutions, an exception will occur to it. Modern scientists say that our Sun makes one revolution in twenty million years. Can you suppose what will happen to the world when the Sun comes to make an exception? If this exception falls into the descending line, the entire Solar system will be extinguished, the Sun will darken and all life will cease. But if the exception falls into an ascending line, the solar energy will be increased tenfold and then people on Earth must watch out! So, at present there is an approximate coincidence: both the Sun and the planet Earth have almost made their one hundred million revolutions and the exceptions are impending for them. I can prove scientifically this statement with facts and data but not to this society. The formulae and facts used by the esoteric science can be proved to you, but it will take time. I do not intend to instill fear, but I say that exceptions exist and all should be prepared to meet them at their assigned places. Christ says, “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.”[2] If you think that life will flow on peacefully and quietly in eating and drinking, you are wrong. Modern scientists state that the humankind has not lived on Earth for more than eight thousand years, but the esoteric science has a different view about it. It claims that the humankind has lived much longer than this. The skulls left over from old times prove than man lived even earlier than eight thousand years ago. But the facts that he has really lived much longer than that cannot be revealed to the public. Even if such facts are made public, the connection between them is so subtle that it seems that there is almost no connection. When in one of my lectures I said that the development of the human will could be defined by the thumb, some said it was illogical. But truly, the thumb is the result of the action of the human will. In the olden times as punishment of the thickheaded and prevention of their crimes, they cut off their two thumbs. Then I ask why some people have longer thumbs than others; and why some people have better formed thumbs than others. All this has some meaning, it points to the development of the will and reason in the human being. If you look at a person’s thumb, you will see how the development of this soul goes. If it is good, the thumb is well shaped and there is no crookedness. If there is crookedness, it shows some deformation in the character. If your nose, eyes, or lips are crooked, it means something too. The doctor says, “This is not normal, you got a stroke.” But I say: There is a discord in the connection between the parts of body and energetic centers, between the thoughts and feelings acting in the human organism. It makes no sense, if I develop this New Science only in theory without any practical application. I speak about realities, which are fixed quantities, as something defined and not abstract, in the same way as mathematicians deal with formulae, chemists - with molecules and atoms, physicists - with forces. We say nowadays that the human being has a soul. Is the soul a fixed unit; where does it dwell: in the brain, in the heart, in the lungs, or in the stomach, where can it be found at all? Modern science can say nothing about the soul. Now let me go back to my train of thought. The New Humankind needs to begin first with the human anatomy. Therefore, I would like that you all become interested in anatomy. When you begin to build a house, first of all you set up the woodwork of the building, then you prepare the scaffolding of the house, and after that you build up. Anatomy represents the scaffolding. Some say, “We need no anatomy!” No, you cannot go without it. Children, mothers, and fathers need to study anatomy. When you sew a garment, you also begin with anatomy. The patterns are anatomical signs and according to these you cut the garment. Therefore, people of today really study life anatomically: because they always cut. What is cutting? In the life of the New Humankind you will study not only anatomy, but physiology as well. How do you study physiology when you are building your house? You place windows and chimneys so that more air flows through. What is the subject of physiology? The study of the functions of the various organs, the heart and blood circulation. Physiology is needed in every home in order to obtain more favorable conditions in life. You, who are now building your houses, do you have big windows? I recommend to you: make bigger doors on your houses and open larger chimneys. I like big chimneys and do not approve the stoves that are in use now. You say, “My grandfather and grandmother were very healthy in the past.” Yes, but your grandfather had big chimneys in his house, so the ventilation was good; whereas you have moved backward, you live with much carbon dioxide in the air and of course, you cannot be healthy. Good ventilation is necessary. And what do the Bulgarians do? Because they are afraid of catching cold, they clog up their windows with paper to avoid air drafting. It is better to catch a cold than to breathe air full of carbon dioxide. The representatives of the New Humankind are already here; they will increase in number so that to spread the new ideas all over the world. You, all of you, may become members of this New Humankind. Who does not like fraternity and equality? Is there a father who does not wish his son to become educated, not remaining ignorant? The New Humankind requires of every person to be honest, in other words, to subdue egoism; to be just, wise, and good. And to show these four qualities not only superficially, but to be so honest, in the absolute sense, that never to sacrifice someone else’s interests for his own, and always to direct his own interests to the good of his fellowmen. You might say, “If we apply this, we will be overtaken by suffering and misfortune.” I ask: Is there happiness coming from the application of the present-day ideas? Were thirty million people not killed in the war, are the prisons not full? And on this very day people die because they serve the old culture, which teaches that one must be a wolf to others. But Christ says, “All you are brethren.”[3] Did I create this Teaching? I say: If you are not willing to observe Christ’s Teaching, observe that of Moses’; if you are not willing to obey him, then respect the laws of your country. Anyway, act as an honest and just person, do not break your word. But if you act once according to Moses and the next time according to Christ - you will mix up the laws. Some ask me, “Do you always speak the Truth?” Yes, I think over every word I say. If I speak honestly, justly, I speak for my own good; I do not wish to disgrace my honor; I wish neither to disgrace my brothers, nor the name of God. But I hope when I meet you some day to be sure that I have always been honest and just in my soul and mind so that you would follow this Path too. Only in this way, through this Teaching, can mothers and fathers become better; any other teaching brings suffering, suffering, suffering. Brotherhood is practiced over and over. There are certain forms and Laws in the esoteric science. The Laws of the Brotherhood of Light, of those one hundred and forty-four thousand luminous souls, have not changed with even one millionth part for these one hundred million of years. That is why I say that the Laws of Nature are wise and unchanging. Every thought can give a result even thousands of years later. If you plant a bad thought, it could cause your death. If I look at your life with its everyday incidents, I can consider it from the standpoint of the Hindus, of the esoteric science, and from the Christian point of view too. And in all these points of view, the Truth will remain the same. For instance, you meet someone and this person kills you. In this case, we, the modern Christians, say, “It was God’s Will.” I say: God has never said, neither written for anyone to be killed. It is always done by a person and God has only allowed it. The Hindu Law of Karma explains it in this way: You killed someone in a former life and therefore, in this life that same person kills you. You can accept either one or another explanation. You may comment, “This is a heretical teaching, is rebirth possible?” It can be either possible or impossible. Both concepts are equally true. The belief in this is not so important. The soul has the power to create all its forms. It is up to the soul to come and live on Earth as many times as it desires. If the soul desires to incarnate on the Earth, God will sanctify its wish. The soul wishing to be reborn is reborn. Therefore, in this respect, both Hindu and Christians are right. By “soul” I mean that Conscious Divine Entity that can come here as many times as it wishes. There is also another Law in the world explaining the things in a different way so that they would become clear and a common moral could be established. For instance, someone commits a crime robbing someone else and says, “In the darkness nobody saw that I had stolen something.” Yes, but after the theft he was looking around in fear. Why? His conscience bothered and tormented him. What is conscience? These one hundred and forty-four thousand people, members of the Brotherhood of Light, say, “Sir, we saw the crime you committed and according to our Law, which never changes, we sentence you and you will suffer the consequences of your deeds.” Then, this gentleman in order to relieve his conscience goes into seclusion, fasts 10 or 15 days and after that, he goes to a priest to have something read from the Scriptures in order to calm down. The priest needs to act according to the New Teaching and to say, “Brother, you must confess before God.” Therefore, wanting to redeem your crime by a 10–15 day fast is not sufficient before God.” I will tell you how to confess before God. For instance, you have put your neighbor’s house on fire. You can correct your wrongdoing by going to the victim: to apologize, buy him a new house and furniture, and pay his debts. If you do not behave in this way, there is no forgiveness. God says, “If you have dishonored a girl, then in your next incarnation you will marry her or she will be reborn as your child so that you will be obliged to bring her up and to pay for your wrongdoings.” Yet, the young men of today tell themselves, “What will happen, if I have dishonored a girl?” In America a young man, the son of a rich merchant, dishonored a girl and abandoned her; then she became a prostitute and died afterward. The man finished theology and became a famous preacher. He was thought to be a good righteous man. He married and had a son who at the age of 16 became a great scoundrel. People were surprised that such an immoral son came from such a righteous father. I say: This son is the result of his dishonorable act. The father went out in the evenings looking for his son in order to bring him home; but only after 10 years he succeeded to set him right. In this way the preacher paid his debt. This son was in fact his beloved whom he dishonored in the past. God told the father, “Here is your beloved, pay your dept toward her.” The son would say, “Now I acknowledge that you have noble character and you know how to love because your previous love was not as it was supposed to be.” Therefore, we need to appreciate motherly love as it gives everything. I recommend young women and men to keep the promise they give to each other, being ready to die for this promise and say, “I love you, I am ready to sacrifice my honor, my life, and all my wealth for you, but I will never renounce you.” This is what I call a person with noble character! And what is happening nowadays? They get married today, their love is gone tomorrow, so they want a divorce and come to the church officials for a solution.4 I say: Priests do not have the right to do either divorce or marriage ceremonies. If a young man comes to me for marriage, I do not have the right to do the ceremony without asking him whether he is ready to sacrifice his possessions, honor, and life for his beloved. I will ask the young woman as well, if she is ready to give up her possessions and her life for this young man. If both of them say that they are ready, only then I can perform the marriage ceremony. Otherwise, I am not going to marry them and have no right to do so. This is how it is supposed to be in order for this society and nation to be set in order. And so, Christ’s Consciousness should permeate the world. This is what the Brotherhood of Light brings and what Christ preaches. And those Luminous Brothers are coming down now. They are going to use these two exceptions in the rotation of the Sun and of the Earth. And a new miracle will happen as it is written in the Scripture: There will be a New Heaven and Earth, and a New Humankind. I say: We should put an end to the old humankind and in the future we must live according to the Laws of the New Humankind. This is what the brotherhood requires. I do not preach of some dead god, but of the Living God. If you ask me, “Where is God?” I am going to answer: He is not in the sky that you see. Some say, “Prove to us where God is.” God needs no proof. The ant with its lower consciousness has no organs of sense with which to find out that people exist. When you take up an ant between your two fingers or when it climbs on your head, it says to itself, “I am climbing such a high mountain.” It looks at life from this height and going back to its fellow ants it says to them, “Today I climbed a very high mountain.” Thus God takes us between His two fingers, but we ask, “Is there God?” Yes, these two fingers are God’s and He tells us, “You cannot climb on My head.” If you do not see the Living God in your brothers, you cannot understand this Teaching. If I do not see God in you, my teaching is a lie. If I do not love you and I am not ready to sacrifice myself for you, I am preaching a false teaching. And you should sacrifice yourselves too. Brotherhood is required in this world. You need to accept this Teaching. It is being preached by all good people, by all mothers and fathers, by all brothers and sisters. This world needs self-sacrifice. Enough of lies! Someone asks, “How much will I get if I serve?” No payment should be expected anymore. Worldly people say about some individuals, “These are the devout Christians.” How do you recognize their devotion? “They attend church regularly.” No, no, we are the church - those living bodies are temples. If we cannot live a pure, honest life, what will happen to our temples? See what happened to Russia? Russia did not listen to the voice of Tolstoy that was the Voice coming from the Living God. And as a result, the formal religion brought the appearance of Bolshevism. The Bolshevism is God’s Whip in the Hand of Christ. Today He is asking us, “Is this all you have created in so many years?” It is Christ who is at work in Russia and not an evil force. When a surgeon takes his scalpel to do an operation he knows how to remove only the diseased flesh and strengthen the healthy part. If the surgeon has no practice, he will not know how to perform the surgery, even when he is considered to be the best expert in this field. The Bulgarians, too, should be thankful to the Bolsheviks, but this is not a point of my lecture. What have the Americans done? They have been sending missionaries here for many years to preach the Christ’s Teaching; and at the same time during the war they sold to the Bulgarians ten million kilograms of flour for two gold coins per kilogram? Do you know how much is one gold coin? Ten leva. It means that the cost of one kilogram of flour was twenty leva. Do you think that the American merchants acted according to Christ’s Teaching? They missed the opportunity to give a good example. According to Christ and the Luminous Brothers this is not a true Christianity. If the Bulgarians continue on the path they follow, it is not good for them. The contemporary culture cannot help them either. Everything should change in the world. No nation should harm another nation, no society should harm another society and no person should harm another person. All should live according to the Great Law of Love. If you accept this Teaching, everything will change and you will be blessed as a nation. And this Great Law will be applied in the world. If you do not accept it, others will. I will give you an example. In old times, in the so-called Golden Age, there were two kingdoms: of the Espertites and of the Menezites. The king of the Espertites had a son and according to the customs of that time he called the sages to predict his son’s future. One of those great sages made his calculations and said to the king, “At about the age of 20 your son will pass through a big crisis. For this reason you must send him to be a shepherd in another kingdom - there he will learn the Great Laws of Living Nature.” The father followed the instructions of the sage and said to his son, “My son, henceforth you must earn your living with your own hands,” and sent him off to be a shepherd in the kingdom of the Menezites. There the youth lived for 10 years and studied the Laws of Nature. In the 11th year of his sojourn in this kingdom, the daughter of the king of the Menezites came to this place riding a white horse. She was accompanied by her servants, but tempted by the beauty of nature and the pretty wild flowers, she dismounted the horse and strode away alone. A cobra came out from among the stones and bit her right hand. Seeing this and knowing the Laws of Nature, the shepherd - the prince, ranto her, put his mouth to her hand and sucked out the poison. Meanwhile her servants, watching from afar thought that this shepherd was offending the king’s daughter, so they bent their bows, one of them shot a poisonous arrow and injured his left hand. When the king’s daughter saw this, she came quickly to him, tore the sleeve of his shirt, put her mouth to the wound and sucked out the poison. I ask who was saved by whom? The young man saved her from the snake’s poison, but in turn, she saved him from the poison of the arrow. He said to her, “You suffered from the snake’s poison; I suffered from the human poison.” Now, people suffer from the poison of the snake. Do you know what the snake represents? It is their extreme egoism. Women and men need to save each other from this poison. Woman should suck out the poison of man’s egoism, while man should suck out the poison of the woman’s distorted heart. Only in this way, women and men can join hands, coming to know that they can live together and understand each other. And all contemporary Christian believers should reach toward each other. When I came to the town of Tarnovo, how did you receive me? My friends, I came to suck out your poison. If you are going to suck out mine, that is another issue and will be revealed in time. If you do it, I will tell you, “You are my brothers.” It is a manifestation of the Law of Love that is acting in the world. Everyone who sucks out the poison of his brother will receive a loving embrace and that one who does not, will be sent away. Young people, the future is yours! Men and women, live according to the Law of Love! Do not follow the path of those who have become old by wrongdoings. Renounce the many sweethearts you have. One sweetheart is enough: one girl but wonderful and one young man but excellent. These are enough; you do not need two men or two women. Then, may you have inner freedom; do not bind yourselves into slavery. Think in this way and apply this Law everywhere: in the social, political, and religious life - to follow Christ’s Teaching. Only in this way the Bulgarian nation can advance - by observing this moral Law. When I visit Tarnovo, I am observing the people. I meet priests, judges, teachers, policemen, servants and tell myself: Brothers and sisters, you do not follow the right path in the way you are living now - this is not the Teaching of Christ, this is not brotherhood. I meet many priests, preachers, teachers, policemen, and other people of noble character, but I also meet among them some who are not so decent. This is not a reproach; I am just stating a fact. And I say that we need to uplift ourselves to this level, to this pure morale, which is shown to us by the Brotherhood of Light. Do not tell lies! Mothers and fathers should not lie. Whatever the mother, father, priest, judge say, they should fulfill it, standing by their word. If I fulfill my promises, I could be called a true human being, but if I do not, then I do not have any compassion, any brotherly feelings toward others. The future science will side with those people who fulfill their promises. I see in the young generation a striving toward new ideas. I am watching the communists closely; I do not judge them, as I see that they perform good deeds without advertising themselves as Christians. And there are Christians who speak about Christ, but at the same time think only of making provisions for themselves. And so, the communists are unbelievers without money and the Christians are believers with money. I desire to meet a person who knows that there is God in the world, who is ashamed to lie to anyone, who knows that he will be judged if he insults others and will be truthful if asking for forgiveness. But now, when we commit a crime, we say, “I have a right to do this or that.” Yes, we all have the right to commit crimes and to lie, we all have also the right to do good and speak the truth. We all have freedom, yet we should know that everyone is going to suffer the consequences of their choices and actions. If you steal, you will be robbed; if you ruin someone, you will be ruined; if you dishonor, you will be dishonored. Whatever you do, the same will come back to you. “We reap as we sow,” says Christ. The Law is true and valid. Now, I am going to make a prediction, it is not a guess. What is the weather today? It is nice, clear and warm, the sun shining. The clear weather shows that all will progress well in the future; there will be great Warmth and soon an impulse toward Good will appear among the Bulgarians. The human mind will be transformed; people will become more compassionate and will begin to think right. The calm weather shows that the Bulgarians will awaken in their consciousness; they will not make attempts for new wars and will not repeat the mistakes from 1912 and 1915.[5] This time the Bulgarians will not use weapons, but will remain neutral saying, “By now we have served the Central Forces and the Alliance[6], but from now on we want to experience the New Life in God and to arrange our ways according to God’s Will.” Only in this way the consciousness will awake in the Bulgarians and they will advance as a nation. Then, they will address the communists and the socialists and will say, “Brothers, we love you, in your aspirations we see good ideas that we need; there is nothing to divide, everything on Earth belongs to us, let’s work together.” Some people might object, “Well, but they do not believe in God, they do not love people.” How come? They have God too - as long as they love, they have God. If someone who believes in God meets me, robs me and maims my leg, what is the worth of his faith to me and others? If someone who does not believe in God meets me and does something good for me, he will be more useful than the first person who remains only with his theory. I will turn my back to the one who believes in God, but robs me; and I will kiss on both cheeks the one who does not believe, but does not rob me because he is not disgracing God’s name, but fulfills His Will. This is the New Teaching that the new generation needs to apply. The unhealthy conditions in society should be removed. This is how all priests need to preach; this is how all Bulgarians need to preach. My blessing will be upon them, if they preach this way. But if they do not believe and do not preach the New Teaching, they will put a blemish on themselves. May priests say, “In the name of Christ we are going to serve God and we will serve without payment.” Some will object that they have wives, children. Are your wives not able to live like you, without expectations? Is the priest’s wife not able to live like you? Yes, she can. She should be the first to give an example of selflessness, but in fact she is the first looking how to insure herself. What need has a bishop and a priest of money, why do they need to insure themselves? Christ was not insured. How much was Christ paid for His talks? I speak to you in the name of Christ. You serve in the name of Christ, do you not? You should consider this as a serious matter. The two exceptions are coming. I want you to understand me correctly. I do not have the smallest intent to offend anyone of you. Your desires, your profound convictions, whatever they may be, are sacred to me. But your negative actions, they are something else; I cannot accept them. I cannot tolerate the negative manifestations in the world; I cannot watch calmly when someone is insulting another person. I can remain silent, but a great sorrow rises within my soul and I tell myself, “Those people are Christians; what is this delusion that is paralyzing them, so that they burst into rage?” But I believe a great Warmth is coming that will melt away the ice. Vapors will rise from the mountains and clear, pure streams will flow down. Then luxuriant vegetation will grow, the seeds planted thousands of years ago will sprout, bloom, and give fruit; all nations will join hands with each other. This New Culture that no one has expected or seen will come into the world and all will become citizens of it and representatives of the New Humankind. I would like all of you to be guests at the dinner table of this New Humankind. You are all invited, but please, do not decline the invitation because the same happened two thousand years ago when Christ invited many people to a feast, but most of them refused to come. They refused under various pretexts: some had to plough their fields, others had just bought five pairs of oxen and had to try them, still others were going to be married. What they were all really saying was, “We denounce your New Culture!” Christ is coming again and asks people once more to embrace this New Teaching. Now we can consider all those good people who have pastured herds for five centuries as Divine and use them to construct this Great Divine Building: the Temple of the New Humankind. Life is not built of one stone only and when we have already built it, then Wisdom and Love will come to Earth. Only then will there be music, poetry, art; only then will there be order and well-being. Only then will there be understanding among all human beings. Only then we can give a sacred kiss to one another and feel the joy that Angels feel. Lecture by the Master Beinsa Douno, given on August 19, 1920, in Tarnovo. ------------------------------------------------------ 1. See also Genesis 3:2–3. 2. See Luke 12:37. 3. See also Matthew 23:8, “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi;’ for one is your Master and all you are brethren.” 4. At that time church priests performed both marriages and divorces. 5. The Balkan Wars (1912–1913). 6. The Central Forces and the Alliance: coalitions among nations participating in the First World War (1914–1918).

Note 3 Combination of Relations1 There are two principles in the supreme esoteric mathematics, which read as follows: the attitude of the Earth to the Sun determines the attitude of the Sun to the Earth. I shall substitute the Earth for Man, and the Sun for God and then we shall arrive at a translated version: the attitude of Man to God determines the attitude of God to Man. This is a principle that is beyond dispute. Hence all contradictions in our private or public life stem from this law. I will now do another translation of this combination of attitudes: the attitude of the soul to the Spirit determines the attitude of the Spirit to the soul. I will make yet another translation substituting the soul for the child and the Spirit for the mother, and then again it is the same law: the attitude of the child to the mother determines the attitude of the mother to the child. You will find the line in the Scripture where Christ speaks about the man making his house on sand and on rocks. Bear in mind that by the rules of this esoteric law you are not free to think, feel, or act the way you want to in your relations with others. Somebody says, “I am free and I do what I want!” This is all wrong. In order for this to happen, you have to be free of all the thoughts that are not yours. If you think what people expect you to think, then something is not in order. This calls to mind a situation when somebody is being escorted by policemen – the man goes where ten policemen force him to. Keep in mind the following: I do not want to talk you into anything, I do not want to impose anything upon you; I want to let you free from the slavery situation you are in. You may get me wrong, because want is a human expression. This is the desire of the Invisible world or the desire of God – that all His children should be free. I shall not concern myself with your past, this is a matter for you to deal with; I am concerned only with your present and your future. And the only person who can now come to your aid along the Path you are walking is me. If I abandon you, you will be lost this very moment. If I let go of the stick you clutch to, you may come back to be saved only in a thousand years. There is no philosophy here: the life of the child in the mother’s womb depends on the mother carrying the child. If she decides to carry it to the end, she will give birth to the child, but if she decides to miscarry it, it won’t be born alive. It is ridiculous to imagine another woman telling a baby in its mother’s womb, “Get out of this womb and come into mine!” The child must be carried for a certain period. Any smart aleck arguing to the contrary is an absolute ignorant who does not understand this great law. Secondly, I do not want to alter the Divine order of things not even to one hundred-millionth part, neither do I wish that you try to change me; this is sacrilege! Another aspect to it: for the last seven million years the principles of the White Brotherhood haven’t changed even to one hundred-millionth part. I take this number – it is a variable belonging to the supreme Divine Mathematics, to the Divine World. These laws are strictly determined. There is a particular form for each thought, feeling, or action, through which they can be manifested and the law states that when they are expressed in this form, we feel a sort of satisfaction and kindness. This signifies that the form was expressed properly. Otherwise we feel certain discontent. It is not a bad feature, but an urge for us to aim at acquiring this supreme form. In the time of the Apostles the Christians divided into followers of Peter, followers of the Apostles, followers of Paul, followers of Christ. Paul says, “I sowed, others watered, while God grew it.” What does it matter that you have sown or watered; the important thing is that God made it grow. Moreover all principles boil down to growing, not to who sowed or who watered. I am telling you too, you should stay where God placed you, where the farmer planted you, where your mother sent you to school. Do not go out of the relations already established. The farmer and the mother are wiser than you who have it on your mind to leave school. I shall now stop here… This year the White Brotherhood will have its meeting on 19th August. Do not entertain the idea that you belong to the White Brotherhood. There are meetings every year. I do not want you to be ignorant: It consists of human souls having completed their evolution thousand of years ago. They get together every year to determine the fate of all people. Now, we have our meeting on earth simultaneously with their meeting. They are also on the earth. If you walk properly along this Path, you will join the Brotherhood in time, while for the time being you are only servants. There is something hinted to this effect in the Epistles to the Jews. This year, all of you from Sofia who attended the School up to 1914 inclusive, are invited; they will come on the morning of 17th in Tarnovo2, while those attending from 1916 to 1919 inclusive, will come on the morning of 18th, and the new comers – in the evening of 18th. I would like to see harmony reigning among all of you, so that we can benefit from the time spent together. There is work to be done. To tell you the truth the White Brotherhood does not look approvingly to Sofians. It’s not that it does not love you, but it disapproves of the rights you have granted to yourselves. Freedom goes with rights, but you should know that there are rights and obligations. This is the point of departure for you to learn the methods of governing countries and people. Not a single one of the existing methods on earth can be applied and you are aware of the results. You will learn, because you will return to the Earth, until you complete your development. You have to go to school and you will come back to school as students, until you graduate. Do not think you will convince me to side with you. There is only one way this can be done: if you live in Virtue, in Love, Justice, and Truth. I can’t be where God is not. God is not in the evil. I told a friend of mine that I would not allow anybody to commit a crime. And when I leave, you may do whatever takes your fancy. I will catch those who try to deviate and I will cause them suffering. I won’t allow anybody to commit suicide. You will come to understand this law some day. Some say, “I am not afraid!” I would like you to show me your Love; otherwise, you are cowards par excellence. Now, you have obligations to the White Brotherhood, to the School where you belong. There can be no excuse for you; you can’t discard your obligations to them. You can’t hide anywhere, not even at the bottom of hell. This you should understand very well. There is no hiding from the White Brothers. They are the bearers of Light, of each New Culture, of each good. Well, with their assistance, one always succeeds, but when one is deprived of their assistance, everything is over. Your attitude to me is your attitude to the White Brotherhood, and your attitude to the White Brotherhood is your attitude to God. You will say that you know only one God. You are mistaken: The Sun is known by the light, but it also has one mediator. This is ether, otherwise it will be invisible. Likewise the White Brotherhood is the mediator between you and God. You have to get your act together this year. There shall be no loose parties around. I am ready to listen to everybody and I would like you to be at least halfway like me. Christ has also said, “Students have to be like the Teacher.” How have I lived among you? Have you seen anything of me? You want to do something and I say, “Go ahead! Give it a try!” But I know that this is the law: one will be measured by the measure one applies. You have to be free! I know your previous life, I know everything, and I do not go poking around unearthing things, but I bury things. Knowledge is not always beneficial, but I benefit from what you do. If you want to have the benevolence of God, you have to listen to God. This was told to me and I came here on purpose. Therefore, I say that there are three scenarios: firstly, if you do not want to follow the Teaching that I preach, I will tell you firmly, “OK, you are free to go!” Secondly – are you ready to apply Christ’s Teaching as it is in the Gospel? I mean to have it performed in its absolute completeness! Thirdly – are you ready to apply Moses’ Teaching in its absolute completeness? Either Moses, or Christ, or me – we are one! This is the manifestation of God, this Teaching is Divine. Moses’ Teaching is Divine, Christ’s Teaching is Divine, and the present Teaching is Divine. The source is the same, only the forms differ. It is the same Spirit in the three teachings. Let’s assume that I tell you a dictum, a principle, but I do not sign under it. Try to accomplish it! You won’t lose much if my name is not present. But Christ says, “His Teaching must be accomplished!” You should accomplish either what the White Brotherhood discloses, or Christ’s Teaching, or Moses’ Teaching, one of these Teachings, however, has to be accomplished. I place these three Teachings before you, because you bring up certain doubts. I would not like to remove anybody and I would like you to accomplish the three Teachings simultaneously. In their complete scope they are indeed the same Teaching. Christ in Moses is the same as Christ in Jesus ands the same Christ is in me. I want you to have the insider’s understanding. The significance of the Sun is in the light it sends to us. As early as this year you should identify yourselves, in your mind, you should be sincere, because the benevolence you strive at depends on you being sincere. I can see you thinking, “Are we so well prepared that we can be called?” Remember that king who invited guests to his table. “Since those who were called did not make it, I am calling you, the cripples! Be grateful that the ones whom I called haven’t come!” It’s not a matter of dignity, the point is that you have come to learn. I will indeed produce a report on you that no one has so far produced. I shall describe your progress in the smallest details. If it comes to the stick later on, it won’t be my fault. If your father applies the stick, in awe shall I watch and count the beats. Do not fool yourselves in thinking that one is more worthy than the other. Everything in the White Brotherhood is like music. We do not drive anybody away, neither do we invite anybody; God invites people, while invited people drive themselves away on their own accord. You are free in this respect – nobody can aggrieve you, but nobody can equally spare you the consequences. I would like to see harmony, Life, reigning among all of you, but not brought into effect by the letter of the law. I do not want to probe deep in your lives, I do not want to judge you, but I am telling you the consequences and I treat you like sick people. Can the healer do the healing without causing the slightest pain? The Black Brotherhood has got you entangled, it generated a storm. Sin counts as sin before God. Such a crime can be forgiven, but there is no excuse for it. A brother will come to spend a whole life to have one sin redeemed. This is righteous – for young and old alike. I do not want you to waste your strength. You comment that I have said one thing or another – do not go checking with secondary sources, come straight to me. Nevertheless you elaborate it as much as you can and then you draw conclusions. Some say, “Mister Deunov has provided for himself.” Manu Rainov came to see me years ago and he offered thirty thousand leva to spend on whatever I think right; and I told him, “Let the money be with you.” After his death his wife again offered the money to me and left it with me. The utilisation of the money that comes to the Brotherhood is strictly determined. If there is any embezzlement, the abuser shall bear the consequences. Dr. Mirkovich wanted to leave his fortune to me, but I told him, “Sell it and give the money away to the poor or to your relatives!” This brother also (the Master pointing at L. Kotev) was asking me about the house and told him, “It should go to one person.” If one lies to me, the others will lie to me as well. There is one law in the White Brotherhood: we cannot judge any brother until the brother commits a crime. You have to think, to desire and only after you act – only then will you be judged. You will be judged first on the earth, then you will be judged for your desires in the Astral world, then – on the mental level, and finally everything will be liquidated in the causal world. Destiny is not for us. Christ said, “I did not come to judge, but to save.” The Father has granted destiny to the Son of Man, and the Son of Man represents exactly this White Brotherhood that is granted the right to judge the world. When you study the esoteric science you will learn about this Great Hierarchy that has the power to judge the younger brothers. Your attitude to me is of a temporary nature. Do not disturb the cart-driver while on the Path. If the cart-driver is a master, he will definitely get you there, if you do not have the faith, do not get onto his cart. Well, we do not ask anybody to leave. There are three types of laws: on brotherhood, on friendship, and on acquaintance. You are not brothers of mine as yet. In order for one to join the White Brotherhood, one has to sacrifice one’s life for somebody else. This is the law on brotherhood. You are in debt to the Whole. If you fail to accomplish it, you will be held accountable. I now follow the law of friendship, not the law of brotherhood with you. The Teaching I preach to you basically comes down to the following: I want to introduce you to the laws of Living Nature – something that nobody has studied so far. Moreover this is a particularly slow process. It is easy to read books, but if you want to study the laws of Living Nature, the School of Living Nature is a difficult school to attend. I want you to be free in your thoughts and feelings. I have never imposed any restrictions upon you, but there are others who will. Prepare yourselves for the annual meeting so that we do not have to go back to elementary matters, i.e. to baptism and salvation. Let’s move to a new formula expressing the New Life. I want not one of you to stumble over anything. You will study the law of humility and meekness – this is the first task facing you, the second one is electricity and magnetism, and the third one is suffering. However, you, people from Sofia, started with suffering. You have to have a reserve of energy, in order to undergo this fire. I only give you the method how to prepare yourselves for humility and meekness, for electricity and magnetism. It is not me who has created these things, they do exist. You, people from Sofia, have to patch things up. You may ask how this can be done. For instance a hundred people were sentenced to prison for their debts, while I am rich; I repay their debts and say, “Let them free!” Be self-sufficient. Each one of you should have one’s own thoughts, you should not be influenced by one another - you should help one another. If you can be influenced, people can tell you, “Mr Deunov is such a person.” But if you yourselves can get to know the truth, it cannot be imposed from the outside. I wish all of you to have mutual respect, esteem, and love for each other. This is the first law of the White Brotherhood. You cannot alter this law. There, on the Blue Rocks3 where I spent twenty-five days, I kept receiving all of your thoughts and I can produce a picture of your thoughts. If you want to shoot, use real bullets, not the dum-dum variance. This is just much ado about nothing. You have no time. You are in the twentieth year of the twentieth century. Your karma has already matured and if you fail to properly liquidate it now, you will remain lagging behind for another two thousand years. When you move ahead others will come to take your place. Do not stop, have faith in the great Divine Law! You have the experience from the past, you have a good understanding of things and you are not blind. Make sure you come to Tarnovo on 17th and 18th. Have faith in the Living God and He will manifest Himself to you. Because He says, “If you believe in My words, the Truth will be manifested to you.” You have to believe in somebody. You have to be born by a mother. This is the law. We do not deal in personalities. Some day, when we meet again, we shall talk it over once more. Because things will change. Resistance should be put against the Black Lodge! The interests of the Black Lodge and of the White Lodge clash and you should take part in the conflict. If you take part siding with the Black Brotherhood, your flesh would be made into salami, your skin – into straps, while if you side with the White Brotherhood, you will be walking straight on your two legs, your skin will be intact and you will have all the Divine benevolence. (Brother L. Kotev from the audience): Is neutrality not a valid option? No way! You are either with God or against God. What happened among you has not changed my relations with you. I am sorry that people cannot grasp this law. I want the person to whom I did good not to know me, but to say, “God bless the one who did this good to me!” Do your utmost to bring in harmony. You have been through certain experience, suffering, and striving. Let bygones be bygones; this is not for the first time, but all misunderstandings have to vanish into thin air voluntarily, they should not be forced away. This year, you people from Sofia, are the ones slowing down progress a little, this is why I came to warn you. Let’s get down to good work, because human thought, desire, and action, united in God, constitute a tremendous Power. Master’s lecture, delivered only before brothers on 8 August 1920, Sunday. 1 In the short-hand notes this lectures was titled Lecture delivered to brothers 2 Translator’s notes - The town of Velico Tarnovo is situated in the middle of Bulgaria, capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom – 12-14 century. The Master wrote The Testament of the Colour Rays some 6 km away from this town, in the village of Arbanassi. 3 Rocky Heights, famous for their colours, are in the Eastern part of the Balkan Range close to the town of Sliven. Source

Note 3 Work With Love1 I want to know why you insist on this meeting. (Somebody from the audience): We would like to be once again with you, Master! Do you have any questions to put?... Do you know the origin of the Bulgarian word for guess? It is derived from an old root meaning to live a conscientious life. This is the only way that knowledge can be meaningful. Living a conscientious life is living Life Eternal. So, these two - Life and Conscientious Life – are synonymous. Hence not only that one has to live, but one has to live a Conscientious Life. Knowing presupposes living in the absolute sense of the word. People live nowadays too; they get wealthier, but live in uncertainty. You have watched certain students who start taking lessons in music, but can’t understand anything, i.e. they can’t play. I ask you: does the teacher invest anything in them? If such students do not possess that great urge and love for music, would the teacher be in a position to develop anything in them? No. Likewise, if you do not have that great, intensive desire for Life, what can God do for you? So, what you are looking for is deep within you. However, there are things that are not within you. Music teachers always make their students practice exercises and etudes, rather than having the students distracting their attention with various musical pieces or giving concerts, because this will corrupt them. Students should first learn the art of playing. Life here goes on in a proper manner. Students achieve their goal within the time they study. Similarly, a person who wants to acquire the Divine Life has to have the methods for the achievement of this Life. Every student has to have specific methods. Now I notice that those of you, in whom the Spirit starts talking, say, “The Spirit already talks to me”. However, do you know what great differences there are when the Spirit talks? To Elijah and to Jesse did the Spirit talk, but the point is how the Spirit talked. This is to say that the Spirit does not talk in the same way to all people. Some music teachers can teach fifty to a hundred students, but one of them has hardly learnt the notes, the second one has barely taken two or three lessons, while a third one has covered fifty lessons etc. You cannot understand that there is a gradation among you in the manifestation of the Divine Spirit. The point is not that the Spirit talks to us, but that we have to understand the living laws of God. Contemporary inventors provide the best examples: they experiment once, twice, three times unsuccessfully; they keep experimenting for fifteen-twenty years still unsuccessful, until finally some of them achieve the goal, while others do not. It takes perseverance. Those who walk along the Divine Path should also have perseverance. It’s not a teaching if it can be achieved overnight. Not that it is difficult, but it takes time. When you start studying this Teaching, you will encounter many impediments. Imagine that a teacher had twenty to thirty students in music, but imagine them under different conditions: one has a rich father, who has bought a good instrument. The other one has a poor father; this student has no shoes, and has to make up for the external conditions where he lags behind, and at that he has to keep up with learning his lessons. However, it is often the case that poor people develop better characters than rich people. Poor people have stronger wills. Many of you resemble these rich students and you want to acquire the skills without encountering many obstacles. This is what you want. There are two categories in contemporary Christianity. In one of the categories there are certain layers, similar to well-fed pigs, with lard that is getting thicker and thicker, fat is gathering, however, there is no muscle strength. Likewise various layers settle upon the earth or similarly layers of dust settle in a house that has not been cleaned recently. This is external acquisition and wealth. In the other category of Christianity the acquisition is an external growth, each particle is linked to the others and Life participates in this particle. Sometimes these particles are not linked, each one having a life of its own and saying, “Nobody should interfere with my job!” While in other cases each particle is linked to another and all of them are living particles. Hence your experience should be in the second category. For instance – you finish reading a book – this represents another layer. An author wrote something, which might as well be true, but having read it you think that you understand it. You cannot understand due to the simple reason that you are not in the same conditions, you do not understand the author’s conditions, and you do not know what made the author write. Read the Gospel, read what Christ said, what Isaiah said, but you do not know what made Christ say so. Until you reach the same conditions in Life you cannot understand this Teaching. When the Spirit comes, it will create this understanding in you. Therefore, sometimes when your life settles and when you start trying it, only dust comes out of you, and you believe you know life. All those particles fly away but this is not something organic. It exists in you and you say, “This is not so, we must have beguiled ourselves.” Yes, as long as you have settled, I am telling you, you must have beguiled yourselves. This is not a living thing. If water runs through your dust for some time and if the dust still stays, without flying away, then this is something organic, but if it flies away from you, this is insignificant. Now, I reveal to you the law that governs Life. You cannot escape doubts. These are natural, inevitable. I am not saying that these are laws of some kind, but under the present circumstances these are unavoidable. With all people of poor faith, anger, hatred, envy, lies, and many others are unavoidable. (Somebody from the audience): If this candle is lit in our mind, as you say, are these also inevitable? No, when this little candle is lit in the Divine mind, i.e. when God lights this little candle of yours, He will place it in the candlestick and will say, “Let this Light shed light upon the Path of people”. This is its significance. Thus people will glorify God. (Somebody from the audience): Does the lighting of the candle depend on us or on God? The lighting is a result of a contact with God. These fiery flames that appeared to the Apostles, were they not such candles? Everything depends on the Holy Spirit. It is different from all other spirits. There are many spirits. Things are said and sown, but each one in its own specific time. I am telling you not to fool yourselves that the time has not come yet. These things do not get done by worrying. Do not think that if you start weeping and pitying yourselves, this would be of any help to you. This will be of no use to you. Weeping has a completely different meaning: when you go to a cruel person, you cry to soften his heart; dry soil needs watering, doesn’t it? Do you need to cry when you go to a good person? When he sees that you are naked and barefoot, won’t he dress you? Do you think that after telling him that you will commit suicide he won’t defend you? God is an intelligent Being and when you go to God with positive faith, you won’t find Him in two minds. Now we go to God with our human understanding. Sometimes we are very anxious and impede the Divine Spirit within us. Imagine that a mother is making a cake while the child is walking after her and making hassle. Imagine her spreading the dough while the child is asking, “Is the cake ready yet?” Let the child wait for a while, until the mother kneads and bakes the cake. Will the cake be ready sooner if the child keeps breathing down her neck, fretting and asking time and time again when it will be ready? No, let the child fetch some water, some chopped wood, let the child turn on the oven, let the child participate enthusiastically and assist the mother and the cake will be ready sooner. It is easy to live a Christian life, but there are certain distorted understandings. You may say, “Haven’t we been Christians for so many years?” You are Christians but there are differences among various understandings. You may have two or three sons, three or four daughters, but only one of the children understands you. I am now asking you how you get along with your other sons and daughters. You get along with them too. They are like guests coming to visit you and saying, “I want this, mummy, I want that one too, mummy” and they go out, while the other child stays home to help you. Similarly you say, “God, grant me this, God, grant me that one as well!” or you declare, “I have told my father to get me this thing and that thing also, and he will do this for me”. This is one of the obstacles that prevent many from making progress. Now, in this true Life, there is one other internal understanding that cannot be understood verbally. You will get to that depth, to that internal equilibrium, to that Peace and understanding of Divine Life. These are abstract matters, but you will get to the practical aspect of the Teaching, in order for you to make your homes like oases in the desert, with fruit-trees, so that any traveller with loaded camels can pull over to have a rest at the oasis. (Somebody from the audience): You said in one of your previous lectures that when we want to change our attitude to the people close to us we need to change our attitude to God. (Somebody else from the audience): How can we apply this Teaching in practical life? There are three aspects to this: the first one is when we serve people; we are in the situation of servants then; the second one is when we serve ourselves; it then strengthens our individual life; the third one is when we serve God. You should distribute your service proportionally every day and find out where each of the things you do belongs. One serving God can serve people as well, but the situation of such a person will be different. This is exactly how you can alter your original situation – you will serve God. You will find this desire deep down your soul; it is an inclination of the soul. This is a situation, which you are familiar with in the first place; it is not a situation that you will have to get to know from now on. You are all aware of this, you know it, but you say that now it’s not the right time. This is a difficult service; it takes going to School. You stumble down when you want to serve God. You have to liberate yourselves from your situation and stop saying, “We are women”. Men want to serve God, but say, “We are men”. Children want to serve God, but say, “We are children”. Teachers want to serve God, but say, “We are teachers”. This is a temporary situation where you are supposed to stay to learn certain lessons. For example you play the part of a servant in a theatre. This role is granted to you to learn, since in every part there are particular features and characteristics that you have to learn. But you are neither the one nor the other part that you perform on stage. Being women you have come here only to learn this part. You haven’t mastered as yet the essence of the art of being a woman, i.e. not that you do not know it, but that you are learning it right now. Somebody looking at you from an external point of view may say, “Is this a woman?” and shortly afterwards such people will offer their opinion. Now, when I talk to you like this, I do not mean that you have to release yourselves from this situation, because life goes on, and the part assigned to you is just a role to play. Apart from this you will have to study the things that belong to the essence of your soul. Imagine that there are four of you sisters at home; that your father is sort of more predisposed to one of his daughters; your mother – to the other; your brother – to your third sister, while nobody fancies the fourth sister; everybody jostles her and whatever she does is wrong. It is only natural that she would feel despondent, aggrieved, and sad until she grasps the meaning of Life. Let’s assume that everybody around you tortures you, calls you ignorant and stupid, clumsy and when guests come to pay a visit you are constantly being talked about. You will be at your wits end and wouldn’t know which way to turn. Let’s assume that you feel a desire to pray to God to let you free and let’s assume that God does not touch the heart of any of you. At last you find a friend from outside the family ready to sympathise with you; you immediately feel refreshed, you are prepared to gladly endure everything. A change is in progress within you: you still carry your burden but you feel light as a feather. So, your situation in the world won’t change but you will find a friend and it will be pleasant for you to bear your burden. The world will wonder at you and everybody will be saying, “This woman has some extra qualities!” Afterwards a doubt will start gnawing at you whether this friend is not just for the time being; you will then be in a negative phase. Thus the world won’t change, your father, mother, and sisters will be still the same, they will carry on with their plans and ideals, but a new element is bound to come to them. I shall explain to you how things are arranged in Nature: you water those flowers that are closer to the window the way you water the rest of the flowers, but they look fresher, because they get more light. While those that are placed in isolated places, more to the north, they will be frowning all the time. They are the fourth daughter – nobody takes care of her, she is always wrong and everybody says, “What shall we do with her?” I find a small window, place her there and she starts growing. Light is what she needs. Hence you should first make sure that Divine Light flows constantly into your souls, because the world may go down the drain, but the Divine Light will be there forever. God is Light! The second situation in the world is that everybody expects from the others more than they can offer. Please note that there is one other law that says that souls do not vibrate at the same frequency. There are certain believers the contact with whom not only does not elevate you, but it drags you lower to their level. Just like in physics the temperature of the mixture of two liquids of different temperatures is the mean temperature of the two components. This is why, according to this law, you have to progress in consistence with your soul vibrations. Souls that have equal vibrations can assist one another, but if the souls do not vibrate at equal frequency, they lag behind. Ducks flying in the same way fly ahead, while those not flying identically lag behind. Can you have an ox and a horse harnessed to the same cart? This will be a combination not making any sense. Now, try to find out what bothers you, try to get free from the dregs you have inside you. Freeing from dregs supposes that there should always be an influx of New Life, since old water, no matter how much you try to cover it, is old water all the same; old clothes, no matter how often you may wash or sow them, are old clothes all the same. You need a new garment. Now, you may say sometimes, “A long time ago, when I was a child, I believed that!” The faith of children and the faith of adults are two different things. Faith also discloses itself. Apostle Paul says, “When I was a child, I was as wise as a child, but when grew up, I gave up all these childish stuff.” Those of you, who can’t understand, will get interested and they will continue from the point they had previously reached. Everybody will continue from the point they have reached! Just like plants shoot off springs, you should similarly shoot one everyday. If you do not shoot one a day, there will be no growth, there will be no understanding. You have to reach that state when the moment you feel a desire to do something, you feel the presence of God so vividly, that you can stop before you have done it. While now you argue that you feel God’s presence, but when you are put to a test you fail and then you repent. You can find your way when the cart is upset, but it is important to find it before it gets upset. The Power of Life lies in it. At the present course of development of Life you will encounter difficulties and you will be told, “You are not on the Right side of Life, this is what the Scripture says!” I say that a lot has been written there but you do not understand. Sometimes people, who say that the Scripture reads whatever, act like those who write instructions on the Easter egg paints packs. They contain information on what paints there are inside, what eggs can be painted, how to dissolve the paint, how much water one needs etc. They read, “This paint should be dissolved in that much water, then you put the eggs like this and then the colours will be all right.” Everything will be done according to the instructions in this pack, but you have to follow the entire process. There is other knowledge, much deeper than the one about paints. Under the present circumstances people keep stumbling. The atmosphere is thick with non-advanced souls, who drag themselves up to you and you often feel a sort of unpleasantness, a sort of a discontent. They are the reason for you feeling like this. Theosophy calls such souls elementary souls. You all have to shake them off; you need a rake to do it. These souls should be educated, should learn to respect the Divine Law, to work. (Somebody from the audience): Do such souls represent obstacles for us? Yes, they do. (Somebody from the audience): They are probably benefiting from this? Yes, they come to rob you. (Somebody from the audience): Don’t we need a method on how to protect ourselves from them? When they come, make them work, teach them to weave, to spin, give them kitchen work. They affect only the mind and you will say, “This thought is not mine, this desire is not mine!” You will repel them in this way. If one is to succumb to all of one’s desires and thoughts that cross one’s mind and one’s heart, what would happen? These thoughts and desires should go away like the water and wind, while we shall take only what we need from them. Not everything is meant for us. I leave you free and I want you to study on your own accord all the rules that I have given you and to apply them in such a way that you can control yourselves on your free will whenever you feel like doing it. I do not impose any discipline upon you; I leave you to do whatever you decide on your free will. You sometimes want to cheat on me, but I benefit from this while you lose. You undermine each other in this way. I see that you often spoil things that I have mended. It is often the case that you, led by your good desire to do a thing or two, you exhibit the ardour of Apostle Paul and you say, “I had the ardour, but not the right understanding.” Where will you go if you enter a garden? You will go to the pear-tree or the apple-tree with the best, the juiciest of fruit, won’t you? You are in the habit of doing so, aren’t you? There is no stupid person in the world that will go to the sour fruit tree. Anybody will go for the best of fruit. If there are no apples at all, only then will you go to the sour fruit tree, but if there are good apples you will find your way to the good apples, won’t you? The same law governs the world too. This is the practical aspect of things. If you have good fruit in you, people will visit you without needing any invitation. This is the practical aspect of things and it is very true: your relations with the people around you will be determined according to the wealth of your mind and the richness of your heart. I do not call what changes Love. This is a funny thing. One loved somebody but in ten years time one turned one’s back to the person one loved. Paul says, “Love never ends”. (Somebody from the audience): I have often thought that whoever makes the effort will enter Heaven! (Somebody else from the audience): Which is the most powerful virtue with regard to achievement of results? The words getting into God’s Kingdom takes effort mean that only those who keep moving will enter God’s Kingdom. Imagine that you are climbing a mountain peak in the morning to see the sunrise; if all of you scatter in different places, rather than staying at the same spot, the Sun will give each of you its strength. If all of you line one behind another and wait in a queue to receive its benevolence, a certain disharmony will inevitably occur. All of you should bask simultaneously in it and wait for its benevolence. This is the Divine Teaching: there is time or order in it; you will all present yourselves at the same time. (Somebody from the audience): We all know our shells; can’t we get to know and love each other so that we become a huge power in Sofia? What prevents you from doing so? The obstacle resides in your minds. (Somebody from the audience): Will you take us a little bit higher up in the mountains? Nowadays even little children climb the mountains. It is not difficult for a person to climb the mountains. You asking questions remind me of being closed in a room with a large window and a mirror opposite the window, where the Sun is reflected in the morning. You are all now standing in expectation to see the Sun in the mirror – this is the situation you are in. I want you to go out of the room and not to look at the Sun in the mirror. You will never find the Truth in this way. The mirror will show you that the Sun rises from somewhere deep, i.e. it will show that the Truth is behind your back. Each one of you should take a deeper look into your soul. You do not know your soul yet. You need experience, which should be gained individually by each one of you. So, you have to turn to God and say, “God, pray Thee, light my candle in whatever manner you like, I want my candle lit!” You will leave everything to the discretion of the Divine Spirit and it will light the candle. This candle will be lit in the manner God chooses. The Spirit that distributes all gifts to people is not what you understand it to be. We have a special understanding for the word Spirit. Isn’t this candle lit within you yet? The candle has to be lit, to be placed in the candlestick; you have to take [quarter of a] bushel2 and say, “Let it be Light!” (The Master takes a look through the window: it is drizzling outside) The drizzle outside shows that you need more Life. The weather tells me that the upper fog hampers you, and this is an emblem for Life. The obstacles you have are not as big by themselves as you imagine them to be. You place a small obstacle under a microscope, you observe it and you say, “There is no bigger obstacle than mine!” This is true – your obstacles are meant for you to tackle. You will get closer, will walk along the Path of Love and you will see what God can do for you. Get up quietly in the morning; try to concentrate your thoughts, to hush yourself down, to penetrate into the Divine thought, because certain experiences you have are karmic and inevitable. (Somebody from the audience): You said yesterday that when the candle is lit, things disappear karmically. Yes. You can decide and do away with them. Do you, for example, have this positive faith? I look upon the positive faith as an expansion of consciousness. Whatever, I will help you the way the wind does: I shall remove the dust so it won't disturb you. Things in the Divine World resemble getting into a train. You will have to observe the rules of the train; if you are late the train will not wait for you. You will get on the train, you will travel in the train for some time and you will get off at a certain place. You won’t have to bother what the engine driver is like or to be scared that any of the wagons can break loose from the locomotive along the way. These are all speculations. You may say, “Let’s pray to God to watch for us along the way!” You will go to God, but it is your soul, not your body that will do it. You will invest all of your faith in God. Make sure you do not disturb Him - a live faith is needed! Let’s say that you are in bad circumstances, you are in distress. This situation is sometimes the result of some poorly digestible food that you have eaten that leaves certain residues behind. At times it is your contradictory feelings that give rise to pains: for example, you love and hate at the same time and then you will feel stabs in the region of the heart. You say, “It hurts!” No wonder it hurts! Abolish the contradicting feelings and the pains will disappear! At other times somebody may attack you with their thoughts, which will produce certain pains. Therefore, you have to learn to fence yourselves, to lead such a life that all life arrows bounce back from your body. You have to free yourselves at times from the devil. Do you know what it does? It is especially clever: you owe money to the devil, the devil comes over, you repay the policy, but you forget to take it back. On the following year it will again visit you and say, “You think you repaid? Oh, no! Pay now!” Hence you have to take your policy back from the devil. Twenty years ago you forgot about some sins, you prayed to God to redeem you, but after twenty years the devil will come again and will say, “Pay!” You will tell the devil, “I paid; there is nothing more to pay for! Take me to court!” This fills you with remorse. One should know what is right and what is wrong. There are things moral and things immoral, there are deeds righteous and deeds sinful, and there are actions right and actions wrong. Your soul should throw away all wrong and sinful actions, it should free itself from the old remorse, and you should only keep the experience. (Somebody from the audience): We shall break free, but if they do not let go of us? They will leave you. One has to work a lot in this school, and sometimes people get in trouble because of lack of knowledge, therefore, everybody suffers. Make sure you are rich in faith, in knowledge. One should be getting richer! In old times people went to monasteries and spent in solitude ten, fifteen, twenty years, in order to become stronger. This is one task that you can accomplish: every school has its difficulties, therefore, try to liquidate your old karma now, do not postpone. Try to sow new thoughts, new ways of understanding, which can grow and expand your soul, so that you can become stronger. Now all of you have a certain debt, a certain policy that is already mature. The maturity day will come and you will all start looking for money to repay your debts. These are all new debts. Do your best to perform what you can, to have one job accomplished, to study one exercise. Some of you are more experienced, while others – are less experienced, some of you have experience in some aspects; others – in other aspects. The Spirit talks to everyone of you in a different way. All of you need to pray passionately. When we talk about a lit candle, we imply another meaning. A candle is lit in a person but no two candles are lit in the same way. For instance, there are ordinary lamps that burn gas and produce an odour; then there are other lamps where gas is transformed into a gas state and is thus lit; burning in such lamps is stronger; and finally there are gases where air is injected additionally; they burn even stronger and produce a more powerful light. This is to say that the mind should be transformed into this Divine status without leaving any waste; it has to contain pure Light, it has to be a pure burning. Try to find your soul and turn your eyes inward. When you find your soul you will feel an internal completeness, while now you feel emptiness and are falling behind by the day. Both when you take something and when you do not take anything, you should feel full! Christ says that you are not that live spring that takes water from within, but a spring, which takes water from outside and it runs a little drier by the day. The Scripture also says, “Pray for one another so that you can be healed.” So, what has the Spirit told you so far, what is the most elevated thing it told you? Sometimes people talk to themselves, sometimes somebody else talks to them. There are new elements in the word of God; there is something special. When God starts talking to people, the latter feel this talk in their mind, heart, and will. It penetrates everywhere; it is a living Word. Those who hear the voice of God - they are alive; they are not dead. Deep down in your soul you will feel a special Joy, and only people who have experienced it know what it feels like. It is like those quiet waters that never run dry, but can be lost. The moment you make one mistake – it is gone and you are back to your usual state. And later on you hear again this quiet voice and again you feel elevated. Most difficult of all it is to keep hold of this state of affairs. It is experienced everyday, but you can’t keep it going. You will have to learn to sustain it. (Somebody from the audience): How can we make it sustainable? To do this you need willpower. You have to be ready to work in the name of Divine Love, in the name of the living God. When we work in the name of Love, we do not mention its name. When I save a person and cure this person, do I have to tell this person that I do this in the name of Love? I do this for myself – whether the person will understand it or not, is all the same to me. I am not going to read prayers or to talk about Love, instead I will do all the favours and I will leave! When the Sun gives you its light, does it say to you, “I am Light”? Does Love tell you, “I am Love”? If it says so, it limits itself. Love will not tell you that it is Love. You will be very surprised if I asked any of you, “Do you live?” Those who live feel they perform good deeds; they, certainly, live. There are many things that hinder people. These hindrances are something very bad. Get together according to the law of freedom, share thoughts and do not interrupt one another. You still haven’t mastered the art of giving way to others to talk. People who have not mastered the skill of listening should do their best and try to listen! Some say, “Why should I be listening to nonsense?” Well, does the blowing wind say only wise things? When you join a society, do you think you are going to say only wise things? Well, how about you, who have listened to somebody and have condemned this person, do you always say the right things? Learn to turn a deaf ear! When it comes to understanding, discard the thought that some are more intelligent than others. You fool yourselves that there are intelligent people and silly people in the world. You are intelligent at a point in time, while in another moment – you are silly. You shall have to make an effort within the Spiritual world, before God, not to consider things silly. If you find something silly, just leave it. People who do silly things have to learn something; they have to gain experience. This is what is silly: let’s assume that you are dressed in a nice white silk dress; somebody with hands covered in grime comes over and tries the dress, somebody else comes and does the same. You may say, “Oh, how silly this is!” I now ask you, “Why did you stain yourself?” – “Well, somebody came, after that somebody else came and they stained me.” Yes, but each one of you has a desire to try while your fingers are not clean. In this particular case, your dress should be kept clean. The danger when you enter Christianity is in the point that you get into the situation of these traders who offer their goods for sale; they start competing and cannot stand one another. Likewise you offer your experience. Give it up, make room for others to sell their goods, and when your turn comes you will sell as much as you can. If nothing is sold you will have to take it back. But you say, “But I paid so much money for it!” and thereby starts the competition. (Somebody from the audience): It’s all down to the fact that we have no patience for one another. Patience is generated by Love. Once you get to love somebody, you will be able to be patient with this person. However, there is another law and you also have to take into consideration the following: let’s assume that you have gone hungry for three days and I tell you, “Let me tell you one of my experiences.” You are irritated. Then I tell you, “Come on go home!” and afterwards I complain that you do not want to listen to me. I do not put myself in your situation that you are hungry that you haven’t eaten for three days. One should first say that one is hungry, and only after this one can listen to what is being said. This requires ingenuity. You can work outside. You are full of knowledge; you have to give [share] some of your knowledge externally. You suffer from having too much, not of having too little. You may ask, “Shall I say this?” There are many workers in the world too. Believe that everything in the world develops along a specific way. There is no way that the Divine Plan can be distorted; it follows its own accurate mathematical calculations. If you stray aside, you will suffer, while what God has determined for you will happen. For example, somebody wants to take you for a walk, but you do not feel like having a walk; they tie your hands, you put out a fierce fight, but anyway you get to the place, however, this time you feel very tired. Therefore, you can go there without putting up any opposition. So, you will do your job regardless whether you offer resistance or not. You have to pray for one another. The good thoughts you will send have a good effect, while the bad thoughts have a bad effect. If you play music I want to come too and dash a little bit of hot pepper into your noses, and I would like to see how you could play. There will be a lot of sneezing. These rules are true, the Scripture reads, “Pray for one another so that you can be healed.” The whole world lies in the hands of the Sly one [the devil]. What do you expect from a world, which has come out of the devil? And since it rules today, nothing can happen. Everything is debris, everything falls to the bottom and one day when lots of residue gathers there, God will lift it, will remove the water and will make gardens, fields, and mountains out of it. This is what will happen to the sea bottom. Believe that you are all good at soul. There is no reason to say that you are bad. Yes, when you act, according your will, you are bad. (Somebody from the audience): Do we need evolution if we want to find our soul or it all depends on the individual willpower of the person? The obstacles should be removed. Imagine that you place a thorn upon a flower; do you think it will be able to grow? No, it won’t. The same happens with you: if you can’t grow there must be a reason for this - that somebody else must have stuck a thorn into you. You should watch out for thorns stuck onto you. If you are given scales to measure solid and liquid matter, and if you observe the rules while measuring, everything will be making progress. But imagine that somebody comes and tells you, “These scales are not sensitive enough! We shall give you other scales”; then the ratios will change. You should place everything on the Divine scales and should take your measurements according to them. There can be no disharmony then. If you experience disharmony, it will bring about trouble. When God wants to make somebody listen to Him, he gives them problems, diseases, famine. And when they understand Him, He talks to them intelligently. There are two ways in which God speaks: the one is by the physical mind, the other one – by the intelligent Word. If you achieve agreement and harmony among yourselves, we are ready to help you. Even if somebody is not present here, if a person is ready, I do help this person. I help everybody who has reached the conditions. Some have a desire to study; I stop by them and help them. Some have filled their heads with rules, knowledge, and experiences, while they do not live within them. Such people say, “Let’s love each other, let’s be kind to each other, let’s be compassionate!” Well, all right, but all of these are qualities not rules. How can we love each other? You come to me, you request twenty leva, I do not have the money, I do not do you a favour. I walk along the path, somebody passes by me, wants me to pick up his/her bag; I say, “I can’t, I’m in a hurry!” Somebody has fallen on the road; you will stop to help him! In every single moment you will stop and apply the law of Love. Say you go to a house, your sister is aggrieved; she asks you, “Can’t you help me a little?” – “Well, may God help you!” No, you should stop, you should help your sister, you should tell her, “God will help you and He will help me as well!” You tell her, “Let it be!” I can do favours [good] to you but I often refrain from doing so because of the following considerations: is it wise to pray to God to send you rain when your fields are neither ploughed nor sown? Ask if your fields are sown; I am ready to send everything to you. I will send as much rain as you want. Knowledge, knowledge, and a lot of knowledge you have [at your disposal] today! You haven’t spared the time to stop for a while and think over what I told you, to understand at least one hundredth of all the formulae provided. You say, “We understand this.” Well, but you do not apply it. Remember that there are more living beings in the world than you suspect. You are not alone. Do not think that when you are alone in the room, nobody watches you or monitors your actions. Start working on something for this Christ, for this God, whom you love! Do something for Him! When I say “do”, I mean doing something conscientiously, so that you can feel satisfaction when you have done something good for God. Christians have power. If four-five or ten thousand people gather together and concentrate upon one thought, they can help anybody but it has to be reciprocated. They can help you today, tomorrow they can help somebody else, after tomorrow – they can help a third person and gradually all fields will be ploughed, sown, and reaped. While at present you will have individual internal troubles in your homes, obstacles in your minds and hearts. You will have hindrances of public nature and difficulties in earning your living. These difficulties are real and you have to remove them. Your husband is discontented, he prays and you cannot help him. You anoint him with ointments, but there is a thorn. You say, “I anointed it, but nothing can relieve him.” Yes, ointment alleviates places where there are no thorns, but in places where there are thorns ointments are no relief. You will take out the thorn! People, whose thorns cannot be taken out, experience difficulties that cannot be eliminated. You, for example, have such difficulties and you say, “I am not loved.” This is one of the greatest problems. You can’t force people to love you. Why are you not loved? Any esoteric person says about somebody who is not loved that this person has become demagnetised. Such a person starts looking at the bad side of other people, everybody avoids such a person because he has become demagnetised. Therefore watch out! When you stop seeing the good aspects in people you have demagnetised and few people will love you. At present God has given you entertainment. Looking at you in your troubles [plight] He says, “These people do their job very well.” Sometimes I find mistakes in the very teachers. If you sit at my table and if I give you to eat according to the rule, you will remain hungry; if I give you more, some will eat more, others will eat less and I will scold you in the end. It is not right to treat everybody to three nuts and a slice of bread when you come to visit me. This is what you should try to learn! (Somebody from the audience): What does great Joy stem from? From a profusion of energy. Sometimes when there has been refraining and abstaining, great Joy follows. This state is to be observed in all people. Joy often comes down to the physical life. Joy, expressed on the physical level, is the Joy of soul. I shall give you an example, to see where evil is to be found: let’s say that your spring is clean, but the glass you hand water in, is not clean and the person is displeased. The evil rests not in the water, nor in the desire, but in the glass. The glass has to be clean. The bread you give to people is not bad, but your hands have to be so very clean that this person can be grateful to you. These rules have been preached for the last eight thousand years. You will now move a stage further up. If you want to kiss somebody, you have to be aware of what you will express by the kiss. Or similarly what does contemporary hand-shaking mean? Do not think that kissing is a human invention; it is a sort of a energy-saving mechanism in Nature. These are two currents: the upper lip is the positive pole, and the lower lip is the negative pole; when a person gets his lips closer together, the current from one of the lips flows into the other one. When the mother kisses her child, both of them, the mother and the child, are renovated. Have you noticed that she does not kiss the child on the same place? However, how many times has this law been applied properly? Hand shaking follows the same law: it also facilitates the internal exchange of energies. Hand shaking stands for familiarizing, congratulating. Expand your heart, look the world in the eye, be grateful for everything, aim for Purity! The first thing that you need is internal Purity – Purity of the soul! To sustain Purity is most difficult of all. This is why in order for a person to become pure, one must befriend God and good people. You need new experiences to change your mood. When you graduate this School there will be a lot to learn ahead of you. If you become very sensitive you will notice what a grave aura people have. You will feel the vibrations of their thoughts and desires; you will detect discontent and ingratitude in them. Meanwhile you have to allow all this to settle down and you have to say, “For God’s sake I have to allow everything to settle down!” Make sure you develop yourselves. Spend ten to fifteen minutes in silence everyday, in order to learn the art of being silent. Each of you should be deeply absorbed in themselves and should be thinking in simple terms, without expecting to be told something. Just like in Nature everybody looks in various directions or just like everybody chooses what to have at a table, just in the same way you should be engrossed in your thoughts and you should try to acquire this energy. If you watch others – the way people sit, the way people pray, this is nothing close to meditation. A large room is required for meditation, where nobody can disturb you, and you should be at half a meter distance from one another. It is good to examine the features of a flower, of a carnation, for instance, of strawberries etc., during your meetings, to examine the psychological performance. All flowers should be studied on the spot; they should be examined under a microscope. You are bound to notice how sensitive flowers are to love, but for this purpose you need to take more excursions. Aspire to more freedom - aspire to no restrictions! Many rules lead to the other extreme, but make an effort to give up self-condemnation, to avoid blaming yourself. We shall start discussing more abstract topics. You have to be impartial in the discussions; you should not be personal when you speak on some issue. You may at times imagine somebody as a model figure and depict this person, but this person should not be your target. This model will be in front of you as long as the model likes. When you sit for your portrait to be drawn, you stay as long as you like, don’t you? This is how you should behave in life too. Because you have not learnt the law of concentrating yet, the Invisible world uses negative methods to develop your concentration: when you start hating somebody you carry this person in you and thus you concentrate. At other times you experience a pain, a blister comes up and you concentrate. You have a stomach-ache or you have a headache – these are natural methods to concentrate your thought. When it comes to loving somebody, you lose your concentration - you are distracted. In concentration the mind should be in its place and all the good desires should be separated from the bad ones. When you train yourself, you should keep developing something in your soul every day. Do not fear whatever you do! Do not think that it is a deficiency; it may only appear to be a deficiency. Religious forms, judgement, moralizing – these are great obstacles. This is how I understand the issue: I do not have to preach sermons to you; you are flowers that have to water and tend themselves on their own. They will grow on their own accord. Some say, “I want to become better.” If you walk along the path you will develop properly. Since you are at different stages some of you say, “I am in low spirits.” We do not understand this philosophy and we befriend each other, we do not get on well, we stumble. People cannot be equally situated in the physical field. Sometimes a person is in the situation of a tree having all its leaves and blossoms fallen, and you say, “We changed our opinion about this person.” No, this person has only shed the clothes; the flesh will put on clothes again. Work with Love! Work with the Love Tolstoy speaks about: to be prepared to leave everything, to be prepared to serve everybody without expecting to be paid for this. This is Love – to put on everything and to be a servant everywhere. If you can do this, you have Love; if you can’t do this, you still have love, but your love cannot elevate people. If you can do this, the problem is immediately solved in an intelligent way. When you are a servant in Love, you won’t bargain, you will be free, you will work for free, you should not feel obliged, and you should not be accountable. You will do what Love demands voluntarily. This Love demands both the king and the servant to give up what is theirs, to become servants. This Love says, “I recognize no masters!” And having worked for a long time for Love’s sake, it says, “You deserve to be a master of your rest, but the moment you have had enough rest, you should immediately get to work!” So, while you are having a rest, you are a big shot, while you are working, you are a small man. Do you know how difficult it is to work like this? People are so selfish and they think that you are made of steel. They won’t ask you to stop for a while even if you work for twenty-five hours. Nobody should be influencing others. You will leave each other to behave and to work the way they feel like, because they will develop in this Love. Somebody comes to you and tells you, “This is what should be done!” Well does this person know what should be done? Contemporary society [is said to have] recommended so! Well, is contemporary society ideal – it also has its deficiencies! Most important it is to start with Love, to become heroes, so that you find it a pleasure to work for it! Maiden’s tears show that one has to clean oneself. Crying is always a method of cleaning oneself. When one has sinned, one has to cry to clean oneself. When you come to the earth you cry – because you are sorry for your sins in the Invisible world. Do not think in any other way – all souls have come here to the earth to have their sins redeemed. When a soul recalls a mistake, the soul has to cry a little bit, to free itself from the mistake. These sins can be yours or somebody else’s, but this is a general principle. Tears show a softened heart and an elevated consciousness; this is what happens to people along the path of renovation. You are abandoned in order to develop yourself. You sometimes feel that your mind is getting feeble, which at times can last for a short while, and at other times it can take days and afterwards you feel refreshed. These are illusions; these are not real things, these are temporary states, which you have to undergo. When somebody feels forsaken, in some cases, they can become bitter, full of venom, they become worse, while in other cases they go to God. The latter is good; therefore, we should remain on our own more often. When one is full of Life within, it is easy to clean these states and even if one’s hand gets dirty, it is also easy to wash. But when there is no water, impurities stay with people for a long time. The moment Divine Life comes, it is easy for people to wash, but if this water is not available, people carry on the impurities on their three fingers. Learn the law of satisfaction; not the external, but the internal satisfaction, to feel satisfied deep in your heart! Whatever happens to you, when you are satisfied, you will forebear it in full awareness. You may be groaning, suffering, but you will endure everything voluntarily, gladly. One has to forebear one’s sufferings in dignity. Show your Love to everybody – to the weak, to the feeble, to children! As soon as you feel aggrieved, go among people who are more aggrieved than you, do some good for them and you will feel better; or get down to reading the biography of a great person who suffered a lot. There are many methods to heal a person. I call this world – from the beginning to the end – “a world of disenchantment”. Some call it “a world of enchantment”, but I call it “a world of disenchantment”. When a baby is born everybody rejoices. During the first year everybody tries to please the baby as if the baby is a king, everybody listens to whatever the baby commands, everything is given to the baby. But afterwards, little by little the baby is being taken down from the throne: in the third year the baby is already a prince, in the fifth – a minister, then a manager; until in the end, the grown up person becomes a servant, the servant is sent downstairs and is told, “It’s not like the old times when you were a baby!” The grown up person is given a hoe and off he goes to the vineyard. In the Spiritual world God starts in the opposite way: you are first placed as a servant and in end you are made king. This is why you are beaten here on the earth. You marry a man; he is your teacher and he tells you, “This is not your father’s house, do you know who I am?” and in several years he will have bent your neck. You say you do not love your husband – there must be reasons for this. Some other time you love someone, because he did you good; in a couple of days your state changes and you love that person no more. Why so? Because he had wronged you. Then you say, “I’m fed up with this man!” The husband, in his turn, says, “I’m fed up with this karma! I hate you, I feel like in prison for twenty years with you, I have wasted twenty of my years!” Then things change: you come into another life, mistakes are corrected and you say, “I will rectify my mistake, I shall not place you in prison!” This is a law, which turns like a wheel. When you become clairvoyants, you will transport yourself into the epoch of your previous life in Egypt or elsewhere, you will see scenes from that time, you will get to know what role you had and you will say, “Thank God, I finally understood what I used to be!” Therefore, when you become clairvoyants, when you are elevated, this situation of yours will become clear and pleasant to you. This is how everybody can find that life is pleasant. We shall try to rectify our life according to God’s orders, and to understand it the way it was made. If you are clairvoyants you will see magnificent pictures. Master’s Lecture, delivered on 10 May 1920 (Monday). 1 The lecture was delivered at the request of the sisters before the Master left for the country (notes of the original editor) 2 The word is used figuratively, as antithesis of the Gospel image of the candlestick under the bushel. Source

Note 3 Faith What was the main point of our last meeting? (Somebody from the audience): The point last Friday was to learn to be silent, to become like children, to develop compassion, to do exercises about the Spirit, about virtues, about developing our senses, and about our preparation for the forthcoming Pentecost1. On Whitsunday one has to get into the law of self-sacrifice. Those who receive the Divine Spirit have to obey the will of God, and not to do as they please. However, even now you do not do as you please, but somebody else’s will interferes with you. You will try to strengthen the faith in yourselves. There is one line, which reads that without faith one cannot please God, but it takes faith to perform miracles. Have you practiced your faith and what exercises have you done? In order to develop your faith, each one of you must build an internal Peace. One has to adapt to the contemporary lifestyle, to the circumstances in one’s life, so that one can start developing from the point where one is right now. For instance, how many of you would be brave enough to board an airplane? A few would do this because it takes courage. And how many similar experiences can there be in life. If one can board an airplane, one will strengthen one’s faith. You should understand Faith to mean the roots of a plant that you sow in the ground and through these roots this plant can actually, find support and stand firm. According to the same law, thanks to faith, human beings find support in God to stand firm. When you stand firm, God will support you. In all times and in all suffering, people, who had faith in God, have never been deluded. Certainly there is faith that can be realized, but many, though they had a strong faith, have also been exposed to great suffering because their development needed suffering. By having faith their suffering starts making sense. All of you have experience in faith; therefore, you will not have to build new faith, but will develop the faith you have, so that it can reach a new phase. Let’s assume that you have a boat that you want to pull ashore. Somebody keeps pulling it, but cannot pull it ashore alone and loses faith. There comes one more person, the two of them keep pulling, but cannot manage; there comes a third one, a fourth one – but again they cannot get the boat ashore. In the end about ten people gather and get the boat ashore. They believe [have faith] that only ten people will be able to pull the boat ashore. Similarly you will apply this law in practice: if one cannot do whatever job, two or three or up to ten people will get together until finally you manage to get the job done. This is the law of faith. When all are united, the Divine law starts having effect. The weakness of Christians is that they are not united and when one of them cannot do the job, they lose heart and think that more people won’t be able to do the job either. No, ten, twenty, thirty people should get together and do the job with this common power! You can achieve results only if you act in this way. It takes will, willpower it takes! In order to be successful in keeping silence, you will have to develop your good will. The good that lurks within you must grow one way or another. Each person has one’s own method, which allows one to work. Currently people are in the situation of clerks, expecting their salary each month. Well, if these clerks are made redundant, what will they do? So, faith is such a state, such a Power within the soul that allows one to adapt, i.e. not to be surprised by the circumstances at any given moment. But you have to think, to remove this thick atmosphere that exists among you. Keep reflecting, until you get a feeling that you start acquiring one small Power. The muscles of those of you who practice gymnastics start getting stronger, and they lift much heavier parcels afterwards. This is a process that will develop gradually. The faith of a child and the faith of a saint differ: the faith of a child is in one direction, while the faith of a saint is in another. Angels also have faith, but their faith is completely different. Faith implies a great law, in which there are no exceptions. If at times we get no results, the reason is that we have disregarded this law. If some of you beg and do not get results, this is so because you beg poorly. People who are in two minds, shall not get want what they want. The first rule in faith is not to be split-minded, not to be in two minds. Since so far you have been talking and talking, the best you can do when you get together on Friday is to spend an hour or so in silence. Try to apply what we talked about on Sunday and what we talked about on Thursday. If you do not apply some of these rules, you will accumulate lots of material without any application. The same happens at school, when the teachers teach many lessons: students cannot learn the lessons, their memory is overburdened and this is why they become more stupid. Will, intuition, faith, and many other things have been talked about and one does not know what to choose. Start your contemplations on faith. So, when you get together, start keeping silence in the beginning, start contemplating, until you feel that there is harmony within you and that all of you experience an elevation. This indicates that your minds are achieving harmony. However, it takes work to achieve this. Keep practicing like this for a week, for two weeks, for three weeks, keep doing such exercises here all the time, and then start doing them outside. Are there any particular issues, any particular objective, which you would like to discuss this Friday? (Somebody from the audience): We shall split in groups in order to achieve unity, harmony among us, in order to be able to work, Have these groups started functioning? (Somebody from the audience): Some groups have started. Two-three sisters can make a group and they will be able to do what a group of ten people can do. Sometimes two people will be able to do the work for thirty people – altogether it does not depend on the number of people. What it takes is faith, and faith again, so that you can achieve a quiet disposition in the Spirit; it takes immense confidence, so that you are not split internally, so that you can rule your nature, in order to be able to endure everything during the silence. There are methods about these things, but there are also so many distractions, which capture your attention, and you are left with no free time. However, on the other side, this is much better for you, because otherwise you would not know how to utilize your time. This place where God positioned you is the best place for you. He has allocated the work very well, but you have to know how to go about it. For instance, can you imagine how much you can achieve if each one of you sets a goal to herself to introduce harmony among all the people she knows who do not get along, to speak to them about noble elevated issues, about God, leaving her personal problems aside! If you keep waiting for the world to become a better place, even in ten thousand years this won’t happen. If you do not work, you can’t become better than what you are now. The progress you will make depends on your will to. The wealth that you will get also depends on the strength of your will. You can get to know a person by giving this person a hundred leva and watching what this person will spend the money on: if he goes to the pub and spends the money, tomorrow when you give him a thousand leva, he will do the same again. Do you think that if a bee has no opportunity to sting you with its behind, it would not do anything else to you? The point is not what you have, but how you utilize it. If God has given you a talent and if you disappoint thousands of people and push them over the edge, I would like to ask you what do you need this talent for? Similarly contemporary scientists invent various means, which kill people. What do they need science for? Your knowledge should be applied only for the sake of the good of humanity. This is what you can do: let’s assume that you are a key to an installation – this is the job God assigned to you. You may say, “Does anything depend on me?” A lot depends on you! When you turn around, there will be light everywhere. If you are a key, it depends on you whether somebody commits a crime or not. If you turn around and bring light to him, he will have the opportunity to see clearly and he will commit the crime; if you do not turn around, he won’t be able to see anything in the darkness and the crime will be avoided. Good people are keys. Some say, “Let’s pray for the evil people!” There is no point. You will hold the key and you will open or close it, as the case may be. Once upon a time Elijah prayed to God for rain, because God had closed the sky for three entire years and did not let it rain. This is how we should look upon the issue: each one should remember that we are keys and that we can accomplish a lot. If one is true to one’s duty, one will be very useful. But if one leaves the key at the mercy of fate and says, “Turn this key the way you like”, children will be the first to come and play with it turning it to one side and to the other, until they break it. When people leave children to lead the way, they lose all their strength. Some old people, looking at what is going on now, say, “Contemporary people are ruled by children!” Similarly many mothers let their children do whatever they want; mothers do not contradict their children, until the children take control of the keys. No, it is the mother who should turn the key and tell her child, “When you are hungry I will feed you, when you are thirsty I will give you a drink, when you are naked I will dress you, when you are ignorant I will send you to study, but if you do not want to study, or to write or to eat, I will spank you!” And indeed, this happens to everybody in the world: a person is unhappy about this or that, protests against it, grumbles about it, and this is why God sends suffering to such people, subjects them to Divine education, and gives them a sound spanking. So, when God feeds us, we shall eat, when He gives us a drink, we shall drink, when He teaches us, we shall study and thus we shall avoid misfortunes in life. What is it that we have and is actually the key, where is this key hidden? Knowledge is the key. How did Elijah lock the skies? What did Elijah do for the sky to open? He prayed and said that it should open. You should have faith and knowledge. If one does not know, how can one pray? Praying implies knowledge. And there is a lot for you to pray for: you have to pray to be intelligent, good, honest, and fair. One is required to do a lot of work, to cultivate one’s soul. What one can do for oneself, nobody else can do it for them. Therefore, one should withdraw in oneself and should spend a long time thinking, removing gradually all those feelings that are an obstacle, and should bring in positive feelings. Not to allow fear in, in order not to make mistakes, but to bring in intrepidity. Not to ask oneself what one should not do, but what one should do. Not to think of what one should not believe in, but to think of what one should believe in. Get together and spend some time thinking and each one of you should find her greatest weakness in herself. Each one of us has at least one weakness. Have you noticed how pigs, when trying to find a way out, go around to and fro and they get out at the place where they find a weakness in the fence. Everyone has a weak, poorly fortified spot, and this is why you should try to fence it properly. The pig that finds it will pass through it; this hole is easy to find. Everybody has such a weakness – various people in various aspects. It is often the case that one weakness spoils the good features of people, i.e. makes people useless. (Somebody from the audience): How can impatient people become more patient? Stick a pin somewhere in your arm and see how long you can endure. You do not have to this to yourselves; there are people to stick needles in you. You are good at this at least! The one who wants to learn patience should ask another one to stick needles into her. Bear in mind that all the desires that you feel within are not yours. Experiment along these lines and see for yourselves. You decide for once to do something for God, but at the same time you experience a desire to get a dress or shoes made for you. Thus the first desire gives way to the second and the most important thing is postponed. It is always the case that the most significant thoughts visit us hand in hand with the least significant thoughts. You will do your best to eliminate the insignificant thought, because, through suggestion, it has come from the Black Lodge. As soon as one decides to do something good, one is told by the Black Lodge, “This is not for you!” Many times you have told yourself, “I’ll be patient!” The Black Lodge would tell you, “You are not mature enough; therefore, you cannot be patient.” So, you postpone this for a more favourable time. But well, it is exactly before becoming mature when you need patience. When you become mature, patience comes on its own accord. You will now have to learn the art of keeping silence. The best blessing for one is to learn to be silent. (Somebody from the audience): There are people who appear to be silent only externally, but they are boiling with rage internally. You should understand the Divine silence – to keep silence before God. When you get together, try to be in isolation from one another: make it a habit of yours when you think of something, believe you are alone; when talking about something, believe that you talk about yourself; when you think about silence, believe that you keep silence for your own sake. This is the only way students can learn to be silent. If I give you a rule, keeping in mind that you have children, husbands, social work, and if you cannot apply it, this won’t be very wise on my part. In this situation that you are in, you want to be strong, but the first thing you have to do is to win a victory over the little difficulties you are having at home. Your problems at home are a very serious issue. For instance, somebody may say, “I can’t stand what’s-his-name!” This is your weakness. How do you imagine you are going to enter Heaven? The first condition, in order for you to enter Heaven, is to put up with everybody. It is said that all of us would change. If you do not change, if you come again even in ten thousand years, or in a longer time, you will be in the same situation. Similarly, an American professor said that there were certain people he would not like to see in ten thousand years. But even if he sees them then, if he does not change, he will have to fight the same feeling. Time in itself is no cure for any problems; time cures inasmuch as we make efforts to change ourselves in the present. I would like you to start with yourselves, with a self-confession; this is the most challenging of tasks. You will develop your faith, compassion, your heart, your prudence, imagination, and music too. All of this lies ahead of you to develop it, besides the progress you will make shall depend on the time you have to spare. For the time being, God asks you to work for two hours. What do you do during this time? I have seen how some donkeys that have been kept closed and are let free afterwards, go rolling around not in grass but in dust. I do not laugh at such donkeys, they act very wisely – they have fleas troubling them; therefore, they say, “I’ll teach you a lesson!” and they cover the fleas in dust. Donkeys symbolise human stubbornness. Stubborn people wallow in dusty places and say, “I’ll teach you a lesson, make sure you do not lock me again!” These are simple comparisons. Animals that wallow in the dust have a completely different attitude. We look upon donkeys from a human point of view and we see that donkeys do not act wisely. If it is summer time, donkeys are supposed to go to a green meadow or to clear water and wallow [roll over] there. Some of you have made a better progress, but all of you have to work. Everybody has certain weaknesses that are not the result of one’s ill will, but are of a karmic origin. (Somebody from the audience): Can one alter [the position of] one’s soul through persistent work upon oneself? If we are in the situation of caterpillars, notwithstanding how many leaves we can eat, we shall not be able to transform ourselves into butterflies, for a shorter time than it takes. During this period, strength needed for the transformation into butterflies have to be gathered. You may get polarized. One may make obstacles that can delay one for a hundred years, and similarly one may make an instant progress that can take one a hundred years ahead. One has to clean oneself before God every evening, which does not mean to become soft. Good people should also be strong. It is often said that one has to win a victory over oneself. The point is not to win a victory over yourself, this is bad, but you have to [get to] know yourself. So, winning a victory over oneself would not take us very far. Let’s assume that you are in the habit of fighting off and on, and now you break your arm in order not to fight. Did you gain anything out of this? Why did you have to break your arm? On the contrary, you should have said, “This arm should listen to my will, and I have to be in control!” I do not want you to win a victory over yourselves, but to be in control of yourselves. When you are angry [furious], when you have a bad thought in your mind, try to get control over these thoughts and tell them, “You do not belong to this place, inside me, this is a canal and you may only pass through, but you may not stay!” You should be like that railways officer, who opens the rails with a special key so that various trains can pass, who clears the way for the trains. Similarly you, with the key you have, will be able to send your thoughts and desires in the right direction. (Somebody from the audience): Sometimes people look composed, but they are trembling internally; how can this trembling be mastered? Let them tremble! I could cure all of you within a year, if we could have a beautiful flower garden at our disposal with various flowers and beehives, an orchard with various fruit trees, and a vegetable garden, and shall send you there to cultivate them, so that you can draw energy and peace out of the gardens. If you are anaemic and in low spirits, I will send you to cultivate the cherry tree and you will see that your spirits will change. If your faith is weak – I will send you to cultivate cabbage, to water it and keep an eye on it. These are formulae, albeit from an external influence. If you are in low spirits – place your hand upon your forehead and everything will change within five to ten minutes. If you do not apply this means, let those of you who enjoy maths, writing, or drawing, apply one of their favourite past-times. Draw a triangle, paint it black, blue, or green, and before three or four minutes are out, your spirits will change. (Somebody from the audience): In order to have one’s attention distracted, isn’t this the point? No, this gives you certain strength to make the devil work and you tell the devil, “Do you make anything out of these triangles?” And the devil replies to you, “I do.” While now you stay at home, this one annoys you, that one annoys you; even if you are the most patient person you will lose your temper. The most difficult thing for one is to be always patient, to be polite. Sometimes I watch other people: some of them are rather tense, they can hardly wait for somebody to pass by and regardless whether one is guilty or not, they slander him, they fly against such a person with all their might and they say, “Don’t you dare pass by this place!” Then they feel relieved, but after a while, giving it deeper thought, they realize that that person was not guilty at all, that the person was merely a passer-by. These are purely psychological states. The atmosphere can also be in a tense state: say for instance two dark clouds meet, their electricity attracts them, the air becomes thick with ozone and you start attracting this electricity upwards2. If you are angry, go into the forest, start yelling, shouting at the trees and stones, they will become thick with ozone and you will feel better. You will see how funny it will look to you afterwards, when you notice that you are in such a state. An American professor was telling me a similar story: he was not in the habit of going to balls, but he enjoyed dancing, therefore, whenever he felt a strong desire to dance, he grabbed a chair and danced with it at home. He himself found the situation funny, but he felt relieved afterwards. You can apply the methods that I granted to you, and some will make use of some of them, while others will make use of other methods, as the situation may require. We have to make good use of Nature, it has the true method of healing. The present urban lifestyle is not quite natural, leading to unnatural states in people, lack of energy, because there is nowhere to draw energy from. Everybody needs energy - there is no energy to hand. You have another method of work at your disposal: for instance one of you has great misfortunes, therefore, some of you try to direct their good thoughts to her and try to help her. When someone is sick and cannot plough one’s field, let twenty people close to that person, go and put in twenty hours of work for him and the field will be ploughed. It is said that we have to help one another, don’t we! Most difficult of all, is when one lives alone. Nobody lives for oneself; nobody dies for oneself! Why is it that in Nature many grass blades shoot up in the same place? To retain the moisture! Wherever there is only one flower growing, it withers very soon. Similarly, when there are more people in a certain society, they retain moisture for a longer time. But when one is alone, that person has to be under very favourable conditions, to be very knowledgeable, so that one can survive in the world. You have these conditions now too; you have everything. I often notice that when I use certain symbols, you interpret them in the wrong way. For instance, I quote a law, I say that there are no exceptions to God’s law, but that there are rules in God’s Mercy, and these rules may tone down the law. I also say that nothing is given for free, and this is also true, but God’s Mercy is another law. According to it, if one is ready to receive things, things are given to that person for free. Both are true. Outside from God nothing is given for free, while inside God everything is given for free. If a general wants to climb up in society, this is dignity, but he would have to do it by virtue of the knowledge he has, by virtue of his valour. Professors can climb up in society only by virtue of their knowledge, not by virtue of benevolence. When you are invited to a table, you may be placed at the head of the table, but in society you cannot be placed at the top if this is not well deserved. So, being at the top presupposes work. Some may say, “I want to be talented!” You know the story about the donkey’s discontent: when God created it, it was looking around among the many animals and it noticed that all of them were very big, while it was smaller even than rabbits and was exposed to a lot of suffering. It prayed for a long time for God to make it bigger, with a high-pitched and strong voice, so that everybody can hear the donkey. God finally listened to the donkey’s prayer and granted the donkey height and a strong voice, but people started making donkeys work and this made donkeys even unhappier. So, the meaning of life is not in the abundance, but in the scanty that God has given us and in the place that Providence has destined for us. Now you do not know where God has placed you and what will come out of you. If you are a small seed and if you are sown in a sandy soil, nothing will come out of you, but if you are sown in a rich soil and if you are taken good care of, good apples can come out of you. You will now spare a thought on your self-development. Do not think that there will be no temptations or irks for you. Christ was also bored. There will come a moment when one will say, “How long shall I bear this burden?” Let’s set a premium for those of you who can develop one virtue. What premium shall we agree on? (Somebody from the audience): We can’t set it ourselves. Oh, how clever you are, you can sell me out ten times at the market place! Some people say, “We know nothing about this issue, you tell us!” But when it comes down to their interest, they argue, “This is not the case, do not believe it!” So they also have an opinion, do they? Others say, “We are prepared to face everything, we are prepared to listen to you!” Easy to say, but the truth is that you are not prepared to listen to everything. If I prescribe to all of you to get up at midnight and to go out to the centre of the town, how many of you would do this? (Somebody from the audience): We will, as long as it is for the better. This is not important; some will do it, some won’t. If I tell you that you, your children, and your husband will die, if you do not go out, then you will go. You will do it out of fear. In such a situation even with a gun at your back, you will go out even to a war. You should do what your Spirit at a certain moment and in a particular case can agree to [allow]. Now, the good will of none of you is strong. Ill will is well developed. This is not to say that you are not good, but this is to say that ill will prevails over good will. These two powers – the good will and the ill will – take one direction or another and since part of the matter of our body is not pure, we experience perturbations. We have to purify ourselves from sins, because there is something impure within us, which holds back our good will and we have to make great efforts to get rid of these impurities, to call [invite] the Divine matter, i.e. to create the New Man. You say that somebody is weak. Certainly, one cannot be strong until one gets rid of the matter that holds one back. So, now you will work to develop your faith and will. In order to develop your will, you must place an ideal in your mind. Take Christ as an ideal, i.e. the Living God, Who is manifested in the world. Take notice of the most supreme, most intelligent moments you experience in your life – these are manifestations of the Divine. Rare indeed are such moments, but you will have to try to keep the image manifested within you. During such rare moments, God has spoken to you. He speaks at the most once, twice, or three times in a year, and this is why you have to try to keep this speech. The more God speaks to you, the more He distances from you, the more suffering you experience. This is quite natural: you have one child, whom you love dearly, but once it distances from you, you start worrying about the child and you suffer. God acts similarly. By coming closer and going farther away God cleans your temple. God will come only when your temple is cleaned. This is why the Old Testament reads, “The Glory of God filled the temple.” So, good will you all may have. I talk now about experiences that you all may also have. What you need is will, will is what you need! You are all good! You laugh when I say that you are good. Do you know what I mean by telling you that you are good? I mean that nobody who lives with God can be bad; as you all aspire to God, you must all be good. This is what I mean. I will show to you the categories into which certain of your experiences fall. For instance, you feel hungry; what kind of feeling is hunger? Physical. You have your meal – and you feel a certain pleasantness spreading in you. What kind of feeling is the pleasantness in this particular case? Again physical. You cannot rely on this pleasantness, since it is in the physical field. You have a friend, whom you love, and who is with you, and this is pleasant for you, you feel strong, powerful, but the moment this friend is gone, you feel a certain unpleasantness. This is a spiritual state. This feeling is also fleeting; one cannot build a house upon it. We shall now come to these feelings that express the most supreme manifestation of Cosmic love3: when you love someone and feel no change, regardless whether he is with you or not, this is a Divine feeling. All forms that change in you are insignificant. You imagine Christ the way you used to know him previously. Certain intelligent powers flow out of this plastic form that stays in your mind unchanged. (Somebody from the audience): Is this form the same for everybody? It is different for different people. When you are in the situation of a hungry person, you will imagine Christ walking bare-foot in Palestine. Some have seen Christ in Light, having an aura around his head etc. There are forms through which Christ sometimes manifests himself in the physical world, sometimes in the astral world, and sometimes in the Divine world. You think that by experimenting and observing your thoughts you will come to a point when you will receive them in way that they generate no split-mindedness within you. When thoughts come from the astral world, they contain some small doubts. (Somebody from the audience): When Christ appears to a soul, won’t it understand that He is its ideal? Christ will tell everybody, “If you do not renounce your father, your mother and yourself, you cannot be a student of mine! If you do not lift the cross and if you do not come after Me, you cannot be a student of mine!” This is the first form through which Christ will be manifested. As soon as you receive Christ in this form, all suffering will disappear. This will bring about self-development of your consciousness... This is abstract matter. Some of you have religious experiences, while for others it is a complete darkness. Something else that you have to master is to learn to keep silent. The one who has seen Christ should be silent. Christ will then be a power within you. If I were a burning candle, would I need to prove that I am a burning candle? Does the rose need to prove that it is a rose? No, it doesn’t, the scent will prove it. If you do not believe in its scent, is it the form that will make you believe it is a rose? I relate this thought to another lurking thought of yours: you want to break free from a lot of suffering and hesitation; you want to become strong. Do the following small experiment then: take a poor sister of yours and start working upon her, see what you can do. What do you think you will have to do with her? I shall give a figure as an example: let’s assume that a sister of yours has lost her fortune, she has no money, no house, no property, and she is at her wits’ end. How can you help her? Let each one of you, who has more than they need, give her something – one will give her soap, another one will give her a pan, a third one – a pillow or bedclothes etc. You will see that shortly she will be back to normal. These are forms by which I would like you to grasp what I am telling you. Help everybody with what they need. Someone may have no patience – let this person have your bowl of patience. Someone else may have no faith - let this person have your pan of faith. A third one may have no pillow - let this person have your pillows. It won’t be long before you see that your brother or sister have improved and they say, “How good these brothers and sisters are!” If you do not take anything to them you will suffer. One cannot do this, but many can. However, you all need a bowl each. Do one experiment in this respect. Collective prayers are powerful as well, because when everybody prays at the same time, in the same direction, and is sincere and hearty, prayers have effect. Prayers have effect when there is harmony among you. Disharmony is what happens when a person who knows nothing about this art has tried to tune you. Therefore, disharmony can be called poor harmony or tuning. Indeed, the best part of a concert is the tuning of the violin and the other instruments. The first thing I want from you is to compete in paying mutual respect and reverence. What we perform externally should correspond to our internal predisposition, which is in the name of God. Let’s assume that you find one among you unpleasant; do the following manoeuvring: imagine you are in the greatest of hardships or that you are drowning in a river and it is exactly this sister of yours who saves your life. Take your time for a while and see what feeling you will experience. You will immediately start softening and you will say, “If my sister can do this, I will change my opinion of her and I will start loving her!” Or conversely: let’s assume that this sister of yours, whom you do not like, is drowning in the sea. Go to her immediately and tell yourself, “Come on, I will save her, because I am stronger than her, and the strong one should always save the weak one!” These are cases given to work upon your self-development. You will now do experiments. You may ask how? If you feel a desire to do such an experiment, you will pray for a day, two days, three days, four days, up to fourteen days in a row to achieve it and you will then feel an internal predisposition, that you are ready to do it and only then will you proceed to this good enterprise. And now you wait for things to settle on their own accord. Indeed they settle in this way too, but the results are completely different. You should all try to do these experiments. This is the only way to make the following line meaningful, “Pray for each other, to be healed.” Keep praying for up to fourteen days and the Spirit will say, “You may now do the experiment!” The Spirit says, “When one’s Path is worthy for God, God will reconcile that person.” Well now, you all have to start praying for your Paths to become worthy for God, in order that God reconciles you with the others and brings harmony and the Divine into you, so that you can understand and love one another. This is the Path; these are the experiments that you have to do to prepare for Whitsunday. Master’s lecture, delivered on 5 March 1920 (Friday), 16:00h. 1 [or Whitsunday] A Jewish holiday of gratitude for the Divine Laws, given in the Sinai Mountains, celebrated eight weeks after Passover [Easter]. On this day the Holy Spirit flows onto the Apostles for the first time (Acts 2,1 – 4) and the law gives way [precedence] to His gifts (editor’s note). 2 To editor: the Bulgarian text reads ‘upwards’ – but somehow I’d rather translate the word as ‘downwards’. 3 There are two words in Bulgarian for Love: “любов [lyubov]” and “обич [obich]”, translated in English as just “Love” [Lyubov] and “Cosmic Love” [Obich], the latter designating the human manifestation of Love as universal energy. Source

Note 6 Powers in Nature I shall make a summary of meekness, humility, electricity, magnetism, and torment. Meekness and humility show the path of the Spirit; electricity and magnetism – the path of the Soul; while torment – the path of the body or the physical world, i.e. life on the Earth. You should always relate meekness with the Spirit, humility with the soul, electricity – with the brain, magnetism – with the sympathetic nervous system, and torment – with all misfortunes in life. This is the right correlation. Esoteric disciples should speak a comprehensible language; they should speak to themselves in a comprehensible way. There is a legend with the Bulgarians that on Epiphany the Heavens open and the wishes of people at the moment they see the opening of Heavens, are granted. A Bulgarian watched the sky on Epiphany night for a number of years, hoping that he would at least once see the skies opening. One year on that very night, while watching from his window, he saw the skies open and he wanted to tell the Lord “Give me half a bushel of gold!” But being in a hurry, he actually said "Give me half a bushel of head!" and his head became as large as half a bushel and he could not get it back through the window. This law is effective in Esotericism too, i.e. what one wishes for or thinks of, happens. So, one esoteric law postulates: all the goods in the world are humility and meekness related; all the Powers are related with electricity and magnetism, i.e. with the brain and the sympathetic nervous system; all misfortunes – with torment. To be clear I will explain what generates torment: every disciple, who does not observe any of the eternal laws that exist, generates torment. However, such disciples consciously or unconsciously repudiate the fact that they have made a mistake, and walk in life from one reincarnation to a second and third reincarnation, while the law of torment is in effect continually. This law acts like a river making its way and taking a new direction, different from its previous bed. Hence, I call torment a method or way of rectifying human life. You, who have come here to listen to the Esoteric Teaching, are at different ages, are you not? I want all of you to discard the thought that you know certain things. I do not deny your knowledge, but esoteric knowledge is only valid when it has passed through the Divine Fire seven times and has been purified. Only such knowledge can be applied for the reorganisation of our life. We have Science at our disposal to re-create our existing life. In order to learn this great Divine Science, one should understand its forms and rules. I shall take recourse to a small explanation: if you plant a small wheat grain, an acorn or an apple seed, the splitting or polarising powers within them will first activate all the magnetic Powers working inside the earth, they will attract the plant to grow downwards. This means that each root seeks the magnetic currents that it feeds upon. These roots try to obtain not only stability, but seek such currents in the ground, which intersect like rivulets. Therefore, all roots branch in various directions and when they find the current they need, they complete their service. This is why certain roots sink deep into the ground, others – at a more shallow level, still others come out to the surface; therefore, different roots vary in length. If the soil is humus or alluvium, the roots always seek the currents, which run in the ground. In accordance with these currents the roots project themselves downwards, while the branches of the stem project themselves upwards in various directions. To each current down in the ground there is a corresponding current up in the air. You cannot comprehend these currents because you are not sensitive enough. If you have the time, we can make a short trip to Vitosha one evening and I will show you these magnetic currents that run in various directions. Each good thought coming out of your brain and projecting itself in space, moves upwards and downwards like these currents in the plants and seeks a corresponding living magnetism or electricity, which will serve for its shaping and development. Subsequently, the good thoughts of a person, who sends such thoughts more often, do not move away, but remain closely connected with that person. Contemporary scientists, who are partly familiar with Esotericism, believe that our thoughts are far away from us. No, each good or bad thought, sent by you, remains yours forever; nobody can take it away from you, it is your property, because you created it. You will have to keep this thought forever in your mind. Every plant, after taking roots in all directions, starts developing little by little: branches, leaves, blossoms, and fruit, which finally become ripe. This is also the way thoughts develop. No gossiping, no finding faults with other people – bad thoughts in general are not allowed in the Esoteric School. Do you know why? When you have bad thoughts about somebody, you direct your roots to this person, but there is no food for you there. These roots of yours start sucking in juices from this person, but these juices are a poison that poisons and spoils your life gradually. Many women are ruined not only because they have bad husbands, but also because of the thought that their husbands are bad and they start pining and withering by the day, until one day they say "Good-bye to this world" while their husbands watch and say to themselves "I do not know why my wife passed away." The same happens with the disciples of the Esoteric School. Therefore, disciples are told "Do not have evil thoughts" i.e. do not let the roots of your soul into a bad person, and keep away from bad people! This is the scientific approach to the issue. Please understand the following fact: torment shows the true path of deviation. When I say that we have to go down to the bottom of torment, I compare this going down to the following simple fact of our everyday life: someone is travelling across a mountain, but loses one’s way; in order for one to take another direction, the proper direction, one has to go back exactly to the place where he or she went astray and lost one’s way. When you are in torment and when you see that you are on the wrong path, having travelled for a long time, you will go back to the place where you have gone astray. This is what I mean by going down and returning to rectify your mistakes. In order to understand the Powers of Nature and to put them to use for the sake of good, you have to invariably develop corresponding senses or organs in your soul. Many of these organs are mutilated at the present stage of development of the contemporary civilisation. Many Christians who have taken this Path, have become more sensitive and they say, "It’s not worth being a very good person, i.e. it’s not worth being very sensitive, it’s not worth suffering." Human nobleness is exactly about being sensitive, receptive to other people’s grievances and joys. The brain is an organ of electricity. The back of the brain contains negative electricity, and the front side – positive; this is to say that there is a split. So, if the electricity from the front part of the brain dominates the electricity from the back part, one becomes exceptionally active in terms of thoughts, but one also becomes rough. If the negative electricity in the brain takes the upper hand, one becomes passive, but at the same time full of and eager for undoable secret desires, and as a result hatred, envy, and similar feelings are generated. When I talk about positive and negative electricity I mean the law of tides that take place in the brain. The high tide – this is the positive side of the brain and high tides occur in its front part, in the area of the forehead, while the low tides – in the back part of the brain. These tidal movements are even and well planned in Nature, because God acts there. In Nature, there are no mistakes, but on our earth and in our brains there are mistakes, because we do not know how to manage these high and low tidal movements, hence delays happen. When a misfortune befalls you – for example when your house burns down, when you lose your money, when you break your leg, when you have to go hungry for several days or whatever else happens to you, the equilibrium between the high and low tides in your brain is immediately upset. Keep in mind that the growth and the success of your life in the world depend on these planned tidal movements in your brain. Certain Schools see this regular change of high and low tides as a pre-condition for making human beings magnetic. But I also tell you that in order for human beings to be magnetic, the high and low tides in a person have to take place properly. Thus, the first thing that you are required to do is not to obstruct your high and low tides. The disturbance of the equilibrium between these high and low tides has brought about many upset minds and numerous abnormal situations. Remember this explanation, because it applies to your lives. You have to be aware of what actions take place in your soul during high tides and during low tides. Apply this method and you will see that it is absolutely natural in all of its particular aspects. When observing Nature you will notice that each thing has its timing. Birth, death, and every other thing are mentioned in parables as having its specific time of occurrence. Esotericism does not allow esoteric disciples to have preferences to the good or the evil. This thought seems sort of vague to you, does it not? I shall elaborate on it: if I have to perform an operation, I shall use a sharp knife, not a blunt one. The sharp knife stands for evil people, while the blunt knife stands for good people. Hence, I shall use an evil person in an operation; I will prefer the evil person to the good one. When the Lord wants to punish the world, the Lord prefers to use evil people, and when He wants to build something, He prefers to use good people. When He wants to eradicate something, He prefers evil people, and when he wants to plant – the good ones; when He wants to dig holes, He will go for evil people, and when he wants to plant something in them – good people. In Esotericism, we do not frown at people when they commit evil, but each action has to be done at a strictly determined time. I do not talk about the public moral here on the Earth, because it does not stand any criticism from an esoteric point of view. If I give away my wealth to the poor, this is bad for me and good for the people close to me. If I rob the people close to me, this is good for me and bad for the others. So, there are two measures for everything in the world: good for oneself and good for the others. So, there are two options before me: either to give away my money to other people or to take the money of other people. Thus, there are two methods according to which one can act, both are right. If ten people, carrying twenty kilogrammes of gold each, are drowning in the sea, and if I take the gold off their backs, is this bad for them? No, it isn’t, I am saving their lives. As long as I have saved them, I have a right to their gold. If I am loaded with twenty kilogrammes of gold and if I am drowning in the sea and other people come to help me and take the load off my back, they have the right to my gold. This is how I reconcile this moral. This is how esotericism looks upon good and evil. However, if you meet a person loaded with gold, if you stop this person, take the gold off his or her back and take it away with you, then I say that is an act not performed at its proper time, in other words the fruit was picked prematurely. Well, get your act together to apply this law, according to which you will rob and I will rob you, but at the right time. I use the word rob in a very good, in a very broad sense, similarly to picking fruit in an orchard1. Not the way thieves do: the masters of the orchard have hardly seen the fruit of their labour, and they hurry up to pick the pears and apples from their trees. In my first lecture I spoke about humility and meekness. These are inter-related; these are related to pure human thought. This means that a person, who is not humble and meek, cannot have a pure thought. Each human thought is cherished only on humility and meekness, while beyond these qualities your thought will be like the thought of animals. This is a strictly determined law. The same is true for every desire. Any desire that was nurtured on live electricity and live magnetism is a desire of the soul, while any desire that is not permeated with this live electricity and magnetism, is not a desire of the human soul. Therefore, all evil thoughts take their roots outside humility and meekness; all evil desires are nurtured beyond the scope of live electricity and live magnetism. And torment is nurtured by the unwise lifestyle of stupid people. Look upon the live electricity and magnetism as two great intelligent Powers in the world. Torment is the illegitimate physical child of Man, whom the father and mother should acknowledge as theirs. No miscarriage or killing of children is allowed in Esotericism, i.e. we are not allowed to kill any thoughts or desires, either ours or anybody else’s. You may or may not accept a thought or a desire, but you have no right to destroy them. Therefore, everyone should be left to do what he or she wants to. Nobody has the right to counteract or influence either good or evil people. I warn my disciples not to try to either counteract or influence me, because this is the way I behave and shall continue to behave in the future too – I shall neither counteract you nor shall I influence you. I lay before you great Divine laws, which you, if you wish, will implement, if you do not – you will bear the consequences. Keep in mind that these laws, these Powers that you get into contact with, will start affecting you as soon as your consciousness opens. You cannot evade this law. You are not allowed to wear any umbrellas or broad-brimmed hats to protect your heads from the Sun, from this living Light. Let your heads become accustomed to this living Light, go bear-headed! Mind you, there is serious work in front of you. By serious work I mean movement, I mean that one has to make progress, not to stay in the same place. You should not think that you are old or young, but you will think that you are disciples who have to learn. You should look upon Life the way any student looks upon a problem that he or she has to solve: one goes to bed in the evening with the thought that one will have to get up early in the morning to solve the problem; and one does so. Some of you have some more hours – say two or three hours to study and they will fall asleep afterwards. It’s all right. They will continue on the following day. If not in this life, they will continue in the following life, besides they will continue from the point where they have got to in this life. Students whose thought is not concentrated, will spend a whole day trying to recall what issue preoccupied them the previous day and will not be able to remember. One more point: you will investigate the moments of the day corresponding to humility, other corresponding to meekness, still others – to electricity, to magnetism, to grief, and to torment. These are all polarised. Torment is the strongest, while grief is the opposite of torment. Nowadays, contemporary teachers often note a contradiction at school: a Maths teacher enters the classroom and all the pupils are in good humour because this subject arouses electricity within them. After the Maths teacher, the Chemistry teacher comes in whose subject also arouses electricity in the pupils. Pupils already feel a little nervous as a result of the large amount of electricity gathered. If a third teacher, whose subject arouses electricity too, comes in, pupils become even more nervous and they will make a scene. No, subjects in the school timetable should be so arranged that one of the subjects should arouse electricity, and the following subject should arouse magnetism within the pupils; i.e. subjects should alternate. This can be noticed in Nature as well; the same law is at work. For example, a son was born – as a result of the electrical powers; this indicates that meekness, electricity, and torment have been implanted in him. A daughter was born – created by humility, magnetism, and grief. If somebody asks me, “What elements was my son created from?” I will answer: from meekness, electricity, and torment; “And my daughter?” – from humility, magnetism, and grief. This is why boys experience torment and girls grieve. We have to try and avoid monotony in our work. I do not want to make you pious, because this is a monotonous teaching. Today pious people are seen as harnessed horses having blinds over the eyes and looking only straightforward. Pious people, hardly out of bed, make their way straight to church, and in the evenings – they go again to church. Going to church in the morning, going to church in the evening – and everybody says, “These must be pious people.” The work facing you requires that you start developing gradually in various areas. You will first arouse the lower part of the brain – the low mind of human beings, the concepts of Nature, of all the forms, images, colours, numbers. You will then arouse the more superior forms of the mind – imagination, listening, reflection, music, and creative intelligence. And finally you will arouse Love to God, to people, and to animals. We shall also arouse the feeling of faith and hope, the feeling of amicability, sociability and friendliness, but not in the sense these are now understood. We shall also arouse the law of justice, the executive powers, which generate destruction, i.e. the executive side of Life. Of course, this is difficult, because if we now decide to arouse music, not all of you will be able to perceive it. Some of you have a well-developed musical ear, but poorly developed comprehension of humility and meekness. Why did Christ say, “I am humble and meek at heart”? Humble and meek people can easily cope with any difficulty in the world. There is a simple self-training method, namely to place yourself in the shoes of a hungry person. If this is the situation, you should no longer think about what you ate in the past. It is not important what meals you had over the years. You might have had the best of meals in the past, but what counts is how you will feed yourself today. If you do not eat well you will lose your life. The present moment is important in Esotericism. Now I will put you in contact with the Living Nature and do you know what will happen to you afterwards? I shall draw a picture for you: in Europe, a scoundrel went into the house of a very rich and highly educated physicist intending to rob him. The physicist had two balls in his laboratory for his experiments with electricity. Realising what the intention of the scoundrel was, the physicist put the two balls in the hands of the scoundrel and told him, “Keep these for a while until I finish my experiments, and then you may do what you wish!” The scoundrel took the balls, the physicist switched on the power and the scoundrel started bouncing. “Let them go,” said the physicist. “No, I can’t!” The physicist asked him, “Are you going to put educated people to the test again?” Now, if you come to rob me, you will be jumping up and down with these balls. Living Nature is so intelligent that no man so far has succeeded in cheating it in its methods. There will be no man in the future either who will be able to cheat it. This is why I call Living Nature the best of mothers. If you listen to it, it will provide you with a Teaching that you never had before. If, however, you violate its rule, you will find out how it raises its children. I shall give you one more formula: you will consider everything in the world as living. I shall elaborate on the word live. Tell me, when you look at a picture of a great artist, do you perceive it as a living picture. Yes, it is a living picture; this is what I am telling you. But you may object by saying that there is no movement in it. Let’s assume that there is one tree planted in the ground and the air around it is very still, not even the slightest puff of wind and this is why no movement can be noticed among its leaves. Now looking at this tree, seeing that there is no movement at all, what would you say about it? That it is not a living tree, is it? Precisely because of this, the picture is as live as the tree in this situation. Artists shall need no canvass in the future. I can project before you a living picture and I can keep it for an hour or two, or ten hours or for two days and then I can make it disappear. Is there any contradiction, any doubt that it existed? It does exist, but after some time I transfer it elsewhere. Therefore, an artist, who is going to paint a picture, can project it wherever he or she feels like. Have you observed how flowers acquire colour, how their colours develop gradually during their growth? It is worth noting that artificial paints made by people, fade and disintegrate in the Sun, while paints created by Nature – the longer they are exposed to the Sun, the more impressive they become, because they are living paints. The longer an artist reflects on the flower, he or she is creating, the livelier it is, but the moment the artist stops thinking about it, it disappears. The first requirement to any esoteric disciple is to possess a powerful imagination. No disciple can achieve anything without imagination; therefore, one has to develop it. I shall give you a method for you to practice, to learn to concentrate: if some of you are absent-minded and want to concentrate, let them take a needle and stick it half a centimetre into their hand. When they experience a strong pain, they will start thinking about their hand and their absent-mindedness will be gone. When you stick the needle in a dozen times, until blood gushes out, the subconscious person in you will say, “It’s not worth being absent-minded!” Misfortunes in contemporary society are just like needles, which Nature sticks into your minds, so that they think properly, and into your hearts so that they come into their proper places. When such a needle is piercing you, it makes you think about the essential things. Thus, many who went to the battlefield came back with minds and hearts properly adjusted. Your guest visit is already over, and I am now asking you whether you will take your leave or you will stay? To those who decide to leave I will recommend other places that they can visit, and those who decide to stay will be given work. You will now ask what serious stuff you will be asked to do. You will be asked to do a lot of pleasant work, however, two pieces will be pleasant and one piece will be unpleasant. Now I want all of you to be humble and meek. Humility and meekness, as well as aspiration to absolute Purity – this is the meaning of Life. You can make no step ahead without this purity. You will first have to take your deficiencies out in public and to take care to rectify them. Do not hide your deficiencies; do not make us look for them. So, if you want to benefit, you will have to be brave and decisive within, so that you can take your deficiencies out, without thinking so highly of yourselves, as you do now. You will go down by ten degrees! All of you disciples, who have deficiencies in your minds, hearts or bodies, should picture these clearly! And most difficult of all is to take your own deficiencies out in public. There was a famous professor in eloquence in America – Silva Neah2, who was contacted by people with university degrees in rhetoric and eloquence, confident that they could speak. On leaving the professor’s office, all of them had experienced a shock, because the professor spoke to them in an off-hand manner and his language cut them to the quick. The art of this person was actually in telling the truth straight to their face. Somebody comes in front of him, starts reciting, but the professor tells this person: Oh, come down, come down to me! - and they start explaining things to each other. Oh, I can now understand you, you may climb up again! And there the speaker starts anew. - Hang on, wait a little, I do not understand, climb down, climb down!... You should not recite either, tell me a simple truth without any embellishments. Set it in simple terms, so that it can stand out. I want all of you to be genuine and therefore, I say that Esotericism is such a School that people, who have entered it, leave the School very simple people. Those who come here say at first, “I have my considerations about this, this is how I see things, that is how I see things, this is my understanding of God etc.” Well, my friend, you may think this way or that way, but your affairs are not settled, you are not a healthy person, and you have deficiencies. This is a false teaching. The Lord does not want us to think and feel inadequately. This is our business, not God’s. Some say, “The Lord created me like this.” Not the Lord, but you created yourself like this. We have stuck so many layers of plaster upon what God has created, that it takes a long time to undo these until we find the Divine core. Many virtues cannot be noticed immediately in contemporary people, but there are external features, which give them away. For example, honesty is expressed, in some people, by two lines across the forehead, while justice is expressed by one line in the middle of the forehead. These features, as well as the features of Love are so smoothed in certain people, that such people are said to resemble the Moon. This is what I call “clattering”, i.e. rounded people and there is nothing more to it. So, we shall do our best to introduce simplicity and harmony in our behaviour. There should be the simplest, most natural behaviour between you and me. Each gesture of the hand and of the head should be aimed at the right forms. For example, a hand stretched forward, clenched in a fist, as if stabbing somebody, expresses an evil movement. It is a correct movement when the three fingers of the hand are bent and the thumb touches the forefinger forming a circle. Why should this movement be right? It stands for a snake holding its victim; this is a circle, a movement, which hides no danger. As soon as the circle opens, one can hear hissing and snakes warn others “Keep away, as I may bite you!” Therefore, when a student gets angry, you should show your hand in this position to the student. But what is it that you do? You show a slap at such a student. This is not an esoteric movement; this is a movement of the magi of Darkness. When a young man and a young woman walk arm in arm, this is a movement of the magi of Darkness. Someone gives money to a poor man and while passing by him, he shoves the money in a rather rough manner. No, give money to beggars but give it with respect. All these bad images and movements, gathered in our mind, provoke the respective powers too, which spoil the harmony of the respective centres, hence certain disharmony is generated. Our movements have to be plastic, this we can achieve by watching our movements in the mirror. We can restore the lost harmony with these plastic movements. You cannot raise your children if you do not act in harmony. You are very silly, aren’t you? Do not take offence when I tell you that you are silly. Today I showed you an appropriate movement, some other time you will make such a movement and you will give it a thought. Watch out not to imitate bad examples in your life. There was an evangelical bishop in a certain region in America, who was in the habit of wearing his head a little tilted, and one shoulder higher than the other. All the preachers in that region imitated him, wearing their heads tilted. So all of our bad habits today are the result of imitating the bad habits of a certain bishop. I use the word bishop, not in its direct sense, but figuratively, because the father is a bishop at home, and the mother - a female bishop. The first thing you need is to develop your imagination consistently, so that all objects can vividly stand out within you. As soon as you are told something, you should be able to immediately project it in your mind. Without imagination you can achieve nothing in esoteric Science. Consider that you live in a wide world and you are alone. If you start feeling sad, imagine that you are among people. When you are fed up with people, start thinking that you are alone. I do not want you to rely on me for everything, be aware of this illusion. I shall explain this Divine law to you in the following formula: when the wheat grain is placed in the ground, it has to manifest the energy, which is hidden in its soul. What are the conditions for a similar manifestation? These are light and warmth, coming from above; and also moisture and rain. As long as these conditions are available, it starts growing. I apply the laws of the esoteric Science to you too, because all the conditions required for your development are available in you. Light and warmth come from God, and moisture is Life, and we have to use these external conditions. Soil is our body where the wheat grain, i.e. our soul, is planted. Warmth is Love, Light is the Divine Truth, and Wisdom is seen in the growth process. This is the Path of the right movements in the body. You should not compare this Teaching that I dwell upon, to other teachings and you should not speak absolutely anything about it elsewhere. Why shouldn’t you speak about it? What is there for you to tell other people before you have tried what you study! Gather experience and see the results and then you will have the power to speak about it to other people. I will catch, according to all the esoteric rules, anyone of you, who are inclined to speak here and there and who cannot keep a secret. The Bulgarians say, “Those who talk a lot, accomplish little.” You also belong to this kind. In ancient times a king had bear’s ears. When a barber was asked to shave the king, his head was taken on leaving the palace, so that he would not tell anyone else that the king had bear’s ears. One day a barber was called to shave the king, but the barber having done his job and seeing what was going to happen to him, started begging them to spare his life, promising that he would tell nobody what he had seen in the palace. The king felt sorry for the barber and let him go. The barber, trying to make sure that he would not tell anyone, fled to a very distant part of the kingdom. He kept the secret for a long time, but it was such a burden to him that one day he went into the forest, dug out a hole and yelled loudly into the hole “The king has bear’s ears!” In time a tree grew on this very spot, and a shepherd made a wooden flute from this tree. When he started playing the flute he heard a voice, “The king has bear’s ears!” Similarly you will make a hole and you will shout into it, “The king has bear’s ears!” It’s all the same to me where and what you will say, but this is useless for you. What you need is to experiment! This Teaching has internal real experiences, which you have to verify for yourselves in practice. So, I do not want you saying that this is a delusion or that is a delusion. Those of you who do not want to be deluded let them enter the world; there are no delusions there. This is a warning, because you are now my guests, and the code of politeness does not allow people to beat their guests. When disciples of the Esoteric School make a mistake of any kind, the greatest punishment for them is that everybody around falls in silence and this is their unmasking. Another rule for disciples: to be sincere to one’s Spirit, sincere to one’s soul and sincere to oneself or put in your language, sincere to one’s father, sincere to one’s mother, sincere to one’s brothers and sisters. The two elements – the father and mother – you cannot see now, they are above, so it is only your brothers and sisters you can see here on the Earth. For the next time, I would like one of you to write something on the bone system, the skeleton; another – on the functions of the heart and blood circulation, while a third one – on the digestive system. Master’s lecture, delivered on 19 February 1920, at 19:00h 1 The Bulgarian words for rob and pick (fruit) are homophones, i.e. the two words are spelt and pronounced in the same way, hence in the Bulgarian sentence there is a pun of words, which is lost in the English translation 2 The spelling of the name of the professor is a blind guess Source

Note 6 Explanatory Notes on Esotericism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Mysticism and Christianity If a certain Force, existing in Nature, does not correlate to our senses, it cannot interact with them. Let’s assume that you are with blind people and you light a match from a box of matches. Does the light of the match exist for them? No, it does not. Consequently, if we cannot perceive a Force active in our life, i.e. if we cannot perceive the Light of the Force, we cannot understand that Force. Blind people can touch the match and can assert that it is a match. Blind people may think they understand what a match means, but in fact, they have understood nothing. It is, indeed, a match; but there is something more substantial within it – Light. If your eyes can perceive Light, you open a book, read and understand what is written in the book. So now, when we come to esoteric Forces, each Force has to be utilised and made to work. Any disciple, who doubts and says, "Prove to me that this esoteric Force really exists," is not a proper disciple. There are no debates or disputes in the esoteric School. It is not a School to verify facts and truths. We do not deal with the dead truth, but with the living Truth in the world. Spiritualism shows the movements of the Spirit. This is the embryo of things, something not yet shaped. In order for you to understand Spiritualism, you have to create certain conditions for this embryo so that it can go through all the development and formative phases. Therefore, Spiritualism is not a well-developed form of teaching. Theosophy is a form of teaching about reconciling the contradictions in the world. It is a science about reconciling men and women, nothing more than this. By saying reconciling men and women, I mean reconciling human beings and God. Those who believe that they are theosophists should be aware of this law – how to reconcile themselves with the ones they hate. There is a contradiction between you and God – you have to reconcile it! If you fail to do it – you are no theosophist. We, contemporary people, with our critical minds, resemble a Bulgarian well-to-do merchant, who was very stingy. He asked a tailor to cut new clothes for him, but as he knew that tailors are in the habit of stealing a little from the cloth, he stayed all the time with the tailor and watched the tailor cutting the cloth, lest the tailor steals some material. The tailor, however, seeing such nice material, cut a large piece and said, "This is for St. Nicholas," and threw it outside. The merchant yelled at him, "What are you doing?" Then he ran outside to get the piece of material and during this time, the tailor cut another even larger piece of cloth and sat on it. So I was saying that we, who criticise and are always on guard not to be deceived, are always deceived. Somebody will throw away a piece of cloth for St. Nicholas and while we are going to fetch it, this very person will hide a bigger piece for himself or herself; and we believe that nobody deceived us! Mysticism is not a law on ascent, but a law on descent. Mystics do not ascend, but descend to God within them. The danger is that mystics do not know how to descend and while descending they may fall down and cripple themselves. Now on esotericism: I can compare it to contemporary natural sciences. Esotericism is a science studying the phenomena on Earth, studying the invisible, not the visible. It does not deal with the shapeless worlds. What has shaped itself within itself, what has a form, content, and meaning – this is the area of esotericism. Where then shall we place Christianity? Do you think it is a science? (A question from a Sister) I would like to ask whether you make any differentiation between Christianity and esotericism. Are the Gospel and esotericism the same teaching? Examine Nature as it is. There are no moral judgements in esotericism. It studies things the way they are, as pure facts. (Question): So, Christianity is something different? Esotericism is a science about knowing the natural Forces, the areas, ways of influence and application. Esoteric people are realists, they do not believe, they deal only with Nature, with material things. Mystics live constantly with their hearts; they experience the heart’s vibrations and all states through which it passes. In the Christian sense of understanding, mystics, theosophists, and spiritualists can be Christians. If we take, however, the area of the Spirit in its broad sense, with its deviations, this is already spiritualism. The danger with spiritualism lies in the fact that people have other embryos within themselves, which actually cause them trouble also. But for the time being we shall leave aside what critics say about it. Spiritualism is a movement; theosophy – reconciliation of contradictions; mysticism – descent, it may also be said to be the law of labour, of work; esotericism gives us all the forms in which we can live on the earth, it is the only science that teaches us how to live and that can save us from all misfortunes; Christianity is a science about liquidating karma, about payment of old debts. If we take the line from the Gospel reading that Christ bore the sins of the world, this means that He had paid its debts. What is Christianity? This is about knowing how to pay people’s debts. Well, who can pay debts? Only the rich. Consequently, rich people can be Christians, while poor people cannot. (Question): What about the promise that Christ will make us rich? It is a credit to Christians, to those whom Christ credits. These are traders on somebody else’s credit. Contemporary people are Christians, because Christ is a Christian. Theosophy is a science about reconciliation of the sexes, while Christianity is about bringing sexes together and uniting them. Christianity, by its intrinsic meaning, is a science about the unity of the Spirit with the soul. What is now being preached is not Christianity; it has to undergo certain transformation. If Christianity had been as we now perceive it the world would have been different. We shall leave this issue aside, as it does not fall within our scope. Now, I want to ask you if you have learnt what torment is. We shall start with it! We shall examine all the other sciences – theosophy, mysticism etc. - from the point of view and in the spirit of torment. I shall also provide you with another explanation of these sciences. Theosophy can be examined in seven different ways. Similarly, esotericism and mysticism have external and internal aspects. The theosophical society nowadays understands only the external aspects – the organisation. Theosophy prepares these forms, which can be called anatomy of theosophy. Christianity has passed through the first stage of development and after the two thousand years behind us, the anatomy of Christianity started developing. Whether the Son flows out of the Father or not, and many other disputes have been tackled at the Ecumenical Councils. Even today Christianity boils down to the question a Christian may put to you on meeting you, "Do you believe in the three faces of God?"’– I do. – Then you are a Christian! However, I would like to ask you, now that you believe in the three faces of God, what do you understand the three faces to mean? I shall explain this to you: the second face of God is the face of Love. Man and woman, all people have to seek this second face – Love. And when it is said that God is Trinity, people also say words they do not understand. The Great Masters, who wrote on this, had a very clear understanding of the issue, but their disciples have distorted the Teaching. Spiritualism is also a Teaching, which stemmed from the Brotherhood of Light, but it was also blemished by the disciples. Theosophy is another Teaching, again sent from above, which was also stained by the disciples. Esotericism is also a Teaching given by the Brotherhood of Light, but there are esoteric people of Light and others of Darkness in it, too. Mysticism – is also corrupted. Christianity is also corrupted. Let me express myself clearly: when a priest or a bishop puts on clothes, a stole and a tiara, marries a couple and says "You have to pay that much" I call this a magician of Darkness. Magicians of Light work for free. If a young woman puts on nice clothes intending to charm a certain young man, she is also a magician of Darkness. If a young man takes special care with his outer appearance in order to charm any young woman, he is also a magician of Darkness. If a lawyer or a judge uses the law to charge somebody, such a person is also a magician of Darkness. Anyway, esoteric people, theosophists, mystics, and Christians – all of them are divided into Light and Dark ones. Someone may say, "I’m theosophist." - "A Light or Dark theosophist?" – "A Light theosophist." – "OK, then we can understand each other." "A Dark theosophist." Well, I will retain my reservations. What does it matter if you are spiritualists, theosophists, mystics, or Christians if you belong to the Dark group, the world is full of such people! The twenty million people perishing in the present war show what has become of Christianity today. I do not say that Christianity is to blame; the Dark Christians are to blame. We need a correct understanding of esotericism: to get down to the bottom of torment, because in there, there is no disunity, there is unity. Sinful people are sinful because they have not experienced torment, while righteous people are righteous, because they have experienced torment. If you tell me that there is a contradiction in what I say to you, I will tell you that Christ says, at a certain place, that towards the end of the century He will send bad spirits and their sons to eternal torment, He will send them to the bottom of hell to experience torment. Why? Precisely because they have not undergone torment. Bad people do not experience torment; good people do so. You have worked and you have earned money, a bad person comes and robs you; the bad person does feel tormented. If you are not brave enough to undergo torment do you know to whom I shall consider you belong? To the Dark ones. It is written that those who do not experience torment will in the future go to the place of torment. You may ponder as much as you like, but you will be there in the future. The first rule, for a disciple willing to become an esoteric disciple, is not to think that others present an obstacle to her or his mind, but that the disciple himself or herself is the obstacle. Because the world is so large, there is a place for everybody. Then, such a disciple should not think that somebody might present an obstacle to his or her heart, because the world of feelings is so large, that there is a place for everybody. In other words, the first rule for the disciple in this situation is torment. The disciple has to accept that nobody can influence the disciple’s mind and distort it; that nobody can influence the disciple’s heart in one way or another, because the world is large. This thought is not very clear to you, is it? A thought can be clear and can have an influence on us only when we come to be at the same level with the one who expresses it. How does the law of expression act? In order for somebody, be it a good or bad person, to influence you, that person has to lower you to his or her level; only then can such a person influence you. This is to say, as long as you keep your mind in the Infinite world, where the Divine law acts, you are free and safe. As soon as it enters your mind that somebody might influence you, this means that you have descended lower than this world. When the servant thinks that the master restricts the servant, the servant has already restricted himself or herself with this very thought. Let’s say that you walk in the streets in tattered clothes, you meet a nobleman or a well-to-do person, whom you know, but he passes by without greeting you and you think that because you are poor nobody greets you. I would like to ask you if he greets you, would this give you anything? Nothing. It will only tickle you a little. If somebody looks at you and smiles at you, what do you gain from this smile? Nothing. These are the illusions of the magicians of Darkness. When one smiles, one should feel at the bottom of one’s soul that God is present at this moment! How should we understand the smile? When we smile, we should be pleased with our smile. Whether people will be glad at our smile is not of importance; we should personally be pleased with it. And when we frown the same law should be at work. Frowning, at esoteric schools, should also be done according to all the rules; you should also feel the presence of God in frowning. Do you think that I will smile when I see somebody being hanged? No, I won’t. I will frown, I will call God and the angels and I will say that what is going on is not right. Not that the fact is not true, but that these people have misunderstood God’s law. They sentenced a human being in compliance with whichever clause of whichever law; come on, where is the authority of this law and of all the other laws?! These have to be eternal, unchangeable. A person may be punished in esotericism, but only when one wants to be punished. The person should submit a petition, on one’s own free will, to be punished. This is what goes in esotericism. I will add a thought: some say that we should not torture animals, but do you know that many animals want to be tortured, so that they can be elevated? So, what is meant, when it is said not to torture animals, is not to torture these animals, which do not want to be tortured. But, if we do not torture those animals, which want to be tortured, we will slow down their evolution. Many hens, eaten by you, have progressed. But you do not make any progress. Consequently, we shall have to say to the hen, which wants to be tortured, in order to progress, "I’m sorry, I cannot slay you, because I don’t want to stay the progress of my evolution; but as you have set your mind on making progress, please, find somebody else to slay and eat you." No disciple, entering any Esoteric School has the right to cause torment to anybody. Disciples have the right to cause torment only to themselves. To go down to the bottom of torment, to experience it, and to come back to earth, to work in line with the law that disciples have learnt. Therefore, I say that you should not torture each other either. A friend was telling me an anecdote about himself: he was very sensitive and had nice aspirations in his soul, he wanted to live peacefully with the people around, but when he returned from a trip abroad and when he met some Bulgarians, they started ridiculing him. At one point, he started thinking of a means to help him retain his composure. For this purpose, he hired two porters to swear at him. He sat with them and succeeded in enduring all their curses in the hope that he would be able to tolerate the curses of the others as well. But after having done this for several days, he asked himself, "Why should I hire porters to curse me, when there are so many porters in society! I keep these on the pay-roll, while I won’t have to pay anything to the others." Any problems occurring among you, according to the Esoteric School, are blessings. When you have disagreements, try to smooth them over, but not artificially. I know about cases when two people get together, they kiss each other and they say, "Let’s reconcile!" But when they go out, they start slandering each other again. This is not a way to reconciliation. Reconciliation should take place within you. When you get down to the bottom of torment, are you ready to say, "The world is large for my mind and for my heart, I will accept torment in all its forms!" This is the most important psychological moment! I want all disciples, when they go back home, to create a favourable atmosphere. This is the last Thursday evening. (Comment): There is one more Thursday. Then next Thursday is the last Thursday. I do not receive guests any more. This is what Bedouins do: you may be their guest for three days, but on the fourth day they will give you work – they will either send you to the field, or will ask you to tend the cows. I find this an excellent rule. Those who stay at our School, will be given work to do – we shall either send such disciples to the vineyard, or shall give them the cows to tend, or shall ask them to do the clerk’s work, or shall ask them to be messengers; there will be such disciples. Then, another rule: I do not want you to spread around what we have been talking about here in the School! You may spread it, but I take no responsibility for the consequences. Do not spread a Teaching before you have tested it! Otherwise, it will be the silliest thing you can do. Test it, because as of yet you do not know whether it is true. There is an expert committee in England, which inspects goods produced at factories and sold by traders. Only after the experts have endorsed the goods with a stamp as being inspected, only then have factory people and traders the right to export or sell their goods in England or abroad. You are retailers of un-inspected goods, but I do not like such traders. Each item has to be inspected. The first task that I will assign to women along these lines shall be, for example, the following: let’s say that one of you has a daughter, whom she does not love; let her do something that she will start loving her! Or let’s say that the husband of one of you is not a believer. This is a task, which she has to resolve! Some of you are poor, others are sick; you will have to do what must be done! Someone has tumours in the stomach; if this person does not get rid of them, the tumour will destroy this person. Every disease is generated by creatures existing in us. Each disease is generated psychologically and organically by the excrement of these creatures. When such a creature comes into our organism, you have to apply the same law: it should be allowed to stay, visiting you for three days only, because if you leave the creature for longer, it will take roots, it will form tumours, it will gather blood and you will die, while the others will say, "May God rest his or her soul!" The Lord does not forgive such people. He forgives only when people do not steal and do not lie. Someone may come here to take something and use it against me. God take pity on such a poor person who will do this! Damned will be such a person and not to the fourth degree but to the thousandth degree! Such is the great law of God, the Divine Truth, "He, who sins against the Spirit," says Christ, "neither this century, nor in the future will his sins be forgiven." Everything that you will learn here is a Great truth, which you should apply in your life and you have to be sincere with yourselves when applying it. You have to be sincere not to me, but to your Lord, to your mind, and heart, to your Spirit and your soul in all of their aspirations. You have to stand on your feet! Not to say tomorrow that Deunov wants to hypnotise us and to influence us. I have no intention to influence you because the moment when I will want to do this, I will be a demon, with my head downwards. And you too, if you want to influence me, will be with your heads downwards. This is how the Divine Teaching reads. To make it clear: from now on you will live for thousands of years on the earth and whichever Esoteric School you may enter to study the Path of your development, you will always be given rules to apply. If you do not accept torment as a factor for your future existence, you will be wandering in the world without understanding the internal meaning of Life. Torment will make all of you heroes. I want you to be heroes; I do not want you to be scared! However, if you do not undergo torment, you will be afraid, you won’t be heroes. I do not want to use the expression "Do not fear!" I will rather use another one – "Be in torment!" Accept torment, because it is given to you by the Invisible world. Do not force yourselves ever! There are people among you, who even if they want to, are not meant to experience torment, not all of you who listen to me will be tormented; not all of you are heroes, torment will be given to the heroes only. It will bypass some of you and will say, "Let’s leave it for some other time." He who is tormented should consider his torment a privilege. And the first thing you will experience when you start descending to the bottom of torment, is silence. You will penetrate into the soul of every suffering creature, you will get to understand how much it suffers and you will tell yourself, "How wrong I have been so far!" A sort of pity for all creatures who are in torment will awaken in you, and you will wish to begin to elevate the other creatures, from the place you have fallen to and where you stand, to raise them above or at least to relieve their torment. He, who has not understood torment, places other people under his feet, steps over them and says, "Come down, I will go up!" The Teaching of Christ makes people aware that all creatures experience torment. This is what Great Christianity implies. When we get out of torment, we shall arrive at other methods, through which we shall learn how to cultivate and utilise the esoteric Forces. If you accept torment, Light will come to you from within, i.e. the Divine Spirit, which is in you, will awaken and will elevate the vibrations of your mind and of your heart. The cells of your mind and heart will transform organically, which will, in turn, transform the status of your mind and heart. The word cell has a double meaning. To be in a cell means to be unhappy, but it also means to be confined. However, the consciousness of a cell is also confined. There are many cells in our mind, which are dissatisfied with their situation. And when millions of such dissatisfied cells get together, we feel in low spirits. The first thing we have to do is to re-educate the cells of our brain, of our heart, and of our stomach. We can very easily re-educate these cells, but such a re-education takes place when we descend to the bottom of torment, which is the basis of Life. The Divine Spirit, starting from this point, will begin elevating us upwards, we shall climb on the wings of God’s Wisdom, and Divine Love, on entering our soul, will transfuse inspiration into it. Then the angels of Life will start elevating us in our evolution and we shall get out from the bottom of torment. Why was Christ resurrected? Because the One who was above, descended down and resurrected Him. God is simultaneously in Heaven and in hell. He, who goes above to God, is sent down by God, and he, who goes down, is sent above by God. All Christian preachers of the present day teach us that we have to go up in Heaven to God, while I say that you will go up to God, for God to send you down. All of you who are listening to me now, are of the kind that will prefer to take the easy path. There is no easy path in the world; there is a narrow Path. Another thing that disciples have to master is humility; which is not to be indifferent, but to go down to the bottom, to forget what other people think about them, and to feel only their own torment! These are a few practical rules, which you have to think over and which you will have to try to apply, without making any forced efforts. Sometimes, when I have the chance I will speak to you about the origin of sin – how evil entered the world. There was a time when we were not like what we are today. What are the reasons for our fall? Nowadays there are no good people in the world – those who cry, and those who laugh, and those who speak good words, and those who speak bad words – all of them are under the same denominator. When people see a wealthy merchant of sheep hides, they all envy him, without realising that his position rests upon the hides of the thousands of sheep, which he had skinned. The merchant says, "This is my stock, I gained it!" I object, I say that the merchant is a thief in the second degree and a liar, because he acquired his wealth at the expense of the animals, when he skinned them. Some may say, "This is my house, I made it with my own labour, and sweat on my forehead!" My response is that you made it at the expense of the people you have skinned. Someone may say, "This is my body." Excuse me - it is not yours. Because, do you know how many creatures suffer in order to maintain the human body, how many mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters have given their lives for it! This is why you have no right to think that what you have is yours. According to Christianity, the first thing that you have to keep in mind is to admit that whatever you have is not yours, but God’s. To those who slander me I say, "Listen, what I say is not mine, I am not defending my property! This God, whom I know, is very kind, but He is at the same time very bad. He is so kind that there is nobody kinder than Him, but only when we follow His Will, however, there is nobody worse than Him when we do not follow His Will and we commit evil." At the moment when we say that this body is ours, a curse will fall upon us, upon our children, upon everybody. You have to say, "Lord, thank You for placing me in this body of Yours!" This is how everybody should be looking upon things. On the other hand, we shout at each other like troopers and we say, "Get lost, get out of here!" There is no reason to get out of here. I often say that I am ready to step back if I am the cause of your sufferings. But to give you my body – no, I shall not do this! It is neither mine, nor yours; I shall give it to its Master. To Him I shall surrender my mind and my heart. You cannot be masters of them. Every disciple in esotericism, in theosophy, in spiritualism, in mysticism, and in Christianity should know this, because these denominations express one objective and present that Divine Life, which is manifested. The state of the Spirit is one thing, while the state of the soul is another. These are five states, which differ from one another. Will, heart, mind, soul, spirit are things known to us. What we know is that we suffer. We can feel only certain changes: sometimes our thoughts are clear, sometimes – dark; sometimes our mind is bright, sometimes – dark; sometimes our feelings are crystal clear, sometimes – dark; sometimes we are strong, sometimes – we are not. It is said that we have a soul. But what is the soul? What we can now feel is only a manifestation of the soul. The first thing I want is to make this rough sea, storming in you, to subside – quiet and peaceful I want you to be. In the present society and social order, we need workers who can rescue the ones pressed at the bottom. Because many buildings will collapse and many people, caught below in the stones in the ruins, shall have to be dug out. My desire is to rescue you from your ruined houses. Any of your psychological indispositions tells me that a girder of yours is rotten and has collapsed. Envy, hatred, and any other similar negative features – these are collapsing girders within your building – your body. Now that I am looking at you – do you know what you remind me of? Of children who are already hungry and can smell the food, but as the teacher goes on with the lesson, they tell themselves, "Hopefully he will soon finish, and we can go eat!" Or "Do not talk to us, teacher, but lay the table for us to eat!" You have a correct understanding – you have to eat. But if you listen to me, there will be a table for you, I will give you some food to eat, if you do not listen to me – there will be no table. When a guest comes to your house, you treat the guest only with some jam and water – don’t you, and afterwards – God be with you, see you soon! You lay the table and give food only for those who have worked in your field. When the beloved one or a trusted friend comes to visit you, you lay a rich table for the guest. Now what does this indicate? That he or she has been working for a long time in your field. I shall now have to think for how many of you I should lay a table. To those who have not worked for me I shall give only some jam and water, while to those who have worked – I will lay a table fit for a King and I shall do the serving myself. This evening also, there is one of you, who I know has understood the law of torment. Two people - for two Thursdays. I would like you to count how many of you there are in here, so that we can see how this law acts. Master’s lecture, delivered on the February 12, 1920 at 7 o’clock. Source

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Day of Good "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days."1 The Sabbath is a disputable or a Sacred Day. The disputable things are the precious things in life. All disputes in the world are due to the valuable, beautiful things. There will be many disputes about beautiful young women; many hearts will be broken because of them. Why? Because they are beautiful, slender and well-built; however, no question is even raised about the ugly young women. The Sabbath is a beautiful maiden, I call it a day of Love. And actually this day, which should have been a blessing to humanity, has now become a hindrance to us. Those who do not recognize the Sabbath as a holiday, have their own Sabbath. Every person has a Sabbath in their life: it is a day of rest, of eating and drinking, a day when one puts on one’s best clothes. What did Christ mean by the words, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days?" For whom is it lawful? For the person who is better than a sheep, for the prudent person. People cannot understand the sense of the Sabbath. This is the day when you should know how to change the disposition of your mind and heart, the disposition of your soul and spirit. Present-day Eastern Orthodox believers, Catholics and Protestants have Sunday as a day of rest, but the Shabbetaians and Jews observe strictly the Sabbath. The Evangelists do not work on Sunday; for the Shabbetaians and Jews, it is Saturday. A Jew considers it a sin even to polish his shoes, light the fire, or do any kind of work; but when it comes to take interest of 10, 15, or 20% from someone, he does not consider it a crime. This is an understanding of the letter of the Sabbath, i.e. there is a Sabbath of the letter. It says in the Scriptures, "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." By the word letter we always understand limitation. For instance, when a man marries, he says to his fiancee, "I shall allow you to celebrate the Sabbath, i.e. you will be free in my home. I shall love you and be fond of you." But as soon as he marries, he turns to the other Sabbath and says, "Here it is not as at your place." The woman starts working in the kitchen and cannot go anywhere, no Sabbath is allowed to her. The present religious concepts affect the human minds with the same ideas. These limit them, so the people are arguing today which day to observe - Saturday or Sunday. They do not argue if they should love one another, but which day to observe. The Turks celebrate Friday, but the Bulgarian have three days: Tuesday, Friday and Sunday and sometimes observe half of Saturday. Why do the Bulgarians observe Tuesday and Friday as days in which one should not work and then Sunday as well? Because, this is in their traditional law. Christ speaks of the Sabbath as a day in which one is allowed to do good. How is it possible for a person to do good on the other weekdays when they are engaged with other affairs? Since the seventh day belongs to God, it is said that one is allowed to do good on that day. Do not think that the observation of the Sabbath is done in a mechanical way by which you will become better. I call the Sabbath a day for knowledge in which one should work and build. During the six days a person should toil and labor, but on the seventh day they should work. The first day we toil, the second we should labor, but on the seventh we should work. It is the greatest science of the future. That is why it is allowed to do good on the Sabbath. "It is not only allowed, but is it lawful," says Christ. But in the original it means that a person should spend the Sabbath only in good. Now let me explain what good means. The word good determines the qualities of all our actions. It is the fruit and Christ says, "By their fruit you will know them. There can be no good in human life if there is no fruit." Therefore, virtue is not something abstract but it is real, it is the essence of human life. The meaning of human life is Goodness. Righteousness, Truth, Wisdom and Love are forces which work for the realization of good in human life. The fruit determines the qualities of the tree, the same way the good determines the quality of a person. In order to love the fruit trees, we are directed by the quality of their fruit. An apple tree giving the best quality of apples is most carefully tended and liked by people. Why? Because its fruit are fine and delicious. If that apple stops bearing fruit, there is no sense in its cultivation. In the spiritual world a person is a tree. Fruit trees are useful to us, the same way the human virtues are necessary to the Angels for they are nourished by them. If I am asked, "Why are the Angels interested in us?" I will answer, because they need the fruit of our virtues. To understand the deeper meaning of this Good, your mind, soul and heart must be in full accord. If you waver about doing good, you are of a low culture. There is no wavering about the good in Heaven. There is no question in the spiritual world as to whether one should do good or not. Good is the meaning of life. When you stop doing good, you are a dead person. Every thought and every noble feeling proceeds from the good we do. The good desires and the good thoughts proceed from the Good; they are a process of growth in us. When we sow a seed we have the first process: the sprouting of the plant; the second is the growth of the plant; the third: its blossoming and the fourth process is its bearing of fruit. Therefore, Good - the fruit in a person - can appear only in their Soul. In the occult science it is called the causal body of a person. Every seed is a cause. Contemporary culture - the development of person - is due to those seeds of the good from the past; but in the future these seeds will bring about the new culture. I call all other pedagogical views on upbringing and education nothing other than taming, i.e. fruitless trees - for instance the cultivated indoor India rubber plant (Ficus elastica). Does it have any fruit? No, it does not. Many people today are like this plant. Such plants can grow on the earth, but not in Heaven. If you want to be a heavenly Indian rubber plant, you must bear fruit. What paralyzes the human virtues? They are paralyzed by the inferior human mind and passions because people today are slaves of their passions which destroy, but do not construct anything. A person spends thousands for a single pleasure which sacrifices their life and that of others. But there is no fruit in this pleasure. We are like that American woman tourist who in order to test the love of her beloved made him climb the face of a precipitous rock in the Alps to pick one of the rare alpine roses for her from that height. He climbed the rock, picked and gave her the rose which she stuck on her bosom smiling; but after that he said to her, "Good-bye." She made him risk his life for a single pleasure. The same way we tempt God. We say, "God, give us money, pleasure, houses, etc," but after He has given us all this, He says, "Good-bye!" Then we are rich people and have everything, but God is not with us. I am amazed at the state of contemporary religious people, for I have never seen more hard-headed, tenacious and self-willed people than the religious ones. I use the word "religious people" in its broad sense. I consider religion today as a suit or a perfume by which we cover up all our bad actions and mistakes. Religion is a modern contrivance. Nowhere in the New Testament is the word religious used. When people lost the sense of the Sabbath and the doing of good, they put in its place the word religion. And now they are constantly arguing if one is religious or not. There was not a more religious century than the present one. Take for example a person who belongs to some party and believes in it. They are ready to sacrifice their life for it. How many times they have exposed their own life and the life of their family to danger for this party! Such people say, "Our party, too, will come to power some day." They await the time of their party’s turn, but until that time comes how many times will they be whipped and how many times will they return home with a broken head! All people live with this religion, they rise and fall, expecting some change by it. No party will bring any change or benefit to life, because it only takes and does not give. It may cut the rate of taxation by 5 or 10%, but it will make this up with even more money from another item. Then you will ask, "But what shall we do?" You should plow the earth and pray to God to give you more wheat than you have had before so that you may give to others. Salvation lies in this abundance. When people say they want to be cultured, I say that all must turn to the earth to plough and sow. Now we have all crowded the cities where different branches of production and crafts exist; but some people work, while others rely on them, doing nothing themselves. That is why there are so many evils. I have nothing against such an order of things, it is so natural; but the way we make use of it causes poverty and suffocates us. If you visit London, you will see how dug-up and smoky it is, unlike other cities. Seven million people live there expecting some future. Those people have got together there waiting for a chance to deceive and exploit each other. This is a culture of deceit! London has such a dark side as no other city in the world. All cultures from all distant times and epochs have been transferred there. Christ has in mind the New Culture when He says, "It is lawful for those people who will come in the future to do Good on the Sabbath." In what sense is it lawful? It is lawful for an experienced surgeon to make operations; but it is not lawful for an ignorant and inexperienced one to do that. For instance, you are a religious person and go to comfort someone. It is lawful for you to do that if you know how; but if you disturb their peace of mind, your foot should not cross their threshold. Do not think it is an easy thing to do Good - this is a Great Art! If I come to your home to teach you a new teaching with the purpose of making you my followers and then I rob you, I am impelled by material benefits and this would not be a good deed, but a commercial transaction. The same way a travelling commercial agent will visit you and display most politely his samples, talk pleasantly with you or give you a treat until your head is dazed and he makes his transaction. And that person is a religious person! I do not understand such a religion. The invisible world says, "The dispute of all religious sects is a religious dispute." These are the people of the past culture. The people of the future culture, whose slogan will be to do Good out of Love on the Sabbath Day, are the new people. They have a special mark on their forehead and a peculiar little stone under their tongue. The tongue and the eyes of these people are different. Their look is deep and there is no distraction in it. There is only one thought in their eyes and it is Love and Selflessness. Empty words are love and selflessness, aren’t they? Do you understand what Selflessness really is? Have you experienced it at least once in your life? Have you experienced at least once in your life what Love is? An Evangelical minister once told me an experience he had. For a long time he had prayed to God to give him a chance to taste Divine Love. One day the Spirit visited him and he felt his whole body bulging; so he lay flat on his stomach afraid he would burst, such a big and voluminous thing had taken possession of him. He started praying to God to free him from this broad Love for which he was not ready. He lay flat on his stomach and started to kick. Why did he kick? Because, he did not want to give it up. When a child takes an apple and their mother wants to take it away they kick. Why? Because they do not want to give it up. The horse kicks, too. Why? Because, it does not want to share. People speak badly with their tongues. Why? Because, they do not want to give. That is why it is lawful for the new people to do Good on the Sabbath that they may uplift humanity. The Sabbath is a Divine Day which will raise and thoroughly transform us; and by this we shall transform the world. I do not say that when the Sabbath comes, we should all leave our crafts - no, not at all. The crafts will be sanctified and will be good for us, for they will be based on the doing of good on the Sabbath day. Do not think I want to destroy your views. Not at all, I only want to clean the dust off your eyes. When I come to you, first of all I shall teach you how to wash your eyes. I shall give you water first and we shall speak after that. Have you studied the art of washing your eyes? I would recommend you the following experiment. If you are indisposed, or cannot understand some subject, or some person is unpleasant to you, take a pan full of pure spring water, raise your eyes to God, put your face in the water, open your eyes and blink several times in the water. Then say, "I want my mind to be pure like this water," and see if your indisposition has not changed. If it has not changed, dip your face a second time in the water. Do this several times and see what the result will be. Water is the Emblem of Life. We must put in our mind the thought of doing Good. Each one of you must say to yourself, "I will do Good." But his should not be done mechanically. This shows that we should plant in us all the fruit trees of the Garden of Paradise. When the new people come, all these sublime thoughts and feelings should be able to thrive in their hearts, souls and minds. We cannot come to terms with each other with our present conceptions. When you listen to me, you will say, "Is this an Eastern Orthodox believer? If he is not, do not listen to him as he cannot speak the Truth." A patriot will say, "If he is a patriot, he is speaking the truth, otherwise what he says is not true." Some people ask, "Has he got higher education? If he is a learned man, we believe in him." If a teacher is listening to me, he will say, "If he is a teacher, we believe in him." All begin to speak, but this is not the Divine Standard by which we can measure our acts. I may be an Eastern Orthodox, a Protestant, a patriot, a learned man or anything else, but that does not prove that I am telling the Truth. I may be studying the Bible only out of self-interest to see if I may support myself by it and so on. The Protestants will say, "The Eastern Orthodox priests extort the people." But do not others do the same? Yes, the Eastern Orthodox extort people with the act of sprinkling holy water on them for pay. They do this openly, but the Protestants extort people in a different way. Is this the way to act? A Turk bought a he-goat for the Ramadan bayram2 and put it on his back to take it to his Hodja3 to read to it. On the way the he-goat kicked him on the back and the Turk angrily called it different names: swine, giaour, etc. When he reached the Hodja, he said to him, "I am bringing you a he-goat to bless which I shall kill for the sacred feast; but I used profane language on the way because it kicked me on the back. Is he fit for the kurban4?" The Hodja replied that the he-goat was not fit and he had to buy another. The Turk bought a second he-goat to take it to the Hodja. On the way the goat again kicked him, but the Turk kept silent, thinking, "You are just like the first one, you are kicking me the same way, but I shall not say anything, because I shall have to buy a third goat." I say, if you kick, you are one of them. "Therefore, it is lawful for a man to do Good on the Sabbath Day." People must leave their egotism, open their Soul to the Divine Sun and come out of the framework of their present views. Humanity today abounds in hypocrites. I see a husband and wife walking quietly in the street like two virtuous people; but at the same time they monitor each other, watching one another that neither should cast glances at this or that person. "Religion!" When the husband is away, the wife can look anywhere she wants to; but when he comes home, the wife becomes "virtuous." The same applies to the husband. And this is called religion! Why should the husband and wife not be free to look at anything or anybody they want to when they are together? What evil is there in that? This limitation comes from the fact that in our Soul there is no Sabbath. Some ask me, "When will humanity become noble. When shall we come to know the new ideas?" I say, the new ideas cannot come until the Sabbath Day comes; until we learn to do Good on the Sabbath. For instance, take the present writers of any calibre and show me one of them, no matter how famous, who can point out a right way to live. They all have the same tactics: you read the introduction and then the whole book, but the essential remains without any solution. This author writes that you can find the solution to this problem in the book of such and such an author. You read that author who does not solve the main problem, but refers you to a third one. You read the book of this third one too, but it does not satisfy you either. You go from one author to another and find that all are merchants. One says, "I do not have such goods as you want, go to another." "The second explains, "I have run out of the stock you want: go to the other one!" You go to a third one who says the same thing. At last they tell you, "We’ll include you in the order list so when our goods come and we can conclude our deals, we will do this for you." This is how things stand so you go from shop to shop. But in the future culture we must have at least two or three guiding principles to apply in our life: First: Can I do this for the sake of God’s Love? Second: Can I do this for the sake of my Soul? Third: Can I do this for the sake of my neighbor? I have come to tell you the great Truth that God, Whom I know very well, is speaking. Anyone to whom I have told this Truth and who has tested it, has always had good results. Everything I say I put to a strict scientific experiment. Anyone who wants to make an experiment together with me cannot easily get away. Many have come to me to be cured. I ask them, "You have visited all the doctors in the vicinity, are you ready to serve God and devote your life to Him? If you are ready, I shall help you." Someone wants knowledge. "Are you ready to devote your life to God? If you are ready I shall reveal to you some great Mystery, but if you are not I shall speak to you about apples, pears, leaves, branches and the like; but I shall not reveal any Mystery to you." I, too, have certain guiding rules which I never violate. You will ask me why I act this way. I answer – “Are you ready to do good on the Sabbath? Are you ready to serve God Whom I know, and from Whom all the good and blessings proceed; Who has created everything in the world and given life to people? Are you ready to serve Him?” Then I am ready to serve you. But if you are not ready, I shall speak to you only about onions. This is a strict Teaching and all great Masters have acted this way. Now the new culture requires that Good should be done on the Sabbath. If you apply the new rules, you will have impressive results. For so many years I have been wasting my breath in Sofia; but the result is rather small, because the Sabbath is lacking. I notice this even among my closest people. As soon as they get together, a heavy atmosphere is felt for they are not in accord. I say: “You are celebrating the Sabbath in yourselves, but I shall talk to you about the onions.” Do you know that if you would go to Heaven, you would be expelled from it for 10,000 years for a single bad glance like the ones you are casting at each other here on earth? If an Angel should cast a bad glance, He would be expelled from Heaven for 10,000 years. The rule is that strict! Some of you want to go to Heaven. Be thankful you are not there in your present state. Now they may forgive you because you are on the earth in an experimental school. Everything is permitted on earth, but that Pure Place you are preparing yourselves for requires a perfect person. There are no experiments there. There is no grief and weeping in that world. The Scriptures say, "I shall wipe all tears from their eyes and there will be no sorrow there, but all shall be glad and joyful." Do you know what joy and gladness is? What great self-sacrifice an Angel makes who is engaged in the solving of great questions. When He sees a suffering soul and leaves his work to go and help them by comforting them. Who of you would do this? Of course, we would do many things for people who stir sympathy. One would help a sympathetic person. A gentleman is ready to do any service to a beautiful young woman; but no one pays attention to an ugly, awkward and cross-eyed one. I ask you what your convictions are since you act in this way? If Christ should come in, Whom you expect to set the world right, do you think He would speak everywhere? It is high time you cast out of yourselves this devil who has obsessed all of you and whom you have served for 8,000 years! Enough slavery to him! Say this to this devil, "Out with you!" He should go out in the yard; but in your soul there should not remain even a trace of him. Say to him, "If you do not go out, we shall leave!" When after many times the devil does not agree to go out; you start making a contract with him, reconciling yourself with him. Do not do that! Finish with him once and for all! Do you think the verse in the chapter I read is divided by coincidence? "How much better is a man than a sheep." It means: how much better is the good than the sabbath! I take the Sabbath as an Emblem of Love. If you do good on the Sabbath, all misfortunes and illness will leave you. You should know this as something positive. If your child falls ill, see on which Sabbath you have not done good. Correct your mistake and your business will succeed. You have written a book, but it does not sell well; correct your mistake and things will go well. The Sabbath interferes in all your affairs. Get right with it and all will be well. This question is very clear to me. Someone asks me, "Why should we do good?" We cannot take a step forward if we do not do good: this is a mathematical axiom. If you start on a journey without bread how far can you go? Make an experiment how many kilometers you can walk without bread. You may walk 50-60, 100 kilometers at the most and then you will stop. Therefore, the good is the force, the food, by which the human soul can move and evolve in this world. Every knowledge, every wisdom will be based on the fruits of this virtue. That is why you should do good if you want to become rich and develop in the broadest sense of the word. Every day is destined for specific purposes. But, unaware of this fact, people do not consider the real meaning of the days in human life. For instance, on the first day God said, "Let there be Light;" and there was Light. And God saw that the Light was good. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. This day is Sunday - the day of Light On the second day God divided the waters from the waters, i.e. He separated the higher life from the lower life, since water as I said, is an Emblem of Life. He created the firmament as a boundary between these two kinds of life and since the evolution of this day is not completed, God did not pronounce His opinion about it. There was evening and there was morning, a second day. On the third day God said, "Let the waters under the heaven (i.e. the lower life) be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land (an emblem of the human brain and human mind) appear." And God called the dry land earth and the gathering of waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. That is why He said that the earth should put forth all kinds of plants, by which He meant that all good thoughts should appear in the world. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. On the fourth day God made the two great lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night. By the first, the big light He meant the mind and by the second, the small one, the heart by which a person should distinguish good from evil, i.e. should distinguish one state from another. Therefore, the fourth day is the day in which the conditions for the development of the human mind and human heart must be created. God created all the stars - which mean all the forces in human life - and set them in the firmament of heaven - which means the human soul - to give light upon the earth and together with the greater light (the mind) and the lesser light (the heart) to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And on the fifth day God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven," which signify all the human aspirations and cravings. And since all these gave a direction and meaning to human development on earth, God saw that it was good and blessed them to be fruitful and to multiply. That is why our desires are constantly and daily multiplying and fruitful. There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And on the sixth day God said, "Let Us make man (the rational) after Our own image, after Our likeness; and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea (over his earthly desires) and over the birds of the heavens (over his thoughts) and over the cattle and over all the earth (i.e. over his passions which creep in his brain)." Finally God breathed into man His own breath. He gave man a rational soul to know Him in all his ways and to work and act as God has worked. Therefore, when you want to visit someone, to lighten their life, go to them only on Sunday because it is the day of Light. You will take Light to them.. When you want to visit a sick person, do it on Monday, because this day bearsLlife, and so on. On the seventh day God rested, which means that the seventh day is the day of the Good in which God began to manifest His love to man. That is why He has invited him to participate in this great Divine Cause of the Divine Life. Therefore, apply the Sabbath in your life the new way. Test what I am telling you. The Days of Good and Love must be festive days for a person. This we must do for the rest of our lives.. Sermon of the Master held on Decemer 21, 1919. 1 Matthew 12:12 2 Ramadan is the holy month of fasting, the ninth month of the Muslim year ending with the feast bayram. (ed. note) 3 Hoca/hodja - Mohammedan priest. (ed. note) 4 kurban - Turkish, ritual feast with a butchered animal. (ed. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Two Witnesses "It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true."[1] Every external testimony is an expression of an inner intelligent impulse in the soul. Why is it that the testimony of two persons is true, but not of a single person; and who are these two? If two people suing each other in a court today call two, three or ten witnesses who do not speak the truth, the jury will not take their testimony into consideration. I think the jury would agree with this statement. Keep in mind that I am speaking in principle and have no person in view, since the human personality is something relative in its manifestation. Some may think I speak about them in my sermons, but that is not the case - not in the least. I am asking you, which is the real thing in the world: the blossom or the fruit, the leaf or the branch, the fruit or the seed? They are all relative realities. If you play the role of a leaf, if you play the role of a blossom, of a branch, fruit or seed in the world: these are all different states which in mathematics are called variations, permutations and combinations. I understand what variations mean in mathematics. You may engage yourself with them some day. Variations mean ordering, permutations - rearrangement and combinations - fitting together. But if you are a variation or ordering in life, by what will you be distinguished? Certain quantities enter your life forming certain compounds and you are a group, or a compound of these qualities. The qualities are the elements of your manifested life. The mathematicians say that the variations are compounds in which not all elements enter and which have classes. Then they say that the permutations are transpositions in which all elements enter, therefore, they have no classes. The combinations, however, are compounds in which all the elements do not enter, they have classes but each class is distinguished from another by at least one new element. In which category can I classify you? Your life may move only by ordering, it may move only by transpositions, but it may move by a combination of things and quantities. These mathematical formulas contain deep truths which I cannot stop to explain now for they are dry bones and I must work many years on them to give them life. Such is the Law of Nature. There are seeds which grow in six months, like the squash, and give fruit; while there are other seeds - the trees - which blossom once in a century. We cannot change the order of things God has put in nature, for if we change it our destiny changes and the karma is born. Karma is nothing other than a deviation from the right path of human development, while the expiation of karma is the re-entering of the right path of human evolution. Therefore, it would be of use to those who like mathematics to spare some time for the study of these variations, permutations and combinations. You should not only think you know much, but test your knowledge; not only to formulate, but to handle and deal with these quantities and elements. Let us suppose a committee orders that each person be given a kilogram of sugar - that is a variation. You may have to wait a long time, but you may come back home with a broken rib so that you will say the variation turned out unsuccessful. The sooner you get the sugar without loosing time, the more successful the variation will prove. Of course, this variation has nothing in common with the mathematical one, it is only a reflection of the great spiritual law which is functioning in our soul. Let me return to my subject. Who are those two who are witnessing? When a Bulgarian wants to build a hut, he first drives two stakes into the ground - they are the two witnesses - and the Lord says to him, "Now you can build the hut." He places a triangle on top the two stakes and starts building. When you want to prepare the warp you also need two women to roll the yarn: one at one end, the other at the opposite. One will wind what is warped around her waist, while the other will start winding it on the yarn-beam and this will last 2 or 3 hours, until this permutation, this transposition of things takes place. It may seem funny to you that the two women are not in accord: one pulling backwards, while the other pulling forwards - like the crab and the pike - but this is the only way to make things work. At times, let us say, the husband is pulling the cloth, while the wife is winding it and people say, "Why is that man pulling the cloth and not obeying his wife?" He is pulling it because the cloth must be woven. He should not listen to his wife at that moment, until all is done. At times it is the other way around - the wife is pulling and the husband is winding. I just gave you a thought, simple in form, but deep in sense. The two witnesses in nature are light and warmth. Their testimony is always true for wherever they penetrate, life and growth take place; but where they are absent there is no motion, no spring, no plants, no life whatsoever. That is in nature. But in a person, these two witnesses are our mind and our heart. Where our mind and heart speak together, their testimony is true, as it says in your law that the testimony of two men is true. Christ gives this idea and says, "I bear witness of myself and the Father is Who bears testimony of me." In the spiritual world the two who bear testimony are the Father and the Son and their testimony is true. In the angelic world the two who bear testimony are the spirit and the soul. In the human world they are the mind and the heart. In nature they are the light and the warmth. We have an ascending ladder; therefore, when we want to change our life, we must have a deeper and more detailed understanding of things. If we have a downward movement, we should keep in mind the light and warmth - since they are a reflection of the divine world - so that our mind should always be in accord with light and our heart - with warmth. Where the light is absent, the mind does not think and where warmth is absent, the heart does not beat. These are not mere statements and suppositions, but a Great Law. When we are asked by what standard, or by which proof we can prove certain truths in human life, we shall refer to the mind and heart. If we prove truths in the spiritual world we shall refer to the spirit and soul. And finally, if we prove truths in the divine world, we shall refer to the Father and the Son. Do not disturb your minds with those philosophical theological conclusions which state that the Son in a manifestation of the Father, i.e. that He is a shadow. A manifestation is the external side of things, while the Son is much more than that. The heart cannot be a manifestation of the mind, neither can the mind be a manifestation of the heart. They can corroborate in their manifestations, but these are variations, permutations and combinations. This thought is not clear to you yet, for the cloth is just now being woven and you do not see anything yet. Christ says that your law also states that the testimony of two men is true. We must first of all cast every doubt out of our mind. Doubt in the real life does not bring any good. In life today, there are thousands of causes to make us doubt. How can we expect of other people what they cannot manifest at a given moment? Can you expect fruit from an apple-tree in winter? Would you get angry with it for not being sufficiently compassionate and regardful of you? You need not be angry for it will say, "You are not paying me a visit at the appropriate time." Some people live in spring, others are in their summer, still others are passing through their autumn and a fourth kind are in their winter. Some say that all people are alike. No, all people are not alike. Some form groups of variations, others of permutations and a third group of combinations. The same thing is stated in your external law which is similar to the inner law since the lower - the earthly - is similar to the heavenly. If your mind and your heart speak the same thing about an object, accept this truth without any reserve or wavering for every wavering will hinder your progress. Contemporary society is lacking in this - it has not enough faith in itself, a positive faith without wavering or doubt. In the past when the Lord created the world, Faith and Knowledge, which were two sister-goddesses up in the Divine World, decided to come down and help people. In heaven they knew and loved each other, but after coming down to earth one of the sisters entered the mind and was clad according to the law of the mind; but the other entered the heart and was clad according to the law of the heart. When people harnessed them to work, they washed dishes, chopped onions, cooked meat and their faces became so ugly that the sisters could not recognize one another. Someone says, "I have faith." Yes, faith which cooks onions, fries meat, washes dishes and fights with doubt. Thus, these two sisters, Faith and Knowledge, not recognizing one another, started to quarrel and to argue which one was first - Faith or Knowledge. Then the whole world was divided: one part of the people took the side of Faith and became religious, while the other took the side of Knowledge and became materialists. Then the bombardment started, "I am a learned person, but you are ignorant," "You have faith, but you are first-class ignoramus." Now we have thousands of volumes written on materialistic philosophy and faith, but these two sisters have not been reconciled yet. When the Lord saw them quarrelling, He sent His Son to reconcile them. Some ask, "How can they be reconciled?" By self-sacrifice. Some ask, "Who is the man and who is the woman?" Woman is Faith, while man is Knowledge. When a man and a woman quarrel, they do not know each other. The woman says, "I want to be a man." In heaven you were two sister-goddesses who came down from heaven to rectify the world. One of you became a woman cutting onions and the other became a man who opened a shop selling water-melons, pumpkins, onions and so on. Instead of rectifying the world, they spoiled it to such an extent that even the Lord Himself cannot recognize it. What is needed is deep, right and sincere thinking. When a man and a woman unite, their testimony will be true only if it is done with Wisdom and Love. Love is that great power which can bear the greatest sufferings without fainting in spirit. That is Faith. But Wisdom is that power with which the most difficult problems in life can be solved. All hardships today are problems which we must solve and not say, "Lord, do away with them, we don’t need them." The mother says, "My poor child is suffering so with the hard problems their teacher gave them, they have grown weak and do not get enough sleep." The Lord has not sent your child to earth to sleep. He has sent them to study. Sleep is naturally necessary as a rest, but one may rest for five or ten minutes, or for two hours, but for no more than seven hours - that is not permitted. Your law also states that the testimony of two persons is true. Often these two persons appear in court and start blaming one another. The man says, "I protest, Your Highness, these witnesses are biased. Order them away, I will summon others," and brings two new witnesses. Then the woman remonstrates, "Your Highness, these witnesses are far from disinterested." Finally the judge is at his wits’ end and puts off the case. That is why the highest art in law is to be able to postpone a case which you cannot win. You are lawyers, too, who put off the case which means that you leave your problems in life unsolved expecting more favorable times to come, saying like the judge, "Now, I am somewhat indisposed." Do not put the blame on your mind calling it weak. Never say that your heart is perverted. You may quote the Scriptures that the mind is perverted; these are only philosophical statements of the prophets, but you must understand the deep meaning of these words. If the heart was perverted and had no value, God would never have said, "My son, give me your heart." He does not say, "Give Me your life." You must give your heart to God so that He may teach you how sublime and noble your heart is and how the sources of your present and future life are hidden in it. No one can live if their heart is disturbed. The doctors today recommend calmness of the heart too. There might be slight disturbances on its surface, but it must be calm and quiet in its foundation. There may be drafts, but they should never disturb the heart. When your mind and heart turn to God, He hears your prayer and directs your destiny rightly. The heart and the mind are two quantities, two elements of the group which the occultists call astral-mental world, but I call it credo-philosophical - to coin a new word - a credo-philosophical world. Therefore, the testimony of these two, this credo-philosophical law is considered true in the divine world as the testimony of light and warmth in the physical world. Light is the quality of Wisdom while warmth is the quality of Love inherent in it. But it is not the warmth you feel. You often feel the unpleasant vibrations of heat. When you have the experience of a mystic to fall into an ecstatic state, only then can you feel this Inner Divine Warmth - the quality of Love. Such warmth can melt and purify everything. You must increase your warmth; however, not according to the Celsius thermometer, but by studying alchemy and the vibrations of this warmth. It is so intensive that all impurities disturbing your life will be immediately cleansed. You can attain this by casting out all doubt from your heart and mind. Or let me express this idea differently: put doubt outside, rent a room for it, pay the rent, but do not keep it in your home. Applying this Great Law, Christ says, "I bear witness of Myself and the Father bears witness of Me." Which is the important question for which we have gathered today? I am not treating the question whether you will be given a kilogram of sugar next week; I am not treating the question which committee may permit this; I am not treating the question what peace treaty can be concluded. Many similar questions may be raised which have no importance for us. The important ones are: Why has a person come to the earth? Do you have a soul or not? Do you have a heart and is your heart in concord with your mind? Often your heart is troubled and you start looking for a friend to rid you of your trouble, but suppose they are in the same state? A group of people get together and say, "We are pessimists" and start proving their cause by philosophical discussion. They have a peculiar view of the world, finding it a bad world, and start to prove scientifically their thesis that this is the worst of worlds. Here are their arguments: it is bad because hens and sows are slaughtered; because there are earthquakes, wars and the like. If it were a good world, things would be different," they say. But I say, "You pessimists are those men and women winding the warp-beam and both are pulling it backward; but as soon as the cloth is warped, the woman takes the cloth and the man takes the shuttle and they say, "We have finished the work" and there are no more contradictions in life. Their work is the testimony that they have worked together in accord. We often say that the man and woman have pulled like the crab and the pike, but those are people who face two directions: from the center to the periphery and vice versa. If the man goes one direction, the woman goes another. Who is right? Both are right for they are moving from the center to the periphery. When both come to the periphery and start moving, then they are on the Way. If you study astronomy, you will notice that the earth and the sun have two opposite directions: the sun moves in one direction and the earth in another. And the earth always crosses the path of the sun. But the path of the earth is longer than that of the sun. If 52 million years are necessary for our sun to make one revolution around the centre of its circle; the earth should revolve 25 million times around the sun, the two making a large circle. Who is doing the bigger work? Both are doing their work well. The sun spends more energy, but the earth - more time. There is a law in physics that to save energy one must spend more time. Therefore, if in one respect you want to save the energy of your mind, you should spend the energy of your heart - and conversely. If you want to save the energy of your heart, you should spend the energy of your mind. For time becomes evident by the direction of motion. I am not philosophizing about time in its essence, but I say time is a factor determining the motion, the direction of your life. Energy, on the other hand, is the impulse of this motion from within. If we spend the energy of the mind, we save the energy of the heart and vice versa, if we spend the energy of the heart we spend the energy of the mind. Every given moment you will refer to the two witnesses. In the court it is the same - two witnesses cannot speak at the same time. When one is speaking, the other one must keep quiet; when one is expending energy, the other one must sit quiet and calm. If both start talking at the same time, the judge will say: "Wait!" Therefore, one determines the time, while the other the energy. Consequently, when one witness in you starts speaking, if you are a judge, you will tell the other one to keep quiet so that you can give time to your mind to make its statements. Do not disturb them. Let them speak to the end; then your heart will take its turn to testify. Also, in the process of education we must put the mind and the heart in most normal relations and leave them alone not hindering them with things which are not real. I am speaking to you first; but by the word "you" I mean this great mass of people, for every person is a collective being made up of millions and millions of beings together. All these souls are rational and listen to this talk. Do you understand me? I even notice at times that your eyes understand me better than your brains. The eyes have the sharpest perceptivity in the world. When you look a person in the eyes, you will notice if s/he understands you or not. When people do not understand you, their eyes are blurred. "Ahmed buorada, akil disharda," as the Turks say, meaning "Ahmed is here, but his mind is outside." When a person understands you, their penetrating look is fixed and you are aware that they comprehend everything and have contact with the relation of things. Everyone of you knows this. Many say, "I feel it." That is good, but you must also grasp it with you mind. If you have heeded only the testimony of your heart and not of the mind, you are on the wrong path of development. If the light within you works more than the warmth, you are again on the wrong way. Sometimes your feelings are intensive. When children fall into a state of extreme joy, they start jumping; but after that they are overtaken by a transitory state and they start crying as this joy is not natural In the bringing up of children, we must create both work for the heart and for the mind. And I beg you, when a person is speaking never stop them with your thoughts. If you do not want to listen to them, move away. A daughter says to her mother, "I do not want to listen to you," or a mother says to her daughter, "I do not want to listen to you." I repeat: let those who do not want to listen to people move away from them. It often happens that a child, inspired by what the teacher has said, comes home and starts telling it to their mother. However, she suddenly shouts out at them, "Get away, I won’t listen to your nonsense." In this case the mother is committing a grave crime. She must listen to her child and hear until the end what the teacher had told them as the child is giving their testimony. After interrupting the child in such a rude way for ten or twenty times, the child will surely take the wrong path in life - that is in relation to the mind. Sometimes the heart of the daughter is inspired; but the mother, having become a philosopher after her marriage, will stop her by saying, "Do not follow the foolishness of your heart, do not listen to it! The desires of the heart are the illusions of youth while meat is necessary for your meals!" Today, the tender soul of the daughter is disturbed by advice like this which is of no use. And when she becomes a mother she starts saying, "This is nonsense, the real thing is this or that." However, what the young girl, the daughter, felt in her heart was real. There is nothing more real than that. How do you want to taste a thing: with your tongue or with your heart? I shall cite again an example I have given you at other times. A Turk was pounding coffee in a big stone mortar with a wooden mallet and every time he struck with the mallet, he cried out, "Ha!" A man passing by his shop said to him, "I am jobless and offer you my services wishing to help you with your work. You will pound with the mallet and I shall say, "Ha!" They started working together. The Turk raised and dropped the mallet and the helper cried, "Ha!" They pounded up the coffee and the Turk started making coffee for his clients and when he took the money, he dropped it in the safe, not giving anything to his helper. The latter felt robbed and sued the Turk for not fulfilling the clauses of their agreement. When the judge was informed of how things stood, he ordered that a tin-can be brought to the court and said to the coffee-maker, "When you take money, drop it in the tin-can: you will hear the sound "Tin!" That will be the salary of your collaborator for saying "Ha!" You, who are obeying the taste of the tongue are like the Turks say, "Nefes orta." So be sure that your law also says that the testimony of two persons is true. In order to be able to understand the philosophy of life, you must have a pure heart and a pure mind. Your mind and heart must be in such a state that the mind should perceive things at the right time and the heart should feel them at the right time. But a philosopher might say, "You cannot feel and think like the angels!" When you come to their state, you will feel like them. There are different stages of development in life; every minute, every second bears their qualities and powers. Do not try to be alike or uniform. When God created the world, all the souls springing from the center of creation took different directions, like the sunbeams, each one bearing something from the divine center: different talents, different feelings and so on. There are no two souls alike in the world and they cannot be alike, although the difference between them may be small. In studying astrology, you will see that you are at a certain degree in one of the four sectors of the circle and this arc of 90° is equal to a quarter of the so called Platonic or Polar year, i.e. it is a period of 6,300 years. Two persons may be separated by an arc of 90°, or a period of 6,300 years. Suppose the first person A is in the beginning of the circle while the other one B is 90° away from them, which is a period of 6,300 years. The soul B is 6,300 years older than the soul A; hence it has more knowledge and experience. The soul C, which is on the same diameter with A, but on the opposite pole is still older and more advanced. While A has to pass the lower sectors of the circle, C moves along its ascending half. They will pass equal distances, but the knowledge they will acquire will not be the same. One half of the circle implies a downward movement, while the other and upward one. On the upward way, one acquires one kind of knowledge; but on the downward, another. Therefore, when we descend to the heart from the height of the mind, the latter acquires one kind of knowledge; while the heart moving upward to the mind acquires different kinds of knowledge and feelings. Thus, the formula is the following: the mind descending acquires mind-feelings, while the heart ascending acquires heart-thinking. You may ask, "What difference does it make?" The difference lies in the fact that when the heart prevails there is greater warmth; but when the mind has prevalence, there is greater light. When fruit and wheat are ripening, there must be warmth by all means to help the ripening process. When growth must take place in us, by all means, the mind must have prevalence. The one who wants to grow rightly should give priority to the mind. Growth and knowledge are of the mind; but development and expansion are of the heart. These are two great processes in our development; therefore, their testimony is necessary and true. The Lord says, "You should work in accord with your heart and mind - then you will develop greatly in life." Now you are reading philosophical books as to what Kant or others have to say. What does this pear tree mean? It had blossomed and now bears fruit. What does a cat do? It mews. By mewing it may want to say that it wants meat, or that it is looking for its children. There are different kinds of mewing. Some people speak, but what do they say? Nonsense. What is nonsense? If I visit mentally deranged people, I shall be a fool in their point of view, although I am a philosopher. A religious person will be considered foolish by a society of materialists and a materialist will be considered stupid in a religious society. But I say that both are intelligent - the one who serves Faith and the other who serves Knowledge. Yet, we promptly label them, "This person is stupid; that one is infidel so do not listen to them." But neither one has a right idea about God. Please excuse me, but in my viewpoint, God is neither a concept, nor an idea. We have an idea of the things God has created, of His manifestations, but have no idea of Him whatsoever. We have an idea of God’s Love and His Wisdom, but He is more than the manifested love and wisdom. You may have an idea of them, but if you say you have acquired a deep knowledge of God, you are only deluding yourself and your ideas will be refuted. For thousands of years the river Iskar did damage to the nearby villages. How many houses and land it has inundated and destroyed! When the peasants were drowning, they would say, "This is our destiny." From time to time they would harness the river water to run a mill, but when a flood came, it carried the mill away. But people today are wiser. They harnessed the Iskar to produce electric power to light their homes and to run trams. You can see what great energy this dangerous Iskar possessed. It has always said to people: "Put me to work. I bring you much good; but if you do not, I shall cause you much damage." Your child is like the Iskar. You say, "I am tired of this child. Why did God give them to me? It causes so much mischief." Do as you did to the Iskar: drive a tunnel, place turbines and the water will produce electricity which will move cars and light houses. The learned pedagogues say, "We must educate our children in religion and in knowledge and respect of their parents." Do you understand this? Neither you, nor those pedagogues have understood this. For 8,000 years it has been repeated over and over again that people should be educated and believe in God. And those who do not believe should be considered infidels. But Christ says, "The testimony of these two is true." Only the testimony which our heart and mind give us simultaneously is true. Only those things in nature, which are unchangeable, speak the Truth. Whenever someone tells of their experience, or cites this or that philosopher or mathematician; according to my mathematics, I exclude 50% of what was said first; then 25% more; then I start thinking about the remaining 25% and the group it belongs to - variations, permutations or combinations, e.g. orderings, transpositions or combinations. What are our relations to God? Some say, "May God help us fix ourselves up nicely; marry our daughter well; then have nice children, full barns, oxen, good food and drink and so on." We daily fix ourselves up and finally we die. The priest comes and starts chanting, "Blessed be our God," ending with, "May their soul rest in peace." Whoever wants the Lord to fix them up must pass through all these variations, permutations and combinations and not remain only in the orderings. Bulgaria is issuing only orders and instructions at present; but this is only an overloading of the camel: placing goods and loads on its back until its back breaks. What God is testifying within us is the spirit speaking in us; and we, as children of God, should be able to give ear to His voice. Some days ago a young officer of the reserve visited me and told me he fell ill of an incurable disease. He was on his death bed when he chanced on a booklet about healing by hunger by a doctor Muller. He decided to fast for 22 days. He described his experience during the first, the second and third day and the result was that his illness disappeared. Then he went to Plovdiv to the doctor who had told him his illness was incurable and said to him, "Examine me." The doctor examined him and said, "You are in good health." That man applied fasting with his whole mind and heart whereby his mind was clarified and he turned from a materialistic man into a spiritual man. He understood that there is something else in the world besides what people know. He became a sort of clairvoyant and going to a believer, he confessed that the Spirit led him to that idea; however, the believer said to him that his mind was somewhat weak. For ordinary people, a believer is only a person who believes in chopped meat, drinking, money - their mind is sound, but for them the belief in spirits is a mental derangement. From their point of view some are wise, others are foolish, but from my point of view all are good. The newspapers write about different criminals and want punishment for them. They look one-sidedly at things, but they should have faith only in the positive things. All visible things must be cast out for they are not in the Divine World. We must penetrate deeply in our souls and hearts and avow to ourselves that we are S and ons of God who have come out of the Divine Center that is why we shall do the Will of God. Some say, "I want to be good." This is the wrong way to take for you can never be good; you must do the Will of God. You may be good; but if you do not do the Will of God, you are bad. Present-day people must decide to do the Will of God in the full sense of the word and not in the way they understand it, for what they are doing is not the Will of God, but rather a service to themselves. To do the Will of God is to feel Oneness with God, then we are filled with joy and we regard all people calmly for we know the causes and effects of their faults. But when each person serves only their self, there is no mutual understanding and this is the source of all evil in the world. If your heart should stop beating for half an hour, it will begin to stink. The same thing would happen to the mind, if it should stop working. People say that someone’s breathing has stopped; but that is not tru,e for when breathing and the beating of the heart stop on the physical plane, the soul begins to work. This is an experience of all who have been engaged in the spiritual sciences. You ask, "What will become of me when my heart stops beating?" Your soul will wake up. "What will become of me when my mind stops working?" The Divine Spirit will wake up. I have no intention of making you fast for 22 days like that young man I told you about. I do not recommend such a fast to you, either. You will not attain anything if you have no faith. I should say that young man got rid of doubt and awakened the Divine in himself. If you want to fulfill all your obligations and do away with all your misfortunes, fast for 5-10-15-20 days and then you will learn the causes of all things. But your heart and your mind together should prompt you to this act. Only then can you fast and have an excellent result. But if your heart says, "Fast," and your mind says, "Don’t!", then do not begin fasting. Some may say, "We can do without fasting." That cannot be. At a certain moment in your life when we must strengthen our will and unite it with the Will of God and see the testimony of these two witnesses, we must fast. Now, I will speak about the influence of the planets on people. Those who are under the influence of the earth will be avaricious of material gain. When you notice this quality of avarice in a person, know that they are under the influence of the earth. When you have a desire to act and complete or create something, Mercury has influence over you. When your heart begins to love, the planet Venus is influencing you. When Mars is influencing you, a desire to fight and show that you are strong and powerful takes possession of you. When the planet Jupiter influences you, you will become more temperate and self-controlled, rather quiet; but aspiring for freedom and brotherhood. Under the influence of Saturn, your sensitiveness will increase, as well as your sense of smell. Uranus will make your heart stronger; while Neptune will increase your sense of sight and make you a clairvoyant. All these planets of the solar system cause different manifestations in people. When all the planets (which are living and rational) act at the same time, then we are in harmony. When you say you do not like the world, then understand that you are under the influence of the Earth. If you want to have all the riches of this world, that would draw you away from God. You have not come to the earth to become rich, but to gain knowledge and understand these two witnesses I am speaking to you about. You must study your heart and mind for they are the two professors who are teaching you. The heart is an excellent professor. It is that Goddess I spoke to you about - it is Faith, it is Love, and linked with Knowledge it creates the religion on earth. Do you understand this professor who is within you? You say, "My mind is foolish." It means that your professor, who has taught you, is a foolish person who did not know his job. But I say to you that you do not understand or listen to your mind and heart. Someone may say of a person that the latter does not believe in God. But I shall say that they do not believe in their heart. "But s/he is not a wise person." I say, they not believe in their mind. Those who despair of this world and want to commit suicide do not love the Light. No one wants to commit suicide on a high place, on a mountain, but rather in some dark place or cellar. Those egotistic forces which want to hinder your development, cause a darkening of your mind so that a crime may be committed, and then throw the blame for this crime on the mind. The Goddess who has come down from heaven does not commit crimes. In the same way, your heart, your faith, (this Goddess who has come from above) does not commit crimes. Therefore, I say to all of you, "Believe in your heart, believe in your mind; then the second stage will come - you will believe in your soul and spirit; and after that - in God and in His Son. Only in this way will you acquire a true philosophy for understanding the Great Law of Nature." You ask what is your predestination. You, the citizens of Sofia, should go up the Vitosha mountain four or five times in the summer. Visit all the waterfalls; climb the highest peak in Bulgaria, Moussallah, and go up Belmeken. You will say, "We need boots, which are expensive now." You need excursions - excursions up the mountain. These excursions are a stimulus which will develop the mind and the heart of a person. By all means, you should climb to high places. By saying "climb high mountains", I am using a symbol. A person who wants to develop their mind must, by all means, climb high places. A person who wants to develop their heart, should go down low places. Climbing up and down require heroism. How many mountaineers have wanted to climb the Himalayas, but have not succeeded because the high peaks are inaccessible. Also in human development there are places that the human mind has not been able to climb. In Bulgaria some people do not even know Moussallah, and who knows how few people have climbed this peak. I think that one in ten thousand has gone up. And since Mont Blanc is the measure for gauging the European mind, I shall say that few people have climbed the peak of that mountain either. You will say, "These are abstract things which have no relation to our ‘food-providing committee’. Do you know our difficult condition today? There is no butter and cheese, no produce." Whoever needs butter, let them come to me and I shall give them a method of extracting butter from nature. You can have as much butter as you want, if these two witnesses within you are speaking the truth. Come, let us make an experiment. I put this Divine Science under a live experiment: we shall make the experiment with those of you in whom these two witnesses are speaking and do you know what your state will be then? In India a great Brahmin master had a cow which was so beautiful that the local prince wanted to take it. First he tried to buy it for money. "I do not want any money," answered the Brahmin. "But I shall give you as much money as the cow weighs." "Even if you gave me the whole world, I would not give you my cow." "Then I shall take it by force!" "Just try!" The prince sent ten policemen to take the cow by force, but the Brahmin waved his hand and they fell flat on the ground. The prince sent one thousand policemen; but the Brahmin waved his hand and they also fell flat on the ground. The prince finally sent 20,000 policemen - they all fell just like the others. The man would not give up his cow! The prince was convinced that the Brahmin was a strong person, so he went to him and became his disciple. He wanted to find out how the Brahmin had acquired this secret force. He started living like him. After a life of one thousand years he tried to take his cow with no success. After a life of two thousand years and one more unsuccessful attempt to take the cow, he found out that he had become stronger than the Brahmin; but now he thought, "Why should I need his cow? I have no need of it." Now I say, find this cow; it is within you and when you find it, you will have milk, butter and everything you need. In a word, as people say - honey and milk will start flowing. It said that in the distant past milk and honey were flowing in Palestine and it took two men two carry a bunch of grapes, but now, neither milk, not honey flow there. There are reasons for this. Make room in your heart and mind for everything you consider good in the world - this is the first rule. Say, "Everything is good." Even if it is not so, say it is and it will become so. Saying it is good, you will take another direction. Say, "I do not want his money. I have no need of this burden." It is a bad thing to desire something you cannot have or bear. At this moment, for instance, of what use will riches be to you when tomorrow a catastrophe may take place? We are, so to speak, preparing ourselves for the other world; but we do not believe in it. If anyone should start speaking about spirits now, the others will say they are out of their mind. There was a preacher in America who liked to exaggerate when speaking. He had a friend by the name of John whom he called and said to him, "Do me a favor, John, when you hear me exaggerate, turn your forefinger this way." One day the preacher talked about Samson who caught three hundred foxes and started explaining that the tails of the foxes were three meters long. "And this is a fact, because such and such an author says so," and he started quoting, but his friend turned his forefinger. "But, he continued, this looks to me improbable and I suppose the tails were two meters long," and he started quoting another author, but his friend turned his forefinger again. "However, this also seems to me improbable, but they must have been one meter long," and he started proving this by quoting, but his friend made again a sign with his forefinger. "Now, this looks to me unnatural, certainly the tails have been as long as those of our foxes - about 50 or 60 centimeters." John turned his finger again, but this time the preacher jumped and cried out, "John, I cannot shorten them anymore." The tails in Samson’s times were as long as in our times. What cause is there for argumentation that such and such an author said this or that? People read different philosophers until finally they are forced to see the truth in nature - how things really are in life; what the heart and the mind are saying. Be loyal to these two principles and you will have the support of the Invisible World which is around you and helps everyone who seeks the Truth. We are not alone on this earth so there is no need of our worry about sustenance, for everything is prepared for us. In the past when the Lord led the Hebrews out of Egypt across the desert, He gave them manna for food and ordered them to gather it only for the day it was given and not to store it up, except for the Sabbath. However, the Hebrews did not obey Him, and as they had practiced in Egypt (which represents the present-day culture, they) gathered manna for two days and it spoiled. We people today, in our effort to store up for the future, do not give our minds and hearts even some rest. That is why everything in our life is spoiled. Do you know what this means? It is just like a child who wants to take his mother’s time the whole day. We call such a child disobedient. There is time for the child, but there is time for the mother as well. Do not think that your time is exclusively for your children; neither theirs for you. Part of your time must be devoted to God and to your neighbors as well. All people must devote some time in order to know what is the Great Law. Some time should be consecrated to God. But what do you do? You look after your business or work. And what happens? You lose ten times more time. Someone may say, "Are there any statistics you can show us by which to determine what has happened to those merchants who have not fulfilled the Law, and to those farmers who have not acted according to this Law?" A poor person sometimes asks you for alms which means that the Lord sometimes wants you to consecrate a little time to Him. Let the merchant give the beggar something; let him tell them a kind word. He says instead, "Get out of here for I have work to do." Then the Lord notes down in His book that such and such a person has not consecrated the given time to Him. A merchant acts this way three or four times and then a crisis comes to him and he loses 100 or 200,000 leva. The Lord takes it because he has not fulfilled the Law. But what happens to a farmer who does not fulfill the Law? He sows his field two or three years, but the field gives no crop because he has refused to devote a short moment to God. The priests, on the other hand, will say that one must consecrate all their time to God. That is well said, but they do not do it themselves. Moses, who gave the Law of Rest, was much wiser, for he said: "Work for yourself, for your wife and children, for your friends, six days a week and consecrate the seventh to the Lord your God." This rest is necessary to you so that you may enter your Inner World and evaluate the experiences of the other days of the week. You should say to your wife and children, "Leave me alone today that I may serve the Lord.” But then, do not worry that the children will fight, that your wife may not be well-disposed. Leave them alone; do not pity them too much. If you pity your family and friends on that day, you will lose the Divine Harmony which is a great moment in your life. Some people come to me and complain that they have nothing to eat. I have tried all kinds of ways in which people can nourish themselves. I have eaten only an apple a day, or only beans and I have survived. In my opinion only bread is the best food. But you object to this and say it is not sufficiently nourishing; however, I say that meat, butter, olives, sausages, soup cooked with lamb’s liver are less nourishing. You call my way of nourishment a "monk’s way of eating." Our animal mind has deluded us and made us carnivorous; the instinct of the swine has deluded us and made us omnivorous for the swine eats everything. Once a priest visited me and as I was saying these things to him, he said, "But I have healthy stomach and can eat everything." "Let him eat everything he wants," I said. But after eating he was ill for two days. Of what? "Indisposed." My friends, your stomach tells you, you are not a sensible person. When we eat we should thank our soul for giving us everything that is necessary. We do not need any superfluities. What is necessary for us is to come to know our mind and our heart for they are Divine. Seek only what is necessary in life: seek it in your mind, in your heart, in your life. It will not leave any remnants in you out of which impurities may remain in the person. Only if you turn to your mind and heart, will you then be able to reform your life and society - you will solve both problems at the same time. Everyone will work with what is given them. You will not all do the same thing since there is a variety of things to be done. Everyone will work according to their own understanding. By entering this Great Divine Plan I talked to you about, the Bulgarians and Bulgaria will put their life in order. I recommend to Bulgaria to make an experiment - to give heed to her mind and heart and in ten years’ time, her life will be put in order. Let every Bulgarian make an experiment of obeying their mind and heart. Let no one compel another. If your friend is not walking in the right way, direct your thoughts to them and in this Divine Way send them your help; then see how thier life will change. When a flower is not watered a long time, it is crying "Water! Water!" When there is humidity we say it needs warmth and light. We need this humidity, this Inner Light and heat. Some may say, "This is hard to apply." Heroes are needed for this teaching, not cowards. What is important for us is what nature is teaching us, what we were created for – and not what philosophers have written in the past, nor what the people of learning are writing now. Have we been created to become victims of the battlefields, to torture and hang people? Not in the least. God has created us for great purposes. We call ourselves cultured people, feigning we serve God as Eastern Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants; but we all kill hens and lambs the same way. We are not cultured people yet. From now on, the future belongs to a real culture - the culture of our heart and of our mind. Let there be no two thoughts and two feelings in people about things. Let us always speak the Truth, always cherish the Good in our heart, and be ready to sacrifice ourselves for it. I am ready to sacrifice myself for what I believe, I have experienced this. I see what others do not see. It is preferable for a person to wear a dressing-gown but have a fresh mind and speak the truth than to wear a crown and have a high post in the world, but be the worst of liars. Brothers and sisters, do you know how deluded you are! Do you know what you told me one time when you were leaving heaven? What fine ideas, what wonderful programs, what high purposes you had at that time? You were beautiful and powerful as I know you, but as I am looking at you now, I pity you. If I could weep, I would. I would not weep for your sufferings, however, but for your delusions; for not knowing how to be happy on earth and where your happiness is. Life in its present condition is slavery - a big prison. Have no illusions, realize your condition and come out of it. You, being in this prison are thinking how to reform it so that the prisoners may live well. But I say unto you, "Come out of this prison!" Some will say: "The time has not come yet," and prefer to live thousands of years in the prison. No, five years have passed, the term is over. Has not the time come for you to leave the prison? Thousands of years have passed and you are still in it. Come out of it! You will call the policeman and say to him, "We were sentenced on the basis of such and such law to stay in prison for so many years. The term is over and we want you to set us free!" Raise your mind and your heart and appeal to God, call Him to set you free from this prison. All that you see now will be leveled with the ground in ten years; nothing will remain of these laws. Such will be the end of this world with its present perversion. A New Culture will come when people will listen to their hearts and minds and live like brothers according to a deep comprehension of that Law which says, as it is also written in our law, that the testimony of the two is true. I am not telling you to become pessimists, but to be heroes. Work among all people and tell everybody that the time has come for us to live a human life on earth. But you will say that people do not wish this. You will convince them, because the right is on our side. A common brotherhood will be created in the whole world. This slavery will be abolished; the rich and the poor will become equal; the learned and the ignorant will be put on the same footing; all people will become equal according to the Law of Wisdom and Love. This will be the New Culture. Arm yourselves with this idea. Be heroes and fear nothing. You have served the devil long enough. People believe in him more than in God. Say, "From now on we shall believe in the Living God Who moves the world and Who has decided to reform it." For that reason He has sent His servants. If you do not do this, the stones will come to life and reform the world. It is written that the trees and the animals will rise, but if you do not rise, you will be the last in the Kingdom of God. You will say that I am strict. Please excuse me, but this is not strictness. I am only saying that your relationship as brothers and sisters are not what God requires. I am telling you the very truth. Give up all squabbles among you for there is no reason for them. But you say, "I am an Eastern Orthodox," "I am a Catholic," "I am an Evangelist," "I am a Communist," "I am a Theosophist," "I am a Spiritualist," "a Frenchman," "a Bulgarian" and so on. When God created the world, we were not separated into different creeds and nationalities. Now we have become French, English, Italians and tutti quanti. Let us turn to the Great Truth which God is pointing out to us and which calls us to a great task. Put your minds and hearts to work so that we may create a great wave in the world which will lead us in the way of mutual accord and the Great Laws of Nature. Then you may be sure that the future will be yours. Sermon by the Master November 16, 1919. -------------------------------- [1] John 8:17

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul COSMIC LOVE When you hear the words “Cosmic Love,”1 they may sound strange to you at first and you may ask yourselves how it is possible for Love to be cosmic. And yet, it is possible. I am using the word “Love” in a very broad sense. I use the word “Love” for the energy coming from the Center of the Universe and flowing toward its periphery. And I say “Cosmic Love” for the energy moving in the opposite direction: from the periphery of the Universe to the Center of Origin. So I call the process of creation and generation - “Love”, while the constructive process going from the bottom upward I designate as “Cosmic Love.” Whenever we speak of the cultural, social, political, and spiritual life - the reference is to Cosmic Love revealed in its great work; in other words, Cosmic Love represents a conscious process carried out individually in the Universe. I will ask you to set your views aside for a moment, whatever they might be, and reason with me without criticizing. If you desire to benefit from this, you need to perceive things precisely as the camera photographs the landscape exactly as it appears and then you may criticize. If you place yourselves beforehand on a critical ground, you will perceive things incorrectly and as a result your critique will be unreasonable. I speak about Cosmic Love because it is an essential element for each one of you. Whoever desires to be healthy and fortunate needs to understand the intrinsic power of Cosmic Love. Many speak of Love and Cosmic Love, but they confuse them. Love is creating, while the Cosmic Love is manifesting. In some cases, however, Love can destroy as well. The cat eats the mouse out of love because this is how it understands and demonstrates the process of love. Moreover, you know that the cat eats the mouse without removing its fur and skin; it does not discard the impurities, but swallows it whole. It seems strange that cats though being a model of excellent neatness do not know how to eat. Many people have the same habits as cats: for example, they do not know how to eat. When people accept thoughts in their mind swallowing them with all their impurities like fur, skin, intestines, stomach, and so on - this shows a lack of culture in nourishment. Such people have the cat’s voracity and love. When we slaughter and eat animals, with this we also express our love for them. If animals ask us why we kill and eat them, we would need to answer that we are doing it out of our great love toward them and because we wish to have them inside us rather than look at them only from the outside. Love says, “I acknowledge no other existence than mine own and any being that is outside me needs to enter into me.” This is how Love has been understood by our elders; and this is how the new generation understands it as well. We believe that we will encounter a contradiction, if we understand it differently. In the social, political, and spiritual life of today, all people suffer from overabundance of love - every person has had more love than their fill is. Simply said, this is how things stand: if a woman has a lot of wool and leaves it unwoven, the wool will begin to smell. Yet in my opinion it is her love that has begun to smell. She needs to discover the process of Cosmic Love and begin to wash, comb, spin, and weave the wool. Like this woman, you might have a lot of wool; individually, you might be wealthy merchants, philosophers, scholars, ministers. All this is good. However, if you do not spin and weave with your knowledge, I tell you that you are ministers of wool, merchants, philosophers, scholars of wool. You have only wool that is not spun. The wool needs to be spun. It will be spun when that great process of Cosmic Love begins and the Cosmic Power is being awakened in us. According to the modern philosophers this will happen when the Higher Consciousness is awakened within us; when we understand that we need to work for the common good of the entire humankind and all living beings, visible and invisible. You might say that my idea is somewhat unusual. Indeed, it is unusual, but not all unusual things are untrue, just as not all things that are common and familiar to us are always true. To clarify my idea, I will make use of an image. In the past, in the Golden age of the human culture, in the so-called “First Race of gods” - there lived a great sage. One of his disciples came to him and said, “It is my desire to learn from you one of the greatest secrets of Life: how to take whatever form I wish so that to become enormous. I want to be as big as the Sun, filling all space around and thus to become visible to all.” The sage told the disciple, “Let it be according to your wish.” The disciple was very pleased and told himself, “Finally, I learned the great secret of being visible to all and now I will be the happiest of beings.” However, he forgot to ask his teacher how to diminish when he would like to become small again. Indeed, he became very large and all could see him, but he was incapable of communication. He was standing so high that he could not see the people neither could speak to them. For this reason, he went everywhere by himself and felt very lonely. All could see that he was unusually large and so, many scientists, philosophers, physicists, and astronomers began to study him, searching for the reason that Nature had made him like this. Thousands of theories and legends were created regarding his origin. The great sage, his Teacher, merely said, “The reason for his size is nothing else, but his wish to become large so as to be noticed by everyone; and I fulfilled his desire.” Another disciple came to this sage and said, “Master, I ask you to teach me the secret of diminishing myself to such an extent that no one in the world will be able to see me.” The sage fulfilled his desire as well and the disciple became first very small and then invisible. And yet, he, like the first disciple, forgot to ask how to return to his original form, so after he became invisible and descended to the greatest depths of creation, as he had desired, he was not able to return any more, when he wanted to. These two disciples represent the two polarities in creation: the great worlds and the small worlds. The microbes which afflict people, for example, conceal themselves everywhere, becoming invisible to all. After a while, a third disciple came to the sage and said, “Master, it is my wish to learn from you the properties of light and heat so that I might simultaneously be visible like light and invisible like heat: visible like light to be able to illuminate the great worlds and invisible like heat to be able to warm up even the smallest of the beings on Earth.” The Teacher answered him, “Let it be according to your wish.” Therefore, there are three processes in the world today running simultaneously. According to the first process, some people want to become wealthy, to be scholars, philosophers, statesmen, generals, nation builders. We call such people “great” because they have learned the art of expansion. They know the secret of expanding themselves so that to attract all people and societies to themselves, but have not learned the greatest secret - the art of organizing people and societies into conscious units. The magnet attracts iron filings, but it does not know how to organize them. To organize does not yet mean to educate: to educate does not yet mean to teach the Law of Cosmic Love. Therefore, when we speak of the Light, we imply that process in which the human mind expands and attains inner selfawareness. When we speak of heat or warmth, we consider the process of concentration through evaporation or the process of inner transformation. Light is a process that comes from the center and goes to the periphery; while Heat is a process that comes from the periphery and goes to the center. I call the “arterial blood” - Light and the “venous blood” - Heat. Therefore, when Cosmic Love passes through the human heart, it acts like the venous blood, absorbing and casting off all impurities. For this reason, we say that Cosmic Love heals. Light and Warmth - or in other terms, the arterial and venous blood - are constantly being exchanged within the human body; and the human body was created through these two processes. These two flows, these two processes can be found everywhere, including the mind, heart, and soul of every human being. Therefore, in order to research Life, we need to study it not as we see it today, but as Nature have initially created it. People of today may argue whether the soul exists or not; that is a matter of understanding. A person has consciousness and soul, thoughts and mind, feelings and heart as well. Can you see a melting object without associating it with heat? Can you see an illuminated object without associating it with light? Our delusions come as a result of the shadows cast upon us and that is why, we need to shed more light and warmth upon ourselves so that we can make our progress visible. To clarify this great idea, I will tell you an esoteric story. If I were to speak to you philosophically, the subject would not be interesting to you. I want to make the Truth accessible to your minds and for this reason, I am going to use the language available to us. In that kingdom, I have mentioned before, there was a king who had two daughters and one of them was very beautiful. One day, she went to a great Teacher of Wisdom and said, “Master, may I ask you to make me so beautiful as to enchant everyone passing by and so tender-hearted that whoever sees me not to want to part from me. Also, I wish for my sister to be deprived of these qualities and nobody to love her so that she would stay at home all the time not to hinder with me.” The sage answered her, “Let it be.” The princess mounted a horse, looked proudly around and said, “I am the king’s daughter!” People, horses, oxen, flies - all that she encountered in her way - was gathering around her. The many horses surrounding her started to kick each other striving to be closer to her and raising much dust in the air. The oxen were butting horns and also fighting to be closer to her. The bees started to sting each other, as did the wasps for the same reason. A terrible fight and noise arose and the animals, one after the other, started to fall dead on the ground. Observing all this, the king’s daughter realized how wrongly she had perceived Life in the Universe. Clutching her head, she went to her sister and said, “Help me, sister because I have committed a great offence!” I ask you: If a king’s daughter like the one above appears inciting much kicking and fighting among you, if all people begin to pull each other’s hair and fight because of her - has the king’s daughter brought the meaning of life to you? No. If you are of two minds and cannot find any meaning in life, you need to discover what caused you to be unjust to your soul. The king’s beautiful daughter is our body, for which we are ready to sacrifice everything in life. Philosophers, writers, politicians, clergymen, they all live only for their bodies. Often the most important thing for us in life is to indulge the body focusing mainly on what we eat and drink, how we prepare the meal and from what - meat or vegetables; whether to bake our food or boil it, and so on. We gather for banquets and say, “That is what life is about!” I say: That is what the stomach is about! You say, “Let’s put the social life in order.” Yes, but let’s put the social stomach in order: in fact that is what you imply. When your stomach is upset, the whole social and political life is upset as well. Ask any doctor if a person whose stomach is upset could philosophize and dabble in politics. Years ago, when I was returning from the village of Knyazhevo[2], I saw a banker on the streetcar and heard him complain to his friend that he had not been permitted to eat anything, only to drink milk for some time. His friend asked him, “Why so? Are you not your own master?” “Yes, but my stomach is upset.” “Well, if so, you need to bear the consequences.” Hearing of the banker’s stomach distress, his friend was ready to acquiesce to any other philosophy of life. It is the stomach that gives direction to the feelings and actions of many people. Cosmic Love represents a Great Law that allocates the actions of all forces in our consciousness so harmoniously as to supply everything created with the appropriate food it requires. Love provides appropriate thoughts for the mind; appropriate aspirations for the heart; and appropriate actions for the will. Yet, only mothers can teach Cosmic Love. When a mother forms her infant’s body, she supplies the child with Cosmic Love through her self-sacrifice. Only the one who sacrifices oneself will live because this person experiences the rejuvenating joy. Many wealthy Bulgarians of the past are no longer remembered, but Botev[3], Rakovski[4], and others who have sacrificed their lives continue to live in the national memory because they have learned the Law of Cosmic Love. Someone may object, “Yes, but Botev was not a believer.” It is not so important if someone is a believer like us. What really matters is whether that one has realized and applied the Law of Sacrifice for the others. That is what is really essential and enhancing for our further development. When I am told that some people are not believers and have eccentric views, I ask whether their views are uplifting for them and the society or not. If the answer is positive, it does not matter that they appear to be nonbelievers in the eyes of the public. I ask: If the candle I carry is lit, while the other person’s candle is not lit, then who is the true believer? True believers are those who carry lit candles. When you see someone carrying an unlit candle, tell him to light the candle; then he will become a true believer. I tell all priests, ministers, citizens, socialists, communists: Light your candles so that you may become true believers. Light your candle, every one of you, from the biggest to the smallest one, until there will be no unlit candles because the Light is needed in the world. When the Light begins to shine, Warmth will also pervade the human heart; and with this, all hatred, along with our desire to become great or small, will disappear. In respect with the cosmic consciousness we settle issues not from the perspective of one single nation, but as per the Great Law, which gives us striving and makes our life meaningful. All those who take care of children, both parents and teachers, need to apply the new methods for children’s upbringing and education so as to be of assistance to their charges. Mothers and fathers send their children to school not only to acquire knowledge, but also to learn how to put this knowledge into practice. To begin with, teachers should teach children: how to eat and what foods, presenting their properties and qualities, pointing out the healthy ones, and so on. After that, they should teach them how to breathe - to take in the pure air. By “air,” I mean all thoughts, whatever they might be, as long as they provide inspiration and give a noble impulse for the human soul. It does not mean that I want to make you true believers. You are free to think and act as you wish. I only want to give you new methods in Life so that you can avoid contradictions at certain times. I compare the situation in which the society finds itself today to that of a caterpillar feeding on leaves. Yet, the time has come for the transformation of this caterpillar into a butterfly. How will it feed then? It will no longer feed on leaves; instead, it will learn the craft of wing making, so it will create wings for itself, will begin to fly and extract nectar from the flowers. According to the Law of Evolution, the society of today is passing from one state into another. Do not think that you will be able to live in the old ways. No, God has already deprived you of leaves - as it is written in the Divine Law! God will no longer permit you to feed on leaves, when “the time of butterflies” has come. Now is the time for you to fly and gather nectar. And you should already use your proboscis! In other words, people need to learn to manifest Love. This Teaching is bringing the New Culture that will create the New Human Being. The people of today have not even a notion about it. The people who will come will be great in every aspect: Virtue, Justice, Love, Wisdom, and Truth. You are going to open your homes to them and will become fearless in their presence; there will be no need for police or army to protect you. They will not impose their views upon you because the present contradictions will no longer exist. It will be a New Culture then. Some of you will be honored to take up this Elevated Culture; while others, if they continue to maintain their old mindset, will remain in the state of caterpillars. I do not want to reproach you with this; but I am introducing this Great Law, which Nature applies mercilessly and she is being absolutely just in her actions. Placing a person in a certain phase of development, she wants to see some results. She will not wait for him; rather, he is going to wait for her. When I speak to you in this way, do not think that I do not want to make you adepts of this Teaching. Believe, rather, that I want to warn you of a big catastrophe that is coming to you: if you delude yourselves and remain in the state of caterpillars for another ten years, there will be no more leaves left for you to eat. So I advise you to transform yourselves into butterflies ten days earlier than usual and to begin a new way of eating. If you allow disease to advance too far and the blood in your body to become poisoned, what will the doctor tell you? “It is too late; you should have called me sooner.” Many politicians divert the Bulgarian nation engaging it with things that are not imperious today. You need to understand that every nation has a predetermined mission and if it is not accomplished properly, the nation will be lost; nothing could save it. Each individual has a predetermined mission as well. You may object, “Let us take back Macedonia, Thrace, Dobrudzha![5] We do not need anything else.” It is not so. We need people who will govern this nation as it should be governed! When I speak to you in this way, I do not mean that all of you should rush to join some political party. I view Life from a broader perspective. To me, the human social life represents one big tree. Does the tree have only one leaf or one blossom? No, it has thousands of branches, leaves, and blossoms, big and small ones; as well as thousands of fruits. If I had the time, I would speak to you in detail as to what each political party represents. Each party with its views and platform corresponds to a branch, leaf, and fruit of a big tree. How long can a leaf of this tree live without a branch? Fall comes and it withers; or the wind comes and it is blown away. Indeed, the fallen leaves are still living, but now they live under the power of the wind: when it blows upon them, they move. I ask you now how you want to live: high in the tree or down on the ground? It has been said about someone: that person truly lives. He lives, but down on the ground and subjected to the power of the wind. When people say that they are ill-disposed, this indicates that they have fallen down from the Tree of Life. Man has fallen to be renewed so that his essence would be drawn off by the roots of the tree and he would reincarnate once again as a new, young leaf. This is the meaning of reincarnation, but it is embarrassing and disputable for many people. Christ said, “If you are not born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.” It means: If you are not re-born, you will not integrate into the New Culture neither will you become members of the Great New Humankind, which will bring all conditions for growth in life. The Kingdom of God abides in this New Culture. There will be no dead people - no funerals, graves, or monuments in this Kingdom - everyone without exception will be joyful there. The great persons like Paisiy[6], Botev, and others will be representatives of this New Culture. They will bring the new ideas and will be bearers of the New Teaching. People say, “Botev is not here, yet his spirit is.” Where is his spirit? How should one understand the meaning of “spirit”? The fundamental law of Lavoisier[7] is well known: Nothing in Nature is lost; therefore, everything that has ever been manifested continues to be. Some people are aware of such transformations while others are not. Yet, is it indicative that if I cannot see a thing, it does not exist? Many theologians and philosophers have contemplated on this one issue: the existence of God. For me, God exists as the Cosmic Love that I see everywhere and understand very well. It applies not only to me; every person who serves God sees Him and converses with Him every day. God lives in you. Not a single person can exist without God living in him. You should not speak ill of me, nor should I speak ill of you because God - against Whom not a bad word can be uttered - dwells both in me and you, in all of us. The fact that you have come to listen to me indicates that God has come with you too. What I speak to you is not new; you have had this knowledge stored in you for centuries. Someone may say, “Mr. Deunov preaches a new teaching.” It is only new for the time in which it is revealed. For instance, when I travel by train from Sofia to Tarnovo, things quickly fly by in front of my eyes. Some of them become past; others are present; and others are yet in the future. Do these things not exist simultaneously? Therefore, the past, present, and future exist simultaneously and represent one reality in the world. Those who have passed away, those who are living now, and those who will come in the future represent one reality too. I will leave this issue to you; you will have 350 thousand years to resolve it and I believe that you will succeed. After such a long period, I will come again to see how you have resolved it. We are not going to treat this issue today because it appears that it is not for now, but many thousands of years are required for its settling. The fact that people are currently deprived of bread, wood, salt, sugar, hygienic homes, and so on - these are the issues of today. Some speculate: those who are guilty should be hanged; women who create discord and other problems should be punished; we should declare war on our enemies in order to avenge ourselves. The purpose of all this is to satisfy the society and bring some people to their senses. Indeed, have women not been punished yet? Have the massacres, gallows, and wars not already existed? “Let us change the judges.” Will the new judges be any better? There is something wrong here. If I were to become drunk and as a result perceive the things around as being strange, this is because of my own world of a drunkard and not because everything in the world follows my lead. We resemble a Bulgarian named Ivan who went to pay a visit and was offered a drink. He drank as much as he could, but at a certain point, they began to push him to drink to the health of the mother, then to the health of the eldest son and of the eldest daughter. Thus, Ivan drank to the health of everyone in the household and became so drunk that he barely made it to the village fountain to water his horse. After the horse stopped drinking the water, Ivan insisted, “Drink to my health!” But the horse drew back and stepped aside. Ivan then said to the horse, “You have a better understanding of life than I. You were not compelled to drink more and more to the health of anyone.” We behave like Ivan as well: we gather somewhere and drink to the health of a certain party, to the health of some feminine organization, to the health of women, and so on. We make one concession after another, until we resemble the drunken Ivan, after which we say that we did not understand anything. People of today need to understand their duties toward the society, so that they might serve it as they should. When someone is asked, “Are you a Bulgarian?” he will answer, “Yes, because I speak the same language as all Bulgarians and profess one and the same faith as them.” This is not what distinguishes the Bulgarian as such. In my opinion, he should be honest and just, intelligent and good. If he possesses these four qualities, he is a Bulgarian. If he does not possess them, he is not a Bulgarian. Someone may say, “He is a priest.” I ask: Is he honest? Is he just? Is he intelligent? Is he good? If he possesses these qualities, he is a priest. Someone might be a lawyer, mother, father, teacher, or anything else; regardless, he needs to satisfy these four attributes, which are absolute essentials in social life. I would like that all Bulgarians possess these attributes and if they do, I will congratulate them. All should be dressed in Light, both inside and outside, and should be pure in flesh and spirit - just as Nature adorns the flowers with a wealth of colors and purity. As I said before: We need to be honest and just, intelligent and good in the full sense of these words - namely, in soul, mind, spirit, and willpower. We should possess a strong impulse to help one another as well. You can always have the Cosmic Love within yourselves. You are unhappy; your child has died, or you have lost your wealth. Why are you unhappy? It is because the Cosmic Love is not at work within you. One has lost some of one's senses; another has become discouraged. Why? It is because they have lost the Cosmic Love. When this Cosmic Love comes into us, we become powerful enough to accomplish everything. Those, whose Love is active, get never discouraged - they say that all failures and misfortunes are merely shadows of Life. Do not be afraid of these shadows! I compare misfortunes to the following: imagine a big tree with thousands of leaves that live together peacefully and quietly. A storm comes up and they begin to push one another and quarrel among themselves, asking, “Why are you so rough and pushy?” Then the storm passes and again they live together, quietly and peacefully. In this case, the cause for their argument is external. If this tree has understood the Great Law of Cosmic Love and in doing so, has avoided this quarreling, it would gradually be transformed into animal; the animal, if it would have understood Cosmic Love, will be transformed into human being; and the human being - into Angel. And when the human being attains this more sublime form, this person will be able to master the forces of Nature and overcome all trials and misfortunes. You may learn this Law from your little children. What do they do when they want something from their mother? They hug and kiss her tenderly, calling her, “Mom.” What is the meaning of this? Embracing their mother, children impart to her Cosmic Love with their left hand and Cosmic Wisdom-with their right hand. In this way, they impart their power to her so that she is really ready to do everything for them. That is why children are so lovable. The adults say, “If I kiss you, will I not catch some disease?” Children do not philosophize: If they need to kiss someone, they just do it and that is that. If my kiss can heal a person, I will readily kiss that person. If not, I will not do it. Every kiss should bear a blessing within itself. Visiting someone, you should not go with empty hands, but bring a present. When you go to visit a poor woman, for example, do not fill your wallet with money; but fill a bag with bread and fruits. The charitable organizations should do the same. At present, they collect money from here and there and use it to do good works. No, my friends, it is not good to give someone bread that is not baked by you. In the New Culture one cannot live by another one’s baking. The charitable organizations bring money around to the poor and after that, want to be paid for their labor. No, nothing should be paid them. When I serve, I should serve in Cosmic Love. When you come to my home, I shall receive you well: I shall feast you; I shall wash your hands and feet; I shall provide you with all resources needed for living; and I shall do any favor for you as I would for a friend. This is what is required by the New Culture. But today, when someone goes on a journey, he could stay somewhere as a guest for one day, but afterward, he should take a room in a hotel. Khan eri, baba eri,[8] say the Turks. The innkeepers are good people; they hold a higher position than common people. At first they are polite. However, when you leave, they immediately grab hold of you and say, “You must pay.” Are you aware of the situation in which we, the people of today, find ourselves? I will illustrate this for you with another example. A dervish went to a public bath, washed himself well, but upon leaving the bath, he discovered that he had not even a coin or two in his pocket to pay with. He then addressed the bath owner and told him, “Thank you,” on the way out. “Wait! What about paying?” asked the bath owner. “I have no money.” “Why did you come then?” The dervish was in a quandary what to do, so he directed his thoughts to God and said, “Lord, either give me money or bring this bath down.” In this moment, a great noise was heard. The bath came down and the bath owner came running to see what was happening. The dervish left unperturbed. Walking along, he saw an imam praying and said to him, “I know what you are praying for - money.” Modern society has always suffered from its too high want of money. In Bulgaria today, many treasury notes are issued, but where is the value? Value is what is needed. In contrast, what Nature provides does have value. If wheat, fruit, and potatoes exist, culture will exist; without them, there is no culture. Culture is determined by the Cosmic Love that is transmitted to us from Above. Do not think that the other planets and the Sun do not participate in our life. It is the Sun that is most interested in us and every year it sends a credit to Bulgaria worth of billions. If you go to the Sun, you will see that the solar citizens have many billions worth of energy for the sake of the Bulgarian culture, Cosmic Love, religious convictions, and spiritual advancement on the path of Truth. We focus our telescopes on the Sun and say, “The Sun is fire.” I contest this because fire is a weak force. A force does exist on the Sun, but it is not fire. It is something more powerful and it is beyond words to explain it. The Sun is not a body of fire, but a body of immense energy. I will not discuss the intrinsic aspect of this energy or explain how it has been developed, and so on. I wonder if you would believe me, if I were to tell you anything about the Sun as it is so far away from us. You do not believe in me or in my candor; you, yourselves, question if I have any hidden objectives or not - so how will you believe me when I am speaking about the Sun? The Sun is well-disposed to us - and this can be seen from its energies sent to the Earth and its bounties prepared for us daily - because without these forces coming from the Sun, life would be impossible. The solar forces are living and conscious. If we begin to think about the Sun in this way, we will be able to draw these forces into ourselves and they will generate a conscious regular process of growth within us. And so, Cosmic Love says, “Work with your heart and plant good wishes in it because each good wish will bear good fruit.” Plant good thoughts in your mind because each good thought will grow into a fruit tree. Do good actions using your willpower because each good action is a future fruit tree as well. Cosmic Love also says, “Never have doubts of yourself because every doubt is like leprosy.” Cosmic Love concludes, “Be courageous and decisive in life and in the struggles that befall you. Do not consider struggle to be a misfortune. Instead, consider it to be a process of work, which enables you to understand the inner meaning of Life. Discover the Laws that build the body as well as the stomach, lungs, and brain - so that you might be able to organize them properly.” We need to have the appropriate conditions for the manifestation of Cosmic Love within us. We do have these conditions in Life; they have been given to us. But if we do not make use of them, we cannot avoid the bad consequences. Suffering indicates that we are losing our life-force. We will continue to suffer until the lost balance has been restored. I will give you an example, which demonstrates that our beliefs and disbeliefs produce the opposite results. Once upon a time, there lived a great painter in Rome. He had the idea to paint the ideal image of Christ. He went through the town so as to find someone who would give an expression of his idea. He found a young man - 22–23 years old, and began to paint him. The work turned out to be quite successful. After some time the painter decided to paint Judas Iscariot as well. Again, he walked through the town in search of a suitable model. Finally, he found one and offered to paint him as Judas. The young man was astonished and turning to the painter, he said, “Sir, there is something very strange in your undertaking. Some years ago, you asked me to pose as a model of Christ and now you want me to serve as a model of Judas.” In the several past years, the young man had lived such a sinful life and his appearance distorted to such an extent that the painter was unable to recognize him. Yes, one can simultaneously be a Christ and a Judas, both in relation to himself and in relation to his fellowmen. We are creating our own character, so we need to be masters of our life, not expecting salvation from outside. Salvation is in us; it is nothing else but overcoming all the difficulties, which discourage us and hinder our progress. Mothers are those who recruit members for the different social strata and circles. As I have already said: While a mother is pregnant and the child is still in her womb, she can shape the kind of person she would like. Society depends on her for creating both its good and bad members. If a mother has conceived, but does not infuse her baby with Cosmic Love, she will not be able to form her child as she desires. If during her pregnancy, she attends frivolous balls and mindless concerts, spending her time seeking mainly entertainment, she will cause the creation of other individuals like Judas; and then she, herself, will wonder why her child did not turn out well. The mother is the cause. She has not created conditions for the building of something good. If children are gifted and with noble character, it is because their mothers have understood the Cosmic Law and at the appropriate time have given their children the possibility of using it. Character and strength are passed down to the child by the father; while the intellect is inherited from the mother. Honesty is passed down by the father; righteousness, by the mother. Only the father can make his son or daughter honest. Only the mother can make her son or daughter righteous. Sometimes, one will find children who are honest and intelligent, but they are not righteous and good. In such cases, I say that one of the parents has erred. If a child has all these four qualities, it indicates that both parents have worked in accordance with Cosmic Love and have imparted these qualities to their offspring. Cosmic Love is an excellent worker; whatever kind of wool you give it, Love will spin it. Showing us the spun wool, Love says, “This is what you gave me and this is what I created.” To clarify this concept, I will make a comparison with the following story. A young man by the name of Stoyan was a servant of a rich merchant. He worked honestly and gave all his earnings to the poor. Seeing this, his master constantly reminded him to make some savings for himself too because the old age is coming and he has no one to take care of him. Stoyan kept silent at these remarks or just said, “The Lord is good.” One day, his master fell into a deep sleep and had a very vivid dream. He was strolling through a beautiful countryside and there, amid the luxuriant landscape, he noticed a wonderful villa. He asked those present whose that villa was. “It belongs to your servant,” was the answer. “But he is only a poor man, where did he earn enough money to buy such a beautiful villa?” “He is poor indeed, but everything he earns on Earth, he is sending here; and with it, he has built this beautiful villa.” Walking further along, the master came to a more arid, desert-like place and noticed a small, meager cabin. He asked again, “Whose cabin is this?” “This is yours because you have never done anything for those in need,” was the answer. This story is true also in the sense that whatever a mother gives to her children in this world - and to the extent she gives it - that much she will receive back; and with it, she will build for herself either a beautiful villa or a small cabin in the World beyond. If she is generous in her Cosmic Love for her children, she will have a palace. By “palace,” I am implying the human character. If we introduce this New Law into the contemporary life, many of the big problems will disappear. I will conclude this lecture with one more example in order to emphasize what we truly need. In the time of the Ottoman rule, there lived a young Bulgarian who was an apprentice to a master potter. He studied pottery for many years and when he thought that he could work on his own, he told the master that he wanted to leave him. The master agreed and so he left. The young Bulgarian set to work. He formed pots, dried them in the Sun and set them finally in the kiln. But when removed from the kiln, the pots always cracked. He continued to work in this way for a while, but soon became discouraged as all his pots cracked. So he returned to the master and complained, “I do not know what is wrong with my work; my pots crack whenever I take them out of the kiln.” The master told him, “I am going to tell you the secret, if you work for me for three more years.” The young man agreed. He observed closely what the master was doing and noticed that whenever he removed a pot from the kiln, he would blow Hu! into each one of them. The apprentice then said to himself, “So, I needed to work an extra three whole years for this Hu!” You are all placed in the fire and if a master removes you from there, you will not be harmed; but if a novice does it, your pot will crack. The pot - this is you. The fire represents the difficulties in the world. The Master - this is your spirit. Stoyan in this case represents your soul that is learning how to create. Therefore, if you do not teach your soul how “to blow” and clench its fist, nothing will become of you. “To clench your fist” means to give your willpower the opportunity of acting in accordance with all precepts of the Law. Let each one of you stand in front of the kiln and say to the master, “Please, blow!” The blowing represents Cosmic Love. If Cosmic Love is implanted within you, your spirit will transform your body. You will become then worthy members of the New Culture and Humankind. I would like to greet all of you as members of this New Culture. I wish you to serve it with joy, to be bearers and workers of Cosmic Love. Only in this way will a nation be able to fulfill its mission well. Only in this way can Bulgaria raise as a nation and state. Be sure that if you receive Cosmic Love, everything will be resolved to your benefit. Nothing bad will happen to Bulgaria: the changes will come to pass without catastrophes or cataclysms. The New is coming, so there will be energy effusion from the unclean vessel into a clean one. As representatives of the New Culture, we are going to live without hatred, without malice. May Love and Cosmic Love be the two lodestars guiding our life on Earth. Lecture given by the Master at the gathering in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria on August 24, 1919. --------------------------------------- 1. There are two words in Bulgarian for love: lyubov and obich. Lyubov is translated into English as “Universal Love” or “Love” and obich is translated as “Cosmic Love” designating the human manifestation of Love as universal energy. 2. Knyazhevo: A former village in the outskirts of the Mount Vitosha, now a district of Sofia. 3. Hristo Botev (1847–1876): Bulgarian poet and revolutionary. 4. Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821–1867): Bulgarian publicist and a leader of the National Liberation Movement in opposition to the Ottoman rule. 5. Thrace and Dobrudzha are geographic districts on the Balkan Peninsula. 6. Paisiy Hilendarski (1772–1773): A monk who wrote the first history of the Bulgarian nation and became a leader of the Bulgarian National Revival. 7. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1773–1794) is a French chemist. 8. Khan eri, baba eri - this is a Turkish proverb meaning: The innkeeper ’s land is like a native land.

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE UNIVERSAL LOVE The subject of my lecture is the Universal Love. I use this notion in a slightly broader meaning than it is usually understood. You may ask what we have in common with the Universal Love. My answer is that the Universal Love is the essence of Life. Love is what creates the conditions for Life to manifest. It is the primary incentive on Earth, that is to say, the ideal toward which we all strive. Yet Life, to be able to express itself fully, implies freedom of action. It evolves in four directions: social, political, cultural, and spiritual. These are different areas of the same reality. By “Love” I do not mean the common one that is extinguishable as a piece of charcoal thrown into the water. This is not the genuine Love. The genuine Love is a live coal that is aware of the meaning of the earthly existence. That is why the old sages and alchemists strived to study the properties of this living charcoal in fullness and came to comprehend its essence. Those who are not familiar with its properties say that Love burns people. True, there are things that can burn. There are also others that do not burn, in the same way as metals can be oxidized or not; in other words, when the later burn they are not consumed, that is why they are called “noble metals.” You may ask another question, “Why should we care about some high ideal when our living conditions are so bad?” But I will also ask you: Can you really prove you live in bad conditions? It is only a presumption. There are equally bad and good things in life, falls and risings, losses and gains, but they are finally balanced. What we call adverse living conditions is but our subjective attitude, human speculation, or theorizing. It is said that the humankind of today is seriously unhealthy. What I say is that illness is an anachronism. It is something temporary which depends on the person itself because one has the equal chance to be healthy or ill. Diseases are nothing else but direction signs as development begins only when there is a counter-action to one’s will. This can always be verified in life. All great people have suffered and suffering has been a stimulus for their spiritual growth. On the other hand, those who have had no hindrances and have lived comfortably have not marked any growth either. Today people want to be rich; but they should make a choice because there are two kinds of wealth: one that can make them sink to the bottom of the ocean and another one that can uplift them. If you travel on a transatlantic liner like the Titanic for example, with a backpack with forty kilograms of gold in it and if next to you is someone with no weight on his back, who has the chance to be saved in case of a shipwreck: you with the gold or the person who has no baggage? The answer is explicit itself. I take the word “gold” in a broader sense than it is normally understood. To me gold is an emblem of Knowledge or understanding of the Laws by which you can work in the world, mastering the natural forces and directing them to be useful both for you and others. This Knowledge does not oxidize and burn, so it is preserved and can be used for good. I am going to tell you an esoteric story. In a kingdom long ago, all citizens lived happily in fraternal love and their happiness was due to the fact that their king was not married yet. But at some time they started to wonder, “Why does our king stay single? Let’s find him a beautiful bride and have a wedding so in the future our kingdom will have an heir; otherwise it would be doomed.” So they chose the most beautiful maiden and the young king married her. She gave birth to two daughters: one, so beautiful that she attracted everyone with her beauty and the other, so ugly that everyone avoided her. Yet, the beautiful daughter brought a great misfortune to the kingdom because whomever she looks at would have problems with the eyes, whomever she touches would become lame, whomever she meets on her strolls would never reach home healthy as before. All citizens were affected by her negative energy. On the other hand, when the ugly daughter was on her stroll, she healed whoever she looked at and expelled the diseases from whomever she touched with her hand. You may say it is only a story, but you are not right. That is not just a story, but the reality itself or life as it is. For example, you have a son who is virtuous and honest. But in the presence of a beautiful girl, he changes: his mind darkens and his heart defiles, as beauty in its purely physical aspect stimulates only the external manifestation of human life. You have the desire to be beautiful, wealthy, strong, and so on. But I ask: Is there anyone who in spite of being beautiful, rich, and powerful has not experienced death? Someone may object, “But with your ideas people will die of hunger.” Are you not going to die because of your ideas too? I would be happy to see someone who is not dying in one way or another. Unfortunately people not only die, but they also perish. Someone else wishes to become good as to avoid suffering. No. The better you become, the more you are going to suffer. “What is then the solution to the problem?” It is only in the fact that the good person knows why to live, suffer, and die; while the bad one does not know. Here is the difference Do not think that death is natural and in the order of Nature itself. There was a time when the human being was immortal. We, too, could not die. But do you know in what sense I say this? In the sense that we could not do wrong, unhealthy things. A person who errs always dies. We die because our ancestors have erred. And we constantly err too because we suffer the effects of our past transgressions, which is called karma in the East or that is the Law of Cause and Effect. This Law refers not only to the individual, but also to the society and the humankind as a whole. I am telling you a Great Truth, which you can verify by yourselves. I do not have in mind theory but experience. The Teaching, which I preach, is based upon the living practice. People of today ask each other, “Are you a believer or not?” All people believe in whatsoever, I have not seen a single person who does not believe at all, but their faith is different. In that kingdom where people suffered from the beautiful princess, a great sage came and said to them, “I am bringing you a cure for all your ailments. It is an apple seed which will grow into a ten meter tree and will bear big fruits, half a kilogram each. Those who eat from these fruits will not be affected by the princess’s glance because this is the Tree of Life.” The people did not plant the seed and did not wait for the fruit. Instead they passed the seed from one to the other saying, “Did you hear that if you plant this seed, a big tree would grow with sweet fruits half a kilogram each having healing properties?” Everyone spoke about the seed and did believe in the curative powers of its fruits. But not being planted, finally the seed got lost; then the people began to speak that what was said about it was untrue and stupid. “Is it possible that such a big tree could exist and bear such fruit? It was a lie.” And so, they stopped believing. When someone is telling me today he does not believe, I say: Friend, you have lost the Seed. You can be a scientist, a very serious person, but if you do not have the Seed of Love within yourself, you are going to pass through thousands of tribulations. I will not stop right now to explain religion to you. You will resolve this for yourselves because now I am speaking about Love. I ask: Do we have this Seed? Who of the great scientists from the past or from this century has brought the Seed? Someone will answer that Christ has brought it. Where is it then? Let us see it. Jesus Christ suffered and was resurrected. But let us see the fruit of this suffering and resurrection. The Seed has been lost. I will continue with the story. This same sage came for the second time to that kingdom and said, “Because you lost the seed the first time I came, now I will not give it to you to pass it from hand to hand. But when I find the most honored citizen, I will tell him: Friend, you have a beautiful garden. I will plant the seed there, but you need to water it and watch over it; after five or ten years you will have fruits curative for everybody.” You all need to plant this Seed and benefit from its fruiting. The first fruit of this Seed is Love, which shall reign among all people, regardless of their creed or nationality. They shall then rise above any attachment as home, society, or nation. Love shall embrace the entire humankind as we are all members of it. It represents a common body and when the body is well, it benefits the nation, society and home of each individual, and vice versa. I do not mean to criticize your views. This is not my intention. I am speaking in principle. Therefore, I do not want to interfere with shortcomings, whether social, political, cultural, or spiritual. This is not my assignment and it will not solve the problem either. When I enter the home of hungry people, I will not preach about God to them, saying that if they have faith and trust Him, He will provide food for them, and then leave them with that thought but hungry. No, I adhere to this principle: I always carry on my back a bag full of bread for those who are hungry and arguing so that I can tell them: Set the table, let’s sit down and eat. Then peace and tranquility will return to such homes. Today people have a wrong understanding of life. They say, “Let’s improve the society, the world.” All this is great, but how will you educate the society, your sons and daughters, the politicians, teachers, priests, and preachers? I would suggest you all to go and study the life of bees - they will teach you how you should educate others. When they want to have a queen, they prepare some special food for her; the food for the workers and drones is different. The bees have managed to organize their life much better than do people, who only philosophize. This is not a reproach, but an indication that we should study the surrounding Nature much more thoroughly. All Laws and models for prosperity can be found in Nature. With the Universal Love, we will attain an uplift of our consciousness. Feeling the vibrations and being able to hear the voices of all suffering people and to help them - it is both self-help and support for our nation and for the entire humankind simultaneously. Whoever has this feeling awakened and activated, being free of all material attachments, that one is able to project oneself everywhere in space and help everyone. You may ask, “How is it possible to help someone without touching that person?” I will answer this question with another one: Does the Sun, which is 93 million miles away from us, touch us with its fingers? No. Even from such a great distance, when it looks down, everything in nature begins to vibrate, grow, and bear fruit. Some may say, “Let’s raise our hand for a blessing.” Alright. But by raising your hand, you should also give what the Sun gives us every day. The Sun sends forth energy and strength to both the healthy and the ill. Some may wonder why we should concern ourselves with the Sun. I do not say to be concerned, but to make use of it. If someone does not feel well, he may take a sunbath; if he has lost his energy, he may bask in the sun’s rays; if he is disappointed in his ideal, if he has no idea how to work, he may stand in the sunshine to get warmed. Someone may object, “God will help us.” When you mention God, I want to ask you: What is God for you? God acts from within. When we experience God and He speaks to us, we come to love all human beings equally and we are ready to sacrifice for them. Christ said, “There is no greater love than this that man lay down his life for the sake of his friends.”[1] He was implying that when we love our neighbor, we should not consider him to be a sinner and try to save him, but rather treat him as a brother, a friend, creating for him the conditions necessary for living and growing. Do not think that you are going to delineate a new path of life. No. The path of life is already drawn for everyone and it has been strictly mathematically determined. It is determined for everyone what they will become, how they will live, and how their life will unfold. This is according to the Law of the continuous Causes and Effects. In the Divine Law of Love disharmony cannot exist. When we begin to understand Love as such a power, it will come to abide in us. Then we will become strong enough to correct all social shortcomings - not mechanically but through Love. The love of society directed to some person will transform the mind and give a new course to this person’s life. Therefore, when we say that God is Almighty, we mean the totality of the whole creation - all beings whose thoughts are affecting us as a creative power. What bad we have is not Divine: it is human. We have ourselves created the present unfavorable existence and its structure. If you ask me why God has created the world in this way, my answer is: I know that the world was created in a different way, but from what I see now, I can conclude that it has been ruined by people. All of you here who are listening to me have different beliefs of life. Not only you have your own concepts, but also mammals, birds, ants, plants - they all live according to their understanding. However, this is not the meaning of life yet; life is much richer and broader. The abilities and powers, which are hidden in the human soul, can be awakened under special conditions. Each of you can make a small experiment. What kind of an experiment? First, affirm that all conditions to become true humans are given to you. If you cannot use these conditions, it does not mean that these possibilities are not available; it means only that you have not found and applied the appropriate methods. Modern scientists and philosophers have tried for thousands of years to find the methods for the revival of the humankind. We have never had a religion providing immortality for the humankind. I say that the true Orthodox religion has not been presented yet in the world. When I say that, someone may ask me to which religion I belong. I answer: I do not confess any of the today’s religions, which are as a whole void of content and hollow. I will tell you which one I belong to defining it in a very short way: religion is the connection between Wisdom and Love. There is no better definition of religion than this. Those who have found the connection between Love, acting in their souls and Wisdom, acting in their minds are believers indeed being aware of the Divine Law and immortality itself. This faith makes us be God-like. How can a human being be like God? Overcoming death because God is immortal. Christ said, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”[2] The human being cannot become immortal if not perfect. Someone will ask, “Why did the saints die?” It is because they burdened themselves with the others’ wrongdoings. When we free ourselves of our wrongdoings, we are not going to die, but will attain the state of living in Love and Wisdom, which is the essence of this Teaching. A person who does not have Love and Wisdom cannot be truly religious and immortal. Understand me correctly: according to this definition, “overcoming death” means to be master of all conditions in life: to be equally joyful whenever you suffer or rejoice; to be impassive whenever you lose or gain. Whom do we venerate these days? Is it not the heroes who have suffered and died? Whom do we build monuments and lay wreaths to? Do we do this for the thieves and robbers, the wealthy millionaires, or the philosophers who possessed much knowledge? No. We pay honor and tribute to those who have suffered and sacrificed themselves for humankind. People of today often like to outsmart one another with sophisms about the existence of God and to ask, “Is there a God?” I do not resolve this question philosophically, but simply say that God exists in the same way as the Sun shines. Imagine that you stay awake at night and sleep in daytime when the Sun shines, waking up always at sunset, so if you study the world at night, after twenty years, you will say that there is no Sun. I tell you: Change your way of living. Go to sleep at night and stay awake in daytime when the Sun is shining - then you will see the Sun. The same happens to the wealthy people who have sunk under the weight of their riches. I do not judge them, but point to the reason of their misfortune. They are at the very bottom of the ocean so the sunrays cannot reach them. When can they be saved? By leaving their gold at the bottom of the ocean and going up. Is there any life on the surface? Yes, and much more beautiful life. These setbacks could be your wishes to acquire wealth, to take a high position, or to conquer the world. Free yourselves of such thoughts. Tell me who of the political leaders has improved life in Bulgaria? Who has improved England? Where is Ancient Greece or Rome in their glory? I do not argue that one should not have goals in life, but I say that we move in the wrong direction. We have a distorted understanding of life and it is time to put an end to all these false beliefs. Two Greek sculptors wanted to show their mastery. The first one sculpted a bunch of grapes so real that even the birds were tricked. The other sculpted a beautiful goddess, tucking such a delicate veil around her that the first sculptor asked him, “Take off the veil so that I can see her better.” This story shows that the one who sculpted the goddess was more skillful. But I ask: Did these artists not die as well? They did. You may understand each law very well; you may be a philosopher, a statesman, and so on. The art of these two sculptors is only the shadow of things. It is not the essence of Life. The essence of Life lies in our attaining harmony with it. We have not yet attained this harmony. I do not agree with the people of today saying that they have a true life. In fact, they do not really live, but mainly suffer and torment themselves. In my opinion, there are three ways of manifestations: toil, labor, and work. Our existence so far is one of toil, yet true Life begins with work. Work is related to the state of conscious living and understanding how to become master of yourself - of your mind and heart so that no one could affect you. It means that you have the Great Love, which is not only inspiring, but also acting as a constant stimulus for you in the same way as heat and light act upon the plant kingdom. I compare modern people (if you will excuse me for this comparison) to a mentally deranged scientist. He was placed in the big hall of a mental institution with fifty other patients. He engaged himself to bring straws, of which he made small piles that he moved all day long from one side of the hall to the other. Next day, he did the same again. People resemble this man and ask themselves why they are unhappy. It is because they are gathering straws. What is needed is the benevolent wind that will blow away all these straws and together with them, all misfortunes. We should treat our neighbors like the saint who was on his way to talk with God. When he passed by a rich man, the latter said to him, “Tell God that I have had enough of this wealth. May He take it away, so that I might be living like all other people.” “Very well,” replied the saint, “I will tell God.” He continued on his way and there he met a poor man who said to him, “Please tell God that I am tired of this life. I have had enough of walking around naked and barefoot. May He give me some clothing and change my living conditions.” “I will advise God about your plea,” said the saint. Arriving to God, the saint told Him about these two men. God said, “Tell the rich man to express his discontent complaining against Me and I will take all his wealth away. As to the poor man, tell him to express satisfaction with his life and then I will give him everything he wishes.” On his return, the saint told the rich man what God had ordered for him. But he replied, “How can I do that?” “In this case, your wealth will remain with you.” He passed by the poor man and told him what God had ordered for him. But he answered, “How can I be content with these bad conditions?” The wise man told him, “You will continue then to go naked and naked will you be buried.” You say that those who have passed away are already with God, but you still go to the cemeteries to offer prayers and pour wine for their souls. Can they be with God and in the cemetery at the same time? That one who is above should tell those who are below, “You only think that you will be dead. If you become thankful, you will resurrect.” Do not take what I am saying as a reproach or intent to rebuke anyone for their beliefs. I only point out those false attitudes toward Life, which have been introduced to us pushing us in the wrong direction and causing us to be in disharmony with Life itself. We want to live, but at the same time we prepare ourselves for death. The one who is observing the Law of Universal Love and Cosmic Consciousness will no longer pass through death. That one will be able to survive even if you pound nails into his hands and feet; put him on the cross or in the grave - yet, he will be able to stay alive. Those who have not learned the Great Law of Love - never will their stones be rolled off their graves. People of today constantly say, “We are sinners.” I do not wish to hear this anymore! What I know is that people are good by nature, deep in their core, but they become bad because of misconceptions and misused willpower. They seek happiness and think they will find it on the path they follow. But they will not find it there, the same way as their fathers and forefathers who have searched happiness on the same path have not found it either. Christ said, “He who hears the Voice of the Son of Man will live.”[3] What does it imply “the Son of Man”? It implies the Son of Wisdom and Love. He who has connected Wisdom with Love will resurrect. You, too, when you hear this Voice, will resurrect. This is what Christ was teaching. If you plant the Seed, which I have mentioned to you, not just passing it from hand to hand, but planting it in your hearts, the resurrection and the desired Life will come. Life will then enter in its natural Divine Course. I can advise all mothers who are listening to me how to have the sons and daughters they wish. To those young women and men who are listening to me, I can tell you more about the meaning of life. You will marry - marriage is a sacred institution. However, there are three kinds of marriage. The first is called a contracted union. The second is a master-servant type of relationship; this is to say, man is a master and woman is a servant, or vice versa. The third is a union in which man and woman live in love and wisdom; or, in other words, they live for each other. The wife will never say a bitter word to her husband; moreover, she will never look at him with anger even in situations when he makes the biggest mistakes. This wife will always be loving to her spouse. Only such a marriage will produce good children, sages, and saints who will serve the whole of humankind. If a woman who has conceived is inspired by some great ideas about humankind, she will pass good qualities on to her child. She is like God to her child, so she is capable of creating out of this dust whatever she desires. Yet, as soon as the baby emerges from her womb, this begins the child’s independence in thoughts and feelings. If, during the nine-month period of pregnancy, she has instilled the qualities of Love and Wisdom into the child, he will have a good attitude toward her for the rest of his life and will be ready to sacrifice himself for her. When a son asks his mother why he was born, I naturally conclude that during the pregnancy she or the father had prevailing negative thinking. Sons and daughters usually bear the thoughts of their parents. Modern science has also come to this conclusion. Certainly, in such general talk, I cannot go into depth or into more detail concerning that issue so as to explain the principle of it. We need schools to educate young people in these Great Laws in order to become good mothers and fathers and, at the same time, builders of the future society. There is a book written by a Bulgarian author: “Builders of Contemporary Bulgaria.” I think, this title is very good. Moreover, to know how to build represents a great and sacred deed. You probably doubt what I am saying. If you do, you make a mistake. Cast any doubts aside of your souls - because my doubts in you are also doubts in myself and your doubts in me are in fact doubts in yourselves. I have no doubt in you; I have all faith that, in the future, you will become very good people. Now some of you are still in the early stage and some others are not yet in the fields. But after thousands of years when I meet you again, you will be very different from your present state. You may say, “Are you sure we can meet again after so many years?” Of course, we are going to meet again and we will have a much better understanding than at present. Now you look at these things critically and tell yourselves, “This man who has come here to speak to us is hiding something. He may want to cheat us. This is a dangerous matter. We must be watchful.” You are right. If I were in your place, I would think the same. While traveling from Sofia to Tarnovo,[4] I sat next to a man on the train. I saw that he was touching his valet from time to time looking suspiciously at me and the other passengers around. He probably asked himself if we were perhaps the kind of people who liked to take and not to give; if he would reach into our pockets, or we - into his. I am not one of those who reach into people’s pockets. I can let you put your hands into my pocket and take whatever you can. Only when we begin to think like this, will the world improve. Abundance should exist in the world: abundance in minds, abundance in hearts. And we need to open our hearts widely for one another. I do not regard modern society as you do. Anyhow, it is going to die - no one can prevent this with the present way of thinking. In fact, it could be done, but how? By changing the conditions. I will give you an example. The Spanish influenza rage killed six million people worldwide and I was asked how people could heal themselves. I told them that I am not a medical doctor, but according to the Laws with which I am familiar, people should drink boiled hot water and eat warm potatoes; and after about seven or ten days, the crisis will pass. Now some people may ask, “Do you think that we are so naive as to eat hot potatoes and drink boiled water?” It is not that you are naive, but I am telling you a method of healing. Make an experiment. May all those who have tried this cure share the results. As to doctors, what did they do? They gave shots, but most of the ill departed for the World beyond. Within only seventeen days, seventeen hundred people died in Sofia. The people’s explanation was, “Oh, there has been a crisis, a complication, and so on.” I say: Those people should have drunk hot water and should have eaten boiled potatoes. Drinking hot boiled water is also a kind of a shot, but from within, not external. The thing is to know where the shot should be given. Now, if you ask how Bulgaria could be healed, I say to you: Drink hot water and eat warm potatoes. When I say “boiled water,” you should know where to take the water from. Take water from where the donkey would drink because it knows how to choose good water. If you use hot water, it will bring you all necessary elements and in this way, ninety percent of the contemporary issues that make people sick will disappear. So, boiled hot water and warm potatoes - this is a sign of Life in Love and Wisdom. And so, Universal Love will put us in touch with Life itself so that we can understand the meaning of every single thing: every flower, every tree, wellspring, mountain, home, and human being. It will reveal to us the great secret of Life so that we might understand our relationships with one another. When Universal Love comes into us, it will empower us: vanquishing heroes. You will make not only one experiment, but ninety-nine at least. And at the 100th time, you will succeed; there is no exception of it. Therefore, you need to be persistent. All this is true with life as well. If someone is ill or goes through some misfortune, it is mathematically determined how long it will continue. This is due to the fact that all diseases are caused by well known living organisms or microbes which existence does not comply with the living functions of the ill person. Disease will exist as long as we allow these microbes to live and deposit their byproducts in us. If someone asks me about murder in the world, I will say: Murder will exist as long as murderers exist. What about theft? Theft will exist as long as thieves exist. People are not born as thieves, but they become such because of their distorted attitude to Life. Murderers are children of the old culture. The harmful ideas, when instilled in someone, could devastate this person. Modern science proves that hypnosis exists and can cause someone to commit a crime. You know that many experiments are made with young people and it was found out that when they are placed in unfavorable conditions, their moral values cannot pass the “test.” However, Universal Love creates those favorable conditions in which all toxins in the society are being eliminated. Every discomfort, every bad thought, feeling and action are due to the vibrations of certain kinds of matter existing in us and being manifested in our life. Therefore, one should accumulate pure ethereal matter and organize one’s forces in order to manifest good desires and thoughts, and be good. Matter that is not organized is like soil for the germination of malefactors. The words “Those who listen to the Voice of the Son of Man will resurrect,” imply that those who understand the Law of Wisdom and Love will not be subjected to unfavorable conditions. If you live in a dark basement without sunshine, the conditions in this environment will naturally expose you to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, depression, and so on. Go out into the Sun because the favorable conditions are above the ground level. Free yourselves of excess dampness and you will create new conditions in your life. What is “dampness” in the human being? The excess of desires creates dampness. On the other hand, the excess of extreme thoughts creates dryness. It means that both dampness and dryness in their extremes give bad results in life. Now, supporting points for the human development can be found in the Universal Love that elevates the human consciousness. I will give you an example. You have hands, which you raise quite often and you also bend your fingers. Why are some fingers bigger, others - smaller? And why is the thumb standing apart? When the hand is to act, all fingers come together and the thumb comes on top to help them. A person can then grab a plow or any other farming tool and work. In a society created in the same way as the hand is, some people are merchants. The little fingers represent merchants or the practical people. The well-shaped ring fingers represent people of culture and science; the middle fingers - people of justice and politics; the index fingers - people of religion and personal life. The thumb represents the Divine World or what is the consciousness in the human being. All these fingers need to unite and act together. As far as the society and its political, cultural, and spiritual representatives have been divided, they cannot produce the same effect of working together as the human hands putting all fingers in action. To bring the fingers together, one must activate one’s willpower. When you apply your willpower to realize your ideas into the areas, which I have just mentioned, saying, “Come and help me” - all will come and will do miracles together like the fingers of the human hand. Therefore, a great philosophy is imparted to the human hand. Each time you look at your fingers, think about your relationships and the connection between Love and Wisdom. The thumb represents the Divine Principle that should be applied for the benefit of all individuals and the entire humankind; the index finger corresponds to the religious and personal life; the middle finger imparts the law and politics used for the good of humankind, it understands the miseries of life and creates the laws; the ring finger imparts culture; the little finger - material goods. The thumb is always ready for self-sacrifice and says to the other fingers, “If all four of you unite, I will support you; and we can do good.” Some speakers raise and wave hands while speaking, including myself. I also raise and wave my hand toward you. Why? By doing this, I am telling all of you to find out the connection between Love and Wisdom, recognize your rights and duties toward those close to you, find and apply the Great Principles of this Divine Science for the benefit of the society and elevation of the young people. In this way, you are going to improve your economic conditions so that there will be enough butter, vegetables, wheat, fruit - everything in abundance. This is what fingers of the hand indicate. If all people knew how to bend their fingers, they would be in quite a different situation. However, the Bulgarians know how to raise a fist menacing, “I can break your head,” and like the English and American boxers, they hit each other in the face. I will tell that one who raises his fist against me. “Behold, we could accomplish something good with you because we will come to an agreement. Come to me.” I would like to work with that one whose hand is in a fist. A baby will clench fists when it comes into the world so that to indicate, “I will grow up and conquer this world.” But when passing away, a person will open hands, as if to say, “I am dying, but I have accomplished nothing. God, forgive me!” Do you know what God’s answer is? “You did not know how to bend your fingers.” Why do you suffer? It is because you do not know how to bend your fingers. You ask, “Why is this misfortune in our home? Why does Bulgaria suffer? Should reparation be paid?” If you hold your hand open, reparation should be paid. But if you fist it, there will not be need to pay any reparation. “But what will our situation be in the future?” If you know how to hold your hands in fists, you will be a free, great nation; but if you do not know, you will be slaves as you have been until now. You may say that you are free, but you are not. You cannot be free neither as individuals nor as a society, nation, and humankind while you do not agree among yourselves and continue to pay others back, while you do not have loving relationships being ready to make some allowances and sacrifices for one another. Today, I ask you to remember and apply this: All Bulgarians should begin to exercise and bend properly the fingers of their right hand first. When they bend their fingers, they should know the meaning of this and say concentrated on the hand, “I can do everything that is related to the fingers and I will do it.” I would like to give you this idea: All Bulgarians should begin to bend their fingers: first the fingers of the right hand - the hand of Wisdom, and then the fingers of the left hand - the hand of Love. Try this for one year. Project your thoughts and your willpower into the actions of your hands and you will see the results. You may say, “We are not so naive.” You have done many stupid things so far. Is the person who is sitting in the pub with a glass of beer in front of him or who is smoking a cigarette doing a smart thing? Is the person who is reading newspapers containing barely one percent true information doing a smart thing? Yet what I said about the hands is ninety-nine percent true. Even when you read the newspapers and drink beer, you can still bend your fingers. But doing this, say, “I will not drink. I will not smoke. I will not be angry. I will not take revenge upon my friend.” Make a fist and say to your friend, “I will speak to you kindly.” Is this not a great philosophy? I teach you a Great Law in Life: How to bend your fingers, so that everything will work out for good. Keep this great idea within. At least try it out. Do not think it is my intent to lie to you. Make one small experiment and after one year when we meet again, you will tell me what happened. It is the easiest practice. I can give you other experiments as well, but they will cost you a lot. I do not want you only to bend your fingers, but also to think while doing so. You are desperate. You want to commit a suicide or to kill somebody. Bend your fingers and say, “No!” You are faint-hearted. Do the same. The whole secret is in your hands. To have hands is to be in a possession of the greatest blessing in the physical world. What does not come forth from the human hand! What beautiful sounds come from the violinist’s hand taking up the bow and from the virtuoso pianist playing the piano! If you know this Law, you will bend your fingers correctly and through every finger, you will send forth the respective flow of thoughts. If you impart all your power into them, it will have such an effect that you cannot imagine. We write with three fingers, but if we impart to them all of the power of our thought, then something completely different will come out of our pens. These are great secrets people knew before the Fall, which are now forgotten. You need to bend your fingers, but also to open your hands. What does opening of the hand upward toward space indicate? It indicates receiving of energy. When you take this power, immediately close your fingers and project it to your thoughts and desires - thus you will give a powerful impulse to your life. Say, “I want to polarize my hands from the Great reservoir of Nature where Wisdom and Love are hidden; I want to receive Love and Wisdom, and also to receive Good - the connection of unity, which operates among all people on Earth.” The meaning of the hug is the same: to give something from yourself, from your love and wisdom. When you give fraternal hugs to someone projecting your love and good thoughts, you will impart life force to that person. When a young man embraces his beloved in this way, he will give her living inspiration. Yet, those whose embrace is like an octopus and who are spiritually dead, cannot give anything, as nothing is left in them. Our hugs, how we open and close our hands has its specific meaning. They have the meaning which God has given them from the very Beginning and this meaning exists in Nature too. Whenever I have the chance to speak on this subject again, I will continue my lecture. Now I am leaving you with this thought: You who listen to me should learn and also teach those close to you how to bend your fingers and how to embrace in Love and Wisdom. This is the only way in which people’s lives, homes, and societies can improve politically, culturally, and spiritually. You should release the past and begin that Great Life, which I mentioned and which is heralded now to come into the world. From now on those who do not live by this Great Law, will have no more conditions to stay on Earth. Nature shows to those who do not want to take this Law into consideration that they need to depart from this planet. If you do not believe now in my words, you can check it and tell me after ten years whether it was true or not. A Great Law is now imposed on humankind as a whole, a Great consciousness is now awakening in the world: and that has never happened before. It is the striving of all human souls longing for freedom. Not only few individuals, but humankind as a whole is searching for freedom: every home, every individual, every culture, and every religion. This is the Divine Impulse moving forward the entire humankind. Religious communities should not just try not to stand in the way of this movement; they should also give it the right of way or they will risk being run over. This movement will bring such blessings, which the world has not seen yet; but for those who try to stand in its way, it will bring such tribulations, which they have never seen before. The Earth will shake so much that people will come to realize something different is coming into the world, which they have not experienced so far. The Intelligent Nature, too, might come to the end of her patience. Do not think that the world will continue in the same way it has followed so far. Say goodbye to your past. Someone says, “I earned much money and will set aside two thousand leva[5] for my funeral.” I am sorry that you are setting aside money for your burial. Someone else is saying, “I am leaving money in my will to the society for charitable purposes.” I am sorry that you are leaving money in a testament without having done something good while still alive. Whatever you intend to do, do it while you are still alive. After your death, what you leave behind is no longer yours and you have no rights to it. When you pass away, those who remain after you will use your money and property as they wish. This is the kind of nonsensical thinking with which you live and die and furthermore, you ask yourselves: why are all these misfortunes? Leave a trace of Love and Wisdom in the minds and hearts of your beloved ones because only Love and Wisdom have a genuine value. Things of great value are hidden in your minds and hearts. Do you know how much they are worth? Billions. Do you know how many millions of years it took for their development? Do you know how many millions of Sublime Intelligent Beings worked on the development of the human mind? You do not understand the wealth hidden in the brain that continues to live even after death, when the body starts decomposing. This is my point of view. I see people who live in a different way. You may ask, “How is it possible for someone to live after death?” Let’s say, for example, that you live like divers and you ask yourselves: Is it possible to live in different conditions? However, when you emerge on the water’s surface and take your diving suits off, you get to live like other people. At present we live like divers, but when we emerge on the surface we will begin to live in a different way. There exist thousands of ways in which to live. The one who puts up barriers to Life has not understood the basic Laws of the human soul and spirit. If the human being is born and dies only once, if it has come for the first time now, it would have been pitiful being. The human being who you see in front of you has existed for millions of years. For millions of years God has worked upon his soul and spirit. The soul is God’s daughter; the spirit is God’s son. Therefore, we shall deeply honor and venerate them. This is the new Divine Teaching proclaimed to the world, which will bring new life to the modern society. Lecture given by the Master Beinsa Douno on August 19, 1919 in the town of Veliko Tarnovo at the gathering of the disciples of the Brotherhood of Light. -------------------------------------- 1. See John 15:13. 2. See Matthew 5:48. 3. See also John 5:25, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” 4. Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of Bulgaria before Sofia 5. Lev, leva, BGN: Bulgarian currency.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Old Scribe "Then he said unto them, therefore every scribe, which is instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven, is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."[1] Christ defines the learned scribe by two of his qualities: he brings forth out of his treasure things new and old. In the same verse Christ adds the words, "which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven." By the "Kingdom of Heaven" in a broad sense, Christ means all the great laws which direct human life, for everything in nature is closely bound to the person and the person is closely bound to nature. All phenomena or forces in the world which apparently have nothing in common with our life, we call physical or inorganic. However, all these forces have a relation, not to the individual, but to the collective person. In this sense the bringing out of the old and the new out of the treasure has certain significance. The old means the past and the new the future. The old implies the mistakes of a person, while the new implies the benefits given to them. The learned scribe who studies nature and the life of people finds old things, the mistakes of people, and brings something new into the world. Therefore, in this sense, we can determine positively both the good and evil that come as a consequence of the past. Thus everything which is in disharmony, i.e. worn out, useless for work, is old. Matter which has lost its strength is considered negative, in other words no force can be manifested in it. Everyone has experienced these two states in themselves, namely bringing out old and new things out of their treasure. When a person loses the inner balance between their heart and mind, they begin to take out the old things which causes discontentment in them. Such is the state of the sick people who are always discontented with those who serve them. The healthy person, who has strength, is contented with everything. The laws which regulate both states - contentment and discontentment - are in harmony, for at a given moment your negative state corresponds to the positive state of some healthy person. At a moment when you suffer most, a being having some connection with you, is in the highest of spirits. This is a law existing in nature. Heaven and hell exist as two poles. Heaven is the new thing, while hell is the old. So that each one of you will experience both states in your life; I am not speaking of heaven and hell as you know them, but I am revealing to you a positive truth which seems abstract to you. These two states are necessary to the human spirit. You ask, "Why is it necessary for person to grow old and to be rejuvenated?" This is a process taking place in nature itself as well. Do not ask why this process exists, but rather consider what benefit you can draw from it. How would you define youth and age? An ancient sage said once, "If you are looking for strength you will find it in the young, the new people, but you will find wisdom in the old." Wisdom and strength are not one and the same thing. Strength implies the human will, while wisdom, the human mind. Therefore, you have two opposite poles: the mind is up in heaven, while the will is down on earth. If you want to be old and wise, you must be up in heaven, but if you want to be young, you must be down on earth. That is why if we change the relation of things and place the old person on the physical plane, but the young up in heaven, we produce disharmony. In such a case you will draw a wrong conclusion and think that all people in heaven are old, while all people on earth are young. But such is not the case. By "youth" I do no have in mind only the external relations, but the inner growth of person. The same thing can be observed in nature. On March 9th, a growth begins which lessens toward June 20th or the beginning of July when the condition of rest in nature sets in. Whatever changes take place in nature, can be observed in our life as well. If we do not understand what takes place within us, as individuals, i.e. if we do not understand our mind and will; we often get stuck in contradictions in life which we call "fate", in which some people would be fortunate and others unfortunate. Some think that certain forces help them, while others think that the same forces work against them. Of course, if you go along the tide, it will aid you; but if you go against a current, it will oppose you since you are at odds with it. This current has nothing against you, but wants to say that if you go contrary to it, you will suffer, because the forces directing your life are in contradiction with your own self. When someone has no success in life, it shows that their thought is contrary to their will. This applies to both the individual and the social life of the person. I am speaking of the events taking place in Europe today which have been determined thousands of years ago. Contemporary humanity has been in contradiction with the current for millions of years and since contemporary European culture has come into contradiction with this natural trend, it is struggling today to find its way. As a consequence of this, a fierce struggle is taking place in which many victims will fall. Nature is indifferent to the number of victims - whether they be one, two or millions. I say it makes no difference to nature for it is not interested in our toys. When we build cities full of houses and temples, thinking this is culture, nature does not care about it and can destroy it in a moment. Nature has created moths and dust which destroy even our finest textures. Besides it has created various harmful elements which constantly destroy our organism. In the distant past before humanity deviated from the right direction of its culture, people had right ideas of the laws regulating the development of our life. This growth can be determined mathematically by the use of compasses. For instance, I measure the length of a person’s nose and see that it is 4 centimeters long; another person’s nose is 5 centimeters and so on. Then by the same compasses I measure the chin of several persons and the length is different in them. The same way I measure the forehead and find that someone’s forehead is 3 centimeters, another one’s is 4 or 5 centimeters and so on. You may ask, "What is the relation of all this?" The relation is important for if someone’s nose is short and wide, it shows that the energies in their organism are in a state of tension and the slightest touch may cause an explosion in them. If a person’s chin is very broad and long, it shows that the energy of this person is not only very tense, but also very active and wherever this person passes, they will cause destruction. The lower part of the chin - the one below the nose - characterizes the human will and the way it would be manifested in the physical world. Observe the chin of some great military commanders and generals. You can determine if a person is young or old by their chin. Only the young people fight and not the old. The ratio of an old person to a young one is 1:100. An army of young men can conquer an army of 100,000 old men. When I say that the future of the earth is in the hands on the young, I am right, for this world was created for people who like to fight. Heaven was created for old and wise people. In the higher world 1,000 old men are equal to 100,000 young men which shows that the relation there is reverse of that on earth. You may ask me, "What is the relation between the young and the old people?" In the spiritual world the old people are only the point of support around which, similar to the hand of a clock, the pendulum of the young person revolves. By the time a young person has walked a hundred miles, an old one has not passed even a kilometer. Therefore, the young people are the hands of the clock. In this world the old people do not move, therefore, do not expect any culture of them on earth. Mental and spiritual culture about which we speak, cannot exist here on earth. The greatest upsurge in culture can be effected only when people are caused to bleed. The more bleeding, the greater the culture attained. People of the twentieth century began to consider themselves very cultured and say, "We people of this age do not shed our blood, only the people of the past did this." However, the present war disproved this theory and showed that young people always shed their blood, and the younger they are, the more blood they shed. Since people today are very young, they cause the greatest destruction. People today can be likened to caterpillars that devour everything. And this scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven brings out of his treasure, things new and old and says, "Thus says Christ." Of what use are these new and old things to him? When you take your old clothes out of a wardrobe, you have something in mind, you want to see if they are still fit to wear. When you take out the new clothes, you intend to find out if moths have not eaten them, don’t you? When the scribe brings out the new and old things, he has some reasonable idea. He does not solve a silly problem as the story goes about a king of old. This king wanted to find a person who would tell him a story without an end. He started looking for some philosophers who might satisfy his wish. He promised a great prize for that purpose, but could not find such a person. Finally a wise man came to the king and said to him, "I shall tell you a story without end." "All right, here is the man I have been looking for," said the king. And the wise man began his tale. "There was a king in old times who disposed of thousands of acres of land. It was all sown with wheat and since the year was very fertile, his fields yielded a great amount of grain. The king gave orders that a great stone barn be constructed to store up the wheat. However, the builders left a small hole in this barn and a cricket managed to enter through that hole and carry out the wheat grain by grain. The cricket took a grain and carried it to his hole and returned for a second one. He took a second grain, carried it to his hole and returned for the fourth grain..." "Enough of that!" cried out the bored king, "Go on, is there no end to this carrying out of the grains and to the whole story?" "Wait until all the wheat is taken out of the barn, then the story will end too." People today want to know the end of things but I say, "Wait until all the wheat is carried away and then will come the end." The scribe engaged in the study of the Kingdom of Heaven does not spare time for such silly theories. The repetition of one and the same thing is not knowledge. We say that we must test things and learn from experience, but we have a sufficient amount of experience so that if we should take millions of grains out of the barn, we shall not learn anything new. You say to yourselves, "Let us see what new things the Master will tell us today" and you are right. The size of your nose will determine the volume of your feelings, the length of your chin will determine the strength of your will and the height of your forehead - the quality of your mind. Some say that a person with a small forehead can be intelligent just as well, but this is not true. In geometry what is the relation between the straight lines, the sharp angles and so on? If the sharp end of an angle is placed in your mouth, it will open, won’t it? Therefore, the opening of your mouth will determine the degree of your appetite. The wider you open your mouth, the hungrier you are. However, if the angle is turned outwards, it shows you are at rest. As we judge by the nose whether it is straight or curved upward or downward, by the same law we determine our feelings. If the nose is broad, the heart will have a certain disposition, but if it is flat, the state of the heart will be quite different. If your lips are thin or thick, your stomach will be in two different states. The condition of your stomach can also be determined by your cheeks - if they are hollow or bulging. Thus, the outer person is an expression of the inner one. Every one of your thoughts is stamped on your face. Your virtue can also be determined by your face - its place is above your upper lip. If you are cross-eyed it shows that you are of a double nature. If the angle of your sight points upward or downward, these are two different states. If your eyes are wide open, you are easily impressed, but if they are slightly open, you are less impressionable. Whether your eyes are closer or farther from your nose is of importance too. Every person’s eyes have been placed by God with geometrical accuracy. Every person is created after a model determined by the Higher Forces. Every person’s face bears in minutest details the marks which determine not only their present life, but their past and future lives as well. If people today could read the Divine Book on the human face, which every person possesses, thousands of misfortunes could be avoided. Christ warned all His followers to avoid the mistakes of their past. Someone says, "Let us test our life." You would better have your picture taken to see if you will like yourself. Present-day photographers try to represent people more handsome than they are by correcting their picture. Do not erase the Divine Script! You should not smooth out a person’s features for an old person cannot become young and vice versa. Christ says, "There are incompatible things." Only a learned person who observes things as they really are can understand the relations among different parts. In mathematics there are certain formulae by which certain quantities can be transformed into others. For instance, the heat which 100 tons of coal can produce can be turned into a dynamic force, but one should know the methods of doing this. This knowledge is concealed from people today for if they knew it, they would use it improperly and cause thousands of misfortunes to humanity. What do we need this knowledge for? If we understand people by their external appearance, we would know at once that a person is in a state of tension. Then we would avoid them without adding more coals to their fire, or let some of their steam off and lessen their energy. We should add fuel to people whose energy has decreased and give them an incentive. We know how to supply fuel on the physical plane, but how fuel should be supplied in the mental and spiritual worlds, is something we do not know, yet we can learn. There are people who have lost the meaning of life and wish to remain always young, since they find meaning in life only in being young. When you make a deep study of the occult sciences, you will find out that a person is not composed only of one kind of matter, but of different kinds of substances and states. Thus, in all atoms and ions in their composition, there is gradation. At present there are 49 states of the atoms on the physical plane. Every state can produce a certain result in the feelings and thoughts. And the more the coefficient of your state changes, the more active your feelings and thoughts become. People are very nervous today, but this is due to the increase in their energy. That is why this energy must be transformed and transmitted to a higher state of matter. You often speak of raising your children. In Bulgarian the word "breed, raise" means to "nourish." The same way bees take care of nourishing their queens. When they want to nourish a queen they choose special food for it; but when they want to nourish workers, they give them a different kind of food. They do the same for the drones. The drones are the players in a hive. A hive cannot go without drones, just as a society cannot exist without musicians. You say drones are not necessary. No, a hive cannot do without players. You say there are many drones in your life, but I call them players. Every hostile thought is a player, an unpleasant tune. You ask, "Why are these thoughts and sufferings which they bring us so unpleasant?" Because you are ill, but when you get well, you will come to like these players as these sufferings renew a person. I now shall revert to Christ’s thought. The scribe is that teacher who knows the laws. What do present-day teachers and clergy know about people? The teachers must make use of mathematics in order to come to know people by their foreheads, noses and so on. Those engaged in mathematics should study these formulae and use geometry to determine the meaning of the curved line and so on by studying the smallest angles as well as the biggest ones;. It is assumed that the curved line is formed by turning a line around its axis and when a curved line is turned, a sphere is formed. What does this sphere mean? The sphere is an expansion, a broadening of your thoughts and feelings. If you lived in a world moving in a single direction, you would not have any development. This is a world only of a single one-dimensional circle. If two beings meet, they cannot pass each other. This is so because even-diversion implies expansion. How would these two beings pass in such a case? One must pass over the back of the other. That is why the Bulgarians say of someone dragging along that they must be patient when others pass on their back. These are people who move in a single dimension. This, however, cannot show us the true way of life. Christ concealed something in every thought He spoke. He said, "I can tell you many things, but you cannot bear them now." These things will be revealed to people when they become cultured so that they can understand them. The Americans have progressed in their understanding of these laws. For instance, when a couple wants to marry they do not send matchmakers, but go to a phrenologist to study their heads to see if they are in harmony to live together. Then they visit a physiognomist and an astrologer and if all the data is favorable, they marry and lead a happy life. Therefore, when people marry there must be positive relations among their brain centers. If there is a wrong interchange of energies between the female and the male brains, a nervous state will ensue. The reason for that is the fact that in one or the other a quantity of energy remains as a surplus and causes evil. That is why a woman dissatisfied with her husband should try to find a man in whom she would deposit her surplus energy and an exchange of energies would take place, so that there should be no loss. But this should be done is a spiritual way between these two persons so that by finding an outlet for this surplus energy, harmony should be restored between the spouses. A husband who does not understand the state of his wife says, "You cannot have friendly relations with another man," and disputes and quarrels begin. The wife acts the same way with her husband who looks for a more elevated woman outside his family with whom he could form spiritual relations and thus have an outlet for his surplus energy. But the old disputes and quarrels begin. I say to such people, "You have started badly and will end badly, because like the scribe you did not see what you had in your bag." The man and the woman are two scribes who do not understand the laws, yet must act like the scribe. That is why when you are marrying, take out the old and the new that you have at your disposal. Before a young couple gets married, both of them say that everything in their bags is in order; but after marrying they open their bags and find out differently. All this concerns present-day life and if the Bulgarians want to correct their lives, they must consider these laws. Sometimes I ask myself, why do I open the sore spots of people and thus make enemies? But if your leg is sprained and you call an experienced person to massage it, no matter how carefully they may do this, they will cause you some pain. Is that person who is wishing to heal you to blame for causing you pain? When you are healed, you will thank the person who massaged your leg. When you are well, you send for the doctor who examines you and prescribes some bitter medicine that you dislike; but this makes you start considering the doctor as your enemy. That is why children who have taken bitter medicine do not wish ever to hear of a doctor. If a boil gathers, you go to a surgeon and he makes a section with his instruments and presses out the puss. By doing that he causes you pain, but he is not to blame. I wish you all were good massagers and surgeons who could do your work the best way you can by all the rules of this art. If a man has surplus energy, let him place it in another woman reasonably; the woman should do the same in such a case, but do it nobly and sensibly. It is necessary that there should always be a spiritual exchange of energies in order that there may be growth, peace and harmony. The Bulgarians know this way of exchanging energies that is why, at times, they have fairs. People from ten or twenty villages get together, thus exchanging their surplus energy and getting healed. Everyone goes home satisfied. Some say, "We do not want old things, we want new things." But in the new there will not be such a result. I have watched how the Bulgarians of old cook beans. They throw away the first water after boiling the beans for some time and finish boiling them in the second water. The first water is not good, but people today say that there is no sense in doing this - only a waste of fuel. A German or an English doctor would give the same advice - the first water is not good and should be thrown away. I wish Bulgarians would turn to the old folk traditions, which rest on very important psychological laws and give good results. Christ says that the learned scribe is like a housekeeper who takes out of his treasure the new and the old. Science today follows the same path. All new scientific discoveries are not well investigated yet to find in them those truths that were known to peoples of old. For instance, radium is a recent discovery, but the causes of its peculiarities are not known yet. The vital energy in nature and in all elements, called "prana" or vital "airs" by the Hindu, has not yet been discovered. Such energies are part of our body, of the elements of oxygen and hydrogen, yet they are not these elements. The oxygen and hydrogen are mere bearers of these energies. Not having proper notions of all phenomena and transformations happening in nature, we create a warped culture. We criticize incessantly this person or that for not living a right or proper life or for lacking good breeding. I ask, "Which are the rules of good life so that we can apply them?" There should be no criticism in Christianity, only knowledge and virtues. Criticism should rest upon such an inner understanding that it would be able to transform and rectify our life. Until then, the Europeans should make at least a hundred trial runs in implementing the new culture and the new forms of government. The relationship of servants and masters has derived from that of children to their parents. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters give rise to all disharmony in the world. If the mother forces her daughter, the daughter will then treat the mother the same way. Later in life, the daughter will have the same attitude toward her servants as her mother had toward her. The servants and masters came into existence after this same hierarchy for they did not understand this great law. The father takes the place of that old man-sage, while the son takes the place of the strong man. The father says, "I shall take the place of that point of balance around which you will turn and move in thousands and millions of directions. You can do anything you want to, but do not separate yourself from this point of balance." If the son considers his father foolish and separates himself from him, everything is spoiled. In such a case the father is not strong and by that the son looses. However, the son is strong, yet he is not wise. Children are attracted to their parents because they have need of their wisdom and experience. That is why parents should begin to draw out the old and the new from their bags in order to see what they can give to their children. The parents must know what food to give their children on Monday, Tuesday and so on, for food helps the formation of people. Take a person of the highest culture and start feeding them the coarsest food and you will change their life. Feed a rude person on the finest food and in ten years they will change their way of life. I am glad that lately different new trends closer to nature have come into existence, such as vegetarianism. However, this is still not a correct idea of a diet, for nature has created all kinds of food and each person should eat the foods specially suited to their organism. Every person, every society and every nation should choose the most appropriate food that gives the best results. The inordinate extermination of mammals creates an anomaly in nature. Most illnesses are due to this extermination of animals and birds. Since this extermination bars their evolutions, all forces assigned to their benefit remain unused and this creates chaos that in its turn causes different illnesses. Do you know what takes place after the arbitrary flow of the animal blood? Its vapors form different serums and cultures harboring harmful viruses that cause all the evils in the organic world. For the balance in nature to be restored, 100,000,000 kilograms of human blood had to be spilled in order to compensate for the blood the animals have shed. But in the present war about 200,000,000 kilograms of human blood was shed. Some may ask me to prove this fact. I have a number of arguments about this and can see that the laws in nature are right concerning your life as well. If you beat and offend your father, see if after that you will have the same good disposition as before. Especially if you are a poet, try to write something worthy after that. Also if a playwright or a novelist who beats his wife should try to write something fine, let them see what will come out of it. A woman who has tried to poison her husband loses her beauty. If two young people should promise each other marriage but their promise proves foolish, they should not fulfil their vow. If I should promise to meet 100 people today and have an intelligent conversation with all of them, it would be impossible for me to fulfill my promise. The desire to fulfill one’s promise that cannot be fulfilled is dictated by the ambition of an honest person, but on the other hand, an honest person is one who thinks and acts right. Now you men and women are this learned scribe and the old and the new you take out of your bags are your sons and daughters. If a mother gives birth to an incapable, quick-tempered child - that is the old garment. If she understood the law, she would have born an intelligent child which is the new garment. But on the physical plane this intelligent child finds they are in an inappropriate environment. They want to work and have self-expression, but their mother does not permit the child to work, to meet other children and so on. Can you not give work to your small boy or girl? Give your little girl dolls to play with and learn something by that. Often the father says, "I have no time to bother with children, I must get my sermons ready and fulfil my duties." You may preach much, but you should learn a lesson from each sermon. When you feel a certain indisposition in your stomach, it shows there is disharmony among the people around you. When you feel your chest heavy, it shows you are in disharmony with the hearts of those around you. When there is pressure in your head, it shows you are not in harmony with the thoughts of others. When you feel indisposed in your room, go out and change your place and your condition will alter too. If you are in a society where you feel bored, leave it and visit a meeting or join a horo[2] and do not think people are bad. You say, "We are religious people and it is not proper for us to join a horo." But is it proper and right in the face of God to chop meat for meatballs, to have an injection or take quinine, or for a man and woman to quarrel? Which of our actions is right, in harmony with God? Are not all our actions ungodly, i.e. imprudent? And we consider ourselves idealists. You say, "Down with the materialists!" We speak about God and fill our purses; we read to the sick and insure ourselves. Priests, teachers, judges - all consider themselves in the right place, but like the scribe they have lost knowledge of the great law to recognize things. I call a good person the one who would be able when meeting me to change my bad disposition. For instance, I meet a woman and start talking with her; if she has surplus energy and this conversation transforms my bad disposition, she is a good woman. And if that woman has produced a good disposition in you, it means there has been a right interchange of your energies. If two negative persons meet, nothing will come out of that; they are not for each other. Make your observations and conclusions among religious people. I am testing this law now with mathematical precision. That is why Christ says, "This learned scribe - you must know what your mind, heart and stomach give birth to." Some religious people say that "the Lord must destroy the belly." Yes, the belly is something uncontrollable, but the stomach is a fine pony, which must be fed with very good food. But our stomach today is very unfortunate for we mistreat it. A Bulgarian man, John, visited a friend’s house. The peasant welcomed him and gave him some brandy to drink, but the guest refused to drink. The peasant insisted telling him to drink for his wife’s sake. John drank for the wife’s sake; then he was forced to drink for the children’s sake and so on, until he got so drunk that he could hardly stand on his feet. Then he went to a fountain to water his horse. The horse drank as much as he could and then stopped. His master insisted on his drinking more, but the horse would not. Then the man said to himself, "Dear me! The horse is wiser than me! It wouldn’t drink for anybody’s sake even a drop more - unlike me who drank so much!" We must eat, drink, think, feel and act as much as is necessary - this is the future science - to give freedom to the human mind, thought, feelings and will. You mothers, who have washed the ears of your children so many times, can you tell by them how long your children will live? When I look at your ear, I know by it how long you will live, what illnesses you will come down with and what you will die of. I can know the same things by your nails - all illnesses are shown on them. It is a written book. Sometimes when you see yourself in the mirror, you do not like your lips for they are pale - it shows you are anemic. Some have red lips and the doctors say they have an abundance of red corpuscles. The thin lips show you are bankrupt in feelings or you are a miser. Sometimes a young girl makes her lips thin intentionally by pressing them. The young man considers that a good sign as she would not lend her feelings to other men. Thin lips are an evil, but thick lips are another kind of evil. According to a person’s height there should be a correspondence between the breadth of the chest, of the lips and of the forehead. If we are bearers of divine ideas, our progeny will be created after all the rules of science and they will love us. That is why Christ says, "This scribe started taking the things out of the bag now." What does a thick neck signify? If a person is short and has a short, thick neck, it means that they will not live long. If they overeat some night, the next day the news of their sudden death will spread. If a person is 175 centimeters tall, but their neck is 34 centimeters they suffer from weak chest. Someone says, "My fiancee has a thin neck." It would be better if her neck was thicker. She should not marry, not being able to become a mother. You will ask me, "What do these things have to do with Christianity?" They are of great importance for the essence of Christianity is to know how to read in ourselves the good and the evil. "Old" implies all the mistakes deposited in us; but "new" implies all the good that is in us. When we know all these things, we shall be able to combine them in order to create a good life according to this knowledge. In the future, schools must be open to the study of the eyes, the ears, the upper and lower parts of the head, the foreheads, the noses, the chins, then the stomach, the tissues, the nervous system - whether it is responsive or not - and so on. When we have all this data, we shall be able to create good people. When we know all this, we shall be able to choose the right people to make our clothes, our shoes and so on. There are people whose energy is very oppressive and I would not have my clothes made by them. Such clothes will create bad disposition in the person wearing them. There are people who, building a house, leave the worst thoughts and feelings in it. That is why all who live in it die. I would not allow a teacher or a priest who has such evil thoughts to enter my house. I would not allow such a priest to say prayers either. These are not only statements but results of observations. Have your clothes made only by a person you like. When you enter a shop buy something only from the person you like. An old Bulgarian who has several daughters-in-law says, "I want my bread made by the youngest daughter-in-law." Why? He knows why he wants bread from the youngest woman. When she kneads the dough, she will impart her living energy to it and fill it with good thoughts. If the oldest daughter-in-law makes the bread, the stomach of the old man will suffer disorder. If the housewife is demagnetized, she will cause only disorder in the house, so her husband should hire a healthy woman to do all the housework and send his wife to some resort to restore her health. Never allow a nervous, dry person to cook for you; but rather find a plump, healthy, happy person for that work. This is the meaning of the scribe taking out the old and the new things from his bag, showing the causes of the sufferings in our life. When a young man marries a dry young girl, he should know that nothing will come out of it. The analogy is the same for the spiritual world. People who are very dry have no sublime spiritual understanding. They are not from the Divine World for the simple reason that they contain many acids which cause extreme activity. The plump people, however, are like alkali. The dry are active, the plump are passive. The world, however, is not created only by alkali and acid - there is something intermediate: the children. Begin to take out the new from the old, but before that measure your nose, your chin, the upper and lower lip. Examine your eyes and see why sometimes they are more widely open than at other times, or why at times they are clearer and at times darker and so on. There is an interrelation among these things. If you study things this way, you will come to a state to understand the inner meaning of life. The occultists say about someone’s feelings that their astral body is not in right relation to their physical body; or, that the mental body is not in right relation with the physical brain. I substitute the mental body by the brain, the astral by the lungs, the physical by the stomach, and say that the relation among the stomach, the lungs and the brain is not proper. Therefore, observe people’s ears and see if they have many folds and whether they are broad or narrow. Watch the eyes as well of those who are quite old and of those who are young. Now if these educative methods are applied correctly in the family life as well, husbands and wives will immediately attain mutual understanding. This is the teaching Christ has bestowed on present-day humanity. Men and women who want to marry should not have the same temperament or the same brain; their fingers and noses must not be alike. This is the new and old in the world. If a man has long fingers, his wife’s fingers should be shorter. When you chose a house-maid, see to it that the same applies to her and her mistress. Every person is born for a certain activity which corresponds to their preferences for a job. Some Americans are well aware of this and when they select a house-maid, they take her for an examination at a phrenologist and he tells them if she is suitable for the job or not. The same way all insects and animals have been created by God for some certain special work. When a person finds the place they have been assigned, they are happy; otherwise they feel unhappy. That is why in the future there should be schools for examining people with whom we wish to work, avoiding thus a great number of misfortunes. People who live according to these laws of nature suffer less. But those who do not live so are persecuted by fate. Think about this scribe and meditate on the old and new things. You cannot raise the whole world, but you can help yourself and your dear ones. If your lips are pale, pray that they may become red; if your nose is flat, start breathing deeply that it may be broadened; if your eyes are dim; pray that they may become clear. The negative side must become positive. If you have palpitation of the heart, it shows that there is a split in your feelings. Put more love in your heart, give free vent to your feelings and the palpitations will stop. The suppression of feelings causes changes in the brain; the brain causes changes in the blood circulation which in turn affects the stomach and so on. Palpitation is the result of the struggle between two feelings. Do away with the struggle and the palpitation will disappear. If you have a headache, chase away the thought that is ailing you, reconcile the contradictory ideas and it will vanish. A bankrupt merchant starts worrying and gets headache. Avoid the counteraction of thoughts and feelings and you will be healthy. To control ourselves and help others - this is science, will power, Christianity, culture, religion. When we meet nervous people, we try to avoid them but instead we should try to influence them in a certain way. When someone commits a crime, they are treated similarl, being immediately sent to prison. However, judgement should be passed according to the rules of this scribe who takes out the old and the new things. We should reform in this spirit the schools, courts and the present order that we may rejuvenate everything - including family life - and be all happy. This is what the Lord wants. In the past people thought that religious people should walk with heads bowed. Anyone who walks with a bent head looks like a question mark or comma because their head is very full and they ought to pay, ought to give, much. Those who raise their heads up have them empty, and nothing can be taken from such people. Scolding is a sign of old age. Today people are scolding and quarreling all the time. People quarrel daily in the tram about who should sit, where should they sit, and then they capture positions only to abandon them shortly afterwards. The new teaching states that we should not waste our energy arbitrarily but use it exactly in its place. Otherwise the doctor will visit such a house and call its people neurasthenics, hypertonics, maniacs, etc. Such people, in my opinion, suffer from lack of energy which has been wasted. This is anemia. Put your thoughts, your feelings and your will in concord and try to create your future life from the old and the new. Sermon delivered on June 29, 1919 in Sofia. -------------------------- [1] Matthew 13:52 [2] a Bulgarian country dance in a circle (transl. note) This is confusing: Page 7 middle of page: If two beings meet, they cannot pass each other. This is so because even-diversion implies expansion. Page 9 2nd paragraph: All new scientific discoveries are not well investigated yet to find in them those truths that were known to peoples of old. Near bottom of Page 15: To control ourselves and help others - this is science, will power, Christianity, culture, religion.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Least Commandment "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."[1] There are great and small Commandments, great and small Laws. Christ says, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments or laws, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that shall fulfill the Law, shall be called the greatest." Take into consideration the fact that the Laws Christ speaks about are not created, but exist eternally and every culture and cosmic manifestation is due to them. Our morals also depend on the way we comprehend these Laws. Philosophers of today say that people’s conceptions are relative, in accord with their outlook. This is partially true, but if our conceptions are vague that does not prove that there are no Absolute Laws in the world which regulate human relations. What is Right is right for all ages; the Good is good for all ages; Love is love for all ages and so on. We may have different concepts of good, right, love, etc. but this is so far as we are concerned and not in relation to the Great Universe which contains everything within Itself. Evil starts from the point where the small laws begin. We may think that all sufferings come as a result of the breaking of the small and great laws, however, I am not going to explain in detail the causes and effects of breaking a single law. This is a complex question about which many dissertations have been written. I shall talk only about two conditions of the great and the small requirements of the Great Law. In one of His talks Christ says that those who are not faithful in the least are not faithful in the great, while they that are faithful in the least, are faithful also in much. Someone says, "This is a small law, why should I fulfill it? I shall fulfill the great Laws." But a person who is not ready to fulfill the small laws, will not be in a state to fulfill the great Laws as well. The fulfillment of a law may often be effected in a purely material, physical way. The state has its laws by which all citizens are obliged to fulfill their duties. The Bulgarians are characterized by great bravery and often oppose the fulfillment of the laws, but when they see the rod, they give in at once. There is an anecdote about the Bulgarians during the Turkish yoke. They used to get together in the village around a dunghill and talk quietly in a friendly way. While talking some would whittle at a stick in large cuttings since they are brave and heroic. Someone would say, "Do you know, brothers, that the tax-gatherer has arrived in our village to collect the taxes?" "So what!" another one puts in still whittling at the stick in large cuttings, "We shall not pay him." "Yes, but those who opposed him were beaten and tortured by him." "Then we shall take care to collect the money some way or another and pay our tax," and they start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is how we act also, while we are strong and healthy, we speak and whittle at the stick in large cuts; but as soon as we fall ill, we start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is the mechanical fulfillment of this law: we must fear the rod in order to fulfill it. Such is the fulfillment of laws today everywhere: in our private, social, political or spiritual life. Thus the laws are fulfilled today not by our wish, not out of consciousness of our duty, but by force. That is why anyone who breaks the laws is punished by being deprived of their inheritance, or by being ostracized from society or some kind of association. Everywhere, compulsory measures are applied for the fulfillment of this law. You will say, "Doesn’t every nation have its own ideas and conceptions?" Yes, every individual, every family or society may have its own conceptions, but they do not change that Divine Law on which our growth depends. As long as we are in accord with this Law of which Christ speaks, there will be an upsurge in our thoughts and feelings and an expansion in our will; then we shall easily come to a mutual understanding. And this state will last as long as we are in accord with the small and great laws. However, the moment we violate consciously or unconsciously one of these laws, small or great, our balance will be shaken. We cannot understand the cause of our disturbance - things seem to go wrong and we are discontented so we seek the cause of all this in other people. Material things may also be a cause of our unbalanced state. For instance, you are a spiritual or a cultured person but while passing by a shepherd tending to his grazing sheep, you think, "What a nice meal one can make of these lambs!" You take a lamb and kill it. After a short while an unexplainable sadness comes upon you. Or a rich person notices a child and thinks, "Something may come out of this poor child," and sees the child through school. I take the lamb as a symbol of all our wrong actions, so I am not speaking of meat eating. We consider ourselves very cultured people, but in spite of that the whole world is suffering and the Jews have no end of suffering. Today all are asking what the causes of suffering are. Some think the rich people are to blame, others think the rulers are to blame and so on; but in reality the cause of our sufferings are the small lambs we have eaten. If you eat one of these lambs, all in your family will have troubles all your life. You have violated one of the least commandments and you will be the least in the Kingdom of God. You will ask me, "What are we to do having eaten so many lambs?" "You will be the least in the Kingdom of God." "Isn’t there one exception at least?" There is not. But those who have fulfilled the least commandments, who have not coveted one lamb, will be greatest in the Kingdom of God. I take the word covet in a bad sense. All sufferings in the world are the results of bad desires, because they evoke bad thoughts which have an ill effect on our brain and heart and are harmful to our organism in general. In such cases the doctors say that our blood is poisoned and so on. This is right, but it is the food we absorb that determines the quality of all our actions. Someone may object "Could a person live without desires?" I am not saying that one should not have any desires, but in their desires they must learn the Great Law by which they should act. They should know if what they desire is good for them, for their close ones, for their nation, for the whole humanity and then give vent to their desire. The living organism should not be created for a short term, which is of no importance. You give life to a child, but hardly a year or two have passed, and the Lord takes this child from you. You weep and wonder why your child died. The cause of this is your desires; the violation of the least laws which has made you the least in the Kingdom of God. By the word "least" is meant a weak person who yields to all kinds of temptations and influences. A weak person has no definite or stable morals and that is why they say: "We shall pass this life one way or another." Can the existence of a swine be called life - a swine in a pigsty fed by her master three or four times a day. The swine thinks there is no better life than hers and no better master than hers. I am asking you, "What is our present life in relation to our future one?" In order to become great in the Kingdom of God, a great desire must be born in us to raise ourselves as thinking beings and to fulfill the great Divine Law in all its fullness. All writers today state that in order to become great, one must have a strong will and fulfill the least law completely without violating it. We often assume the stance of that American whose duty was to open and close a draw-bridge when trains would cross it. He lived in a tower on the bridge, but once he did not close it so many trains were amassed waiting for a free passage. He said, "Today I am the master in complete control here and when I say that the trains should pass, that is the time for them to start." How was that man treated? They sent people to dismiss him and placed another one there who would close the bridge. This is how you act - you open the bridge and do not close it saying that you are in complete control and all depends on you. After some time, however, the Lord will send His delegation who will remove you from your place. Then you are the least in the Kingdom of God. Who is the least? Who does not fulfill the Will of God in their heart, in their mind, in their soul or in their spirit. Have you ever heard how a young couple in love converse when they are out in nature before marrying? They promise each other very fine things and say sweet words. I have a well developed sense of hearing and have often heard their whole conversation. If these young people fulfill everything they promise one another, the Kingdom of God will be restored in their life in all its fullness. But what happens as soon as they marry? They start with a new slate, forget all the promises given, begin to violate the least commandments and misfortunes follow them and their life is spoiled. Which is the cause of these misfortunes? You have not fulfilled what you promised in the garden. You better find the notebook where you have written your promises. The woman who has married says, "I was duped, I never thought he would turn out such a devil!" The man on his part says, "Oh, how good she was once - a real seraphim, but today she looks worse than the most evil spirit in hell. How am I to fulfill my promises?" I ask you how it is possible for marriage to turn people from angels into devils? If this is so, better that no one marries. Such a marriage was not contracted out of love such as God wants of us. I am speaking on principle and am not concerned with your personal life. This law concerns to the same degree for me, you and all the angels - it is the same for everybody. I uphold the idea that people are good only at the moment they act well; they are right at the moment they act rightly; loving only at the moment they manifest love and so on. If they stop doing this, they are neither good, nor righteous, not truth-loving. So long as you are considerate of these Laws, your thoughts will flow smoothly with exquisite plasticity. In such a case if you are an artist, a writer, or a housekeeper, all your affairs will take a right course and you will carry things off with vigor. But the moment you betray your thoughts, you will descend from a Higher to a lower plane. I envisage these planes in a limitless circle where the lower we descend, the narrower grows the circle, assuming the form of a cone. Some say these planes are seven, but I find they are seven million by seven million. You go lower and lower in this cone, saying, "Let us go down and see what is sown there." You will come to the lowest plane of this cone, to its center; there you will stop and turning into a microscopic being, you will say, "Lord, why did I become so small?" Because you are one of the great philosophers and have come here to learn how to fulfill the least law of life. The process of development is the reverse, i.e. in order to rise from the plane into which you have fallen, you will not pass any more along the same path. You will start now by passing through the narrow door of the cone into another one touching with its point the point of the former one and you will begin your evolution. This way you will pass from one plane to another until you come to the new world. When you have hardly entered this new world, a philosopher will meet you and say, "Why don’t we people live as we wish to? Why don’t we act by our will independent of all laws?" You will ask him, "Have you ever gone down the cone of life?" "No, I have not." "Go down and see how one lives there. I went down once, but I would not go down a second time for the world!" Many of you will go down this cone and when you are passing through the narrow door, you will remember my words. Everyone who has passed once through the narrow door of the cone, becomes great in the Kingdom of God; but they who have stopped in the first cone will be called least in the Kingdom of God. Those who have stopped in the first cone are in the state of an ant who has fallen into the cone on an ant-eater. The ant-eater gradually gets hold of one of its legs, then of another until all is finished with the ant. Therefore, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same, shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." I am speaking to you on this verse because every soul has its own aspirations. I call you neither good nor bad because thousands of times a day you act both well and badly; thousands of times a day your wishes change. When you get up in the morning, you say, "Today I shall live well.’ But when you return home in the evening and give yourself an account of everything, you say, "Things did not turn out as I thought, because today life and the people around me are such that one cannot live honestly." The merchant says that today one cannot live without lying. The farmer says that cultivating the land it is impossible not to destroy the life of many worms. The politician says that under such conditions of life one cannot deal honestly in politics. The clergy say the same thing. Everybody says it is not a time to lead a good and pure life. But when will this time come? When the new culture comes, then life might be better. If you live in your thoughts, you are in your past. Therefore, if we live with our past life and want this or that to happen, we live in the first cone where the bad life is. The good life is in the second cone. I shall compare the first cone to a small child who has been an old man before, but now has become small. In the past this child has been a philosopher, some Brahman, priest, patriarch, or scientist, but today he needs your help. Now he is screaming, he wants you to pass him through the narrow point of the cone. You ask: “Why has this child come to this home?" The Lord has sent him that you may show him the door. The mother is the door. She holds him and says, "My child is very intelligent." Do you know the state of mothers today? It is only when their children become grown-ups that they understand what kind of people they are, for then they manifest themselves. To explain my thought, I shall tell you the following example. A hermit once lived a pure and pious life for 20 years in a forest. The devil thought out different ways of tempting him, but did not succeed. Finally, he decided to enter his water jar and stay there until the hermit drank him. However, the hermit shut him there, sealed the jar and left him in it. After ten years he said, "Let me wash the jar and use it." He went to the spring, poured out the old water and filled his jar with fresh water. After pouring out the water, the hermit noticed in the spring a beautiful small child. He took it and lovingly brought it up. The child grew up, amazing people with its bright mind and knowledge. One day the child said to its guardian, "I shall give you a large kingdom to rule and stop living in the forest. The world needs you, I shall teach you how to live and make you a king’s son-in-law." The father agreed and his son took him to another kingdom. The hermit got engaged to the king’s daughter and within a short time the son stole all the precious jewels of the king and told the king his son-in-law did it. The king issued an order for his son-in-law to be arrested as a thief and punished by hanging. The son went to the hermit and warned him to protect himself as there were grave personal charges against him. The hermit did not manage to escape and had to be hanged. When the rope was around his neck, his son approached him and said quietly to him, "Look away in the distance and see what will appear there. Do you see anything?" "Yes, I see three donkeys." "Don’t you see anything else?" "I see they are loaded." Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold." This is also true of you - a thought which seems perfect comes to you and you start working for its realization. But the moment you realize it, you go to the scaffold. That is why we must fulfil the Divine Laws which build our welfare as well as the welfare of those around us. Life is created so that every good deed, every thought or action on our part is concretely tied with all people, plants, with the whole organic world, the invisible world with its hierarchies and with God. Every thought and desire on our part is sometimes bound with the branches of this great tree of life and sometimes with its roots. I shall not explain the meaning of the roots, branches and blossoms of the tree. A Bulgarian proverb says, "The roots of knowledge are bitter, but its fruit are sweet." If you do a good deed, you will receive God’s blessing. Moses says, "The Lord revenges the crimes of the fathers upon their children to the fourth generation, but His blessing goes to thousands of generations." Therefore, a long period of years is required for the good things to be realized. The same applies to the realization of a bad thought. However, when the bad thoughts are stimulated the evil comes very quickly. This shows how strong we are in evil. Many saints and idealists, knowing that their good thoughts and wishes will be realized some day in the distant future, say "We are ready to die and sacrifice our lives for our country although it may take thousands of years for our ideals to be realized." If an atheist, an unbeliever, is sacrificed for the good of humanity, they stand very high in the sight of God, because they have done good without any knowledge of Him. There are many people who believe in God, read the creed of faith and understand the truths of Christ; but when a good thought comes to them, they are not in a state to fulfill it. That is why I shall reverse Christ’s teaching this way, "In the future the atheists and the unbelievers will inherit the Kingdom of God, but present-day believers will be cast out of the Kingdom of God." Christians of today may be likened to that servant whom the master ordered to go and plough the field. The servant said, "Master, wait a while for I will show you an easier way of ploughing." A week passed, a second week elapsed, but the field was still unploughed. The Christians think that by their prayers and faith in God they will pass life more easily, despite their meager diligence in work. People today are comical in their requirements of life. They loiter around the coffeehouses, buy lottery tickets and wait for the results to see it they have gained something. They read the papers to see if their number is full, but when it is not, they do not despair and try the next time hoping to gain. That is not right. The Lord has sent those servants to earth to earn their living by work, but they want to earn in another way, without labor. They try to give advice to God. Such servants say, "I shall multiply the talent God has given me by depositing it in the lottery." You will multiply it, but one day you will receive a red list for bankruptcy. You will say, "Such is the situation that is why they lost." This happened because in their past and present life they have not entertained good thoughts and wishes. There is a special committee in Heaven who inspect the accounts and the deeds of people. Those who wish to be instructed better may occupy themselves with the occult sciences. You may pray four or five times a day, but if you have not thought good thoughts and done good acts in your past life and if you do not work now and water your garden, help people and animals, when you go to the other world nobody will pay any attention to you. Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have deposited something in me so that I can help you." "I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus." Yes, but there is no surplus in nature. Such a person will find themselves in the state of the king’s son engaged to a very beautiful maiden. He got a disease and was going to die of it, so in his despair he prayed to God to lengthen his life by at least one hour so that he could see his beloved for the last time. Then the Lord sent an angel to other despaired people who had wanted to commit suicide to ask them if they would sacrifice one hour of their life so that the king’s son’s life might be lengthened by that hour. The angel remembered an old woman who used to pray to God to take her soul as soon as possible because she was tired of life’s misfortunes. The angel went to her and asked if she would give an hour of her life to the young man. She answered him, "Yes, in the past I wanted to die, but now have changed my mind." The angel then remembered another case. A rich man after having tasted everything in life had found no sense in living any longer and had prayed to God to take him up. The angel went to him and told him what he had said to the old woman. The rich man also refused to give an hour of his life. After his failure to obtain an hour’s life, the angel went to the young man and said to him, "Of all the thousands of people on earth, I could not find a single one who would give an hour of their life for you to see your beloved." Today people often talk about hell and heaven. The evil lies in the fact that we have brought both hell and heaven here on earth and taste them as we please. The verse I read to you are words which Christ addressed to those listeners who had a developed consciousness. He did not speak to those who could not understand. Christ said to them, "You, who have suffered for thousands of years, must know that your sufferings are due to the breaking of one of the least commandments." Some ask, "Why is the Lord so generous and lenient to me?" Because you have fulfilled the least law. Some say that I speak nice things: it is of no importance what I say, but of the utmost significance for you to apply this law, because your joy is in the application of this teaching, and your meaning in life - in your uplifting. When you are happy or sad, those around you have the same disposition. When you have a wound, the cells nearest it suffer most, while those farther away participate only by reflex action. When you suffer on earth, those organically bound to you will suffer also. Therefore, those beings who are beyond our spheres, being farther away, will just be sorry that we have violated a law and are suffering. Yet, they will show us ways by which we can avoid these sufferings in the future. Society should apply these two great laws in politics as well as in life. All believers should apply them because these small laws are common to all and the salvation of the whole of humanity depends on their application. They who can fulfill the small law can fulfill the great law as well. This is a rule. If you cannot express love to a small insect or a small fly, you cannot manifest your love to person either. If someone tells you they loves you, but a minute before they have plucked out the head of a small fly or cut the head of a lamb, they are not speaking rightly. The little fly which has been injured by you, or by anyone else, knows how much you can love. A woman or a man who tear off the heads of flies or cut off the heads of lambs cannot love or do not have good will. I do not believe in the unbelief of people or in their foolishness or lawlessness. To believe in the unbelief of people is to believe in a law which does not exist. Human unbelief is a contrivance of ours created by our own mind. Everybody is seeking the Kingdom of God, everybody wants to restore It and that is why anyone who wants to become a member of this Kingdom must serve it. A young man and a young woman want to restore the Kingdom of God and coo to each other like turtle-doves but only until they marry. After that their life takes the old course and they are not happy. With the pigeons it is different: I have observed them how well they begin and end. The female pigeon lays her eggs, then hatches them and there are not any disputes among the two mates. With people things start well and end badly. They have children and enjoy them, but when these grow up, the parents weep. The old human pigeons weep and say, "The young pigeons made us weep. Look what has come out of our children of whom we expected so much and whom we enjoyed!" The young birds never make their parents cry as the children do to people. The same thing happens in the schools. I have seen how well the relations between teachers and students begin. At first they chat sweetly, but after a short time they begin to complain of each other. The students say, "Our teachers are unjust." The teachers say, "Students have no respect today for their teachers and parents." Thus all people complain and say God does not exist and Truth, Goodness and Love are relative, as all things in life are relative. Children say that everything in school is relative and the teacher is something relative. The teachers weep, protest and despair, but I say that their tears are also something relative, because we think that the small and the Great Law amount to nothing. Yet, they are Great Truths. They are Absolute and always, at all times, they will produce one and the same result. I have often listened for hours how the nightingales and the turtle-doves sing. I have enjoyed their singing, thinking at the same time, "You sing very well and if people could understand your language and would be able to adopt your culture, there would not be so much suffering today." The nightingales and the turtle-doves answer me, "Yes, we were people, too, at a time in the past; but when human culture did not satisfy us, we left it and today we prefer the culture of the birds." If I were a preacher, I would beat about the bush and avoid telling you the truth to your face so as not to offend you. Well, the sun shines, but people have sick eyes so they get a smarting effect from it. Is the sun to blame for that? Is the sun to blame for illuminating the earth, the axis of which had turned prematurely? Then why am I to blame that this Light I am giving you is so strong that you cannot bear it? Tell the earth to stop turning, then the Light will be fainter; but since the wheel is turning, you will see by all means all the phases of good and evil. I shall not stop to explain now why in this turning there is a constant struggle between Light and darkness, between Good and evil, between the Reality and shadows of life. Many of you will ask me, "Can we fulfill the law of Christ?" Yes, you can fulfill it. If someone should burn up or sell my house which costs 200,000 leva, this evil will evoke a great struggle in me; but if I conquer myself and do not revenge that person, I shall be called great in the Kingdom of God. If I am a renowned statesman and they deprive me of my high position, although unjustly, and I do not take revenge on anyone for that; I shall be a good person in the future. In general anyone who does not take revenge even for the greatest evil done to them is a good person. On the earth we can make a person anything we want. For instance, we can make a person a minister, another a statesman, a third one a preacher and so on. In this respect we are like a Bulgarian woman who gave her husband a small metal pot and a bunch of sweet basil - ordaining him a priest of her own wish - to go around and sprinkle people with holy water. The posts we have here on earth are nothing but promotions of a similar kind by a higher world above us. All who have fulfilled the small law have become great in the world. If an artist fulfils the small law, they will begin to paint great pictures. We all can become great artists. You will ask me, "But how is this possible?" If some day we show the world our face perfected as a result of our achievements, would not that be the greatest picture of an artist? Do not forget that you have worked on your face for ages. Today in the world there are exhibits of the pictures of our faces, but not a single one has yet been accepted by God. Since the world began, only two pictures in the Old Testament have been accepted: that of Enoch and of Elijah; that is why they were taken up to heaven alive. Up till now how many people’s pictures have been accepted above? We paint and paint a whole life to hear finally once again that this picture cannot be accepted now. The priest comes to perform the burial service and the picture is buried. The funeral service means that the picture has not been made according to all the rules of art. The committee which examines the pictures sees that this picture is not made according to the Divine Law: the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the nose, the teeth are not in their proper place; the mind, the heart, the thoughts and feelings are not in the proper place either. You who are listening to me, do you think your thoughts and feelings are in their place? I see thousands of people whose thoughts and feelings are out of position. I do not blame you for that since you are not to blame, but I want to draw your attention to this so that you may start working with this Great Law. You must make a point to fulfil daily even the least good deed that comes to you as a wish, with no mistake or yielding to temptation. If I were offered the post of a minister in Bulgaria, I would rather give up the position and go to lend a hand to a poor widow who needs my help. You may be dressing up for a ball, a concert or a jourfixe, but at that time a poor person comes to you and you send them away saying you have no time for them. On the contrary, you must give up the ball and observe this Great Law created by God. If we would learn how to be loving and at peace with ourselves and to understand that we can live alone with ourselves, the world would be set right. Even if people do not love us, we can live without them. Now we are in the state of those harmful microbes which, on entering our organism, find material to live on and so they settle there. As soon as the material is exhausted, their life ends as well. That is why Christ says, "Whosoever shall do the least commandment shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." What does this least commandment consist of? The work Providence has allotted to you should not be put off. There is a definite time for every thought and desire and once you miss it, there is no returning for it. Your youth cannot come back. The life you live now will never be repeated. Both the evil and the good you have experienced have left their mark on your life. A second time you will pass through an entirely different place, an entirely different life in which there will be only a reflection of the previous one. Some say, "But the earth follows the same path, revolving around the sun, therefore there is repetition in life." Yes, but the earth never passes through one and the same space; the path it followed the year before was different. The place the earth has passed through once is irrevocably lost. The life you have lived once is irrevocably lost. You will ask, "Can we not correct our mistakes?" Nobody can correct what is lost. The psalmist says, "Only One is able to erase our sins and lawless acts." Only the Lord has the prerogative to descend those depths where you have committed your crimes and to erase them with His brush. Until the Lord descends to these places to erase your sins, you will have to weep and shed tears long. The Lord needs your tears to fill a little bottle He keeps. When this bottle is full, the Lord will take it and come down to the place of sins and crimes to correct your life and water His mouth from time to time with your tears. Only this way can your life change. This is an allegory, but if you comprehend it deeply, you will see that it conveys a Great Truth about the character of God. You say, "Why does the Lord keep silent and does not answer our sufferings?" The Lord keeps silent because your bottle is not full yet; when it is filled to the top, He will come and set your life right, He will ask which year the crime was committed, what time and so on. After He has washed your sins away, He will say, "Now you are free, but do not sin a second time." Christ also wept until a bottle was full. He took it upon Himself to rectify the world by bearing people’s sins; but when He saw that His task was very heavy, He wept that God might come and help Him and that is why He succeeded. When His bottle was filled up, He said, "It is done, the bottle is full, the salvation of the world is at hand." Irrespective of your low or high position in the world, you will all have to pass through the tears to wash away your sins and those of your neighbor. You will say, "Why do you trouble us with these thoughts of yours; why don’t you tell us some words of comfort?" I am doing exactly this. If people have pains in their legs, should they not have a massage in spite of their pains? In certain cases they may not feel any pains; but if they should be attacked and chased by an enemy what would their state be? They would not be able to save themselves as they would not run because their pains would be more acute than ever. If I should be concerned about such people and begin to rub their legs so that they should get well, would they regret the pain I cause them by the rubbing? On the contrary, they will say, "Thank you God. I got well so that I can run with all the others in case of danger." This is a true philosophy. The life of society is like the life of its individuals. There is a certain correlation between a nation and its members; however, each being has their own individual feelings, thoughts and desires. The nation does not live as an individual. By saying "the Bulgarian nation" I mean the Bulgarians. Their future life - their political, spiritual, cultural and mental relation will be determined by their collective thoughts and feelings. Their present is determined by their past thoughts, but their present thoughts and desires will determine their future. These two Divine Laws in people are placed as follows: the first, the Great Law is situated in the mind, but the small is in the heart. Therefore, when you want to do the small things in the world, you must fulfill them with your heart. In other words, you cannot fulfill the small things without love for this Law. I pass by a pond and see an ant drowning there, but since I am engaged in some philosophical thought, I pass by it and pay no attention to it. But I should stop and help it. We should stop before the smallest creatures and help them. After helping them we should not require them to recompense us all their life because in that case we had only served them as Providence. If we wish to help the small, it will create conditions for us to help the greater ones also. If we do not help that small ant in the future that will be a condition for a bad life. You will say, "But how many ants drown!" It is true that many ants drown, but the one I saw and had the desire to help, I must save. It is a special ant. If I do not help it in a hundred years it can cause me the greatest misfortune. God will determine my future life according to my act at this moment when my consciousness germinated in me. This ant implies the idea of a lamb, a pigeon, a child, a girl, a boy, some poor widow, a sick person or any other type of person. The ant is a mathematical formula. If such a formula is ever presented to you, stop and think how to solve it. Someone who wants to commit suicide comes to you in despair. You must try to think how you can help them. If you say you cannot help them, in your future life this act of yours will bring you bad karmic consequences. The law is one and the same: you should stop in this small law and help. If you do not help one at such a moment, you will determine your bad fate. When you make a mistake of this kind try to find another better way of correcting your mistake. If all Bulgarians considered well their actions, would they be eating rationed bread today, sugar on coupons, would they fight? The Bulgarian statesmen do not care about the drowning ant, but about the large boundaries of Bulgaria; yet they do not know that the destiny of Bulgaria is determined by the fate of this ant. The Bulgarian statesmen are interested in Bulgaria in so far as their pockets are concerned. They are not patriots but rather traitors who play the role of Judas consciously or unconsciously, for or for no money. I am speaking to you about these two great laws, because if they are applied and fulfilled exactly, they will save and rectify humanity. Now the Bulgarians open different schools, but they do not think of bettering the ants’ life. They think of gain and say, "If we had money now, we would find good teachers and good workers. Show me a society which has worked for money and has made much progress. I do not want to say that all associations must stop their activity, but they should rather change their ways. I prefer to work a whole lifetime for a person who grasps what I say than to work for thousands who do not perceive and accept anything. When a person starts doing something, they must put their heart into it and not make people call ten times at their home to ask them to do one thing or another. A person who preaches a teaching must understand its laws and apply them. You say, "We must educate our young people." But how will you educate them? How will you control their actions? I do not believe in any training or taming but I believe that all people have within them the conditions to become good if they want to. I believe that all people determine their life in each moment; and after that moment, other conditions come. This is education. After that moment you will receive food - knowledge - which will be in accord with the plane on which you move. The farmer studies the conditions for his sowing and harvesting; everyone studies the conditions for their work. When I say I do not believe in any training, do not take it in the wrong sense. I do not believe in that wrong superficial education parents give their children; but I believe in the genuine education that the Great Laws in the world give. I do not believe in contemporary science either, but I believe in the Great Divine Science. I do not believe in the foolish love of today or the foolish wisdom and seeming truth here on earth, i.e. in deceit which people have clad in the form of truth. I say that all this is a lie, the Truth is within you. The Great Law is in your mind but the small law is in your heart. Every noble desire born in you, no matter how microscopic it may be will determine your happiness in the future. This desire will turn on the tap of your life, and from that day on, both earth and heaven will work for you. When the Wheel of Life turns one or another direction, it produces a corresponding effect. If you are ready to be true to those small desires deposited within you for thousands of years; if you are ready to hold out a straw to a drowning ant; you will start a motion from left to right, otherwise it will be from right to left, i.e. downward in the cone. Then if you are a Christian and descend these 7 by 7 million planes, and I should ask you where you are at present; you will answer that you are in the lower planes of the astral world. If you are an occultist, you will say, "I reached the bottom of this cone at last!" But what do you intend to do now? "My philosophy states that when I reach the bottom, I shall begin to advance upward." You have a wrong conception of this philosophy. "What shall I do then?" You will pass through the narrow opening of the other cone and from there you will begin an upward advance, since the energies in that cone have a contrary direction of the previous one. Now you will move along the energies of the second cone. After passing through the second cone, through all the seven million by seven million planes, you will study them and say, "I have a philosophy now and understand things deeply, seeing that these are not only seven planes". You will say great things about the spiritual world: worlds upon worlds, beings with no limit or number. The whole space in which we live and move is full of beings of different categories and cultures. The solar light moves 180,000 miles a second and to cross only the diameter of our universe 31,000 years are necessary. The whole space is full of worlds. When our earth moves in the space of this universe, we fall under the influence of those beings with whom we come in contact; and all this enormous space with all the beings in it find response in our hearts, minds and souls. Sometimes a thought comes to you and burdens you, but that thought is not yours. Since you are sensitive, you feel the sorrow of some small being somewhere in New York, which at a certain moment has not fulfilled its duty, has not done the will of God - this Great Divine Law. At another time you feel joy. Why? Because at another place in the world, in some Buddhist temple in China a small being has fulfilled its duty as it should. So I rejoice when I see how your thoughts change every day for I observe what is going on in the world and from all I observe, I conclude two things: some people fulfil the Law of God and some do not. Then I return to life seeing what takes place there and turning to the past, I see when these things which are realized today had their origin. Thousands of years pass in a minute and I see when these events were thought out and when they have taken this bad direction. I see that 2,000 years ago a Bulgarian high priest turned the tap of life in a wrong direction and these consequences today are due to him. That is why all preachers, priests and rulers in Bulgaria think like that priest and act like him. You will ask, "Who is that priest that we might hang him?" Do not look for him to hang him, but rather turn the tap the direction opposite to the one acting today. If you do not do it, you will not only miss becoming great, but will also lose much. This is why I am in Bulgaria - to turn the Wheel of Life in the opposite direction and I shall turn it according to all the rules of the Divine Law so that you may taste all the benefits of life. When I turn the wheel in the opposite direction, the Bulgarians will understand that they can fulfill this small law; and an excellent superior culture will be restored among them and they will become a great nation which will make its contribution in the world. Do not be proud, however, as the wheel has not yet been turned. Great efforts are required that it may be turned. All of you will take part in the turning of the great wheel, you will take hold of the small wheels and start turning; but not as you are doing now - from right to left - but you must turn it from left to right. This is the Teaching of Christ: to turn the wheel of the small law. You will ask me, "What will you leave us for keepsake?" I shall turn your wheel from left to right; then all angels, all good people will start working and you will be uplifted. Now put in your mind the thought, "We can fulfill the least Divine Law." And after 2,000 years you will test if what I tell you is true or not - you will test the results. After 2,000 years the inner conditions of life will be ten times better than the present ones. It is descending and ascending in life. Blessed are those of you who will wait till that time with faith. These 2,000 years are two Divine Days - days of a great blessing. The more advanced of you may test this in two years, but some will take ten years to do that. However, this requires a pure and sublime and noble life, which is the only heritage of people on earth. Sermon held on June 22, 1919. --------------------------------- [1] Matthew 5:19 ------------------------------------- Confusing parts: (This may make sense to you as it may be a Bulgarian story!): Page 7 Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold" Page 8: Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have deposited something in me so that I can help you." "I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus."

Note 6 Jesus Was Called “And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage.” John 2: 2 There is no doubt that the most pleasant, most solemn occasions on this earth are the wedding rituals as well as the wedding itself. I would like to dwell a little bit on the internal principle, the internal significance of weddings, because you have absolutely different associations with it in your mind. According to you, weddings signify a union, they stand for the marriage of two people – a man and a woman, whereas they are engaged in advance with the participation of a priest, who delivers some prayers, and afterwards the arrived guests sit at the table to eat and drink. This celebration goes on for a day or two, and then the guests go home, and the newly weds are left alone. This is the external side of the wedding, which you also understand best. However, the word wedding has a deeper meaning, which stands for the beginning of a new Life. This word is derived from an Old Sanskrit root signifying what takes place and manifests itself as conscious life. The wedding is a process, which takes human beings from one state to another, i.e. getting out of one life and entering another one, whereby old ideas are given up and new life begins with new ideas. Please note that Jesus and His disciples are invited to the wedding, so the wedding is attended by one of the Greatest Masters. This wedding has become a principle, which determines what weddings should be like in the future and how weddings should be conducted. Each wedding must be attended by Jesus and His disciples in the future; but not by Jesus as a human being, but by His Teaching. I shall not dwell here on what Christ’s Teaching consists in, because it can be summarised in brief in the two great principles: love the Lord, your God with all your soul, heart, mind, and will; love your neighbour the way you love yourself. I shall not explain what Love is. I shall summarise in brief what I have told you in the Thursday lectures. Bear in mind two things: when you listen to somebody talking to you, you have to turn your ear in such a direction, so that you can hear the words, not only listen to them. Secondly, you should tune your mind in such a way that not only can you understand the words, but be also able to grasp their meaning, because each word contains in itself a certain Force. This is why Christ also says that each Divine Force is the beginning of a new Life, i.e. the new Life begins with the Divine words, not with words only. Before I move on, I will explain to you how many methods contemporary medicine applies. It uses predominantly two methods: allopathic and homeopathic. The former method recommends strong doses of medicines, which should be bitter, if possible; while the second method recommends sweet medicines, if possible, and if in a particular case this is not possible, it is recommended that the pill should be at least coated in a thin cover of something sweet. The contemporary world is allopathic, but people nowadays are so clever, that they cover everything in life in a sweet coat. The Divine method for curing is the opposite: the pills are bitter externally and sweet inside. Thus, curing in Life is effected under two methods: sometimes a person is cured by bitter words, other times – by sweet. I mean things in social life and in Nature. However, to some people neither the sweet, nor the bitter pills are of any help, and this is because they have not understood the conditions under which the pills can have effect on them. Do not forget that things in the world are strictly mathematically determined. There is time for sowing; similarly, there is time fit for curing. This is a Divine principle, a Divine law, which is also true in respect of those who want to study Christ’s Teaching in order to improve their lives, because it is a Teaching of Life. Students go to school to acquire knowledge, which has to be applied after they leave school. On the same grounds, I would like you to apply Christ’s Teaching in your life. You may have many desires, either to acquire knowledge or wealth. This is for the future; right now, it is important how wisely you can use Christ’s Teaching. The line we read in the beginning reads that Jesus and His disciples were called to the wedding. This indicates that the newly wed couple realise that something important will be missing if they do not invite Jesus to their wedding. You should do the same as well: call Christ at the beginning of each job. You may say, "Can’t I call someone else?" Yes, you may, but this person has to contain in him or her the two principles: love to God and to one’s neighbour. The Love to God and to one’s neighbour is an extension rather than an ordinary feeling. To love God and your neighbour means to let them in one of your rooms. You will say, "Where shall I live then?" You will live in your will, God – in your heart, and your neighbour – in your mind. You cannot start loving your neighbour unless you start thinking of him or her, therefore you should keep your neighbour in your mind, while God you should keep in your heart. These two will be your guests and you will work for them, i.e. they will teach you; you will be their student. God, who is in your heart, is Jesus, your neighbours are His disciples, and you will be one of the wedding guests. Knowing this, you will be able to think properly with your mind. When studying the works of a great poet or writer, when listening to a musical piece, when looking at a picture of a prominent artist, your mind should grasp these things, because they are your teachers, your neighbours, and you will learn from them, and the Divine principle should be in your heart. The wedding is a beginning of a new Life. The bride and the bridegroom leave their fathers’ houses and start living a new life on their own. This analogy you can apply to everything in life. Teachers and students come to school and start a new life. This refers to the good teachers. Usually at weddings, there are three types of guests: some of them are simple onlookers, the others are invited guests, and the third - relatives of the bride and bridegroom. The simple onlookers in church are called observers, the invited guests – believers, and the relatives – disciples. You should similarly arrange your thoughts in several groups. You have to determine the place of each of your thoughts. There are three types of thoughts in the world: some stem from God – the Divine thoughts, others stem from our relatives and still others stem from within us. Some thoughts come from the world, others – from the angels, and the third ones – from the Divine world. Therefore, you should learn how to recognise where various thoughts stem from, not to go wrong in your actions. None of you is free from the environment and this is why you will receive thoughts from it. When you compare the three types of thoughts, you will see where each thought stems from, you will be able to fight them, and thus you will develop along the right path. Another important thing is that the wedding is a place for work. When you start some work, you have to be at a wedding. Outside of the wedding any commenced deed is labour or torture. Everyone at the wedding is cheerful. When you want to work in this world you have to imagine that you are at a Divine wedding or in the epoch of a new Life. This is the only salvation of any soul. Any culture, religion or anything else, is created according to the same law. But the most important thing, which you should be aware of when you are at a wedding, is not to give vent to your greediness. An angel was sent by God to a wedding as a representative, but the angel liked the princess very much, who was the bride of the wedding, and wanted to take her with him. When you attend a wedding do not ever covet the place of the bride, neither the bride herself, because this is the beginning of all discord and disgrace. I can see failures, discords, and disagreements among you, because you want to be in the place of the princess, in the place of the bride. You say, "We want to be in her shoes!" You may, but in a long time to come, for the time being you are wedding guests. Being wedding guests, means that you have to work. Christ attended this wedding in order to bless the bride and the bridegroom. When you pluck up the courage to enter a new Life, i.e. to get married, you have to join your mind, your mind being the bridegroom, with the heart, the heart being the bride. If you want your wedding to take place in line with all the Divine rules, with all the Divine matches, the Divine principle must be within you. What do you think - can you call it a wedding if the bride, on entering her new house, drives away her mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-laws, and the other in-laws? If you implement God’s Will, you will be elevated and you will give scope to your soul. Whether you go the wrong or the right way – this is all on your account. Everyone gets elevated through one’s deeds. If you observe the Divine principle – that your mind and heart be joined, you will have Christ and His disciples in yourselves. Then, applying Christ’s Teaching, you will understand the Divine Life, which is manifested in Nature and you will know how to bring up your folks at home. Remember that your sons and daughters, to be born, will pass through this wedding. This is how I explain why good sons and daughters are born. If the wedding is not a wedding, but a discord, bad sons and daughters will be born. When a certain thought or desire comes to your mind, these will be completely dependent upon your mind and heart. The correlation between them will determine your thought. If your mind is corrupted, so will be your thought. If your heart is corrupted, so will be your desire. Do not believe that thoughts and desires are items from fantasy-land. They have their own images and bodies and have independent lives of their own. Out of these particular thoughts and desires your future brain, lungs, stomach and so on will be created. Some ask, "Why should we think good?" To be able to weave a new garment for yourselves in the future. This is to say that we prepare a new garment that will be put on our spiritual body in the future. So, Christ’s Teaching is not a teaching of forms, through which to stick to a particular church or through which to invest our money in a bank, it is actually a Teaching about being pro-active. Nobody can think, feel, or act instead of you. You will do the thinking, the acting, and the feeling for your sake. If you think, act, and feel good, you will have God’s blessing. When you match your life to this Divine principle, you will be able to remedy many hardships, which you come across. We have to find a way through which to elevate our life and everybody is looking for such a way. If you are an apple seed, you will pray to God to provide you with all the conditions so that you can first grow and then you can develop. If you are in the situation of a human soul, you will require favourable conditions for your development. What suffers and sighs within us is the soul that is closed. We often want to abolish suffering. Suffering should not be abolished but converted into Joy. Conversions can take place everywhere in Nature. For example, charcoal, under special conditions, can be converted into diamonds, diamonds can then be converted into seeds, then into trees and then again into charcoal. Jesus came to the wedding to show the young people how they should live. All of you have had your weddings; you know how nice the time preceding the wedding is, what dreams, what fantasies of the mind and thought there are! Everybody, after getting married, says, "All the charming things were up to the engagement." The young man and the young woman are ideal, but as soon as they get married, everything fades away and this is why people say, "It’s not worth getting married." Indeed, it is not worth getting married, because this is not a wedding, but a discord. In my opinion the mind, which marries the heart, should be healthy and should not be infected by any disease. The heart, which marries the mind, should be healthy and pure. If this is so, then our thoughts and desires, according to the same law, should also be healthy and pure. I know that you, who are listening to me now, have disturbed hearts and minds. Why? Because this primary law has been violated. When Christianity preaches that we have to return to God, this means to return to Heaven, to return to this primary environment, which creates conditions for a peaceful and wise Life. These conditions do not take centuries – you can become good at a certain moment, and you can become bad at the next moment. People say that somebody was born good or bad, but it is not true. We might be born in the good or in the bad, but we are good or bad only at the moment when we act. You may be very bad, but once you give up doing bad things, you become good and vice versa. Consequently, God determines what we are by the moment when we act. The particular moment determines what we were in the past and what we will be in the future. This moment, when you do something evil, shows that you were evil in the past too, but it is a reflection of the past. Some may say, "I am bad now, but I will become good in the future." No, you have to change your behaviour right now! You have to stop being bad, and this means that you have to induce the good from your past. This is the first principle, which Christ instructed the young couple into. He told them to love each other. Love is nothing else but acceptance of the good, planting and enlivening of the good in our life. I speak about weddings, because many are those who promise what cannot be. Promises for the future – this is lip service. There is nothing to foresee in the Divine economy. God has foreseen everything good for those who act well. For those who do not act well, there are misfortunes. However, both shall bear the consequences of this great law. Not because God wants to punish them, but the implications result from our deeds themselves, and therefore we cannot evade them. We must first create a moral life in culture and science, i.e. the heart must be prepared, so that the mind can receive its desires and can process them into thoughts. This is a fact. For example, it was found in America that if the wives of certain men are good, they were promoted to the rank of preachers; men, whose wives were bad, had fallen to a very low position. If you have a gifted mind, but the heart is no match of it, it will degrade the mind to a low level. This is why God should live in your heart, to change and prepare it. Do not allow anybody else to convert your heart. We often say that somebody converted his wife’s heart. There are only conversions in the world and this is what the sufferings of all people today are due to. Conversions are wheel motions. General principles were given at this wedding, according to which one may elevate and ennoble oneself. Often people cry over their previous mistakes, because they were very sinful, because they treated their mothers badly. Today they are already given good conditions for life, for work, but they give these up and say, "We are sinful and we will commit sins again." You are human beings and you can change the effect of the law, because these effects are similar to the movements of the wheel, the movement is mechanical and at that only in two directions – from right to left and from left to right. Similarly our life, the way it is arranged, can move in the same two directions. So, if you are not moving in one of the directions you will be moving in the other one. The same is true for water-mills: there are two wheels there, one moving in one direction, while the other one – in the opposite, but the result nonetheless is the same. Your wheel now is moving from right to left, or in the opposite direction, and you ask, "Can I be good?" Ask the miller; he will tell you. These wheels can be set to move in both ways and they can trample people. When you go to a wedding, you have to mind your language. It is a profound science to understand the character, the habits and customs of the language and its effect. No person has a stronger will than the one who can curb one’s language. Sometimes, you want to tell somebody something, in order to show that you understand certain things. But what comes out of it? Not only do you not fix the problem, you actually make it even worse. Remember that all bad words are spoken outside weddings, because at a place where there is no wedding, there is discord. As soon as you find yourself thinking of something bad, you must be sure that you are not at a wedding, and that Christ is not with you. If you are thinking of something good, then you are at the wedding together with Christ and His disciples. You can attend a wedding together with Christ and His disciples, everyday. I take this as a general principle. I do not apply these dogmatic concepts that the church has. I mean the energy, which runs through Life. The Earth is constantly approaching the Sun, but so slowly, that only in millions of years will it reach it and then it will see what the Sun is like. However, nowadays everybody can have the elements of the Sun in oneself – light and warmth. Someone may ask you, "Have you seen the Sun? Do you know what it is?" No, I haven’t; but I know its elements. Someone asks you: “Have you seen Christ and His disciples?” No, I haven’t, but two things I do know, two Divine principles, namely – Divine Love and Wisdom, which penetrate both my mind and everybody’s mind in the same way, in this way we all receive the Sun’s light and warmth. Any good desire and any good thought are Christ and His disciples. If you do not have good thoughts and desires, Christ is not with you. If you understand the issue on principle, God will be a wise Force for you. You may experiment in this regard. There will come a day when you will achieve the ability not only to receive Light, but to hear a certain song coming from it and later on you will be able to distinguish individual words. You may think this is an illusion. No, it isn’t, this is a fact, because there are people who receive the warmth and Light not only externally, but they can also hear their songs and understand their words. To have your minds and hearts pure means to be clairvoyants. Being thus purified, you will be able to understand who sent you a particular thought, and who sent a particular wish to you. But today we sense a certain thought without understanding its internal meaning. When I tell you, for example, that you have to love each other, you already understand Love in a special way. You understand that to love means to have a friend, who should belong to you only and the day when she becomes close with somebody else, you break your friendship. Imagine that you are familiar with my finger and you talk to my finger, you tell it that you love it. Later on there comes my other finger, but you start frowning and you say, "What right do you have to talk with my first finger, whom I love?" Well, this depends on me, not on the finger. A lady visited me recently, who provoked a good thought in me and showed me how correctly she understood Christ’s Teaching. She told me that her husband no longer loved her and had left her. She suffered a lot, kept crying all the time, but one night she had a very vivid dream. In her dream, she saw certain people coming to visit her who told her, "There is nothing to cry for, woman; you have to know that your husband’s heart does not belong to you, and therefore you have no right to want to convert his heart. Imagine the situation of your husband if a woman comes tomorrow and wants to convert his heart to her. What will come out of this heart?" Similarly, we want everyone to have hearts like ours and we do our best to convert them. This is the worst evil. Let each heart be the way the Lord created it. Each heart is good by essence, but it takes its guiding lines from the mind. When I smile at somebody and say some kind words, you are also immediately pleased with me, you find me a good person. But the moment I frown, you say that I have changed my character. These things in the world are sham; these are mere jugglery. Sometimes the father appears to be more serious than he is in fact. He does not have to become more serious, but he has to say, "My son, what you are doing, is not good for you, it is taking you down the road to death, because you do not do God’s Will!" Do not say that somebody is bad, because his or her parents were bad, his or her ancestors etc. Teachers may love you, but when you make mistakes, they will reprimand you. In such cases, students appeal to love, "Dear Master, we love each other, don’t we?" Yes, we do, but you made mistakes on several occasions and you have to correct these. The correct solution of this task is the key to the lives of many, while the wrong solution compromises me as well. Two days ago, I spoke about picking flowers and I said that every ten flowers picked brought about somebody’s death. If you say ten bad words to somebody, someone’s house will burn down. If you plant ten flowers somewhere, this will bring a good person to earth. Keep observing things of this nature to see that these are not merely words. Observe fruit trees in the garden: as long as their branches are green, the people in this house have a good life, but when the branches start withering, life in this house goes wrong due to the bad thoughts, which take the upper hand. After this, someone from this house will die. A gentleman was telling me the following story: he had a large garden in Sofia and a gardener took care of it. One day, the trees had to be pruned and one of them had to be cut down. However, the gardener loved this tree very much and insisted on not cutting it down, however, at the will of the master it was cut down. Before three months were up the gardener died. As soon as the tree you love is cut down, you will also follow suit. You, who are listening to me now, have taken out knives and go fencing up and down with them. You are very educated, you know a lot. However, I would want people like you not only to tell me how to spin wool, how to weave and warp, but they themselves to sit at the loom and to practically demonstrate how things are done. I have seen what such educated people do when they sit at the loom: they start warping, spinning, but they see that it does not come out right, and then they take the scissors and start cutting. They start weaving again and again it does not come out right. A second one comes, a third one – they keep cutting, but it does not come out right. When the master comes – things take the right course. Christ came to the wedding to teach the young couple to weave, because the wedding provides new conditions of life. When you want to elevate your spirits, imagine that you are at a wedding, because there is always eating and drinking, and also music at a wedding. Your teeth are your instruments, and your tongue is the baton striking the harp and producing music, which has a favourable impact upon you. I would like it if everybody could play an instrument and sing. Eating refers also to the spiritual life, because as soon as you accept a certain thought or a desire, it turns into food, which then enters your blood – your life and you manifest yourself. This shows that we have understood the Divine Life. So, in view of this, please make sure that your mind is always in a normal state. You will ask me, which is the normal state. The normal state can always be found between two extremes, i.e. it is in the middle. How can you find the middle? Imagine that you are given a segment and you have to find the middle of the segment. You can find the middle by drawing catenaries with the compasses from the two ends of the segment. You draw a perpendicular line from the crossing points of the catenaries to the segment and it is exactly this end of the perpendicular, which represents the middle. You can have a similar approach to your thoughts too. Bad thoughts exist in the world with the purpose to strengthen your will, so that we can neutralise such a thought right on the spot. After each delight, after each pleasant thought, comes an unpleasant one. Keep track how long each good or bad thought stays with you. This is a new psychology. You have to examine yourself, because if you do not know how you manifest yourself, how can you get to know about the external things? All things in Nature are a reflection of the Divine Life, which is inside us. The reflection shows an image, which comes from outside. This image was not created by you, it is an external image. If you experience a certain joy, it is not yours - you have not created it. It, as a thought, travels, and stops for a while upon you. Good thoughts travel and stop at various stations, where they are assigned to. Each station has a name of its own. You are the stations. Thoughts dwell for as long as they are assigned to, for as long as the train stays. Sometimes they dwell for a minute or two or for longer – according to the significance of the station. There are travellers who want to take longer breaks at times and therefore they spend a month, two months or a longer period of time there. On the way, there are good thoughts-travellers, there are also bad thoughts-travellers, which come out of certain naughty children and in the same way they stop for some time at some stations. So, neither the good nor the bad thoughts belong to us. If you want a certain good thought to stay longer with you, you have to create the conditions for this. This is what Christ taught the newly wed couple: He was telling them that they were going to have many pleasant and unpleasant situations in life, many good and bad thoughts, but they should know that these do not belong to them, they merely visit them. You should know that neither the good is very good, nor the evil is very bad. The good and evil are such only for the moment they are being done. When the moment is over, they are no longer such. To make my point more clearly, I will give you the following example: you are at a ten-metre distance from a hot furnace. What do you feel? You find it very pleasant. What will you feel if you sit at a five-centimetre distance from this hot furnace? Your hands will burn and you will run away from the furnace. This is the aspect between things, which makes them good or evil. This is the aspect of a Divine thought that comes from various directions. Whether the thought will be good or evil depends on the state you are in. Therefore we need knowledge, not to be in the way along which the train will pass. The Royal train passes and because of this we shall not stand in its way. This is what Christ taught us: you shall not stay on the railroad; you shall not climb onto the roof. One who climbs onto the roof intends to escape. This is what thieves do, when they are being chased. The railroad is actually the old age. If you spread gossip about someone, if you are in low spirits, if you do not have faith – it is all the same - you are on the railroad. Coming to and going out of the world has a completely different meaning from what you understand. For example, we are making a house for us to live in. Why should we be making a house? Because the conditions of life are such that if we do not have a shelter, we will be damaged; this is why we are building a house. Similarly, we have to have a sheath, which is supposed to protect us from the various thoughts that attack us from the outside. This is why we have to live a pure and holy life, so that we can generate an aura around us, which can protect us from any bane and evil. This is why Christ and His disciples attended the wedding. I would like all of you to have a good start, and those of you, who do not work, will fall behind. Take out the general principle from all the lectures so far, contained in each one, and start examining it. I shall give you the following work and experiments for two or three months: Firstly, you will keep track in a notebook of each one of your good or evil thoughts that come to mind. You will keep track of the time, by the clock, when the good or evil thought or desire visited you and you will also note down the time when it disappeared. Secondly, when you are visited by evil thoughts or desires, you will try to convert them into good thoughts or desires. For this purpose, you will have to go back two thousand years, so that you can visualise the wedding attended by Christ and His disciples. You will try to imagine the house where the wedding took place, to imagine the wedding guests and the newly wed couple. Try to determine where Christ stood, where His disciples stood, but make sure you do not create illusions, try to be at least approximately accurate in your imagination. So, in your mind you can photograph the whole wedding by visualising the place of the bridegroom, your place etc. Christ you should place in your heart, His disciples – in your mind, the bridegroom - in your mind, the bride – in your heart. The bride and bridegroom will be separated, because no two people live in the same room in the Spiritual world. And here there are several people to a room and this is why they quarrel. The inhabitants of that world read each other’s minds freely. Therefore, when one of them is in low spirits, the others, as soon as they read the mind of the low-spirited person, pass him or her by, without any need for him or her to drive them away. This is why there are no circumstances pre-conditioning sin in the other world. While in this world somebody comes to visit you and keeps staying without realising that he or she had already annoyed you, and hence you have to lie to this person. Leave these old methods, because if you stick to them, you cannot be disciples. You will imagine that you have put on wedding clothes that you are cheerful and merry, and you will listen to what Christ was telling the wedding guests. If you can visualise such a picture, you will be immediately refreshed, you will be ready to fight your hardships in this world, you will understand many of the philosophies in this world and the vibrations of your mind will be higher. This visualisation of the picture has also a healthy impact. You must know that good can be learnt only at a wedding, while evil can be learnt at quarrels. Thirdly, ask yourselves why is it that good and evil thoughts and desires are generated within you; why are you predisposed better to some people, and less to others, why you love some, but others you do not love, why you find some people pleasant and others - unpleasant. You will say that this is karmic. Yes, it is, but karma does not explain anything, because there are quite a few reasons here. When you are in low spirits, think about the reason for this. Recall where you have been, in which house, how long you stayed there and after leaving which house you felt in low spirits. Find an explanation why you leave a certain house in low spirits. Explain to yourselves why at times when you come back home you feel in low spirits and whether it comes from the north, south, east or west. When you find the reason for your low spirits, do not fly at the person who created it, but change the direction of the low spirits. A friend of yours is asking you for a loan under the condition that he or she will return it in ten days, but nothing of the kind happens. Do not be angry about this. If someone is not predisposed towards you, this is because such a person has to take something from you. If this someone has nothing to take from you, then such a person has made a mistake and therefore he or she says, "Your father owes something to me, and please, now that you are able to pay, pay for him!" When you are in a good mood, you have to save the energy of this mood within you. It is a serious science to be able to save the energy of good thoughts and desires. Fourthly, every evening when you go to bed, you will spare ten to fifteen minutes to make a report before yourselves of your behaviour during the whole day. This you will do impartially. You will see what is evil so that you can avoid it on the following day. On the following day, you will pray, "Help me, God, to avoid evil deeds and to succeed in doing the good ones that I failed to do yesterday!" You will examine your life the way artists examine their paintings, without any self-judgements. If we are not a success in life this is due to the fact that we believe that we are stupid, sinful people etc. You are neither good nor evil, but you have to attend the wedding and you have to work. If your children make a noise at home, please imagine that they had also attended a wedding. Thus, to a certain extent – about fifty to seventy-five percent – you will be able to change the low spirits of your husband or of your children. These exercises will strengthen your good will. You will place the bridegroom in your mind and the bride – in your heart. Usually the guests of honour sit at the top places at a wedding. Christ is a guest at the wedding. The bride meets the guests and is the first to kiss hands, and then the bridegroom kisses hands. What does the kissing of hands stand for? When we kiss somebody’s hand, we promise that we shall implement God’s Will and law. Disciples who want to learn must have an iron will, nothing should despair disciples. I shall gradually explain to you all the forms according to which thoughts and desires act, according to which societies, homes, cultures are built up, and the reasons for which good and evil children are born. When you get old, your children will do this. The word youth is derived from the stem of mahatadi1, which means transformation of the Divine principle into a human form, i.e. renewal of aged life. When we get old, we do not listen to God, we become discontented, we frown and say that there is nothing in the world. I know that one has to act in the moment the Lord acts, to think in the moment when the Lord thinks and to feel in the moment the Lord feels. Some of the exercises you will do in the morning, and the others in the evening, because in the morning you are positive, and in the evening you are negative. This is why people are sad when the Sun goes down. So, when one wants to become humble, one has to pray in the evening. When one wants to pray for being merciful, one has to pray in the morning. The energy of the Earth is positive in the morning, and it is negative in the afternoon. The same is true of human beings. This explains why the psalm-singer says that Joy comes in the morning. Joy is positive energy, grief – negative. The good is positive energy, the evil – negative. If a certain disciple is weak, she will ask her friends to help her. When you say that the conditions are bad, I understand that you have no book. The one who wants to learn cannot say that there are no favourable conditions, that there is no time. You have at least five minutes at your disposal. When you do the experiments do not even think that you cannot do them. I do not want you to make a beautiful picture from the first attempt. You may make smudges around, but keep working. If you do not work, you will pay for the building you have hired. So, working or not working, we shall have to pay. I shall calculate one day how much your stay on the earth costs. It’s a shame, taking into account how much is spent on us, not to do any work. The exercises with the wedding you will do three times a week, in the morning - on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. The exercise with the report of your behaviour during the day you will do every evening before going to bed. In us, the mind precedes the heart, then in the third place comes the will, but initially it was the will acting, then the desire and finally the mind. God, through His Will urges us and at this point our thought is put in action, then our heart starts acting and finally comes the will. Master’s lecture, delivered on 19 June 1919 1 The Master here comments on the Bulgarian word for youth, which is “mladost” [‘mladost] Source

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno Master and Lord "Ye call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am."1 The words Master and Lord2 apparently contain nothing new, they are so ordinary. But in the world these two words - master and lord are two opposites. In Bulgarian the words gospodar, gospodin, gospodja or gospodjitza3 refer to people who are masters of their situation, to ruling people of high rank. However, in the original language these two words denoted two great principles which built human life. The situation of the master and the lord must be defined, the latter being used here in the sense of Lord. The word Gospod (Lord) was employed in a plural sense in the protolanguage in the meaning of lords. The first principle, Master, has relation to the human mind and will, while the second principle Gospod (Lord) has relation to the human heart and soul. Bear in mind that every word has a special sense in what I am going to speak about. When I use a word, I try to find what its vibrations are, for words are determined the same way the sunrays are. You cannot produce a certain color if you do not produce the corresponding vibrations. Therefore, if you speak about virtue, for instance, you should produce vibrations corresponding to virtue and then you will understand the corresponding sense of this word. Only this way can you have an objective, real truth expressed in life. There are unexpressed truths in the world as well. The earth is full of wealth hidden in its core, but that wealth does not interest you since it is concealed - you are interested in the riches the safes or the wealthy, the gold in the crowns of the kings and so on. There is knowledge hidden in the sun, but of what interest is it to you, since it is not revealed, but is only a supposition? The wealth in the written books satisfies you. I am speaking to you of knowledge revealed in the Master. When I speak about the Master, I mean a being who attunes the universe, i.e. He attunes His disciples, for the universe is a sum of thinking beings who are the atoms of this great rational word. When you ask what the spiritual beings are, you should know they are thinking beings. Some consider the spiritual man as an opposition to the worldly one. You will say that the worldly man is known by his fine clothes, cylinder, special ties, collars and gloves and his furniture is of a special kind. Is there anything bad in the worldly people? There are evils in the spiritual world as well. Where disharmony reigns, there are evils. Then I ask myself the question: if the spiritual world was free of sin, and if we come from God pure, how is it possible for us to commit sins? This question would remain unexplainable. So in the spiritual world there are also possibilities of making mistakes. A possibility for mistakes and such for sin are two different things. I shall explain this thought. Let us take two circles with different centers. The compass will draw one circle at a time, so that each circle will pass though the center of the other. If these two circles represent two rational worlds, or to put it in more scientific words, if one represents a positive and the other a negative electric current, when these two currents begin to function so that the power of the negative current passes from the periphery towards the center, and of the positive - from the center towards the periphery, at a certain stage the two circles will cross each other at two points and what will happen is exactly what is happening today on the earth. What is happening today is nothing other than the circle of the spiritual world passing through the center of the physical world and the opposite. You will say, "This is a great contradiction." Yes, this is a contradiction for those narrow minds who understand neither the past, the present, not the future. From the standpoint of a higher spirit, there are no contradictions in the world. People want a world without suffering. They are strange - this is no philosophy of life. There are always sufferings in contradictions, but in harmony there is a germ of suffering as well. Your happiness in the world rests on the sufferings of those small beings who serve you. You, who pass for very noble beings, ask what those little beings think of your nobility. All the sheep, oxen, lambs, hens, ducks, all small birds in relation with you have their own special opinion of people. All smaller beings say in one voice that person is a terribly cruel being. If you ask the trees, they also say, "How awful and merciless a person is!" Then you ask, "Why did God create such a world?" God created a very good world but we, as well as the people before us, spoiled it. This spoiled external world is reflected in us as well. The world is made in such a way that when the master suffers, the servants also suffer and the other way around. Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and so I am." In order to explain my idea - Master and Lord - I shall tell you the following example. Long time ago there lived a young king at the age of 33 - an age only of the wise and prudent people. He wrote a famous book about how life must be lived. Two royal daughters fell in love with him. You will say, "How happy he must have been!" When I see two young people in love, I say they are pleasantly amusing themselves. None other amusement is more pleasant than love. So when I see people loving each other, I say, "They are amusing themselves." You will object by saying love is something very serious. Do you think that when a great violin player performs a musical piece, he is doing something very serious? I consider serious situations such as when you own a debt to your creditor, or when a surgeon lays you on the table to operate on you. You often say, we must be serious. I call serious people those who have debts. You cannot understand the Word of God in its deep sense until you are freed of your debts. When you go to church and your creditor comes and reminds you of your debt to them, will your seriousness be of any help? The first royal daughter who fell in love with the king’s son expressed her love by carrying his picture everywhere, kissing it all day long, making a chapel for it so that people might light candles and censers to him and so on. The other royal daughter took "the book of life" written by the king’s son and started studying it and applying all its principles out of love for him. She started visiting the poor and the suffering thus testing all that was written in the book. By doing that she became more and more fond of the king’s son for she could see the good results of his teaching. These two royal daughters formed two different cults. You can see the cult of the first daughter displayed in all the temples of the world: all Buddhists, Brahmans, priests, the Turkish hodjas and all the Christian clergy. The other teaching is deep in the hearths of some people who only apply it, unconscious of serving any cult. The former are the-so-called orthodox people who think Christ will come in flesh and expect that image. What do you think: who of the two royal daughters has understood the royal son and has given him a better expression of her love of him? I call the first culture a culture of egotism when a person wishes only to possess and dominate someone. Today a young man and a young woman who are in love want only to possess and dominate one another. While they are young, they say such nice things to each other, but after marrying five years have hardly passed and all their love has evaporated, nothing remains of it. When I speak to you, I do not wish to be understood the first way: I would wish you to understand properly the second principle and to apply it to life. Therefore, the Master has a relation to the human mind and will. He bears in his soul those vibrations which can give an impulse to your mind and will. You send your daughter to school to study music with a teacher, but she falls in love with him and this prevents her from receiving the impulse the teacher can give to her mind and will. Music and poetry are dangerous engagements for some young men and women, especially if they have a weak character. When students fall in love with their teacher, they start taking flowers to the teacher and do not learn their lessons. This way your daughter will never graduate in music. If her teacher is not married and can marry her, that would be good. But if he is already married, what then? Polygamy will take place which can be seen everywhere in the world. By polygamy I mean a split in life. Splitting is always harmful to unity. A disciple who goes to his/her teacher must learn the essential principles, understand the qualities of the laws and powers, their mind, stomach, lungs. The stomach, the lungs and the brain have their own requirements. When you have stomach ache, you send for the doctor to inject you as soon as possible. But what does your rational stomach want to tell you by its disorder? It is a rational being. Sometimes you feel a tightening in your chest, or stomach, and you get worried. There is nothing dangerous in these tightenings, they are nothing but a change in energies. There are two opposite currents of energy in the world which produce two different results. One energy contracts the forms, the other expands them. Thereby life is manifested. This can be observed in nature too. Without dwelling on present day theories, I shall make an explanation: in order that rain may be produced, two opposite currents are necessary - warm and cold. For dew drops to be formed, the negative energy should raise them, heat expand them and render them gaseous. The positive energy keeps the water drops on the earth. Therefore, the negative energy of the earth and the positive energy of the sun are mutually attracted and where these two energies, these two circles, come in contact, a contrary process begins as a result of which rain is produced falling again on the earth. This is a philosophical consideration of the question. The evaporations which take place in nature are performed at the same time within us. In accord with nature your brain takes the place of the sun, your stomach that of the earth and your lungs are the connecting link between the earth and the sun. The two currents - arterial and venous - pass through the lungs. In nature there is also a venous current which ascends and an arterial one which descends. The venous current of an upward movement is directed toward the brain, i.e. toward the sun. First the venous blood must pass through the heart and lungs to be purified and then move upward. This is a necessity taking place in us, as well as in nature. The blood must be ozonized and its vibrations thus raised. All impurities in the venous blood must be purged away and thus the vibrations in the world will be raised. All illnesses in the world spring from a misunderstanding of this great Master who teaches us. At times you feel a pressure in your head. Your mind tells you, "You have impure blood, send it up to be purified." Sometimes your stomach aches. It says, "You have impure blood, send it up to be purified." But since you do not know this, you take some pills or medicine to stimulate your stomach and to stop the ache. The same thing happens in family life. When a man and a woman start life together, one must be a teacher and the other a disciple. But you start struggling for priority. If your husband has the necessary vibration for raising your mind, give him the place of teacher. The wife will say in such a case, "I do not like to submit." Do you know what the word submission means? To submit is to receive and cultivate the energy you need. That is culture. This is what it means to cultivate something. A violinist or an artist prepares his/her composition for hours that s/he may cultivate their theme in their mind. By the same law, I think that every teaching limits you or submits you. That is why you should not conceive the word religion in a limited, but in a broad sense so that you would have results in your personal life. Whoever carries a religion or a teaching as a portrait in themselves and only looks at it from time to time, will never benefit by it. I am not saying you should throw this portrait out of your mind and memory, but rather that you should look at it once a year or a month and apply more. Why does the Lord keep us at a distance? He has chosen such a high place, because He knows we are going to disturb Him. The Lord says, "I want you to do My will and live in the world the way I have ordered it so that you may be happy." Some ask, "When shall we go to heaven?" When you learn to live according to the book of this sage - the king’s son; when you come to the second culture and learn the laws. Thus, the word Lord implies the mother. The Master is the father. The Master, i.e. the father, is an interpretation of a great idea. God turns into a father and has a relation to us. The master is a number raised to the third degree, it is the cube of life. The master is a rational entity who regards things three-dimensionally: along a straight line, a plane and a height. You will say, "Of what importance is in what direction or line one moves in life?" This is of great importance. If you pass through the world only in straight line what would you understand of it? If you should take an excursion through the whole solar system by an express and move with the speed of light, you will need 31,000 years to pass along this straight line. After having moved at such a speed and return to earth, what knowledge will you have? None. You will say, "It is wonderful, magnificent," but you will give only general impressions. You have passed by the sun with lightning velocity and think you have crossed the whole universe and know many things, but in fact nothing has remained in you. I say to such a philosopher that he knows very little, because hey moves with great speed. In order to investigate this world, you need a number with ten zeros at the end - these are the necessary years for that work. You will say it is easy to put zeros to a number. Yes, but for me these zeros are of great importance. If we, for instance, would write one, two, three zeros after the number one, there will be a great difference between these numbers. I make a difference between the first, second and the third zero. The second zero shows that the number ten is in square; the third zero shows the cube of number ten. If there is a fourth zero, it shows the fourth degree on number ten; the fifth zero shows number 10 to the fifth degree and so on. I shall not go to the fifteenth degree for that is not for the human mind. The human mind can discover the secrets of nature only up to the fourth degree. Geometry may solve problems only as far as the tesseract is concerned. The tesseract is a small figure of which we study only the separate parts. The cube is a small segment of the tesseract. These lines, plains and cubes have a relation to our life. If we examine our face, we shall see that it is composed of many straight lines, plains and cubes. In geometry the definition of a straight line is that it is the shortest distance between two points. I define the straight line as the smallest segment of a circle. This is not a contradiction. You will say, "The diameter of a circle is also a straight line." Yes, but it is a small segment of another larger circle. The same way our present life is a small segment of a larger circle of our past. Therefore, your future life will also be a small segment of your present life. There is descending and ascending in your lives. By the law of descending you learn to decrease, but by the law of ascending, you learn to increase. Therefore, we should know simultaneously how to decrease and increase. People today suffer because they do not know how to increase and decrease. A merchant who cannot balance correctly suffers losses in his accounts. For instance, he has only 1,000 effective money in gold, but writes 100,000 and makes his business transactions on that effective money. Everyone must put down only the quantity of money they have in their safe. Nature does not tolerate false accounts. If you do not check what effective money you have at a given moment, you fall under the criticism of people. Knowing you have written more than you really have, you start thinking that others have done the same and you do not believe in them. We people today are like that, we recommend ourselves as having more effective money when in reality we have less. When you cross out a few zeros, you will come to the plain truth. Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." He spoke very important things not registered in the New Testament. Christ came to teach you how to live. Some say, "What Christ spoke is sufficient for you." Yes, but it is sufficient for your salvation^ but not for the way you should live. And John says that Christ spoke so much that if everything were written down, all the books in the world could not contain it. I know that a very small fraction of what Christ said is written. I draw my principles from a very large book of which every pebble, leaf, branch, blossom form the alphabet. I constantly interpret this great book. When I take a leaf of a tree, I begin to examine it and read upon it under what conditions that leaf was formed; where that tree was growing; why it grew old; what kind of people had lived during its lifetime; what were their conditions of life; what the condition of the solar system was and so on. I read all this by the marks on every leaf and branch. But you stop by the trees, look at them and think they have no experience of their own, that they do not speak or see. How beautifully the flowers and the trees speak and see! Every leaf has its eyelet and reads all your thoughts when you sit under a tree to meditate, every one of your thoughts leaves its marks on the tree and the separate leaves. In the future you will be able to read your life and that of your predecessors on the trees. How many times, stopping under a tree, I have been told the story of different philosophers, priests and other people who had sat under that tree! We should know that everything is open before God, there is nothing hidden in this world. You say that trees are speechless beings in nature and only person speaks. I am against this idea for there are no speechless beings in nature, only their manner of speaking is different. Everything speaks to me. When I say "to me" I do not mean that son of the king whose picture is in the hands of the king’s daughter, but the other one who bears the divine truths for this world. Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." But Christ is not a master like Moses who preached "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Today you serve Christ, but you serve many other masters including Moses. You say, "I am a Christian, an Eastern Orthodox believer," but if anyone should offend you, or hurt your feelings a little, you immediately sue them. This is the old teaching we apply in life, while we are speaking of the New teaching. When we speak of materialism I understand we are serving this world, we fall in love with the picture of the king’s son and say that only what we see is the real in life, but what is really actual, the truth in life, we cast away. All relations which are much more real and contain the sense of life can be tested. Speaking of meaningfulness, I do not mean what you can perceive. I can always test how you perceive things and often amuse myself by calculating what percent of you will understand me, how many will listen to me and how much you will apply. I have in view where you come from. You listen to me and say, "Now we understood you!" And I take down in my book, "I, too, understood you quite well." When people understand, I understand, too; but when they do not understand, neither do I understand. When you visit my restaurant and I nourish and receive you well and you pay and thank me, then you understand and I understand you. If you go out and do not pay me, I remain without money and do not understand you. Misunderstanding is an empty purse and an empty stomach. Every purse, every bag and your stomach are relations in the world which do not exist. You are exposed to suffering, torment and persecution, but why? Because your purse is empty. If no one receives you in their house, if all people forsake you, I draw a bad conclusion about you. This means you have not behaved according to the law of love and have set the whole world against you. It shows you have not heeded your Master and the Lord has left you to study by your own experiences. You will object to this, saying, "I have studied so much mathematics, know so many things, so many formulae and theorems." I ask you, "If you have learned so many formulae and theorems, can you apply them by building your body according to them, or according to the theorem of Pythagoras? You will say that there is no connection whatever between you and these things. There is a great correlation in all this because your life is a circle which can be calculated since it flows from two quantities - a larger and a smaller one. The larger quantity is that of the spirit which functions outside your life and cannot be calculated. We may say that this power is a fraction proceeding to infinity. But a day will come when you will be able to calculate it. Such is the law by which this power functions. Under the present conditions it is beyond your life and you can not calculate it. However, this does not prove that a day will not come when this fraction will be calculated. Christ says, "You call me Master but I am not a Master like Moses, for I teach you the law of expansion while Moses taught you the law of shrinking." When you unite these two laws into one, you will find a way for freedom. Christ says, "When they hit you on one side, turn the other also; if they take your outer garment, give the undergarment too." What did Christ mean by undergarment and outer garment? This applies to the physical and spiritual world. This means that if your outer garment is heavy in summer, you should throw it off and leave it somewhere. If your fur coat was necessary to you in the winter, throw it away in the summer. You will say, "But what shall we do in the winter without a fur coat, if we throw it away in the summer?" Are you sure you will still be alive next winter? Throw the fur coat away under these conditions. By casting away your outer garment Christ wants to say that you should not be in touch with people who want to become rich. Besides, there is no winter in the spiritual world. Someone wants to have two or three houses; another wants to study; still another wants to become beautiful and so on. Do not make contact and do not obstruct such people; who want to get rich - give them what you have, help them to build their house, to study, let them become beautiful, leave them do what they want to, encourage people in goodness. Originally all our aspirations had been good, but later they became perverted and became bad. For instance, you are in a forest and start reciting, singing and dancing freely. If you do the same thing in the city, people will consider you crazy. Here is an example of how your original impulse in the forest, expressed in the city becomes warped. If you sing and dance in the forest among the trees, they will not criticize you, but when you go among the cultured, talking people, they will not allow you to raise your voice. When you are in society, to speak you must raise your hand so as to form a curved line. Then people ask, "Is there any sense in this life?" Many times when I come to speak to you, I think: if I start speaking in a loud voice and wave my hands, people will come to me immediately and say, "What are you doing! Don’t you know that it is not proper to speak like this and wave your hands in society?" Then I start calculating how to speak and how to hold my hands so as not to offend anyone. Do you know how difficult it is for a person to determine the direction of their movements? These calculations are difficult to make until we come to a sensible speech. Many who are listening say, "If I should make a speech, it would be better." Then we are in the same state as the old and the young horse. An old horse was pulling a cart full of earthenware. Since he was walking on a downward slope, he walked very carefully. A young horse watching him said to himself, "If they gave me this load to pull, I would go down at once, but that old horse is barely moving." In a short time the young horse was harnessed to drive the cart of the earthenware. He had to pass the same way. However, he did not walk carefully like the old horse whom he considered silly, but ran swiftly down the slope breaking to pieces all the earthenware. Some say to me, "Tell us something more serious." Do you want me to act like the young horse? If I am going down a slope, I shall be serious and move slowly; if I am going up, I shall groan and walk with difficulty; if I am on a plain, I shall philosophize. Knowing this, try to calculate these two states in life - when you must move upward and when a chance is offered you to go down. I shall resume my previous thought. I said that there is much energy stored in your brain. The wife gets angry and says, "How long shall I be a slave to my husband? I want freedom. Did I marry only to cook for him?" The husband is also discontented and says, "You do not understand me." The servants are dissatisfied with their master and want to get rid of them. These are cases of the two positive energies in the world which repel one another and cause all the misunderstandings and fights in life. People warn such a couple not to act contrary to the evangelical rules. There is no need of such a warning, but you should rather turn one energy into negative and the other should stay positive. You will ask, "What will come out of that?" Rain will be formed. When a woman weeps, she should be thankful for her tears, for the moment is most favorable for her to turn her energy into negative. Let her say to her husband, "I see, dear, that you are right." But in life usually both are wrong. If one is right, the other will be wrong. That is why you should look for people whose energy is opposite to yours. That is how things stand in the world: half the world is right, good or positive, but the other half is wrong, bad of negative. The bad people are a blessing, they have a store of conserved energy and bear the conditions for the future culture. The good people will come in the future; they will become negative and start cultivating the energy they have. A good poet coming into the world will create new poetry out of the bad life of people; a scientist will create new science; a musician - new melodies. Thus, the foundations of the new culture will be laid. When you see a suffering person, if you are a poet, you could create such lovely poetry, which will inspire people’s minds and hearts for noble and sublime deeds. Christ says, "I came into the world to teach you to recognize the good in evil and the evil in good." The good has its bad side just as the evil has its good side. Until recently the sun was considered completely pure, but it is known today that there are black spots on it. The sun, too, is spotted. Do you know what alarm is raised at times on the sun? The alarm on the sun is always reflected on the earth. When it is quiet on the sun, it is quiet on the earth too. Therefore, half of our earth is turned to God, it is nearer God and the sun lightens it, but the other half is dark. That half facing God is collecting its energy. Each one of you can come to such a state. When you say you cannot do anything, you are in the positive energy of the earth. When your earth turns to the sun, you are in the negative energy of the earth and then culture comes. You may ask, "How is it that one and the same solar energy is sometimes good and sometimes bad?" In the morning the solar energy represents mother love, but in the afternoon, after crossing the meridian, the energy is perverted and becomes bad. In the evening this energy affects us still worse that is why murder and quarrels, etc. take place then. Why do these things happen with people? Because only positive energies get together. In order that such things may be avoided, the wife must require as a law of her husband to return home two hours before sunset. If he returns after sunset, he will have trouble by all means. The same thing happens in us as well. When we make up our mind to do something nice and noble, we are in the negative energy, in the light side of the earth, however, if we intend to do something bad, we are in the positive side of earth, in the positive energy. The Lord is positive. But when you turn to God, your energy is negative, conscious. If you start fighting with a stronger being, you will be smashed. The Lord opposes proud people. When you say you will oppose Him, the Lord will give orders that you should be tied up and taken to a hospital; you will say you went to fight for your country. You have not fought for the liberty of any country. Your country is to be liberated by other means. Pull out your sword, i.e. your will, and see if it is tempered well so that it could set people free. When you are offered two bags of gold, you are tempted and start saying there is no sense in fighting, it is not human and so on. Why? Because the bag of gold is behind your back. This is no ideal, however. The rich say, "There is no sense in fighting, we must live in peace." Why do they talk like that? Because they are rich and lack nothing. Many poor people say, "We want to fight," because they are in need. Christ says, "I came to solve the problem which troubles humanity. I am the Master and will show you how to recognize your master and your lord within yourself." If you listen to your Lord deep within you, you will be able to do something, but if you do not listen to your Master, you will be in contradiction. People must know both their Master and their Lord. There is a Lord in every person. You often interpret my words wrongly. You want to manifest yourselves by which you make many big mistakes. I am giving you a positive teaching which you can apply and I can make an experiment with anyone of you under the condition that you are sincere. This is the advantage of my philosophy - it can be applied to life. My greatest wish is that everywhere in all homes there should be relations like those among the teachers and the masters, that the children should be both good students and good servants. The students should listen to their teacher and the servants to their master. If you teach this to your children, if you imbed this idea in them, the daughter will listen to her mother and the son will listen to his father. The daughter cannot listen to her father and the son cannot listen to his mother. In order that the son might listen to his mother, he should become a woman in the next generation. The same thing applies to the daughter. In nature the energy must be converted. I may be positive in relation to your energies and negative in relation to other energies. This is a law. Energy is a great power which penetrates us and builds life. For 2,000 years it has been preached that Christ is a great Master who came to save us from sin so that we may repent and become good members of the church. In fact, you have members now - sons and daughters who becoming 21 years old tell their parents the latter have become foolish. What kind of students are your sons and daughters? You think that you know much. Often the Lord gives you headache saying, "Give this problem to humanity to solve. Why do they have a headache?" You answer, "We have overeaten." No, that is not the real reason - your head aches from knowing too much. Sometimes you have stomachache. It shows that the Lord gives you this problem to solve. They who do hot know what headaches and stomachaches are due to, as well as all other illnesses, do not know anything. A stomachache shows that the energy in your stomach which is positive must be turned from positive to negative. A headache shows that the energy in your head which is positive must be turned into negative in relation to the other energies. Your mind must be engaged with sublime thoughts. When you have a headache, go to a poor woman to help her. Whenever your head or stomach aches, begin to work. Thus says the lord. You say, "When my head aches, I cannot work." Your head aches exactly for the reason that you do not work. Therefore, a headache is a stimulus forcing you to think and to work. If the doctors hear this, they will say, "This is a dangerous theory - to work when you have headache." The doctors explain only the effects of illnesses, but they do not know what precedes illnesses. Doctors of more modern times say that uric acid is the cause of headaches when it settles in the organism, in the brain. The blood thickens, the organism begins to act with greater effort and so on. But the doctors cannot explain what caused this uric acid. They cannot explain a number of causes which preceded the appearance of the uric acid. Therefore, the cause of each illness must be explored very far back. If we lived the divine way, a day would come when our body would be cleansed immediately of any sediments which cause illnesses. Some physicists say that if the human organism is placed under 10-20 or 100,000 volts of electricity, it would be rejuvenated in a very short period of time and acquire its childlike state of youthfulness. Then we would say, "Thank you, God, the kingdom of God has come to earth." The Lord sends death and says, "Call this aged child and put it on the disc of death in order to be rejuvenated and start a different new life." Then the wheel of life rotates at 100,000 volts and in less than 50 or 100 years the same person returns rejuvenated already with new energy and a new name. This is the law o£ reincarnation - a change of energies. The soul can assume thousands of forms. You have not studied the human soul. If I would say all I know about it, that would be the ninth wonder in the world - there are so many things to be said about it. Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." As you read the chapter further, you will see why He calls Himself that. I want the two words Lord and Master to remain in you. The master is a positive energy. Every disorder or disharmony in thoughts and desires is a positive energy which must be transformed into negative, since only the negative energies in the world can create. This is true of electricity as well. If you are a clairvoyant you will see that light appears only on the negative pole. If people consider someone attractive, it shows s/he has negative energy in him/herself - that is magnetism. Such a person can both give to people and take from them. One should not only be nice to people, but every word they say must be full of meaning. Never utter empty words. Some ask, "Why don’t you tell us you love us?" Since I have invited you to my table to nourish you, it means I love you. If I tell you many words but I do not nourish you, do I love you then? If I invite you to beer and sweets that is not love. We should live only on bread, wheat and all kinds of fruit. And Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." When this Master comes there will be harmony, music, poetry in your home, everyone will be in his/her proper place, there will be no discord between the man and woman, between the servants and the masters, between the daughters and sons, between the teachers and students. Christ is not in the world now. Some will say that Christ has come. No, He does not come, because He already has an experience with people. If He comes today among humanity, He will be crucified again. He who has hung on a cross knows what those nails, which nailed Him there, mean. Christ is asking His followers now, "Are there any more nails?" "Yes, there are." "Then the time has not come for me to visit you." The priests preach "brotherhood and love." Christ is not fooled by these words and asks again, "Are there any nails on the earth?" "Yes, there are." "It is not time for me yet." Some say, "Manifest yourself to us, Master, we shall recognize and prize you!" Yes, you have prepared your nails and want the Master to come in order to nail him. This is what I see every day. You take everything you can from people: I see two young people talking in the garden and a few lambs are near them who say to themselves, "These people are cultured, but nothing will stop them from stripping off our skin at any moment." They know very well the intentions of their masters. Now you will say I am speaking very well. Yes, I speak well and you listen well. But I wish there would be teachers in Bulgaria to teach kindness and patience. I have not met patient people in Bulgaria yet. I have met people who bear their hardships, but I have not met patient people. Patience implies will power and a good mind or knowing the causes and effects of things. But impatience gives rise to suspicion of everything and everybody. I have not met people whom I could convince that there is nothing suspicious in our cause. The Bulgarians have no patience that is why suspicion never leaves them. The second thing to do is to get rid of prejudice. Everyday we struggle with unclean thoughts which attack us like wasps. Consciously or unconsciously, everywhere I see an atmosphere of suspicion and, after all that, people want to be considered cultured. We must fence off these thoughts - they are a harmful remnant from the past and we must get rid of them. Suspicion has penetrated your mind, heart and soul and you must dispense with it and purify yourselves. What is there to suspect? Someone comes to me and tries to deceive me somewhat, but I say to him/her, "My friend, if you did not try to deceive me, I would have done more for you, but now I shall do less. Yet, I ought to do something for you at any rate." By this I do not want to say that I am good, but that I am obliged to do something for everybody. Why should you represent things as they are not? That is why sometimes I do not receive visitors. "Why don’t you receive visitors today?" "Because I have not arrived at anything and can give you nothing." The same law applies to you: If you are not in good disposition today, do not receive visitors. Say, "I have to solve a problem the Master has given me." Now keep two things in mind: patience and doing away with your suspicion. I see suspicion inscribed on the eyebrows of the Bulgarians and some have it at such a great extent that a whole lifetime is necessary for them to get rid of it. This sign is in its place - the Lord has put it there. Suspicion is the absence of selfless love and gives rise to all illnesses. When you meet people, you say, "This person is bad, that person is bad," there are no good people for you. Think that all people are good, but they have only positive energy, which you cannot use, that is why you should stay away from them and let others use it. Two men who have positive energy repel each other. Today there are magnetizers who can transform the energies. I visit a home where the husband and wife are fighting and raise my hands then drop them again and the man becomes positive, but the woman negative. After a while they begin to excuse themselves to me for having made a mistake. They have not been conscious of the law by which one becomes positive and the other negative. And actually after their energies have changed properly into positive and negative, they stop quarrelling. I say, "Friends, one must be up, but the other down." When a magnetizer starts healing someone, they pass their hands from the head down which means: the woman must be down and the man up, or in other words: the man should break the stones and the woman should build them. This is what Christ also taught people. Christ says, "Ye call me Master and Lord." The Master is up in the mountain, while the lord is down and he is building there. Therefore, if you want to build, you must come down. If you understand this rightly, there will be no contradictions for you. While listening to me, you think I want you to deny the world. I am not teaching you to deny the world, but rather to turn your energy into negative and to start building. When you are troubled, raise your hands up them put them down. Then tell your stomach, "Listen, my friend, let the brain be up, but you be down sending it material to work with." In general, where there is headache, the stomach suffers too and conversely. This shows that always - this law is right - there is a close connection between the stomach and the head. You can test this. Those of you who have a strong will can heal yourselves the following way: turn to the Lord and pray to Him as a Master and Lord to teach you how to control your head and your stomach. You will say, "I do not need a stomach and head, I want to have the body of an angel with a guitar in hand and to play and sing in heaven." This is a wrong conception of Christ’s teaching. You must understand it right. This is a form, but you must have a certain result. I do not want to create antagonism between those who understand rightly the teaching of Christ and those who have no right understanding of it. And I shall not say that the former are on the right and the latter on the wrong side, but I say that those who do not think right are of positive energy. So long as suspicion takes hold in you, nobody can set the world right. Before we depart we must fulfil the will of God. The Bulgarians have a future as a nation, that is why they must become patient and do away with suspicion. The Bulgarians are not so good, but they have in themselves the conditions for a good life and where there is a condition for life, God is there. Something will come out of the Bulgarians, but not of Bulgaria which is the retort in which experiments are made and as such it will fulfil its role. The content of the retort - the Bulgarian nation - is the creative power as well. When the Bulgarians go to live among Americans or other nations, they are polite and pleasant, but as soon as they return to Bulgaria, they become rude and discontented with everything. This discontentment is due to the small land they possess. The Bulgarians have a creative spirit that is why they feel confined here. Give the Bulgarians wide opportunities, much work and they will work. One day as I was walking by the seminary, I met a colonel riding a horse. All of a sudden his horse stopped and refused to go on. When the colonel got off the horse, it started to walk. By this the horse wanted to say, "I shall walk without a colonel, but if he is on my back, I shall stop." Every Bulgarian has this feature. Christ says, "I came to teach people how to give wide space to every soul and to encourage every good impulse in every single thing." If everyone should give freedom to their neighbor as they have need of the same, there will be wide scope to all actions and thoughts. If you would apply the laws hidden in my words, you would understand many things. I take everything in nature and interpret it. All the laws of nature I have tested are 75% true and only some 25% remain for me to test. Deposit this faith in yourselves and know that everybody bears something great. Someone wants to become an angel, but even as an angel s/he would see only the beginning, not the end of things. You will see only your head, but you will not see your tail; you become an atom whirling only around a circle, in order to acquire balance. But circling round a center shows that a person has lost his/her balance. Since we have become free from the periphery, we should study these two worlds - between the Master who is up and the mother who is down. What is true of the Sun and the Earth, is true of the brain and the stomach, of the spirit and the soul. Apply patience, i.e. develop the mind and the will, get rid of suspicion and substitute it by creative love. Be so strong that no matter what insult may be cast upon you, it should not touch you and you will become free of it in a short time. There is no greater art than the ability to rise above all insults and to substitute them by good thoughts. All of you can do a great deal of work and perform great deeds of goodness. What the teacher is playing at a given moment can be learned by the student too. Those who want to be something more than the others, must unite with the living Lord - with that great bond of harmony and study the law of silence. All the occultists say we should be listeners to the Great Master who is speaking. There is nothing better than silence. I would wish to be in your place - you should speak and I would listen, for I shall understand everything you say. Now when people hear something, they not only refuse to pay, but also criticize what they hear by saying it is not good. Christ says, "I am the restaurant keeper and came to feed people." Christ’s teaching shows us that we have conditions to become saints, angels and geniuses. But what are we now? We are the beloved children of God Who loves us not because we are so good, but because He is merciful to us. And this is the greatest thing in the world we can be christened by. We must justify this love, become worthy of it and never pull each other’s hair before His face. As soon as we hear that the Master, the Father, the Lord is coming we should immediately stand still. By today’s sermon I want all who have positive energy to turn it into negative and all who are up the mountain to come down and start building, while those who are masters should become servants. There is no need of masters. The Lord says, "I am tired of masters, I want servants who should put order in the world." Christ says, "Now the world will be set right by the students, the sons and daughters, not by the mothers and the masters. The students, the sons and daughters are the future of this world." The mother is engaged in fashionable clothes, the father drinks, but the sons and daughters see that their parents do not follow the right path that is why they set about serious work. Now take the position of sons and daughters, of students and servants, but do not say you are teachers, priests, mothers, fathers, kings, princes and the like. May the Lord keep you from such sins! May the Lord keep me from this sin, too! And may He make us students and servants of this Great Master and servants of this Great Lord in the world. For He is a Living Lord! Sermon held on June 15, 1919. 1 John 13:13 2 Lord - "Gospod" in Bulgarian (transl. note) 3 Gospodar - Bulg. Master; Gospodin - Bulg. Mister; Gospodja - Bulg. Missis, Gospodjitza - Miss (transl. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Humpbacked Woman "And he laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God."1 The primary requirement in life is that the truth should be presented in its real form. There are real and abstract, or positive and negative truths. If you observe a Centigrade thermometer tube from the bottom upwards as the temperature rises, you will have a positive truth, but if you observe it from the top downwards, you will have a negative truth. In the first case, the heat will increase, but in the second - it will decrease. You will say, "What does it matter if the heat increases or decreases?" This is of great significance. In nature only warmth causes the growth of all plants and fruit trees. This law refers to the human mind and heart as well. I interpret the word warmth as noble feelings. The most noble thoughts, feelings and acts are produced by warmth. You will ask me, "What has this to do with Christ’s laying His hands upon this woman?" Woman is the foundation of the world. The world cannot exist without women. If this were possible, God would not have created them. Some may object to this saying that God created Adam first. Yes, but which Adam? God created the male and female sex together. The male and female sex constitute a contrast in the world, but this contrariety is a great science as well. Christ wished to raise that woman to her high position. She was humpbacked. What does that hump mean? The woman was humpbacked in thoughts, feelings and acts. Christ laid His hands on that woman. The hands signify the sublime and the great in the world. Present day people suffer from lack of will, but a person lacking will is not a person. You will probably all say you have will. I would give you a small task so that you can test your will. I may give you a kilogram to lift from the earth. You will say, "Now, can we not lift a kilogram!" Yes, you can lift it, but not under any conditions. How could you lift this kilogram, if it were heated up to 1,000 degrees? Not only you, but no other person could lift it, you would even stay ten meters away from it. Therefore, there is a great difference between a kilogram that even children can lift and a kilogram the whole world cannot lift. If anyone could lift you, it shows you have no will, no power. We read that Christ laid his hands on that humpbacked woman and she was made straight. I ask you: can you lay your hands on your humpbacked mind, your humpbacked heart and make them straight? You will answer me that your hearts and minds are straight. No, your hearts and minds are not straight. The hearts and minds of all clergy, ministers and teachers as well as those of many other people are humpbacked. You will say, "Why do you offend us?" I do not offend you, but I am speaking the positive truth so as the illusions that we are something which we are not, should be avoided. In this verse, however, there is another psychological moment. Christ laid His hands on that woman in order that she might be made straight and glorify God. Tell me how many times a mother must lay her hands on her small child when she bathes him/her so that s/he might be made straight and start walking? If the mothers did not do that, would their children ever start walking? Your children are humpbacked women which is why you should lay your hands on them daily and bathe them. Do you know what bathing means? What a simple truth bathing is, but no one of the present day people of learning can give it an interpretation. Contemporary people are like that Greek philosopher who wanted to study the world by looking only upward. While walking along the street he fell in a hole. Getting out of it, the philosopher got angry and started scolding people for putting such an obstacle on his path. After restoring his calm state he continued on his way, but to his great surprise he fell into another hole. He became furious and started chiding people even more fiercely for placing obstacles on his way so that he could not discover the truth. No, sir, when you are seeking the truth you must look forward, not upward. All dandies, all ladies today look upward. Go out to the fields and notice which way the empty wheat-ears look. All empty wheat-ears look up. If a farmer should see all the wheat-ears looking up, he would be driven to despair. But if he should see all wheat-ears with bent heads, he would say, "Thank God! I wish all of you were bent!" Christ saw the humpbacked woman and by the same law laid His hands upon her and she was made straight and glorified God. Some may ask, "Why should we glorify God?" I am mot asking you to glorify that Lord in whose name all dissentions take place today and whom the churches have served for 2,000 years; I am not speaking to you about the Lord whom the governments serve - the god of war. I do not deny they are gods, but they are gods for themselves not for humanity. I am speaking to you about a Lord you can find anywhere, Who is within you, in whom you live and move and have your being, or feel. This Lord does not belong to states and parties. Him I call the God of suffering, of the humpbacked people in the world. Those of you who have studied the theorem of Pythagoras know what it states: the square constructed on the hypotenuse of a triangle equals the sum of the squares constructed on the two legs of the same triangle, i.e. the space comprising the square constructed on the hypotenuse equals the space comprising the other two squares. Thus the woman upon whom Christ laid His hands, represents the hypotenuse upon which the square was constructed, i.e. the neutral zone which divides the square into two triangles. Considering geometry and mathematics this way, a correlation can be found between them and life itself. If a person’s mind, heart and will would be healed, there must be at least three conditions. A person whose lungs, brain and stomach are spoilt cannot be healed. You may ask, "But how did Christ heal so many people of different illnesses?" Christ healed only those people whose lungs, stomachs and brains were in their right place. I take the stomach as an emblem of the physical life, the lungs as an emblem of the mental life and the brain - of the spiritual life of person. Therefore, if you are not connected with the forces of these three worlds, your hump cannot be made straight. In order that the child on whom the mother lays her hands may stand up, s/he must wish that him/herself, or have a certain thought about it. This analogy applies to the separate nations. Every nation is similar to a child. Some nations are considered young, others - old. If a nation is young, its mother must bathe it in the tub for a long time and lay her hands on it until it Starts walking. Moreover, it is known that a child who is just starting to walk passes through many phases - many falls and risings, but that does not mean anything. You will ask me, "What relation does this verse have to life today?" The sun directs its rays daily to us - they are the divine hands. What do they contain? Christ lays His hands daily on us by means of these rays. If your brain, stomach and lungs are healthy, your hump will be made straight by all means. You will say that this idea is not in accord with the present day church. Which church? The one formed by people, or the one created by God? If it is the church of God, it is nature itself. I believe in its symbol. But those who wish to take exams for priests and bishops must pass them in such a way that when they lay their hands on the humpbacked woman, her hump should be made straight. How many priests and bishops of this kind are there is Bulgaria? Two thousand years have already passed after Christ in the course of which all kinds of learned bishops and preachers came into the world, but the hump of the whole humanity as well as of the Bulgarian people, still exists. Why? Because no one believes in what Christ taught. I have talked with many worldly people and have noticed that they are more open to the great truths than some spiritual people. By saying this I neither judge nor blame anyone. If a teacher gives you a problem to solve that you cannot solve correctly, the teacher says that the problem has not been solved. "But, teacher, I struggled much until I solved it. Besides that, my father and grandpa are rich and good people, is it possible for me not to solve it?" All that may be so, but the problem is not solved. When students do not succeed in that, they start taking flowers, money, etc. to the teacher, but the problem still remains unsolved. You should know that the schools, grammar schools and universities have been founded for knowledge and not for bribery. I see all people today take candles to the church, light them but the problem still remains unsolved. You may be a king, but your soul, heart and will remain humped. I say to such a person: you will not achieve anything in the world and will always be a slave to the conditions in which you live. People today justify themselves by the difficult, unfavorable conditions. If I put a person in a nice building and give them all the favorable conditions for work, but should they bring in all their garbage from outside, what will become of the favorable conditions they were given? Such a person will complain of the bad conditions of life, but who created them? They themselves. What must they do? They must change them, but not tear down the house, only clean it up. If you do not maintain the good conditions given to you, you will be like those baby crows which, after dirtying their nest, begged their mother to be removed to another nest, since the one they were in was dirty. The mother asked them, "Will you also go to the new nest?" "Of course, we will." "Then you will dirty the new nest as well." I shall give you a similar example about a wolf. A wolf once went to complain to a fox of people who were so bad that they always persecuted him. "I shall go to some other good and noble people," he said. The fox asked him, "But will you take your teeth along?" "Yes, indeed." "Then these other people will persecute you as well." One must understand the basic law according to which everything should be put in its own place. If you have teeth, you must know how to use them. By healing the woman, Christ wanted to point out the fact that all people who believe in Him should have the will to correct their life. Jena2 coming from the Sanskrit word zeo means life in Bulgarian. The life of this woman had become humpbacked, but in order that it should be made straight, the divine will should direct it so that it would manifest itself sensibly. How would the Divine life manifest itself? It is a great mistake to think that you now much. I have nothing against your knowledge but I ask you, since you have studied algebra and geometry, what use have you made of these formulae? When I look through algebra and geometry textbooks, I see what great truths are hidden in these formulae, but their deep meaning remains concealed for the teachers and students. These seeds have not been sown in science yet. There is apathy in us to the deep truth. There is only a mechanical belief, we expect God to come and set all things right, teach us everything without our sitting down to work and investigating all things ourselves. This way we shall be like a rich man’s son who inherited great wealth from his father. He started going to balls and concerts, visiting one city after another and all famous places in the world and after returning home said, "There is no meaning in life." Such a person who visits cities like a tourist or gathers knowledge at school without applying it, I consider as a beggar going with their bag from house to house to hoard in one place what people give them. At some places s/he is welcomed, while at others upbraided until s/he loses all sense of self-esteem. Such a person degenerates. In fact all people who lead parasitic lives degenerate. It says in the Scripture, "Believe, hope and love," which means - have will. To manifest your will means to stand against the whole world if it is against the convictions you have tested and wish to apply. People may tell you it is senseless to withstand this, but if you have will power you will never give up. You will say, "I believe and that is all." You will say it is silly for one to believe. Perhaps it is so, but I have not met a person who does not have faith, only some think they do not believe, i.e. have only a reflection of faith in themselves, moving downwards and losing their warmth. Some believe that they will lose their life, or that that their life is bad, or that nothing will come out of them and so on. This is no knowledge, but only beliefs. If you say you have knowledge, I will ask you, "Why do I speak to you about this verse?" You will answer, "We suppose, we believe." You will be like those peasants whom a priest once preaching asked, "Brothers, do you know what I am going to speak about?" "No, we don’t." "Well, then, if you do not know, there is no need of my speaking to you." "Yes, we know, we know!" "Well, if you know there is no need of my speaking about it." I do not put the question this way, but classify the Christians into such as have a common center and such as have not, or Christians who move in regular circles and such who move in curved, hyperbolic lines. A comet sometimes appears in space, approaches the sun and then disappears. Why has this comet appeared in the world? If a person wishes to greet you from a distance, cast a long-range missile at you, they have a purpose for doing that. I think that comets leave their places in order to greet the sun, pass by the world, sometimes burst and then they pass away into space again. Every comet has a definite mission and its appearance can be examined from a physical, astronomical or spiritual standpoint. First its movements must be examined, why it has come and so on. In the same way many of you are comets who in the course of thousands of years will be lost in space. You appear and do not move in a circle, but in a hyperbola; you move in a circle, but in a hyperbola; you move out of space changing your place until another planet comes to change your center and put you in a circle. Christ came to change this hyperbola into a circle and place you in the center - thus changing your course. In this way Christ changed the orbit of this woman. When she stood straight, she found herself in a wise world and started glorifying God, i.e. started to study and understand her life. Her state can be compared to that of a person taken out of prison and placed among beautiful nature to enjoy the pure springs and taste its fine fruit - drinking in all its inexpressible beauties. In order to correct our life we need a positive, divine science. Many of you while listening to me get inspired and say, "We can do everything in order to correct our life." However, by the end of the week this inspiration is over and you say to yourselves, "No we cannot do this. But you have hardly considered this question deeply enough." There is no question that I have not considered from a spiritual standpoint. I understand it in form, in substance and in meaning as well as in its functioning under the impulse of the Divine Will or the divine Spirit. I comprehend in will and spirit that Divine body which does not change in the world, i.e. those ideas which are changeless and exist eternally and those acts which build the world. By spirit I mean the Divine human soul. What we call life flows from this divine soul. The spirit bears love because love is the fruit of this spirit. In Bulgarian the word douh3 comes from the word blowing of the wind, so it has almost lost all sense. The spirit is that Supreme Intelligent Principle by coming-into contact with which you will by all means understand the sense of life and start living according to all its rules. Contemporary science explains the causes of all anomalies in ordinary life. The first cause is due to the unnatural food you eat. God has made person to feed on fruit, but you eat meat. Meat has filled your organisms with such poisons that it is now a sum of uncleanliness. Science proves this. If your sense of smell were normal, you would avoid being close to one another - such an awful odor is emitted by those who eat meat. When someone complains of illness, the first condition for them is to change their diet. You will ask, "But what should we eat?" Fruit. "They are expensive." In the first place you must change the conditions of your life. Do you accept the idea that there is one God who has created everything in the world and are you ready to sacrifice everything for Him? This Great Doctor within you of whom all doctors today are simply assistants says, "Live naturally!" I consider this question in a very broad sense. A fruit diet and a meat diet contain different elements owing to which two different states are produced in our organism. By the same law every thought and every feeling can produce two different states which in the distant future of our life will produce two different results. Notice that Christ placed both His hands upon this woman which means that He placed His ten fingers upon her. Do you know what it means to place both your hands on a person? There is no greater blessing than placing your hands over someone’s head. It says in the Scripture, "Christ raised His hands, blessed His disciples and breathed at them." Today you suffer from the fact that you do not raise your hands. That is praying. But you say, "I do not pray." To pray is to raise your hands and where there is proper movement it is a movement of the spirit. Prayer is movement in all directions. As the legs move the right way, the heart, the will and everything must move on its way. What would you feel in such a case? At such a moment you will feel that you are master of your world, that you have everything and have no need of anyone. They may put you in prison and still you will feel happy, but you may be in a king’s palace and still be unhappy as the humpbacked woman. A Bulgarian learned man told me he wanted money, which means that he wanted to be like the humpbacked woman. I do not deny money, because it is admitted by God, but we must not regard it of God, because we have everything. I regret the fact that all Bulgarians want to be humpbacked women since they all want houses and money. We must make sensible use of everything we have. I am not asking you to abandon this life, or leave your husbands, because you are not heroes. What do I mean by telling you to leave your husbands? I compare woman to the director of a prison who is always spying on her husband to know where he goes, what he does, how he applies her teaching and for every small mistake she beats him. When I say, "Woman, leave your husband" I mean that you should leave him free and give him freedom to cure his wounds. Today all people stick to one another like ticks and only some force can separate them. Present day religion has turned into parasitism. If I befriend a person to sponge on them for my sustenance, that is fraud. A bishop has not taken this post only to earn his living by it and look after fields and houses. When I speak about the priests, it is not that I wish you should despise them, but that you should cast out of the church everything that is impure. The idea is the essential thing. I call such priests and bishops humpbacked. When Christ comes He should place His hands on all the priests so that their humps should be straightened. The priests preach the word of God, but when they leave the church, they say, "We preach and speak this way, because this is our profession, however, we think differently. Things will go like this now, but we shall get straight in the next life." If I had spoken like this 500 years ago, I would have been burned on the stake. But I am not one of those who can be burned. You, too, who do not want to die, come to the place where I live, become its citizens; it is so spacious, there is much light there and I shall give you the best houses and the best food. Do not think that when you enter this world I am speaking to you about, you will be childless. How strange people are when they think that on entering the other life and becoming saintly, they will not bear children any more! They will bear children but they will be righteous sons and daughters, not sinful as they have been till now. To be saintly and pure means not to be humpbacked. According to this law anyone entering this kingdom and marrying, will have only two children - a boy and a girl. And when these children grow up and marry, they also will have only two children, not a Jacob, who had twelve. Christ laid his hands on the head of the humpbacked woman and said, "May the blessing of your son and daughter rest upon you, they saved you." If I tell you the past of this humpbacked woman you will see that it makes great history. All the prophets have spoken of this humpbacked woman. Read the Old Testament and you will find everywhere a description of all her forms. The Revelation also speaks about her. In her first phase she is described as a woman sitting on seven hills and in the second phase she is a pregnant woman who is bearing a child. Her child is taken and carried up to heaven, while she flees to the wilderness. That means that when the humpbacked woman is freed of her hump, she will bear a man-child, that is - your mind will awake and start thinking and your heart will start feeling. Then you will say, "From now on, I shall live for my son, i.e. for the mind and sacrifice everything for him." I take the mind as a divine essence, not as an organ. I do not take the human mind in its degenerate form, for today it has become a laughing stock. Since you say you know much, tell me what will become of you in a year’s time; will you be on the physical plane or somewhere else; will there be peace in a year and what will be the situation of Bulgaria - will it be paying taxes or not? All these things have certain correlation; they are interrelated in a certain way. If we are paying a tax today, it is what we have been owing for thousands of years. It is strange when people are afraid of the indemnity Bulgaria is to pay. But do you know what great contributions people have been paying up till now without even giving it a thought? How many lives have been ruined and why and to whom have they been paying these contributions? Because of them nothing has come out of your life yet. There is something in you, indeed, but your way is crooked. And when Christ comes to lay His hands on you, you will begin to glorify God and realize you are moving in a center. Then all that is happening to you will have another meaning. In order to raise the Bulgarian nation, God has sent His children to this small land as to a boarding-house. All nations are boarding-houses where the good divine children live. The reputation of every boarding-house rests on its food, good conditions, hygiene and order. Also in every nation there will be born people of talent, of genius, writers and poets, after them saints will be born and finally the Son of God will come who will return in order to bless this nation. The greatest reward of a boarding-house will be the fact that such and such royal son has lived in it. You will say, "Christ performed so many miracles among the Jews who did not get wiser for that, how could saints and great men bring them to sense then!" But the Bulgarians are no more sensible than the Jews. If Christ should come today among the French, the English, the German or the Bulgarian people, they would act the same way with Him as the Jews. The present wars show what the Christian nations are like. Christ must lay His hands on these humpbacked peoples so that they could become straight. I do not consider anyone cultured today, all are humpbacked. We need another, higher culture. The conditions of the present culture must change in order to prepare the appearance of the Divine culture for which we all have been called. Our future will be, determined by our thoughts, not by our external appearance. Could your thought, perceiving something from the invisible world at a given moment, avoid perverting it? Which rays of light come straight from the sun and which are refracted? Only the light and the heat coming directly from the sun can make us healthy. And when Christ laid His hands on the humpbacked woman, she was made straight and glorified God. In the ten fingers of the hand lies all the power. The number 10 means that you live with God and do His will. The number one is God - the condition under which person can develop. You must have these conditions in your descending and ascending to God and carry your blessings to suffering humanity - and to all who have gone astray from the right path. We should know the meaning of all the fingers of the hands, if we are to know what Christ meant by laying His hands on the humpbacked woman. By that he wanted to say, "Woman, you need will power." The thumb means that you must abide by the divine world and not despite the will and mind of God. The forefinger tells, be pure and keep the right which God has given you. The middle finger - decide everything according to the divine measure so that you may be always just and merciful to everybody in all your actions, do as you would be done by. The ring finger - love the divine science, the truth, the beautiful in nature, do not deceive people in trading. The little finger is related to commerce and wants to say, "Spin well your yearn and weave well." Such is the meaning of the fingers of the one hand, but I shall talk to you about the meaning of the fingers of the other some other time. And after Christ laid His hands on the humpbacked woman, she immediately stood up and said to Christ, "I understand the meaning of all You said to me which is deeply hidden in my soul." Can you also, by looking at your fingers, say that you will fulfill all that is deeply concealed in them in meaning and content? A priest blesses with two fingers and says, "In the name of the divine world, in the name of your religion and justice, on the basis of science and material life, I bless you - now give your money." You act the same way - after you do the smallest good deed, you say, "Give me your money now!" Christ did not ask the humpbacked woman to follow Him, but He said to her, "Woman, go and bring up your children according to all the rules of the divine science." And all who glorify God today descend from the humpbacked woman. They are the sons and daughters of that humpbacked woman on whom Christ laid His hands. Thousands of mothers have laid their hands on their sons who turned out to be vagabonds and scoundrels, because their mothers had not known which moment to lay their hands on them. If a farmer would stretch his hands and sow his seed on the field at an inappropriate time, there would not be any result of his sowing. This shows that there is a definite time for everything in the world at which the hands should be laid. Mothers usually bathe their babies in the morning or in the evening and that way they massage and rub them, thus laying their hands on them, but they have something in mind by doing that. It is the greatest divine art for a mother to know how to massage her baby. If she knew how to do it, the child would turn out to be a genius or a saint. It is necessary that there should be schools for the young women to learn how to bathe and massage their children. The mothers today do this in a haphazard way, in order to have more free time. I shall give you a method how to bathe your children in the future. I connect this verse with many other verses, this is how I interpret it and sign my name below it, for by signing it, its words have power. You may ask me what signing means. When you sow a field, reap the wheat and put it in the barn - this is signing. When someone writes something and puts his name below, it means they must stand by their words. But today we easily sign our name and fulfill little. Christ laid His hands only once on the humpbacked woman and she was made straight. Christ is coming now and He will lay His hands on the whole white race, then you shall have a straight woman, a new life in Europe - a re-generation will take place. The unrest and changes taking place in the world today can be compared to the process taking place in the human body. I can tell you exactly what inner process each part produces on the organism of different people. Therefore in the organism of every different nation in which the divine spirit lives, certain thoughts have been stored up for ages which we must fight against. When a people acquires good qualities, it is a blessing for that nation, but if it were to acquire bad qualities, it is a horror and terror for the good people. The good qualities are like a river carrying only good blessings, but the bad qualities are like a river which tears down and destroys everything on its way. I am speaking to you not as Bulgarians, but as thinking human beings who possess a germ of the Divine spirit, soul and will so that these elements should be joined in you and render you free citizens in the world. You will say, "If I had power, I would do this and that." No, do not desire power for you have enough of it to do anything you wish. The mother who has bathed well her child has already applied her power. If all mothers would lay their hands wisely on their children, as Christ did, this war would not have taken place today. You will ask, "But what will happen in the future?" Christ, this rational principle, stretches His hands from the sun and if you accept His thoughts, wishes and will, if all this produces a change in you so that you would realize that you are all brothers and that the happiness of one person is the happiness of another as well, your life would immediately change into a straight line moving around a center. All people today - rich, learned and so on, have different centers and they wish to form a society with such a variety of centers. This is no science, it is mere disharmony. I have come to this conclusion too. Ten or fifteen years ago I was travelling round Bulgaria investigating the heads of this people. I have measured them with different circular instruments and compasses making calculations and have arrived at certain conclusions. Many people have asked me on observing my calculations, "What are you doing?" "I am learning how to make calculations."4 I already know what problems are of interest to the Bulgarians. On my trips people ask me, "Where do you come from and where are you going to, what is the purpose of your trip and so on?" Once I said, "I come from the sun to make observations in Bulgaria." "Would you impart some of your investigations’ results to us?" "This I cannot do." "What else are you doing?" "I give lectures." "Do they pay you for that?" "No, I do it free of charge." "How is that? Are you not married and how many children do you have; are your father and brothers still living; are you Bulgarian?" "I am Bulgarian for the time being." Then I hear them say, "He is paid by someone that is why he is a learned man. I, too, would become learned if I were paid." You too should measure your heads daily with your compasses. I have measured and observed many eyes, ears, eyebrows, noses and have come to a conclusion as to what a long nose means, a broad nose, thick eyebrows, a high or a low forehead and so on. With these conclusions I have come to the theorem of Pythagoras and see people whose hypotenuse is turned upward, but such people are not promising, you cannot expect anything of them. You will say, "What shall we do with such people?" turn the hypotenuse downward, not upward, i.e. the apex of the triangle should point up which means that the brain of person should be constructed on a square, not on a hypotenuse. Otherwise the front part of the head - the part of the mental abilities - will be very poorly developed and egoism, the animalistic nature, will prevail. Such a person will be capable of any criminal act unconscious of what the future would hold for them. Sometimes a young couple comes to me asking me if they should marry, whether they are suitable for each other and will get along well. I say, "The hypotenuse of your beloved is turned upward, you should not marry or if you do, you will be beaten, since you will be taking a half that is not yours." And when Christ laid His hands on the woman, her hypotenuse was turned downwards. The stretched hands should be horizontal. All distances from the top of the forehead to the ear should be equal. Place a person whose distances are not equal in any kind of society and they would not profit by the benefits of life, but if the relations change, all the manifestations of a person will change also. You can test this by any animal. Place a cruel wild animal under the most favorable conditions and it will not change. Many people have human form, but their head must be built according to the rules of the rational numbers in mathematics and geometry, not on the irrational ones. Have you studied rational equations? There are rational roots in the world. They are the divine foundations deeply inserted in our genesis. As you begin to understand these mathematical relations, when you see a regular geometrical figure, you will grasp at once the divine conditions within it. When you see a flower with five, six, seven or more petals, do you know whether these numbers are rational or irrational? Do you know what problems are hidden in these numbers of the flowers? I am trying to find a suitable language to explain this mathematics to the Bulgarians which can express the relation of these numbers in the petals and blossoms of the flowers. These lines and forms must become alive in you. Mathematics must become alive and a teacher must know on what numbers each head is built. You must have a deep understanding of these things so that when you see a person, you can immediately tell what kind of a person they are by observing their eyebrows, eyes, nose, ears, hair - whether it is thick or fine and so on. Nothing is by chance in the world. If the hairs of a woman are thick, she spins a thick yarn, but you may expect much of a woman with fine hairs. You will ask me, "Can all this be possible concealed in the humpbacked woman?" Yes, everything is concealed in her. If you learn all this you will understand the whole individual and the whole contemporary social, political and spiritual life. We shall come to know one another by external features, just as a doctor can tell what a person’s illness is by its external symptoms. The doctor comes, looks at your tongue and knows there is some kind of poisoning in your organism; then he examines your eyes and if they look yellow, s/he knows that the liver is not functioning normally. Doctors usually prescribe to sick people highly nutritious rich food, but the condition of the patient becomes worse by such food. I recommend to the sick hunger for two or three days after which they can eat prune compote (stewed prunes) and two or three hours later - the same compote with a little bread. After the patient recuperates a little, I shall give them a nice apple which they should chew well without peeling it so that they should absorb all its juice and after all that I will offer them the ordinary food they eat. When a poor person falls ill and has no means to call for a doctor, they either get well by themselves or visit the other world. This shows that the person’s hour for leaving this world has come and therefore, they should prepare themselves for that. Once I wrote to a friend of mine who was getting ready to depart, the following thing, "Your house is already in a dilapidated state, it is composed of many irrational numbers so you must abandon it and go to prepare good materials for your new house." The humpbacked woman on whom Christ laid His hands immediately sloughed off her old body as a snake sloughs off it skin or a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. You must pass through the same law. If a fundamental transformation, which can change you, does not take place, you cannot profit by the food nature gives you. During the greatest misfortunes there is a most abundant food. Do you know how much food is stored in the Vitosha mountain? If it could be utilized today, all Bulgarians would be nourished. But you are sinful and you will misuse it. But in the future people will be trained not to misuse the benefits of nature. The program for the future culture is provided for and the work for men, women and children is determined. In the future people will know each other from a distance, they will walk without hats and work only for two hours daily. The socialists want in their program eight working hours a day physical work. You may object, "But if people get a sun stroke? Besides, Apostle Paul said that women should not walk with uncovered heads." What does being bare-headed mean? It is to receive a blessing, but Apostle Paul has said that they should cover their heads only when they are with their husbands, while outside they should take their cover off, in order to hear bare-headed what Christ will say. When you are out under the open sky, you should take everything off your head so that you would be able to receive the Divine grace and hear what Christ says. But today people are wearing such big hats under which there is such a loud buzzing that they can hear nothing of what Christ is speaking. People are wearing such big hats that they become ministers, millionaires and what not - how can they understand the will of God then? We are all so rich that there is nothing more we could wish for, but we should give freedom to all our brothers to develop their wealth and not to put any obstacles on their way. I make a special recommendation to the Bulgarians not to spoil things. I have been observing them since more than twenty years and I see that they spoil what another has built and then they say, "Why do things go wrong with us!" Do not destroy, but build on what another has already built. That is what is happening to me too. I have been working for so many years on one and the same thing, but the priests are trying to tear down what I am teaching you. If what I am speaking to you is my own, I would tear it down too, but since it is divine and no one will speak the same way after me, the Bulgarians should build their life upon this teaching. I do not wish to destroy the churches or to change the social order, but I am telling you to throw out of the church and different parties only that which is unfit. After that let all preachers, teachers, guerillas join hands and begin to build together, help one another and continue the work of living nature. As to destruction, I can be a master of this too. Do not think that a good person cannot destroy as well. Eve said a single word to the snake and humanity has been suffering for as much as 8,000 years because of that word. Eve said to the snake, "After I eat the fruit you are offering me, if I actually become like God, I promise that all my sons and daughters shall serve you." That is why the woman Christ saved was humpbacked. Christ laid His hands on her and said to her, "Woman, be careful not to make such promises a second time. Now go and give birth." Outside of God there is no life, outside the divine science there is no science. Now, thanks to the humpbacked woman who began to glorify God, today we have a new culture. Shall I also lay my hands on you, or still keep them folded together? I shall not lay my hands on a person whose mind, heart and stomach are disturbed. Now I am speaking if the name of God. When I turn on the divine tap, all the blessings will come upon you, but if I do not turn it on, you will dig wells. When I turn on this tap, you will have such an abundance of water that you will not need to pay for it. That is why Christ said, "If you knew who is speaking to you, you would want and He would give you living water." And that humpbacked woman understood Him. I wish the Bulgarians would not be humpbacked. I shall wait for a few more years and see if the clergy and the teachers will get awake. If they do not come to consciousness, we shall put in a bag all their irrational numbers and make them calculate these. This is God’s decision: knowledge will be given only to those who will not misuse it. Today we see how in Russia the most sacred and religious ideas of humanity are misused. In the future such things will not be tolerated. When Christ laid His hands on the woman, He said to her, "Woman, understand and keep God’s law. When you turn to God, your hands must be always clean." When you turn to God, He will see the construction of your fingers, whether they are rational or irrational numbers, and say if you should be accepted or sent back. This is one great science which, once learnt, will transform all parties and separate individuals who will begin to glorify God. Then all parties will be based on the rational numbers. The number 10 is rational, but 5 is irrational. Man is number 5, that is why all does not go well with him. He must be joined to woman so that together they should become the number 10, which is a rational number. Hence, the law has it that two irrational numbers added give a rational one. The combination of the living numbers will affect the future life. What I am speaking is not clear to you, but that does not matter. Thank God for what you do not understand as well as for what you understand. What you understand will throw light on what you have not understood. Now, when you go back home, examine both sides of your hands and a bright idea may come to you. When you rise in the morning hold your hand for five minutes against the sun as you warm it by a stove. If you are well disposed, you will learn many more things than you would understand in a whole senseless life. If you understood well these things, you would see that all the energy and will are hidden in the hands and it is through them that we become ill or healthy. When a person starts hiding their thumb among the other fingers, that is a bad sign - they will not have luck. When one holds their hand in a fist, it means - you will be beaten." Some people keep together the four fingers of the hand, but the little finger stays open. That means: "My interests differ from those of other people." People must learn how to hold their hands. Many orators do not know how to hold their hands, they are embarrassed. This shows that their heart, mind and will are not in accord. Drop your hands calmly down and say, "God will help me," then raise them up and an idea will be born in you. Someone says they are honest people, but they shut their eyes and look down. Open your eyes and say you are an honest person. Today we say things opposite to the good life. A child says they will obey, but they look down. A child who picks his/her nose or ears, is not a good child. When someone asks you for help, but scratches behind their ear, it shows they have no definite idea. When Christ laid His ten fingers, He expressed the science the results of which are mathematically calculated. Prayer is a science and you must study a long time how to hold your hands correctly and how to move your tongue. Someone has a frightening look. Why? Because the world in such a person is unorganized. Another person has a cruel look or glances askew. Why? Because the angle of the theorem of Pythagoras is crooked. You must always have a soft look in your eyes which should be open in a restful state, always ready to receive a Divine Truth. This is what Christ spoke to the humpbacked woman, this is what I also tell you, so that your humps may be made straight. Everything in you - your eyes, ears, nose, foreheads, fingers must be rational numbers that your humps may be made straight. Then you will understand whether there is Truth, Wisdom and Love in the world. I say: there are virtues, there is absolute righteousness, wisdom, love and truth. You are living in a Divine world which you must accept within you. And when will the new children of the new generation come? Many beings have prepared this world for you, set the table and are waiting for you. But you may find some reason to refuse and answer, "I have bought a field I am going to see; I have bought five pairs of oxen, I am going to examine them; I have married and wish to have a good time with my wife, so I cannot come." This is how the learned men answered in the time of Christ, but you should not give such an answer. You may work in your field, you may test your five pairs of oxen, or get married and yet serve God. Now I wish all of your humps to get straight. My words concern those who have humps. If anyone’s hump is straight, let them excuse me. If someone has no hump but becomes offended, it shows that they do have a hump. When you go back home, read and meditate on this verse and on what has been said that you may create your own philosophy which will be the basis for a better understanding of Christ’s teaching. Sermon held on June 8, 1919. 1 Luke 13:13 2 Bulg. For "woman" (transl. note) 3 douh- Bulg. For spirit (trans, note); douham- Bulg. Blow (for wind) (ed. note) 4 The Master is referring to the phrenological research he made between 1901-1913 when he travelled around the country delivering lectures. (ed. note)