Jackline Spasova-Bobeva

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Rejected Stone "The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner."1 Is there anything of interest in a rejected stone? You will ask me, "What content or philosophy is there in a rejected stone?" There are millions of such neglected stones in Bulgaria. In the building of a house many stones remain unused. The trouble of it is that they turn into obstacles in life. After reading the whole chapter of Mark you will see the relation of this verse to the other verses and understand why these words were spoken. If there were no builders, this stone would not be mentioned, therefore, the builders are to blame. When a house is being built, the builders pile up stones and break them, that is why many stones are left over. Therefore by the word "stone" the process of building is implied. People who pursue the positive sciences say that all things must be visible, tangible and real. However, not all tangible things are true or real. Thousands of things in the world are not proved, yet they are true. There are thousands of philosophers in the world we know nothing of, but what they have said is right. There are many eminent philosophers as well, but their philosophy is not right. When I read a book of philosophy, I renounce 50% of its truthfulness, then I subtract 25% more and consider only the last 25%. The number 25 is meaningful to me - it is a law by which I measure all things. You may object, saying that days and nights are measured by a 24 hour cycle, but the earth does not turn around its axis in 24 hours exactly, but rather in a period of about 25 hours. The number 25 has a relation to the human life as well as to the earth. Number 25 is composed of two numbers 2 and 5 which added give the number of 7. You will say that you have known the meaning of the number 22 since your schooldays. All students weep when they get a 2 at a subject, in fact the whole world is weeping because all suffering, all sins, the destruction and creation of worlds begin with the number 2. You may have a noble son, pure as virgin, for whose education and upbringing you have not spared any money. One day a young woman sets her eyes on him and wants to marry him because the number 2 without 1 is only a reflection of the number 1. Every number has its reflection. When you study astronomy, you will see that there are certain reflections also. In physics, too, there are reflections. For instance the light on the earth is a reflection. It is the shadow of light which consists of billions of vibrations. Now you are studying only things in which there are vibrations, e.g. you are studying only the shadows of the reflections. Where there is motion, there is the place of shadows. I do not say that shadows are not real things, but they are transitory. A shadow may serve us temporarily, but you cannot make it a foundation of your life. But why is it that the numbers 2 and 5 have an equal relation to us? The number 5 is the sum of 2 by 2 plus 1. Therefore, the human mind is nothing but 2 women married to the same man. The human mind converses with two women, agreeing with the one and disagreeing with the other. This state is similar to a country of two parties - a conservative and a democratic one. The occultists call one the higher mind, or higher manas, and the other - the inferior mind, or manas inferior. But I call such mind a mind of two women and according to the present laws of the church such a mind is subject, to excommunication. For this reason it must learn to live with a single woman. What will remain then? When we subtract 2 from 5 3 remains - the number with which we can start our life. A man and a woman may quarrel, but when two women start quarrelling the house gets all "smoke and dust". To verify this, read the story of Jacob who married the younger and older daughters of Laban. See what their relations were. Jacob had 12 sons the eleventh of whom was Joseph. Why did his brothers sell Joseph, who was the eleventh, and not some other? You will say this is a "chance coincidence". Coincidence is a karmic law, it is a measured law of action. I shall not stop to explain why Joseph had to be sold. The stone among Jacob’s sons was the one which should have made the corner stone but the builders rejected it. Joseph was sold by his brothers, but later he became the head of the corner. During the great famine, as an eminent man in Egypt, Joseph saved from hunger many people, including his brothers. This story does not refer only to the Jews, but to all people as well. The misfortunes of every home are due to the rejection of this stone. It is the number 11. Which of the two women remains in the home? The most intelligent and practical one, but in my opinion, not the best. A good woman is always ready to give her place to others. Contemporary society and contemporary homes suffer an inner division, because two women are competing for the same man - who should possess him. You know how Jacob’s two wives bribed him. One day one of Jacob’s sons was sent by his mother to bring her some mushrooms. Then his mother said to Jacob, "I bought you tonight with mushrooms, that is why you will come to me." You will say, "Can a person be bribed this way?" All people can be bribed. Tell me whether during this war there remained a single unbribed person!" All of you, men and women listening to me, can you honestly say you have not been bribed? I do not judge you by saying this, but I am stating a truth. In one of his poems Slaveikov3 says with irony, "Coin, coin, almighty queen, with one’s in paradise; without you, he’s nowhere." All the spiritual people today talk about the Lord all the time and recite, "Lord, Lord, You are our coin and when we worship You, we are in paradise, but if we forsake You, we are nowhere." Money is a woman corrupting contemporary society - it is a house of debauchery. And actually all crimes today are committed only for the sake of money. A woman marries a man for his money and because his hands are strong and can earn a living. When someone says they love ideally, they deceive themselves. The cat catches the mouse in the same ideal way and the wolf seizes the sheep similarly. In the past when God created the wolf, He sent him to guard the sheep as their shepherd. At first the wolf started making use of their wool, then he tasted their milk and finally - their flesh. God chased the wolf away into the forest for his last act and put in his place the dog, which faithfully fulfills its mission to this very day. Basically, what is this stone which the builders rejected and which became the head of the corner? How can this be geometrically understood - the head of the corner? Why should it not be the head of the line? You, who have studied geometry, what can you say about the direction this head must be turned to: must it point upward, downward or sideways? If we turn this angle downward, we have one direction of movement, if we turn it upward, there is another direction of movement. Your body without the arms represents this stone, while your two arms form the angle. I want you to study the living geometry. A person is built upon geometric principles. You may ask me, "Can there be an angle without lines?" No, that cannot be, it is a law. The angle shows two opposite forces acting in the same direction and having the same center. Since these forces are heterogeneous, there will always be certain space between them forming a plane called an angle in geometry. If the forces are homogeneous, they will move along a straight line. You will say you know these things. No, you do not understand them yet. "The stone that the builders rejected became the head of the corner." Where did they reject it from? There is a legend about the great Egyptian pyramid in Ghizah which tells the story of the top stone of the pyramid. When they started building it, the top stone was the first to be cut out, but since the pyramid was built for ages, the stone being laid aside remained unused since no one knew what it was for. When the pyramid was completed, the chief master came and placed the rejected stone on the top as the head of the pyramid. Thus that stone became the head of the corner. The pyramid shows human evolution. The stone which must be placed on the top so that the evolution of man should be completed, lies kicked around. Today all philosophers kick that stone around. Do you know the size of this pyramid? There were about 6 million tons of stone in it. Archeologists say that for the transportation of the material of this pyramid, 60,000 machines each containing 100 tons are needed. You can imagine what human efforts this pyramid had cost! You will say, "What is the meaning of this pyramid?" It has great meaning for it is the emblem of the present person and its dimensions and measurements contain encoded all the events which took place in the past and will take place in the future. It also contains all the astronomical lore in all detail. One might read the past and the present history of humanity on this pyramid, though few can really do it for the language is very difficult to understand. Some scientists today read a few books and think they know much. Do not deceive yourselves thinking that way. In my opinion only the person who can lay hold on death and control it has real knowledge. Therefore, you may be a philosopher, a theologist, a mystic, or anything else, but if death crushes you, your science is not positive and your stone is rejected. The Scriptures say that the rejected stone became the head of the corner. Of which corner? Of love and wisdom in the invisible world. A great secret is concealed in the creation of the world and of the whole cosmos. You think that only present-day people are fighting and experiencing such enmities. What is happening today is the reflection of the past. All this hatred and wrong-headedness among people is not a product of the present, but of the past. I can prove this by a number of facts. For instance, a person falls ill in some part of their body, but this illness has its cause 100, 200 or 1,000 years ago. The doctors say this illness has appeared about 20 years ago at the most. The illnesses are caused by a large quantity of sediments in the body causing an anarchy and a reaction in the organism as a result of which the temperature rises up to 39°, 40° or 41° C4 and we are horrified of the coming end of life. But there is nothing horrible about this temperature. A person may remain alive not only at 41°, but at 100°, 200°, 2,000° degrees Celsius. "Can a person survive at such high temperature in his present physical state?" People today are a laughing stock of humanity in their present physical state. If you had a chance of studying a person under a special microscope, you would see how beautiful s/he is. We may mix up two ideas in our mind - that of the spiritual and of the material. We live with spiritual ideas in our mind, but when we have had a good meal, we say, "Today we are well." But when we get hungry on the next day, we begin to worry again and think of the material. After a woman has eaten, she says, "Thank you, God, I am pleased today, there is no deficit." I ask you: what science is there in a life full only of deficits? Today men, women and children enter the kitchen and say, "How good it smells!" This is the way bishops and teachers act and then they say, "We are cultured people, ideal people." Yes, you are cultured people of the frying pan and the butter. Some ask why I do not teach you something more philosophical. Give me some of your philosophy so that I can see what it is like. I draw a circle and ask you what it means. It signifies a great idea which has given rise to genesis. This circle shows the way the world began. Originally the world began with a circle without a center which later was formed of itself, or this Original Cause moved circularly and then stopped. After that from the surface of this first movement, the original condition was lost and an inactive state, or as the Hindus say "darkness", was formed - the period of Kaliyoga. In time a small point appeared in the center of this circle as you place a compass on a piece of paper and clraw a circle. Thus, this power after defining the limits within which it would work, entered the center and worked out its circle, in order to form the universe. I call this a state of pregnancy of the cosmos with a great idea. This small point is the important thing. You say, "How can this small point be important!" Yes, these small points do everything in the world. For instance, a sickness attacks you, but at the same time a small pimple forms puss somewhere on your body and attracts your attention. So, all your worries concentrate on the small pimple. When a certain harmony is to be attained within you, a small point must appear - you see your ideals in the center and say that now life makes sense. But I say - now your life is pregnant with an idea. You ask, "Do people live only with ideas?" Yes, people vegetate with food, but live with ideas. You should not mistake vegetating with living - these are two different states. You ask, "Shall we exist?" Has there been a time when you have not existed? Can a part say it has not existed in the whole? Every part has existed in the whole. When a part is individualized within the whole, it starts its individual existence. Existing5 means manifesting, coming from the Sanskrit word sat meaning to manifest. When you begin to think, to move and to do good and evil, you exist. In this respect good and evil are the two acting forces in the world. Evil lies in the fact that the builders rejected this stone. When a person rejects a great idea in his/her mind or a good desire in his/her heart, and when a nation rejects its ideals and is bribed for money, they lose. If the statesmen paid heed to the ideals of the people, they would not make mistakes. When the statesperson and the spiritual person become individualized, they begin to think that their prosperity lies outside this stone. You can build a whole human body, it has no value whatever. You may be a millionaire, but without this stone you will be a person without a head, or a positive soul, or a positive spirit. The mind, the soul and the spirit are three different ideas. What is positive? What undergoes alterations, but does not change. The positive is master of its fate and does not try to dominate the world. In the positive there is always an aspiration to be in accord with the great harmony which has existed since times immemorial. There must be harmony everywhere among men, women and children, there must be harmony in all homes. Some say, "I can get along well with my husband even if there is no harmony between us." No, you cannot live that way. How many men have I seen running away from such a life! Do you know what these men can be compared to? One day Nastradin Hodja6 was leading home ten donkeys quite loaded with wood, but when they got tired, they did not want to walk anymore. Nastradin Hodja wondered what to do to make them walk. A traveller passed by and said there was a cure against the stubbornness of the donkeys. He gave a hot pepper and told Nastradin Hodja to rub their bottoms below the tail. This being done, the donkey quickly got home. Do not take this example in a bad sense, however. The same thing applies to you as well. When you have a sore throat, they give you some hot medicine. In order to be cured, you are given something bitter or hot. A husband, after his wife has rubbed him with her thoughts, either takes to the tavern or runs away to some foreign country. This refers to women as well. I do not want to blame you by telling you all this. I take the number two as a form. This number exists within you as a state of contradiction. We shall get rid of the contradictions in life when we place this stone as the head of the corner. It alone can unite love and wisdom so that they can work in the great harmony; it alone can make the body, lungs and all organs function properly so that the whole person can be manifested. I hear people talking today that the Lord will set the world right. I also believe that the Lord will set the world right, but the question is whether we shall be able to set our inner world right. When spring comes the flowers begin to bloom, the healthy people welcome it by joy and smile, but the sick people meet the sun and spring quite differently. Spring is pleasant to the healthy people, but it means cleansing up of the organism of the sick, so that the months of April and May are months of crisis for them. The Bulgarians say that the months of March, April and May put paid to the accounts of the sick and give energy and impulse to the healthy. We are linked with all forces of nature, since they function in our body as well. We are the builders rejecting this stone - this conscious understanding - and saying, "General bettering of the world is necessary." This bettering, however, is like spring. What is important is whether I shall be in a state to profit by it. You say, "Humanity must be bettered first." Humanity has been set right since the distant past, but its individual members, regardless of sex and title, have not been set right. I say that everyone lacks something. So long as we die, we have no head; so long as we suffer, we have no knowledge. Thus, when the center of the circle came into being, the universe became pregnant, then the point moved and divided the circle in two. By that the universe determined itself and first bore the woman who divided the world originally. That is why half of the world is light and half of it dark. Man became angry with the woman who divided the world that is why today he illuminates only half of the world - the half he likes. These two women chase one another, but he always gives light to the one he likes. The woman who rejoices is called day, but the angry one is called night. Or in other words, the rejoicing woman is manas superior, or the day, while the angry woman is manas inferior or night. These two angles are the two women. Why does a person have two hands, two legs, the brain and the lungs double, the heart double too and so on? Everything is divided because there are two women. You will say, "Then let us do away with the number two." We need not do away with it, but rather understand its essence. In my opinion, matter is a reflection of the spirit. Matter is also a woman. This woman does not bear children all the time. We have fallen into the arms of the dark mother who is constantly kneading us saying, "Will you still hold on to that father who was disloyal to me? Leave him and come to me for I shall give you happiness." Those people who believe in the reality of the world, we call materialists. Tomorrow when your eyes, arms, stomach, brain and so on decay, all reality is lost. The nerves decay too. Where is reality? Where is the positive in the world? You will say, "We are believers, we believe in one God." I am glad for that, but have you been with your light mother, have you seen the light side of the earth? In order to come to know the earth, you must go 10,000 kilometers in space and see from that height what it is like. From the point of view of the cultural people living higher than you, you are like fish living on the bottom of the ocean. The cultured people living above you say, "Shall we leave this person here, or shall we send him/her to reincarnate?" And death is nothing but bait on a fishing rod for catching the fish. The Lord says, "This divine net will be cast to the end of the world; some will be taken out of the sea on the shore, while others will be cast again into the sea." In all manifestations of nature we must see positive unchangeable things. What does the unchangeable consist in? In our desire to be in brotherly relations with all people and understand that all people suffer the same way in this world, regardless of the fact whether we are rich or poor, educated or simple, parents or children. When we realize the fact that we have the same suffering and the same fate, that the salvation of one is a salvation of another as well, we shall come to a right philosophy of life. But not to an understanding as the world and the church have today. Why? Because if the solution of a small problem is right for a student, it does not mean that the whole of mathematics is exhausted. In geometry, too, there are many geometrical formulae which are not proved. The theorem that the sum of the three angles in a triangle is equal to two right angles does not contain the whole of geometry. Therefore, we should take a more serious attitude to all problems and consider what kind of people we should be at the present moment. If we say we are bad now, but shall be good in the future, this is not a right solution to the problem. Your present bad experiences are your past, but your present good deeds are your future. Our goodness can be tested. It can be tested the same way as the change occurring in a hungry person can be tested after s/he has eaten. Such a person becomes more cheerful and gay. To think idealistically is to haye for the present time such essential food which can give strength and an impulse to our mind. We can take this strength and food from anywhere. In my opinion, all writers of all calibers are flowers so that as the bees you can take honey from whichever flower you wish. Do not ask why so many kinds of flowers were created: they all have a definite purpose. Everything good or bad, every thought, every angel or demon also have their role in the cosmos. What are the angels and demons? They represent motion in two opposite directions. The former are full pails going upward and the latter are empty pails coming down. We want only full pails - well, but when they are emptied from where and how will they be filled? Therefore, when righteous people go above, they become sinners, but the sinners will become righteous. This way the wheel along which runs the progress of humanity is in motion. People must be conscious of the fact that they can be sinners and righteous people, but they must do the will of God. A person who builds will soil him/herself. Do not think that you will not be disturbed by the laws of the state. We must have in ourselves other laws which determine our existence, for when Bulgaria and all countries vanish, the earth and the solar system are transformed, we shall still exist. The earth will change, it will not be what it is today, that is why Bulgaria does not determine your existence, but you determine the existence of Bulgaria. Thus I say, on the earth the whole depends on its parts whereas in the spiritual world the parts depend on their whole. I shall explain this thought to you. Twenty million people on the earth can become united by a common idea and common feelings and form a nation. However, one day their ideas and feelings may change just as a caterpillar changes when it is transformed into a butterfly. A nation is placed in a given form only for 40 days during which time it must fulfill all its duties toward itself and after that it must start living with other ideas and feelings. Then we can exchange the words Bulgarian, French, German for quite different notions. When we say hand, leg, brain, lungs, we have a certain idea. Thus everything makes sense in its organism. What does the word Bulgarian mean in the general organism? I place the Bulgarians in the liver, but you must know that the particles in the liver, like all beings, constantly undergo and evolution and change. The same way after a time the Bulgarians will pass into another form of development. You will look for the Bulgarian then higher in the organism. It is great wisdom to understand the meaning of the rejected stone. A stone represents what is changeless, constant and permanent. We belong to a certain church but we reject the principles of nature. We should know that our philosophers will vanish, but the principles of nature will remain invariable. What \ mother-nature has created survives. Think now why you were born men or women; why in a family a girl is born first or the opposite - a boy comes first; why a certain philosophic system appeals to you; why you have become Christians and so on. You will answer me, "Because Christianity saves people." I agree 50% with you. Then I say, "You were ill but have already left the hospital." In such case what has a hospital have to do with you since you have become healthy and have started to plow and sow? Or will you start returning to the hospital every day to thank the doctor for having healed you? One day the doctor will say to you, "Enough with your thanks for I have other ill patients." You will say, "We must pray to God." Of course we must pray, but not as ill people, rather as healthy persons. As ill people you should drink your medicines, lie on your back, turn over in your bed, kneel out of pain, while as healthy people you will take your plough and go straight to your field or vineyard and make bows there. Every sick person is a Christian. But you will say, "I belong to another party." No matter what party you are from, or what creed you uphold - a Buddhist, a Mohammedan, a theosophist, an occultist, if you are sick, you are "Christian"7. Some people ask me, "Why has not Christianity set the world right?" I answer thus, "Christianity is a doctrine for sick people who it has helped so far as it had been able to, but in the world there is no doctrine for the healthy people yet." Someone says, "I want to deal with great ideas." I ask you, "Are you through with all medicines, with all sick people, did you bid goodbye to all the nurses and did you leave the hospital?" If you have done with all this, you may enter the world to learn the law of Christianity and then you can find your light mother. You, present-day people, are Christians, but you are not sons of God yet. Woe now to them who call themselves sons of God for they will be hanged, called heretics or crazy fellows. The Son of God is a person sound physically, morally, mentally who does not die. This is how I define him. We must understand Christ’s teaching well. Christ says, "I have come not to do my own will, but the will of Him Who has sent me." Who is He? You do not know Him yet. Everyone is groping about looking for Him, lighting candles for Him, burning incense for Him; people look up, eat and drink and read, yet no one knows Him yet. This is the bitter truth. "This is life eternal to know the only true God." What does God mean? God means a movement in the right direction of your life. God is what stimulates your right movement. I translate or interpret the word movement by the word Love, because only Love causes movement. When two young people fall in love, they move towards each other. When people begin to love a teaching, they begin to love everybody. Thus, the sick people whom I call "Christians" have rejected this corner stone, because they do not need it. Like sick people, we lie on our backs and expect to be served. A doctor comes to the sick person, the latter groans, "Oh, Doctor!" but when they are served meat balls, they eat. They eat but they groan as well. Your cuisines are for sick people. A man comes home from work and starts shouting, "Why have you not cooked anything, don’t you know I am a sick man, a Christian?" You call the name Christian a noble name. Yes, as long as you are in the hospital, but once you leave it you are no more a Christian. Do not understand me wrong, I am reasoning ideally. There are no contradictions in the world for me, everything is clear. If you could understand the problems the way I do, the world would be set right in a single day. I consider people today tied to one another to be more sure in life. But I say: stop tying yourselves for tying shows a sickly consciousness, since only sick people become insured. Old people say, "We must be insured." That means: we must humble ourselves and become Christians living for God in our old age. These are all people who reject the living stone. Every person who does not fulfill the will of God grows old. I shall tell you a story by Shakespeare taken from the Danish life. A very wise king wanted to make an experiment with a famous man in his land called for his sanctity and purity "Anthony the righteous". The king called Anthony one day and said to him, "I want you to rule instead of me for sometime, but my people must now know about my absence." At first Anthony the Righteous did not agree to the proposal, but later accepted it. He sat in the king’s throne and since there was much debauchery in the land at that time, he issued a severe decree: "Anyone caught in debauchery should be executed." The son of an eminent Danish courtier was convicted of this crime. Anthony the Righteous called him and said to him, "You have committed a crime and according to the decree you should be executed." The youth was frightened and decided to send his sister, who was a great beauty preparing herself to enter a convent, to plead for his life. When Anthony saw the beautiful woman, he said to her, "I shall forgive your brother only under the condition that you become my lover without anyone knowing about it." Anthony the Righteous was married and divorced and had become righteous later in life. The sister was disgusted by that condition and told her brother he had to suffer his penalty. The brother asked her, "Is there anything wrong in this, if you agree, you will at least make a sacrifice for me." The wise king learned secretly this fact and sent for Anthony’s divorced wife, telling her to disguise herself as the beautiful young maiden and visit Anthony on the set day. After satisfying his desire, Anthony issued a verdict for the execution of the young man, thus showing his cunning. The wise king heard about this and ordered the director of the prison not to kill the young man. After that he called Anthony for an explanation. Anthony the Righteous made his confession saying, "I was able to overcome everything in the world, but could not resist the beauty of the young woman and fell. The fall of all people today is like this. People who join a society or a brotherhood without faith in it, commit the same debauchery. People who pass from one brotherhood to another, who marry twice or three times are like Anthony the Righteous in my eyes and they will not acquire any wisdom. Wisdom is within nature itself, within us that is why we must heed its inner impulse and go in the direction of that stone which will show us whom or what we must join. If a person acquires wisdom and intends to misuse it, they commit debauchery. Those who acquire love and misuse it also commit adultery. Every noble thought or feeling which becomes perverted is adultery. Therefore, the whole world is ill. All sick people today are "Christians". The greatest disgrace for Christ to bear in the world today is the "Christianity" with which people deck themselves. If you place this disgrace on your back only for 24 hours, you will feel the greatest repulsion in the world when you see how everything today is done in the name of Christ. All the worst things today are done in the name of religion, civilization and sacred feelings. And how degraded are the incentives for all this! That is why we must all endeavor to become sons of God. Now I shall interpret the word Christianity in a reverse sense. Christ is the man who is always in sound health and has put order in His thoughts and desires, has conquered His passions and deserves to be called the Son of God. Only when we learn the Divine wisdom shall we be able to understand the truth and become masters of the conditions of our life. Only then can we change the world and be called sons of God. But today the sick people rule the world that is why it is full of knives, medicines, hospital beds, needles for injections and so on. This present science will be only for the sick people, but they will be only tormented by it. Today we meet people of different classes who cannot come to terms with each other. A person today is a cross without a circle, i.e. a person in the hospital who says to others, "We must bear our cross." An Englishman once told me "to put Christ on" and I answered him "to put Christ in," i.e. he told me "to be clothed in Christ" and I answered him "to receive Christ within ourselves." Some songs have the words, "Let us be clothed in Christ." But I say: we should not be clothed in Christ because dressing is a temporary process, it is a transition, but we should accept Christ inwardly, become sons of God and restore our health. If contemporary society thinks this way, it will learn this law correctly. People will learn what is good by suffering. A new element has entered the earth which will set the world right - the pure air. Take a sick person up the mountain in the pure air and s/he will get well in spite of his/her will. A moment is coming when we shall be healed without being aware of it. Sufferings are stimuli which take us up a high place. When someone commits a sin, s/he gets ill and says, "I shall not do this anymore." That is, they put paid to their account. When we put paid to our sins, we must receive love, the wisdom of health and immortality; then we shall be near the door of the great temple in which we shall learn the great truth of life. We are aspiring for a kind of life which you can have only after you have left these hospitals. From today on stop saying that Christ saves you, but say, "We shall live for Christ and help the sick to leave the hospitals; then we shall lead them out of the city life, because it is unsanitary." We must go out in the fields and start digging and ploughing there. The Bulgarian who ploughs says that Bulgaria is in order, but they who do not plough worry which lands will be given to Bulgaria, which parts of Macedonia, which part of Dobrudja8, etc. This is not fit for a Bulgarian, such a person does not live even in the liver of the general organism but lower than that. Take your plough and goad, plough and sow without weeds and say, "We are healthy people of the new culture, thank God we got rid of the hospitals!" One more example: there were two paralyzed men in a hospital who were considered hopeless cases, so they were isolated. Fortunately for them one day the hospital took fire and in the hurry all the sick were carried out of the hospital but the two paralyzed men. Lying in their beds they felt the heat and the approaching fire. At this crucial moment of their life, they forgot their illness and ran out of the hospital. Finding themselves healthy again they thanked God the hospital burned so they should get free from this great slavery. You say now, "Let the hospital be set on fire so that we paralytics may go out and say, "Thank God we can think now as God wishes, not as people want us to think." Sermon held on June 1, 1919 Sofia. 1 Mark 12:10 2 On the 5/6 scale grading system 2 is the failing grade. (ed. note) 3 A Bulgarian poet of the 19th century. 4 0°C= 32°F 39°C= 102,2°F, 41°C= 105.8°F (ed. note) 5 In Bulgarian- sashtestvuvane (ed. note) 6 A Turkish trickster man in Bulgarian folklore. (ed. note) 7 The Master makes distinction between Christianity as a religious institution and Christianity as a spiritual teaching. Used metaphorically, it implies all religions. (ed. note) 8 Reference to the anxieties surrounding the end of WWI. (ed. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Table of the New Testament "And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meal in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples."1 Here is an ordinary verse without substance or sense similar to an ordinary little stone keeping its wealth inside, not outside itself. I shall use the word "publican" in the sense of simple people. The poor person and the sinner are two brothers. The poor person is dispirited of money and gold, therefore they lack means, but the rich person always uses the poor person for work. The sinner is a person deprived of wisdom and knowledge that is why s/he sins. I call the simple people "bankers". But I call the present day bankers "tax collectors". They collect the taxes or take 5% or 10% interest, as much as they can. The tax collectors today also collect their percentage. And those publicans and sinners came and sat at the table with Christ. You may ask, "How is it possible for such a Master to admit such people to sit at the table with Him?" By the word table I understand school not the old school, the Old Testament of Moses, but the new school of Christ. Christ’s disciples are the first disciples of the new school, of the New Testament. The publicans and sinners represent the old culture, the old school - the Law of Moses. Are all children who enter school learned? Most of them are simple and ignorant. How many children at school have patched clothes, but they are much more diligent in their studies than the sons of the rich? Therefore, those publicans and sinners are disciples who have come to study the new teaching. Contemporary Christians, not comprehending the deep sense of this teaching, have divided the church into sinners and righteous people, or to actual members of the church and listeners. There are listeners in all churches who are tested for a number of years before becoming actual members of the church. After spending 10 or 15 years in a church as a listener such a person is asked what they have learnt about Christianity, and they answer, "When Christ comes, He will explain it all." I wish Christians today would pass a test to find out if they are leaving a class or if it is time for them to graduate from school. Then we shall find ourselves in a contradiction which we can see in the following story: A great wise king in ancient times wanted to test the tendencies of his most enlightened subjects and that is why he put them to a test. He placed ten fine objects in a very beautiful building and called ten of his subjects each of who was a representative of the then existing social classes. Such classes exist here as well. These classes bore very different names given to them by their founders, just as every newborn child is christened with a name. The name is sanctified by a person and it is not the name that makes the person: it is not the firm that makes a merchant honest, but the honest merchant makes his firm honest; it is not the censer that makes the priest saintly, but the priest himself makes his censor give light; it is not the book that makes a person intelligent, but the person makes the book of good content. So that wise king called to this exhibit ten men to choose one of the ten objects he had exposed. The ten objects were: a precious crown which cost millions; an ancient large jar full of gold; a golden sword, a golden pen, a telescope, a bottle full of the nectar of life which, according to the alchemists of old, rejuvenated people; a pair of compasses; a grain of wheat; a book by a great wise man and an egg. Then he called the representatives of the nation, i.e. these classes, to choose whichever object they liked. The first one chose the golden crown and put it on his head; the second one took the jar of gold; the third one took the golden sword and at once girded himself with it; the fourth took the golden pen; the fifth - the telescope; the sixth the bottle with the elixir of life; the seventh the compasses; the eighth the grain of wheat; the ninth the book of the wise man and the last the egg. Which of them won? You are intelligent, how would you solve this riddle? The first one, who took the crown, became a king; the second - a banker; the third - the most eminent general of the country; the fourth - a judge, the greatest jurist and a writer, because he was engaged with the divine right of the world (the present law is human); the fifth, who took the telescope, became an astronomer to study the stars (astronomy was founded then); the sixth, who took the life elixir, became a doctor; the seventh, who took the pair of compasses, became an engineer; the eighth, who took the grain of wheat, became a farmer; the ninth, who took the book of the wise man, became a teacher and the last one, who took the egg, did not gain anything. All these people gained something, but the one who took the egg did not gain as the others, because the nine persons acquired a profession. So he wondered what to do with the egg and tried to sell it, but no one would buy it. Apparently the egg had no value. So he decided to put it under a brood-hen and see if it could be hatched. And really the most beautiful cock came out of it, but it was very greedy so that hens and cocks shunned its company. The man started feeding him, but he had to sacrifice much for him and started to beg. The master of the cock was forced to visit the other nine people, who had gained something by their objects, and ask them for help for his cock. And, actually, today all are talking about this cock. Charity societies are founded whose purpose is to better the condition of this cock, i.e. the condition of the nation they had got together to work for. A new party is organized which says, "The bettering of the condition of our nation is in our program." Today we all have good aspirations and good intentions, but which is the most essential? Have the nine objects taken by the nine people fulfilled their real purpose? Every object in the hand of a good or bad person can fulfill one or another purpose. For instance, a sword or knife can be used to make an operation and better the condition of someone, but someone’s head can be cut off with it at the battlefield. One can write a nice book with the pen, but also such a poisonous book that its poison may be felt for ages, but a death sentence may be signed as well. By the telescope you can discover something new which would help people, but you can also discover a slave who has run away from his master and tell the authorities on him - become a traitor. You can save and prolong the life of people with the lite elixir, but you can also become rich by it. Very often when a rich person falls ill, all famous European doctors are called to help, because they will be well rewarded. But no such care is taken of poor people, as they leave them in the hands of God. When the Russian king Alexander III was dying all European doctors went to Russia. I shall explain the aspiration of humanity today. When Christ was on the earth many publicans and sinners sat with Him. Those are two categories of people from the Old Testament. These Old Testament people still hold a foremost place in contemporary society although they bear different names now. A nation in which people are killed and hanged, in which there are prisons is an Old Testament state. In the kingdom of God there are no scaffolds, prisons and executions. This is Christ’s teaching. But you will say, "What shall we do with the sinners and criminals so many on earth?" Allow each one to take what they need. If you give them a sword, a pen, a telescope, or a pair of compasses and so on, any of the ten objects, you will give work to their mind that will satisfy them. These are incentives, do not judge the person, let him/her try. I do not judge the man who took the crown and put it on their head so as to rule. Let them experience these aspirations also. If God has permitted the existence of wolves, bears and all kinds of harmful bugs, why should we not allow every person to express him/herself in life as their incentives urge them to? If God sends to the harmful animals His Light and food, what could we have against that? That is why we must be patient and tolerant with all and not be repulsed by anyone. The wolves and the foxes are not out in nature, but among people. You have all these kinds of creatures: wolves, foxes, bears, bugs and so on. You aim a bullet at a wolf for having devoured a sheep, but in society there are people - wolves - who eat up ten persons and more. You do not say anything to them. Where is your justice then? A poor person steals a loaf of bread to feed his poor, sick family and is sentenced to a few months imprisonment. But some rich man steals thousands and thousands of leva and people say he has earned that money as a commission. A magpie eats the egg of one of your hens and you kill it - I estimate the life of a magpie to 1,000 eggs, so that you have the right to kill it only when it has eaten 1,000 eggs. The same law applies to a wolf. You can kill him after it has devoured 1,000 sheep. Such is the Divine rule in the world. The publicans and sinners who sat at the table with Christ were there to hear the new teaching He preached. Many say, "How nice it would have been, if we also had sat at the table of Christ!" But table was very simple not like a royal table: there was no roasted lamb, hens, stuffed tomatoes or meatballs, roast sausages and so on. Since these delicious foods were lacking what was that table worth? I would not go to a table lacking all these dishes. It is said, "These publicans and sinners sat down with Christ and His disciples." The new teaching is a great process, it is a great table with most exquisite dishes. But first you must learn to be present at the ordinary table of the stomach. Contemporary humanity is passing the state of sitting at this table. I shall not describe the table of the stomach, since you are specialists in that. The second table at which a person should be present is the table of the respiratory system and after passing the state of purification, s/he will be present at a wonderful banquet - such as the world does not know yet. There are 10,000,000 present at the table of the stomach. Each of the guests raises their glass and fork and says, "What a pleasant work this is!" we also participate in the joy of these 10,000,000 persons, or cells; this is not allegory but fact. In your stomach there are 10,000,000 cells which eat, drink and work. In the lungs there are still more guests, a greater number of cells doing their specific work. When we climb a mountain peak and breathe the pure air, the cells of the lungs raise their glasses and say, "Long live our master! How pleasant it is that our master has taken us to this high place!" When you go up to the brain, where the publicans and sinners were invited, the table is still more imposing. There are three billion and 600 million cells there - such a number of guests are invited to be present with Christ and His disciples. That is why if you send a great thought by you mind, such an enormous banquet takes place in you - in your mind - as cannot be experienced either by the stomach, or by the lungs. Therefore, the mental experiences are the highest. This is not an illusion. Is what you experience with the stomach and the lungs an illusion? But you say, "We have houses, fields and so on." This is an illusion. What can be lost is illusion, but illusion is no other than a law of movement. These things are real, but they are transitory. It means that one time they pass through us and another time we pass through them. In the one case our thoughts and desires will pass like a film before us, but in another case we shall pass before them as travellers and look at these photographs. Therefore, in society today both processes alternate, only those travellers that go around the world are very few. There is a story characterizing the English, the Germans, the French and the Russians. Four of these nationalities were somewhere in Europe at a resort where they ate and drank together. One time they all noticed that high above them two big birds were circling. The Englishman who first noticed them turned his attention to the direction from which they came and seeing they came from the east, took his bag and went away on the first ship to investigate them. The Frenchman took his hat and went to find out what the evening papers would write about them. The German went to the library to check up the scientific data if there was anything written about these birds. But the Russian man lay on his back and, looking up, said, "So, those are eagles." And that was all. Here is how easily the Slavs solve all questions. When a Bulgarian drinks half a kilo of wine, he, too, says, "Those are eagles, what is there to think about, I need not much philosophy, they are eagles and that’s all!" It is a question of acquiring knowledge. When you acquire knowledge you say, "I know this question, so I need no papers or libraries, I see those are eagles." I do not give the preference to anyone of those four, because everyone acts according to their own temperament. All people express their character according to their temperament. When I study the life of the nations, I study it objectively, gauge it by a positive science and know what it contains. In the light of this science nothing remains secret. Then we say about a person that s/he is honest and respectable. Who then is not honest and respectable? Is not the wolf who devours the lambs of people’s flocks honest? Or a tigress playing with her cubs - is she not honest? That the wolf acts dishonestly is another’s opinion. The wolf says, "I do not care about the opinion of people." You say that the lamb and sheep are noble animals, but ask what the grass thinks of them - when they tread on it, it is crushed and all eaten up, so it cannot grow. We say the sheep are the emblem of nobility. Which sheep? You are wrong thinking these sheep are noble. There are other sheep in the world: the ones that our shepherds graze are the shadows of the real sheep. Christ says, "I have other which are not of this house. And must gather them." What does Christ signify by the word "lamb"? You will say, "We know what a lamb is - it is born of a sheep, it is a pretty, playful thing; when its head is cut, it makes a tasteful meal." The lamb signifies the fire that purifies life. And when they call Christ a lamb, it means He is the divine fire that purifies humanity. Every person who can find this divine fire will have found the elixir of life right here on earth. Now the question of the sheep remains for you so that you can think about this word. I shall speak to you about the sheep some other time. I speak with them daily, you only meet them, and I find them the most underprivileged in the world, but the most noble and the happiest. A wolf cannot eat them, worms do not enter their stomach, they do not die of illness or hunger, neither are they afraid of the shepherd’s knife; they do not cast their wool on the earth, do not give their milk, neither can you churn it for cheese and butter. But you must know that the beauty of their wool brings life and blessing to the whole world. They speak little, for they are not very eloquent as orators and speak only during the pause when the orator raises the toast. During that time they manage to say just one word. And everything is due to these sheep. All great statements in the most distant past that have not lost their sense yet were spoken by them. The authors of these great statements are not yet known, but thanks to them the world exists and the present authors become eminent. When someone writes a book today, s/he says, "I have written this book and no one has the right of reprinting it without my permission." When you listen to me talk like this, you think I have a special purpose in mind, but I simply wish to converse a while with you and give you a treat. I do not busy myself with philosophic matters, neither do I deprive those authors who can busy themselves with philosophy of their right to do so. I do not want to touch king’s crowns, neither do I take the jar of gold, the telescope, the compasses, the pen nor the grain of wheat. I do not touch the egg, either. I have chosen the number 11: it is the unfortunate number in the world. There was no more unfortunate number for the Jews than the number 11. The number 13 is unfortunate today for the cultured Europeans, you can hardly make anyone engage a hotel room N13. Why is the number 11 unfortunate? This number has no father and mother, it is a number of contradictions in life. Why do contradictions exist in life? There is a definite cause for their existence. The number 4 is a law of contradictions for the cause of righteousness. There are causes in the world for every activity, you should not look for beautiful flowers in winter because winter is the number 4, but you should look for them during a definite time and season of the year, you should look at them in the numbers 1 and 2. If you want to find different kinds of fruit, you will find them during a definite time of the year, in the number 3. There is a definite time for all manifestations in life. The Bulgarians are right when they say there are unlucky days. It is not a superstition. For instance, you start on a trip to the North Pole, but you start on a hot summer day. If you do not take into consideration that you will need warm clothes for that place, you will be sure to get a cold. Therefore, the cold winter days are unlucky days in life. I have heard some Bulgarians say, "I do not start any work on Tuesday and Friday, or go out." They are right for there are really unlucky days in life. I would like to see someone who is not superstitious start on a journey on an unlucky day and see how far s/he will get. If the person is educated, s/he will say, "I could not reach my destination at the definite time and place because it was foggy, there was a big storm and so on." If the person is simple, they will attribute their failure to the fact that they have started on Tuesday or Friday, as these are unlucky days. The educated person says that thunder is due to the joining of two opposite forces, while the simple say that saint Elijah is driving a two-horse carriage in heaven. The simple person knows electricity is the cause of cloud formation, but they admit there is another higher power too. The legend has it that saint Elijah rides a two-horse carriage in heaven so that besides the positive and negative electricity, there are also two horses and a man, i.e. an intelligent force directing these two forces. As educated people then try to explain how the following is done. I am at a distance of 50 kilometers. When the shell from my cannon reaches you, you will hear the shot but you will experience the result of the shot as well. I ask you: which is the reason that made the shell reach you? You will say that the cause of this is the effect the explosive causes. This is true, but it explains only one third of the truth, because there is also another cause which makes these explosives cohere and as a result of these several causes, the explosion takes place. This way you will come to the very mind of the inventor. For every phenomenon in life there are simultaneously three causes. That is why we cannot say we are very educated, because we do not know all the three causes of certain acts. We say that we know how a certain political event has taken place and that the persons who took part were bribed and so on. However, the reason why these people were bribed is much farther than we see it. It is not an explanation of that psychological moment. How is it possible for a person who loves his/her country to sell him/herself for money, be it millions? The cause may be quite different. They say that Judas betrayed Christ for 33 silver pounds, but this is not all. The important thing is to know what reason made him betray Him. The reason of this betrayal is much deeper. When we know the real reason, we must not judge anyone - thank this Judas who fulfilled the undesirable role of betrayal. If Christ had not been crucified, salvation would not have come for humanity. You will say, "Here is a man who does not talk logically." I shall explain to you why I think so. If I sow a grain of wheat in the earth, would I not be a Judas for it? I am a betrayer for that grain of wheat temporarily, but at the same time I am its savior. How would a grain develop and multiply if it is not sown? Therefore, things must be considered wisely and seriously and there should be no judging. In the papers today there are only attacks and criticisms. This is no science. The real motives of things and events should be studied before we pronounce the verdict. And when we want to correct humanity, we should understand the laws governing the human soul. Some ask me, "Do you think that by speaking so much, you can set the world right?" I tell them I have no such purpose, but only give a banquet to my guests. If anyone of you is hungry or thirsty, they will come to me, I shall give them a banquet and when they are satiated, they will go wherever they wish to. When they leave nay house, I shall not write down their names for I do not wish them to remember they are indebted to me. Moreover, if they have dust on their clothes and shoes, I shall give them a brush to brush it and leave their dust in my home so that they may go out clean. How will you reconcile these two contradictions in life? Christ says, "If you enter a city and they do not receive you, when you depart that city shake off the dust of your feet." Where? In the street. But I say, "When you depart from my home after I have nourished you shake off the dust of your feet not in the street, but in my yard." If you understand this great law, when a visitor comes to you they will better shake off the dust in your house so that you can become rich. This is a law you can test. But what do you usually do? When some guest comes, you make them shake off their dust in the street and enter your house clean. You cast out your blessing and psychologically the law of destruction takes form in you. In the Divine world destruction is not admitted. Everything in the world must create. For evil and sin are only puzzles for people. Someone is called a great sinner. This shows that the person is a master of the great sins that is why I would wish to have some of their puzzles. Such people are very inventive. Some people take a stand against the devil, but people today do not know how much they owe him. You must thank the devil. If he would disappear for a single day in the world, a great confusion would set in: money would lose its value; the priest would have no one to preach to; the mothers would not bear children; there would be no food; the stomach, lungs and brain would refuse to work; all would be free and so on. But today all people are talking about the devil - how bad he is. When you have a truck to carry your garbage out, you all say, "Pooh, how awfully this garbage smells!" But you should thank the truck carrying away your garbage, or you would get ill, if it remained in your house. That is- why today you must thank the great spirit bearing the sins of all people. Whoever sins today - the priest, the bishop, the king, or the mother and father - the devil is to blame. But I say to you that this devil is an excellent teacher. Sometimes I meet him and, greeting him, ask, "Where have you been?" "I live among these cultured people who only fight and kill each other. I teach them one thing, but they do the opposite and then complain to their Father that I am to blame for their mistakes." Christ said, "I saw Satan falling headlong down as lightning." I shall say that I saw how the rays of the sun fell from above downwards. What does falling mean? If the sunbeams did not fall, what would become of the earth? Contemporary Christian world is full of contradictions and delusions, but there are no teachers to explain things rightly as they are in nature. For instance, some say that you should be very wise and intelligent in order to become a king, but others say that to be able to rule, you must be very rich, or that you must be a general, if you would govern your nation. But the meaning of life is not in all these things. I know two kinds of kings, bankers and generals. I know generals who wage war without killing people and our society today has a greater need of them. Some say that we do not need generals - on the contrary, we do, but we need such as fulfill their duty rightly. But those who are jealous of the rich and want to take their place, are not solving the problem. Two or three persons cannot, in my opinion, carry one sword, so that he who was born for a general will fulfill his service. In the occult science it is said that several beings can sit in a chair without disturbing each other. You will ask, "How is this possible?" I shall explain it to you. Let us suppose we have a tin container with a volume of ten kilograms. First we put in large bullets until it is full. We say the container is full, but in the inter-spaces we can put several kilograms of small pellets. Again we say that the container is full, but we can put in well-ground sand until the small inter-spaces are filled. Finally we can pour in a kilogram of water and 100 grams of the best spirits. So that these contradictory elements find room in this container which at first seemed filled only with the large bullets. Therefore, the idea that many persons cannot sit on my chair is incorrect. The ten persons who took an object from the king can sit on my chair and I, the eleventh, can sit in the very same chair. Therefore, there will be no contradiction. I have chosen the number 11 because it makes people think. But this is done after one has passes through the greatest sufferings. All great nations of character have passed through the greatest trials, through fire and water. People should imitate the heroes of the world and not feel sorry for them. Such people choose their destiny themselves and they carry their burdens lightly. The heroes do not need to be saved for they save themselves. Now there are heroes among you, Bulgarians, as well. There is a story of a very clever thief in England. At one time the English police caught him and imprisoned him after tying his hands and feet with a rope so that he could not run away. The policeman who took food to him forgot a lit candle in his cell one evening. The thief at once thought he could save himself by this candle and burned the rope of his hands and feet. Once freed from the rope, he jumped out of the window and escaped from prison. He found his way to freedom. When you find yourselves locked up like this thief, you begin to wail and complain that your fate is heavy, unfortunate. Know that when the devil catches you and ties you up, he always leaves a lighted candle by which you can be saved and he says, "Let us see now if you are a hero!" But you sit reasoning, "How can this be! I prefer to sit tied up than burn myself." Be a hero! Burn the rope and go out! You all have such a candle - it is the human mind. Even if the devil did some evil to you, God would order him to leave you a candle by which you can be saved. Then the devil says, "We shall see now if you are a hero, i.e. a person for heaven, or will remain my slave. Are you worthy of untying yourself and starting on your upward way, on the narrow path, or you will remain here to plow for me?" Why do Bulgarians plow today? They have not been able to free themselves on time and the devil has yoked them to plow for him, saying, "Come on, come on!" This is an allegory for you to think about. Many say today, "This is what Pythagoras said one time, this is what Trismegistos2 has written on his golden slab; this is what Kant has said" and so on. My respect to these thinkers, but do you know where these learned men have taken their teaching from? Everybody admires their teachings and interprets them. Their interpretations are like those some theologians today make on the messages of the Apostle Paul, etc about the definite and indefinite article, saying, "The Apostle Paul has not put this article or that on its place." Their criticism and interpretation consists in this. When you write anything, do not think where to put this or that article, but see that your thought should be right and have good substance. Apostle Paul could have expressed the same thought without articles and commas. When you cut out a dress one part of it will be the front and another - the back. Thinking of the definite article shows that a certain person is a definite member3 of a church, but speaking of the indefinite article shows that they are only candidate members. There is no philosophy in this. The deep philosophy lies in what nature has created. There is a much deeper content in a flower than in the scientific thesis of Pythagoras, or Critique of Pure Reason of Kant, or the ten rules of Trismegistos written on the golden slab. You walk across a meadow and tread on a flower, which is of more value than the books of these people, and go on philosophizing, "This is what Kant has said." Yes, my friend, you trampled the flower before reading what was written in it, in its book. You say, "I believe in God." No, my friend, you are most ignorant, you are a person of the Old Testament, a publican and a sinner; you have raised a whole scandal about the Sabbath and so on. The world was not created for any Sabbaths and there is no definite Sabbath for rest. In the world there is only one Sabbath - it is the Sabbath of love and the baptism by fire. They who are heroes of their virtues have the law of love. Those who are baptized by the divine love and wisdom, will be Sons of God. Therefore, love without wisdom does not mean anything, neither does wisdom without love. These two great powers - love and wisdom - must penetrate deeply in you and you must understand them in all their breadth and depth, i.e. as they are manifesting in this wide divine world. Only this way the present teaching will acquire meaning. If I begin to talk to you about the present day algebra and geometry, they will become alive; if drawing and poetry are studied rightly, the result will be quite different. Poetry today emphasizes rhymes. The world is full of trite poetry - verses only rhyming without making sense. But one can find some sense even in such rhymes. Wise and unwise are relative things. From the story I told you about choosing one of the ten objects, the one who chose the egg made the best choice, as a cock came out of the egg. What is the Cock? It is the law of self-sacrifice, i.e. of constant giving on your part and taking on the part of the others. Thanks to this great law of self-sacrifice the world is moving on and all these ten objects - the crown, the pen, the telescope and so on - owe their progress to the cock. There is something much higher than the cock and it is to find the meaning of life even in all your failures. You put the crown on your head, but this condition does not satisfy you, the cock crows, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" This means not crowing on time - you took the crown but you did not find the meaning of life. You are a merchant who comes home discouraged and displeased, the cock crows, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" You have read some book of wisdom, but have not comprehended anything in it, the cock crows, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" You have sown wheat and other grain, but the year was not fruitful and you are disappointed in your hopes, the cock crows, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" The cock today tells people many things about their affairs, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" This crowing means much. I shall leave you thinking about the word "Cock-a-doodle-doo" until the next sermon. Sermon held on May 25, 1919. 1 Matthew 9:10 2 Hermes Trismegistos (Emerald Tablet-about the Is1 century AD), the author of various alchemical occultic, and theological works much respected by Arabs, (see encyclopaedia Britannica, Arabic alchemy) (ed. note) 3 This is a pun— in Bulgarian "article" is the same word for "member". (transl. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Beam "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye."1 In my last sermon I spoke to you about the words, "If your Eye be single, your whole body shall be full of Light." In this eye there is a beam which obstructs its purity. Christ says, "Cast out the beam out of your own eye that you may see clearly and cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye." How can this beam be cast out? By the words "beam" and "mote" Christ signifies two opposing principles - principles of negation in human life. A person whose eye is concentrated on the physical world, completely involved in matter, has a beam in their eye. The beam is a Law of Contradictions. By the word "mote" is meant a Law of Constant Changes. Christ uses two images - a beam and a mote. The beam is cut out of wood. Do you know which trees make good beams? The best beams are cut of oak trees that are used for the construction of houses as well. If you study the oak, you will find it grows in the lowest places of the earth. It is the oldest material, that is why its thick bark is chapped. There is a certain relation between the buffalo and the oak. When the buffalo gets hot in the sun, it wallows in the muddy puddles to cool off and keep the flies off. What is heat? It is the symbol of love. Therefore, people who are disposed to love, enter the puddles to get muddy so that the flies will not sting them. They are alert people. When a hornet approaches an ox, the ox raises its tail and runs away. The buffalo does not do that. When a hornet whistles by its ear, the buffalo leaves the field and runs to a pond where it hides. You may say to me, "We know what you will tell us about this beam." But you do not know what I may tell you. I have turned over the pages of many books treating questions of the New Testament, but very little has been written on this very important question; when whole volumes have been written on the least important questions. Everything in the world today is like that. Nothing is written about essential things and whole volumes are devoted to inessential problems. These unimportant questions on which so much has been written comprise shadows as regards the important questions. The shadows are necessary only when the important thing is definite, then they make sense. When a great artist paints a portrait, they use shade on it so as to make it stand out well. It is not the same thing, however, on which side the shadow is placed - on the right or on the left (unclear). If the dark side on the face is the left, it shows that painting the portrait, the artist was facing the west, i.e. the sun was setting. By this I shall judge that the life of that artist had been setting; or in other words, they was coming down to the material world. If the shadow was on the right side, it shows that the artist painted their picture when the sun had just risen. Therefore, it is of no meaning for the dull people on which side the shadow is cast; but for the wise, it is not so. It is important on which side the shadow is cast on your face. Why does Christ say that the beam must be taken out of your eye? Because this beam casts its shadow inwardly, whereas the person who wants to study life should have their shadow outwardly. You may ask me, "Why should this be so?" If the shadow is inside your life, you will not understand its meaning. And this is very natural. For instance, if your house is dark, but the streets are well-lighted, you will know what is going on in the streets - who is passing, how are they clad and so on - but you will not know what is going on in your room. Therefore, if this beam is in your eye, it follows that the meaning of your inner life will remain unknown. You may become a reformer or a moralist and moralize people to reform their houses and cities; but you will not be able to change their inner life. Christ says, "Take this beam out!" How was it formed? It was formed by the habit of the human mind acquired for many ages. And each one of you can verify for yourself whether your shadow is cast inwardly or outwardly. Christ says, "Cast out." He does not say "Add." Adding and subtracting are two initial processes. The first process is addition and the second subtraction. Till now you have been adding, forming this beam which is the result of the past. Therefore a+b = c where c is the beam. In order to free ourselves from this general result, Christ tells us to subtract a and b from c and our eye will be pure. How shall we subtract them? You cannot get rid of c, if you do not subtract first a and b. You cannot get rid of the nits if you do not take the male and female louse out of your head first. a and b = c which is the beam. In this case a is your mind, b is your heart; not on ascending scale in their actions, but on the descending scale of their manifestations. That is why Christ says, "You must stop these two processes." You will ask me how to stop them. In order that peoples’ minds start working, they should be placed under conditions to labor at a total deadlock. You must think of being in the shoes of one of Napoleon’s engineers who was forced by his commander to build a bridge in 25 minutes, or be shot. The engineer used all his abilities and succeeded in building the bridge. Notice how a cat tries to pass a dangerous place without trouble, if it is clever. If it finds itself on a wall five or six meters high and has no way out, it will be forced to jump down the wall; although earlier that had looked like an impossibility. This same way you say you cannot do this or that. Christ says, "Cast out the beam from your eye and place it in another place: not in your eye, but in your house." The eye has no need of beams. The teacher, who first advised people to place the beam in the eye and not in the house, had not known the Divine Laws. There may be a beam in the body, but by no means in the eye. By the word "mote",2 I understand those people who live in the sensual world. The straw is taken from the wheat. These people have acquired mistakes by their constant pleasures in the world. The beam is the acquirement of an avaricious, self-seeking life. You cannot rely on such people. Since this beam is very heavy, the eye of the person who has it is always tired and constantly looking downwards. I can make everyone of you look downwards. How? By placing a load of 100 kg on your back, I shall make you start reasoning and looking downwards. Some people would say that such a person is a great philosopher. Yes, there are philosophers who look down, but there are also such who look up. When the beam is in your eye, your mind and heart will always be heavy and you will be ill disposed. Some people with a beam in the eye manage to conceal this fact, but when you offend such a person they will begin to look down. A woman angry with her husband looks down. Why? Because, the beam has started to exert its influence. This is the feature of a general law. By the same law the young men and women have beams. So do the married people. Marriage, however, is a temporary thing. In the world there are no married but harnessed people. That is why I am not talking about the married, but about the harnessed people. I believe you are not harnessed. But you who think you are of the married people are of the blessed people. Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye that it may be pure so that you can cast the mote out of your brother’s eye." I make a general examination of the spiritual principles upon which our life rests. For instance, if my house is built upon the Divine Law, this is not only my own achievement, but also an achievement of the engineer I have called to make its plan and build it. Also, all the discomforts of the house cannot be attributed only to me. That is why if a person who has technical knowledge comes and tells me the sink or something else is not in its place, I must listen to them. If an intelligent person tells me to reconstruct my house because its walls are too thin, I must obey them and agree with their opinion, because a catastrophe might surprise me. When Christ talks about the beam, He conceals His great idea in this single word. The Bulgarians often hide their money under a heavy beam. In the past people had to hide things; that is why they needed beams. We often shade our windows with heavy curtains so that light may not enter in. In the same way we are unhappy today because of this beam which prevents the light from entering and reviving the matter of our body. We today have one and the same idea of light and of certain periods when light is not the same. If you warm yourselves on heat produced by wood, or on heat produced by coal, the effect on you in the two cases will be different. If you are sensitive when you burn coal you will pass through all the stages it has passed; when you burn wood, you will experience the stages the oaks have passed through and feel them like Living Beings. The black color of the coal will produce quite a different effect on you from that which burning wood will. Contemporary culture must rid itself of the use of coal. That is why the future scientists must harness solar energy. We must provide for ourselves heat from the sun. When we reach the stage of utilizing solar heat and energy, we shall be the cultured people humanity is expecting. At the present stage we cannot be called cultured people. Christ says, "Cast these beams out, there is no need of them any more." In the past this beam was necessary, it served some purpose; but today it is of no use. The buffalo entering the mud puddle to hide from the hornet has its economic considerations. He reasons thus: "Instead of running away 4 or so miles from a hornet, I shall cover myself with mud so that no hornets should trouble me." People today say the same thing, "We must ensure ourselves materially so no one should disturb us, so that the hornets should not trouble us." When you want to ensure your wife and children, those are the hornets troubling you every day and hour. The Christians are like the oxen - they run away. The worldly people, on the other hand, are like the buffaloes who wallow in a puddle so they would not be caught. Years ago in Russia they tried to put through a law against Jews which was discussed for some time. One of the members of the ministerial council was very much against the Jews and insisted on the passing of this law. The Jews tried to oppose this act in different ways, but did not succeed. One of the Jews decided to visit himself the minister who opposed them and went to his house. At the gate he asked the policeman to allow him in for he wished to tell the minister a word or two. The policemen let him in. He went straight to the minister and offered him a bag of gold saying, "Take this and keep silent." The council gathered under the chairmanship of the king to discuss the Jewish problem. All ministers opposed the law and expected the opinion of the great opponent of the Jews who kept silent. The king was surprised and asked him why he did not speak. The minister raised the bag of gold and said, "As long as I have this bag of gold, I cannot speak." This bag of gold is the beam. A day will come when the Lord will ask you, "Why do you keep silent?" You were passing some law for which you were obliged to keep silent. Today all rich and famous people keep silent. Those who keep silent are diplomats. In diplomacy silence is recommended. Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye so you can speak." "Cast the beam out of your eye so you can see." There is a relation between seeing and speaking. You cannot speak before you have seen. The straw in some people’s eyes is of quite a different material from that of the beam - it is out of wheat. We know that wheat wishes only to multiply and cover wide areas. It says, "Give me only 7 or 8 months to multiply, I shall finish my work and leave my place after that." It is not the same with the beam for the oak wants ten, one hundred, five hundred, a thousand years to grow and develop. It affirms ownership. The teaching of the beam is a teaching of possession. If your son is unworthy, cast the beam out of your eye and deprive him of all possessions so that your property should not be handed down the generations and be the cause of crime. But you will say, "Nerde, Sham, Nerde Bagdat."3 If anything hinders your life, it is the teaching of private ownership. We come to earth and become engaged in houses, fields; quarrel with our father, mother, sisters or brothers and go to court until one day they lift us from this place. The son says, "My father passed away and could not solve this question, but I shall solve it and see how the inheritance should be distributed." For eight thousand years humanity has been solving the question of property and this question has not been solved yet. Christ says, "Cast this property out of your eye so the world can be set right." Then the small obstacles, the small motes will disappear. Now in society there are moral, charity organizations. The priests preach in church; the teachers instruct at school; the judges administer justice in court, but all have beams in their eye. The Lord I know and whom I am speaking to you about, is not a Lord of beams and property and is not for people who argue about property. Property has no Lord whatever. And people who are split into Catholics, Protestants, Mohammedans and so on, have no Lord whatever. Your Lord is a Lord of beams, but my Lord has no beams. Christ says, "Thou hypocrite, cast the beam out your eye!" If you ask me when things will be set right, I shall answer, "When this beam is cast out of your eye." "But when will this beam be cast out?" When Love comes to reign in the world. Then the beam can be cast out very easily. All women, who are the bearers of culture can cast their own beam out, as well as that of their daughters and sons while they are still in the womb. If I preached the Law of Moses, first I would have punished women who deserve the greatest punishment. But since I am not preaching the Law of Moses, but that of Christ, I say to the women, "Since you are the doctors, you have served long enough your old lovers in paradise. Give them up and serve the Lord." For 8,000 years women have been serving this handsome scamp from the Garden of Eden and have not done anything laudable; that is why they have to give him up. You will object, "Do not blame us, we are pure." Yes, there was a time when you were pure, but today you are not such as I knew you. This beam - property - entered your eye, you started to live with the law of property; your friend came to you in the Garden of Eden, and said to you, "Come out of this garden of Eden, you need not stay here any longer as gardeners; possess the earth, it is for you. Why are you so foolish to stay in this garden, you will become equal to God?" And the woman left the paradise. Moses has described in a long and interesting legend the exit of women from paradise. When you read the whole Old Testament you will see how the Lord constantly addresses the virgin of Israel calling her different names, constantly admonishing her to return to the right path, to her Father. You have been to so many places after leaving paradise. You have been to Egypt - the material world; in Babylon - the old world, the old culture: culture of property. Now you are in Europe, which is in the same chaos as the Egyptians and Babylonians. Christ is saying to contemporary people who represent the chosen nation, "Cast this beam out of your eye," i.e. do away with this property in your land, because it is the cause for all disputes and wars. The only property a person has is their body. If a person could daily alter the parts of their body, control their desires, and the functions of their organs, as well as those of the brain with all its centers, they would be an excellent person. Say to yourself, "Now I do not need any houses or fields; this is for the future culture." The future culture, as a projection of the past, is for the sinners, the present is for the righteous. When someone says that they will correct their life in the future, I understand that this person is a sinner. When someone says that they will correct their life now, I understand that this person is a righteous one who has cast the beam out of their eye. Thus, the future in this sense is for the sinners who do not change their desires; it is their property. The present, however, is for the righteous, because it takes no space whatever. It is their property, it is a mathematical line. Every righteous person will pass through this straight line. I say, everyone who controls the present will enter the Kingdom of God. The future belongs to sinners. The past - i.e. everything which has happened - is in the hands of God, while the present is ours. Therefore, we have exchanged our roles. God is engaged in correcting our sins. We are dealing with the justice of God which will come in the future, while the people of the present say: "We shall work for God to realize His desires." From today on I want all of you to cast all your beams out and I am ready to help you. However, if you leave this for tomorrow, you will not find me. I have the say for the present; the Lord for the past. My word is founded on a very thin thread called the Thread of Love. Christ addresses those who have studied this teaching and who are awakened. This is why I do not have to teach you either - you must apply the Divine Principles which you have already studied. For the application of a Divine Principle there are certain methods. A person who wants to make use of a teaching must first of all pay all their debts. In my opinion the Law of Self-sacrifice is nothing but a payment of ones debts. But the debts have been incurred because of property. You will say, "Well, then it is possible." What is possible? It is possible for instance to become rich, learned and so on. No, by that you cannot do anything. Many people have applied this teaching. Many have wanted to be learned, rich, healthy, but they have not preserved this state a long time. The teaching can have a result only when one applies the Law of Self-sacrifice for the whole humanity. Only then will you sacrifice yourself for the good of humanity; only then will you be sacrificed for your self. If you sacrifice yourself for the good of humanity and raise it only one centimeter in its state, the next time you come to earth you will have favorable life conditions for which, you yourself, have been the cause. All suicides in the world are the result of the Law of Property. A wife wants to dominate her husband and if she does not succeed in that, she despairs and commits suicide. The wife instructs her husband how to look or not to look at all the other women and so on. Now people make these mistakes because they are born by women. Women are responsible for the mistakes of men for they taught men this law. You will say I judge you. No, I am not judging you; I am not judging anybody, but I am telling you the truth. Christ says, "Cast the beam out of your eye." Jealousy, suspicion, hatred, evil, avarice, envy and so on are the beam in your eye. The beam, the beam must be cast out! It is everywhere: in all societies, churches, religions. I see it everywhere. People today are like those two Germans in America who were good friends and promised one another to give each other a kiss. However, their stomachs were so big that they could not get close together and kiss. These two friends could not get close together and parted with deep grief. Today all people have such big stomachs that they cannot get close together. Why? The beam is the whole cause. While such big beams exist, there can be no kiss for the Soul. A young girl meets a young man and wants to kiss him, but she cannot do it so she groans. A young man wants to kiss a girl, but he also cannot do it, so he groans. All people are groaning - they cannot kiss each other. We shall be far from one another until the beam is cast out of our eye. Today, morals are perverted - a consequence of which, people do not understand one another. A stranger looks at someone else’s wife and the husband gets angry at once, thinking, "I shall wait and see what you are going to do. I shall watch you." Men and women are jealous of each other everywhere and yet they want to learn some new philosophy, some new teaching. The most difficult thing for a person is to merit the name human/e, to know nature so that nature will serve them. So do you know this Mother called Nature? Have you talked with Her? She is Virgin. Do you know Her habits, looks, receptions, laws and society? When I speak to people that they must enter into harmony with nature, the present servants of religion call this idolatry. The present existing order is idolatry, but this order will be swept away and only the ex-person will remain. Only the empty head will remain of the contemporary person and will be presented in the museums as a remnant of a past culture. When the future people visit the museums, they will look at the heads of the present eminent bishops, patriarchs, and high clergy, see their beams with which they had lived so many years and say, "Illustrious and pious people, such piety that only the head remains of it!" In the future all teachers, priests, ministers and judges must be without beams. I would render good service to Bulgaria if I should point out the person who should be employed as a teacher, who is to be a priest, who is to be a judge and so on. If this were observed, Bulgaria’s affairs would get on well. But what is happening now? Someone prepares to be priest, but their character is that of an actor. When such a person becomes a priest, it would be better to call them a servant of the church, not of God. I wish all priests and teachers to learn the Language of Nature and to see what She is writing. I study all stones, streams, and flowers and by them I can conclude what nature had been 2,000 years ago. So nature changes its garment every day and you should study what it is like today. The present is for the righteous. Christ said to the Jews, "Cast the beam out of your eyes, or you will not become a nation." But the clergy of that time who were Occultists and Cabalists said, "Is that so! Instead of casting our beams out, we prefer to put you on these beams." These beams of yours crucified Christ. He was crucified on two beams - one was a male, the other was a female beam. You say, "How pleasant it is to pass under these beams!" Christ says, "If you do away with private property among brothers and sisters, your mind and spirit will be free so that you can become good people." If all women of the contemporary race would become imbued with this idea, in 100 years they would push humanity four or five thousand years forward. But mind is necessary for this, for when there is no mind, this consciousness is lacking in people so they hang each other and cut off each others’ heads. Now they are cutting the heads of the priests as well. I want you to understand of what I am speaking. I am speaking in principal, not for the sake of this or that person, treating the question in broad terms. The world can no longer be set right by killing. I am not of those who can kill and hang. All must know this. From now on I shall not be crucified. You will crucify one another until you are enlightened. Christ says, "You hypocrite, cast the beam out of your eye." From all I have said, do not consider anything offensive: this is a Law for Heaven. When we pass the bounds of the spiritual life, we shall leave the beam here on earth. They say of someone, "They departed for the other world." No, they have not yet departed; they are still here on earth and that is why we should give them a little wheat now and then.4 The prison is the astral world. They went there with their beam. But the motes in our eyes are all our small defects. Some are criticized for talking too much, for not dressing properly, for not getting up early, or for not working sufficiently and so on. These are all very small defects, insignificant flaws - motes - in the eyes of people. Are present day people really working? This is not work but torment and labor. Work is always performed out of love. Labor serves duty; but torment exists where there is violence. The cause of all this is property ownership. Woman who has introduced this habit in the world is to blame for this evil. All women teach their children, saying, "See that you become richer by a greater income; ask everything of your husbands, all you need; do not tell them everything, be reserved and so on." That is why a wife wants things of her husband regardless of his position and income and he wonders how to satisfy her needs. What happens then? A Greek in Bourgas5 married a very rich Greek woman who brought him 4,000 pounds. When they were married, she started asking him to buy her this and that, spending money indiscriminately. In less than two years all the money she brought was spent. Her husband kept an account of everything and when the account reached 4,000 pounds, he said to her, "The money you brought is gone so you go and ask your father for more and if he gives you any money, buy what you need." When a man leaves his wife, he has spent everything she brought from her father and since he has no more, he wants a divorce. Why can they not live together? Because the wife has a big beam in her eye, wants to dominate him quoting verses from the Bible which are in her favor so that he should not think of any other woman. She says, "The first condition, says the Scripture, is that a man should leave his father and mother and stick to his wife." Yes, but which father and mother? Christ says, "A man who marries should leave the father, mother, brothers and sisters who have sinned in paradise and thus hold on to his wife." Woe to him who, when marrying, does not give up his mother and father who have sinned in paradise! Therefore, as Christians, you must give up private property. Private property is an evil for every person who wants to develop, as well as for every occultist; mystic especially, if they would study the secrets of nature. Private property is a great evil. I do not imply the state regime, but they who understand human life must give up private property. This does not mean we must be indolent, but we must learn how to work. A wife should not rely on her father, or husband, but should stand on her own feet. Man has not married to support a household. This is not marriage. Real marriage is the getting together of two young people to work together for an idea. If a woman had such a concept of marriage, she would try to ease her husband. But what is happening today? The wife does not fulfill her duties and when her husband returns from work, disputes and disagreements begin. The Law of Private Property is for those who marry today. You say, "These young people love each other very much." Why? Because the young man is rich and has a nice position so he will supply all that is necessary to his wife; or she is rich and so her husband will be able to advance. If the man is poor, the woman does not love him. Because of these wrong conceptions of life all misfortunes in life spring up. The Divine Law will assimilate all old materials and reorganize them. The piece of coal can become a diamond by reorganizing its particles in such a way as to condense them through crystallization and assume a new form. Therefore our life must pass through fire and be reorganized - crystallize again and pass into a new form. Then we shall have better houses as well. A day will come when, after living for ten years in a house, we shall tear it down and build a new one. The old house where we have lived for ten years is full of bad thoughts. When men and women quarrel they must burn their house down and make a new one; when teachers and students quarrel in a school, it must be burnt down and built anew. The same thing applies to the churches. The teaching of Christ is a new school, a new church. To cast the beam out - that is the new teaching. This is why the Lord writes, "If you want to better your life, you should tear down everything and build upon new rules without keeping the beam in your eye." Then your ideas of nature will be better, your homes and social life will be better. When you go back home say, "From today on I shall be casting the beam out of my eye." But the beam cannot be cast out by a single attempt; it requires a multiple process, a chain process of casting out. When you learn this Law of Subtraction, you will come to the process of multiplication. Then you will understand the law: "Live and multiply." The first process of addition came into the world by Adam, but the second - of subtraction - came in to the world by Eve, that is why God created woman by taking out one of Adam’s ribs. Which woman? - the woman in paradise who enjoyed her relation with "that one"6. Therefore, men will learn to take out their wives, while women will learn to take out their sons and daughters. That is why they bear children. Birth is the law of taking out and subtraction. By this Law of Taking Out, the Lord teaches women, asking them, "Do you still wish to have property?" When you listen to me, you will think, "Here is a man who violates the Law of Property Ownership, a teaching which has existed for 8,000 years." No, this law came later, but it has no basis in nature whatever. The earth is ours and we can dispose of it. If we love our brothers and sisters, we can dispose also of what they have. If we do not love them, the Law of Private Property comes into play. Private property has come into existence when love stopped functioning. In times of quarrel the woman says, "I shall divorce him, but make him pay me." People who do not require anything special of life can live with this idea of private property, but for those who want to discover the secrets of nature, study their existence and sense of life. Private property is a great obstacle, a great evil. You must stop ensuring yourself, but should rather work. One can think up some work, which can satisfy them. But you will object, "God helps them who help themselves."7 This proverb was thought out after the fall of Eve. Private property is the sheep-fold. Eve has hidden this proverb. It implies that if you want to have private property, you must lead your sheep into the sheepfold yourself. The Lord always gives wealth, but He does not believe in private property. Today people admire this proverb. I find it a human contrivance. Christ says, "Cast this beam out of your eye, you do not need any sheepfolds." Christ is taking you out of the sheepfold and will lead you to the pasture. This shows that He does not believe in private property. All Christians who believe in private property have churches, sects, etc. As far as religion is concerned they think they must be separated into Buddhists, Brahmans and so on which shows they believe in private property. I believe only in one great Divine Principle and in no forms whatever. The Lord has created the Principles, but we must create the forms. I make my own pot, but do not believe in any pots. Today people pray to their pots. When they built a house, they begin to become bold and to believe, saying, "I believe in God already and can cross myself." Or they cross themselves with the idea that God should protect their house so that another person should not take it. Such a person does not believe in God, but in their house. I do not cross myself in this way but say to the Lord, "Lord, you need not protect my private property for I refuse to acknowledge it and do not believe in it. Forgive me for having crossed myself so many times and have compelled you. I want to go along with You at liberty to those clear, rushing streams, to the green, dewy pastures, to the leafy thick forests, to think things over and be a free citizen of the whole earth." Only this way can you understand Christ and be near Him. When I look at you, I do not like your eyes. All of you must cast the beam out of them! And as soon as you cast the beam out of your eyes, Christ, Who is your shepherd, will come to lead you out of your private property. More favorable conditions for life will be given you. New bodies, new brothers and sisters, new societies and nations will be created for you so that you could live and work among them. You have served your old master long enough. Some lose their house, or their child dies and they despair and commit suicide. Why do they act like that? Because, they believe in private property. The Lord has taken your son or daughter, because He sees they cannot live in this house. When your son or daughter falls ill, do not be afraid for them; know that illness is a great blessing for a person under the present conditions of life. You cannot be heroes with these beams. From now on you must become heroes, but for this reason you must give up your beams. When you go back, make a long list of all the things you must give up in the future. Write down everything you give up this way: "I give up compelling my husband to bring me anything, leaving him free to do what his love prompts him to do; I give up compelling my husband to borrow money, to build me a house, to buy costly clothes for me for Easter and to satisfy my whims as before; I give up asking him to take me abroad to summer resorts, baths, balls, theaters and so on; I give up compelling my husband to love me, leaving him free to follow the dictates of his soul." You will say, "This teaching is very dangerous!" On the contrary, it has been dangerous up till now. How many tears have been shed that some woman’s husband, her private property, has not loved her! Do you know to what extent your husband is your property? There are many tenants in a house so that your husband is one of those tenants over whom you have no right. The Turks say, "Ahmet burada, akil dişarda," i.e. Ahmed is here but his mind is outside. Your husband - that is his shadow - but his soul, his thought is outside. Then how can you require him to love you when you too are not in your house - your house is full of tenants. Today we have set out in private property to conquer the world thereby losing the highest in life. That is why Christ says, "They who find private property will lose themselves, their life; but they who lose private property will find their life." Those who abandon the teaching of private property, draw away from God. Now you must bravely start on this way and solve this question as heroes. When the Lord sees that you are opening the book in which you will note down all the items you will give up, He will say, " With my servants, I shall help this Bulgarian woman who sets about casting the beam out of her eye." Let us see who will be the first Bulgarian woman who will set about this work. I know many who believe in the new teaching and are ready to give up their private property, but at the same time they are insured in many banks. We must be loyal to a principle not only in form, but also in substance and meaning as well. But what do people do today? Argue if there is a God or not, if there is a future life or not and so on. Yes, there is both future and past life, moreover, there is a present one. The Present Life is the Divine Life whereas the future and the past are the human life. To live like a person with all your heart, mind and soul, this is the Divine inside you - this is the Present. This is what Christ meant by saying you should cast out the beam from your eye, because only this way you can understand life. Only in this way shall we take the right path of human evolution - the path of Love. And then we shall be able to come to a mutual understanding. Sermon held on May 18, 1919. 1 Matthew 7:5 2 the Bulgarian version is "straw" (transl. note) 3 Turkish proverb, meaning "Where is Damascus, where is Baghdad." (ed. note) 4 The custom in Bulgaria is to commemorate the dead with offerings of boiled wheat. (ed. note) 5 A Bulgarian city on the Black Sea coast. (ed. note) 6 The devil in the guise of serpent. (ed. note) 7 The Bulgarian version of this proverb is, "God gives, but does not put in the sheepfold." (trans. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Light of the Body "The Light of the body is the Eye: if therefore thine Eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light."1 What did Christ mean by the words, "the Light of the body is the Eye"? According to present day conceptions the eye cannot be the light of the body. Christ expresses a deep idea by this thought. People who have not studied the structure of the eye have a vague idea of its nature. I also say that even l/1000th part of the structure of the eye has not been investigated. If I would try to describe the eye, I would come into conflict with all scientists. The first function of the eye is to absorb arid spread the rays of light. It absorbs them from the outside and spreads them inwards. When this process in life is reversed, disharmony takes place in the human mind. You have two eyes that is why you will ask me, "Which eye is Christ talking about: the right or the left one?" And in fact Christ does not say, if your eyes are pure, but he says, "If your Eye is pure." By this we can see that Christ speaks about one Eye which is inside the center of the brain. This Eye is called the pineal gland, but I call it "the Eye of the Soul." Christ takes the word "Eye" in a single sense as a collective principle which includes everything in it. When we speak of God, we think of a unit including everything in it. When we speak of this unit divided and multiplied by itself, we understand all its manifestations in the world. People give different interpretations to this division: the scientists call it laws, cause and effect, evolution, thoughts, feelings and so on. Christ says that the Inner Eye is, at the same time, the Sun of a person. When a person loses their Sun, they die. In other words: when a person becomes spiritually blind, they die, but when they begin to see spiritually, that they come to life. The truth of this thought can be seen in the words of Christ, "Those who hear the voice of the Son of Man shall rise." It may seem strange that it is not said that those who hear the voice of God shall rise. The Son of Man is the Voice of Wisdom. This resurrection is not what the church means by it; it is a resurrection by which knowledge is attained for the comprehension of the laws governing the world and developing life. The thought of contemporary humanity is single and collective. Life has begun with the formation of the Eye. When God made man, He first created the Eye and then the rest of him. Some may object to this, but I shall prove it to you. Before a mother gives birth to a baby, people set the house in order, warm the room if it is winter, and so on. Therefore, those who say that a person may live without an Eye maintain that there is no intelligence in nature. Christ says that the human heart corresponds to this Eye. There is a close bond between the Spiritual Eye and the human heart. This is not merely theory, but statements which can be verified every day experimentally. Those who are not on the right path lead a life of sufferings and misfortunes. If anyone wants to know why we suffer, I would answer that the sufferings are the result of our being in contradiction with the spiritual eye. Christ says, "If your Eye is pure, your whole body will be full of Light." And actually, if your Eye is pure, you shall see all objects. Often our eyes are spoiled by the food we eat: if the food is not sanitary, it pollutes the blood and the polluted blood spoils the eyes so that it is necessary to have operations. Why? Because our life is not in conformity with the divine laws. If in the physical eye there appear dispositions, according to the same law similar dispositions appear in the Spiritual Eye, causing misfortunes not only to the individual, but also to the family, society, the nation and all of humanity. Someone will say, "God will save us." All people speak of salvation. God need not save us for He has created us saved. It is the silliest thing to say - that God will save us. When we say we want to be saved, it shows we are running away from the divine salvation in which we find ourselves. What is salvation? It is the luminous life of order and decency, but as soon as we abandon it, we shall not be saved anymore by God, but by the people. Then we shall not be born of God; and when we continue to sin, we shall be forced to reincarnate in flesh and blood. You will then follow then some woman or man and beg them to save you - create a new body for you, but that will be only a preface to salvation. After living a few years on the earth, you will go again into space where you will stay for a certain period of time and come to earth again. The Son of Man will speak to you and say, "I created an Eye for you again, see that you do not corrupt it." I want you to make an analogy out of this for the present life and see what will remain of you when you cast off all your shells. Some say, "We shall die." You will die but then come to life again. When a walnut is on the tree it has many garments, but after it is sown, it casts off all its outer garments in order to be able to sprout again and live. The casting off of these garments does not mean death, but rather shows that you are closer to life. Then I define life in two ways: the physical life constantly undergoes modifications and changes, while the spiritual life undergoes modifications without changing. Everyone who undergoes modifications and changes is within the bounds of the flesh, of the transitory, however they who are only modified without changing, are in the bounds of the spirit. You will say, "How is it possible for a person to undergo modifications and not change?" Imagine that I am a nobleman who is supposed to meet different people several times a day. That will require from me to change my clothes several times a day in accordance with the kind of people I am supposed to meet. In the morning I put on a black suit, black hat and black gloves - official clothes. After coming home from that interview, I have to meet some ordinary person in the afternoon so I put on a white suit and hat and go out that way. Whoever meets me that day will ask, "Who is that gentleman with the many suits of clothes who is constantly altering his appearance, but not changing?" It is the ability of the human spirit to alter, but not to change. However, when we come to that inner state to change inwardly, we lose our individuality, we lose what we have gained. I call this a law of fall. Projected as certain energy and falling on the earth, the rays remain on it for many years until a day comes for them to return to their Father from Whom they came forth. Why do these rays come out of God? Because they, too, have sinned. If they were not sinful, you would not feel this heat and burning, but they would produce only a delicate light and pleasant warmth. Thus, fallen once on the earth, however bright they may be, the rays have their eye somewhat blurred. These rays are alive and you will wonder how it is possible for the light to be alive. I shall leave that question for you to resolve. People themselves are Divine Rays. Contemporary biology describes the phases people have passed through before attaining their present state. They have undergone many changes and their cells have been multiplied, divided and changed before this present form was reached. All this has been done under the incentive of this Living Light. If you would study human development closely, you would see how costly our structure is and the materials out of which our body is made and you would never sin or admit an evil thought or feeling to enter your mind and heart. There is no greater delusion than to think that when a person sins, they do not harm their salvation. What does sin consist of? Sin consists of our thinking that the things we have attained can give us greater happiness. However, thinking this way we limit ourselves and envy becomes our companion. All Christians of the different schools want freedom and money, but then live at the expense of others. At the beginning of the 19th century the French Revolution gave freedom to the nations, but what freedom do they have today? Can this be called freedom? We speak of freedom, of the upliftment of women intellectually and in society; however, what is this uplifting of humanity during these 2,000 years equal to? It is equal to 1/50 millionth part of the millimeter. Such is the result of the strenuous effort of all humanity. Knowing this, calculate what your active input in this general development is. Raise this number to the 10th power and thereby find the factor of your consciousness, of your culture and of development. This is the only way in which we can examine divine entities. This sun, i.e. the divine stomach of the solar logos (this is the theosophical term), shines and provides all our heat. By the same law, every person has their own Sun within them which rises and sets. It happens sometimes that it is winter outside, very cold, while inside your own Sun is in its spring time; sometimes it is warm in the physical world, but your Sun does not correspond to it and you feel a certain iciness. This can be explained in different ways. Sometimes you are in low spirits; then I say that your Sun is not in its place. At times there are spots in your Sun just like in the physical sun. How do you explain these spots? Scientists of today maintain that at one time in the past a dark belt was formed on the sun. It lost all its heat and the result was the beginning of the ice period on the earth. I do not support this; this is only a scientific theory. According to this theory a certain change took place in the sun: its crust cracked and the sun started its present activity, great floods were caused and the present world was formed. The flood was caused by the melting of the ice layers. In the future you will verify this. Christ says that the Light of the body is the Eye and if your Eye is pure, your whole body will be full of Light. When Christ says that your body will be full of Light according to the purity of your Eye, He is saying that Divine Life will surge forth in you, creating all the conditions for your development so that you will not be petty-minded. People today are like small bugs, thinking they are very learned and strong. When one’s purse is full, they solve important questions; but when they lose their money, they also lose their power. Some criticize, with their own small brain, everything God has created saying things are not well made; while at the same time considering as good, what their own small patch of earth (their head) has made. Do you know how long and wide is the patch of earth (the head) of a Bulgarian person? Its length is at the most 21 cm and its width is 16 centimeters. Now then, with this size of mind the Bulgarian person wants to reconstruct the whole social order and to speak of all great mysteries! This is true of all other people as well. Why do people die? They die of little mind, of scanty food, of scanty air and scanty blood. By the word blood I mean the divine life. To have blood is to have this pure and unspotted divine life which must be neither bitter, nor sweet. If a person is bitter in one incarnation, they will be sweet in the next one and if in this life they are sweet, in the next they will be bitter. In a spiritual sense I compare heat to affection, light to the truth and air to human thought. As air enters the lungs to purify and oxidize the blood; by the same law, thoughts enter the mind and purify human desires which correspond to the human blood. When we begin to understand this science, we shall be able to apply it correctly to the structure of society and by so doing, eliminate all evils in life. People say that everything has its causes and consequences. I ask you: "Which are the incentives for certain causes?" Some say, "So and so killed someone out of great hatred." Perhaps, but why did they hate him so much? Others say that it is caused by loving someone so much. Why do they love so much? If the cause of hating or loving someone is one and the same, then it comes from God. If it is not one and the same, it does not spring from God; but is the consequence of some other life. People speak about laws in nature and society and say that this is a world of laws. Among the laws there is a certain correlation, but they show that the beings ruled by laws do not live in peace. Not only we, but higher beings than us in the solar system, do not live in peace either. That is why God has put certain limitations, certain distances among them so that there should not be disputes. Between the system of Alpha Centoris and our system there is a distance of 25 billion miles. This space is so enormous that 3,000 more systems like ours can go into it. In this way they cannot quarrel. When God wants to make people good, He places them at such great distances. If anyone should ask me, "What should be the distance between a man and a woman?", I shall answer, 25 billion miles. The number 25 is composed of 2 and 5 whose sum is 7. The number 7 is perfect, implying the Law of Harmony; but people today, with their doctrines, have to a certain extent torn down all barriers which God has placed between the beings. Why? The woman wants to appropriate and dominate man; however, how would she be able to dominate him, if he were 25 billion miles away from her? Today people are trying to find ways of influencing one another. Yes, you can influence, but you can never dominate. Everyone who tries to do this can dominate only themselves. The desire for domination can be seen in some religious societies as well. A new movement strives to dominate and assimilate another movement. A nation wants to dominate another nation. People die because of this very greed - the desire to have much. Those who want much do not understand the Divine Laws. We must not want much, because we have more than we need. Although people have such a small brain - 16 cm wide and 21 cm long - they have not cultivated it sufficiently. A person’s patch of earth has not been cultivated. In the Bulgarians for instance, only a space of 6 to 7 cm in the front part of the brain is cultivated and they think they are bearers of a great culture. I ask you, what can you build on such a small space of 6 cm height and 12 cm width? Therefore, we all live in the Law of Illusions, thinking we know everything. You say, "We do not need any philosophy." That is not right, for there is one philosophy - the Philosophy of your Eye, of your Soul, and you must all remember this. What does the understanding of this Law imply? When a person projects a thought in a divine way, it already creates in them. Accept a divine thought without any self-seeking purpose; give ear to its instructions, and you will acquire all you wish. By saying you will acquire all you wish, I mean that which undergoes alterations, but does not change its nature. You will then live with in constant contact with Love. When I speak of Love, I do not mean your human love. Your love is like that between the cocks and hens. When some wheat or corn is given to them, they all get together to peck it, but when one or two grains remain, the cock chases the hens away at once and pecks the last grains himself. Their love lasted until the last grain - no more. All societies, be they religious or worldly, live like cocks and hens, in peace and love, but when it comes to the last grain, they say, "Now off with you!" The cock crows and says, "Hens, away from me! You must know how to sing like me!" What is singing? To sing is to be able to think. So long as we believe in the false promises of people, our condition will be to be driven away from the place where we had been formerly invited. This way young men and women deceive each other. A young man starts deceiving a girl that he will buy her this and that and that they will live well and so on. The girl believes him. In another place the girl deceives the young man. In contemporary society we do not speak a real language. When we return home we say, "That one must not be very sincere, and we should not believe them." You must be a person who lives as God taught you to live, not expecting any benefit from anybody; relying on God, on your Soul, then, finally on your neighbor. When Christ says that if you Eye is pure, your whole body will be full of Light, He means that if your Eye is pure, you will first see God, then your Soul and lastly - your neighbor. If your Eye is not pure, you will start the opposite way - first you will see your neighbor, then yourself and lastly God; and because of that you will turn the whole world upside down. I ask those of you who have gathered here, "Who gave you life? Your father or your mother? Have you inscribed their name with gold letters? Shall I find anything of them if I visit you, or will you have only some clothes and a portrait?" In this respect we are like the Jews of old. They tortured and killed their prophets, cut their heads with a saw, but after their death they raised monuments to them and glorified them. They did the same with Christ also, but today they build monuments to Him and sing songs to Him. In the churches also they are always singing songs about Christ, but outside the church nothing is heard of Him. We also sing about God, but when it comes to considering our neighbor, we at once prefer ourselves. when the master treats his servant badly he creates relations between bourgeois and proletarian who do not understand each other. God has not created any bourgeois or proletarians, but people. By speaking I do not wish to moralize you, for moralizing is not a good thing; it is simply a training of a person. I am talking to you about a Divine Law so that you should know how to bear your children. When you call them here on earth, you must tell them everything truthfully. Do you know how people were born before the fall? The man and the woman led a pure virgin life at that time. The man knew only one woman and the woman only one man; they did not marry several times as people today. Some will ask me, "If that is so, how many children must we give birth to?" Only one. Why? Because God has only one, unique Son. God says to people, "If you want to live well, your son must be ready to leave the world and to help his brothers and sisters just as Christ sacrificed Himself for humanity." As sons and daughters of your mothers, you are not ready to serve humanity. You will say, "You, who are preaching, are not ready either." You are right, I am preparing myself now. A work is not ready until it is thoroughly completed. For the work I am doing now, I need at least 10 million years to bring it to some end. I need that many years, but you need as many too so then the work will be completed. You will say, "What a long period of time is necessary!" It is a short period. This time is only a pleasant walk for the human spirit, because time and space are related only to this limited life. A saint who lived once in a monastery thought a long time about the other world and said to himself, "What will people do in heaven? They will spend a year or two pleasantly, but after that what?" One day a very beautiful bird flew to the monastery and the saint wished to catch it. He started chasing it, running after it, but then remembered his duties. When he returned to the monastery, he found great changes - the people had changed and no one recognized him. This saint lost four or five hundred years in chasing a bird, but how many years will be necessary for the accomplishment of some great thought? Therefore, when life has meaning, one never gets tired of it. When you are waiting for your loved one, time moves slowly, but when you are awaiting the set time for your hanging, it flows very quickly. We experience things according to our inner state. Christ says that if your Eye is pure, you will not notice how time passes. You will be happy. In what is your joy today? When you roast a pig, a hen or a turkey, set a jar of wine on the table, the merry clinking of table silver begins and toasts are drunk to your health and to the world’s well-being. Yes, but those hens and lambs are displeased with your happiness, they do not share it. Your joy is their sorrow. Some day the relationship will change. Out of your feasts, grass will grow which the sheep will graze upon peacefully. This will be their reward for their meat you have eaten for numbers of years. Such is the great Karmic Law. Christ says, "When we begin to understand life this way, misfortunes will vanish and life will be light." You do not know why sheep eat grass. This is a temporary method; for in the future, food will be absorbed by the pores of the whole body and not chewed. "What must we do?" Always keep open, bright and pure the Eye that God has put in your Soul so that you can always be warmed by His Heat and Light. Do you know why worldly love exists? When someone marries, the Bulgarians say that they were caught by the "Blind Sunday." Why do people speak that way about love and marriage? This shows that this love does not proceed from the Spiritual Eye, so it is blind. That is why I call worldly love "a love of blind people." Often a young girl and a young man walk arm-in-arm. What does that mean? This shows that one of them is without an Eye and that is why they need someone to lead them by the arm; but if both of them have this Eye, they are not permitted to walk arm-in-arm. If your wife is blind, you will lead her by the arm, but if she has an Eye, you will say to her, "Woman, there must be a distance of one meter between you and me," this is the safe moment in life. Therefore, if our Eye would shine well, we would never allow anyone to come close to us. If we should ever come close together, we would be turning our Eye coming close to darkness. Thus we shall have to form a nation. The nation, in my opinion, is a great condition for the Soul. we shall take advantage of the conditions in which we live and never criticize a whole nation, or a whole society. Society, the nation, humanity are conditions created by God, and we must take advantage of them. We can criticize separate individuals, but not a whole society. We must utilize all conditions which this Eye offers us, but it is in close contact with the human mind, heart and will. Christ says, "If your whole body is full of Light", which means if you use sensibly all your endowments, you will become Son of Man and be in complete harmony with the Son of God. There can be no culture, there can be no noble world until people today develop in themselves this Inner Eye. I can prove this to you using examples from nature. All plants owe their life to the sun. In the same way, for our thoughts and desires to grow and develop, this eye must send them its heat and light. This Eye is inside our brain. If we find this Eye, we shall find our Sun as well. Do not think the heart is an organ performing a definite function. The heart is a society of most intelligent cells that fulfill the highest function - they do the work of the Soul. I recommend to you to develop this Eye of Light so that you do not make mistakes in life. I compare sin to the nucleus of the egg hidden inside within its shell. The egg contains all the conditions out of which the future life can develop. In order that this life should develop, it is necessary to put the egg under the hen where after staying for 21 days the mother hen will begin to cluck, saying to the chick, "When the time comes for you to come out, crack the shell." The chick makes a hole from inside and the moment of its salvation arrives. This process is effected from inside out. We are waiting for others to save us. Do not allow others to crack a hole in your egg. By this Eye, Christ means the Eye in motion, i.e. the Soul of every person containing within itself all the prerequisites for regular development. If your Eye is pure, you will be able to solve correctly all problems thanks to the Light you have. Our life is connected with the past and the future. What I am telling you will not work to save you if you yourselves do not work. My sermon is only the clucking of a brood-hen. Therefore, I say: those who are close to being hatched should use their small beaks to pierce the egg-shell and should make the last efforts to put their heads out. When all the chicks are out, the brood-hen says, "Cluck, cluck," and starts leading them around and teaching them how to peck grains. This is the Divine Natural Law. We want the Lord to come with us, but He is only preaching. Every preacher is a brood-hen. There are brood-hens that preach, but nothing comes of that, because they have no eggs. If you are a brood-hen without eggs, pray God to set you somewhere. Every mother and father are brood-hens. Christ says, "If your Eye is not corrupted, it will fill your body with light, you will understand the sense of life and be in contact with the past, present and future as well as have an incessant bond with Love." But the love dominating the world today is something to beware of! The worldly love is like a muddy stream watering the peppers, the cabbage and other vegetables; however, in time this muddy stream becomes filtered and purified. Nothing unclean, however, should have a place in your egg. Make no compromises if you are to have a shining future. For at least one year, retain the following thought, "I want my Eye to be bright and pure, so that my whole body should be the same". In such a state you will profit much more than if you would listen to all preachers in the world. That sunbeam coming from above produces much better results than all the stoves in the world. Such is the Divine Law. Now direct your mind, your thought, your will and heart to this Eye and ask yourself, “in which day of the hatching am I at the moment?” If only ten days have passed, you will say, "Mother, the time has not come yet." When the 21 day comes, you will say, "Mother, it is time." Thus I say to you: “Cluck, Cluck,” but in this respect I am ignorant; not knowing in which day of the hatching each one of you are. You will know this by your impulses, desires and thoughts. If from today on, all preachers, priests, teachers and judges in Bulgaria and in all Europe should start thinking about this Eye, you would see what a good result there would be. If the Bulgarians first make this experiment, they will see that in a year’s time there would be betterment both intellectually and spiritually. Think of the Eye Christ spoke about, for it is in all of you and by thinking of It, you will obtain Divine Thought, Love and Goodness. When you find this Eye, you will all be immortal – as it brings you to life. This is what Christ was saying. Everyone who wants to be immortal should find this Eye. This is the thought Christ was revealing by this verse. Sermon held on May 11, 1919. 1 Mathew 6:22

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Rising Sun "I am come a Light into the world that whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in darkness."1 The word "I" in this verse stands for the present word "Spirit". When the ideas of the old and the young people differ in form, these ideas do not differ in substance; but when they differ in substance, they do not differ in meaning and finally when they differ in meaning, they do not differ in essence. This difference between the young and the old is natural. The young and the old watching the two phases - the rising and the setting of the sun - have two different perspectives in life. Light increases for the former and decreases for the latter, therefore they cannot have the same view of the world. When people tell me they differ, I make the following comparison: from sunrise till noon people have one kind of ideas, but in the afternoon till sunset, they have another kind of ideas. So when people tell me they differ, I ask them, "What ideas do you have, ideas of the rising or the setting sun, morning or evening conceptions?" There is yet another category of people whose ideas differ: as the night differs from sunset till midnight, and from midnight till the rising of the sun. There are four kinds of people differing in ideas. Two categories belong to the light and two to the darkness. Speaking of light and darkness I mean the movement of the earth in its relation to conscious life. Since there is movement, there will be light and darkness. It is clear that the earth is moving toward the center - the Sun. It is striving for it. Movement means Love. Love moves all beings. When certain matter has kinetic energy, i.e. such that produces movement, this means manifestation of Love in all its forms. Light is one of the forms of Love. Christ says, "I," i.e. the "Spirit," but not what you see, for you see the shadow of things, simply the reflection of light on the surface of all bodies. You say, "I saw a person in the street." What did you see? Nothing, but their shadow. The reflection of their body enters the optic nerve, causes vibration, makes an impression, projects a shadow outwardly and then you say you have met such and such a person. Actually their shadow has met you. I ask you, "When the sun rises, is it you who meet it, or it meets you? Who meets - the one who attracts or the one who is attracted?" this is a philosophy. When someone says they are moving, I want to know whether they are attracted, or whether they attract. When you move you may be attracted or you may attract at the same time. It is one thing to attract and another thing to be attracted - they are two different things. When you are attracted in your movement, you are limited; but when you attract, you are free. When you say you have come to Earth, it is because the Earth attracts you. You are attracted by it for it has pinned you down and is holding you. Is it you who walk or is it walking? I think the Earth is walking within you. These are only a few philosophic thoughts. The Earth is walking and moving. It is a Fine Lady. I have never seen such an elegant way of walking, so gracefully and nimbly. When it moves in space, it does not make any noise, or raise any dust, as ladies do today. The Earth is so polite that it does not want to awake anyone when it passes, that is why no one is conscious of it. It has turned its gaze to the Sun - its Lover. But ladies today do just the opposite. All who grumble in this world have not turned their eyes intently anywhere, or in other words - they are people lacking an idea. When I say they have no idea, I do not mean they do not have some ideas; but their gaze, their movement, their aspiration is not fixed in a definite direction as that of the Earth. When Christ says, "I came," He does not mean the coming of a man but of a great idea; and we are deceived by thinking that a person comes or has come. A preacher comes and we say that he will set the world right. Christ came 2,000 years ago and people said at that time that He would set the world right. Many others came after Him but again the world is not set right, in our opinion. Why? Because the world is not set right here but in another place (unclear). I shall ask you when an artist paints a great picture, where is their mind directed? To the canvas, of course, where they make their corrections. The idea in their mind is perfect, but when they project it on the canvas, it is not as perfect as it is in their mind. Therefore, the life which is within us is perfect. They say that the life of some people is worldly and of others, spiritual. Life in itself can be neither worldly nor spiritual; but when the animal principle lives in a person, they become worldly and when the human one is manifested in a person, they become spiritual. If you put some bitter or sweet element in perfectly clear water, it will acquire its taste, but does that mean the water itself is bitter or sweet? It is neither bitter nor sweet, this is a wrong conception; but you make it such. It is the same with people: some put in pure Divine Life some element that corrupts it and makes it worldly; while others apply the good to life and render it spiritual. For this reason some people are very spiritual. But today people have so defiled their life that I do not see any difference between the spiritual and the worldly people. When it comes to defending their ideas, both kinds hold on to their houses and collect the rents. The one kind pass for sweet, the other for bitter; but the bitter are such for other people, not for themselves. These are conceptions of the people. Therefore, light and darkness are two processes for the explanation and conception of all existing relations. Light is a clear conception, while darkness is a vague, confused conception of things. Now, many of you pass for worldly people. I would like to be a worldly man in certain respects and a spiritual man in other respects. If I want to rest and sit in the shade of a tree by a spring, I shall be spiritual. But if I am with a hoe in hand, I shall be a worldly man, because I shall cut the heads of many worms. That is why the spiritual people do not take a hoe and bear the name of sluggards, while the worldly are considered industrious. The worldly people solve their problems by the blade of their sword, while the people of an idea - by their pen. The worldly people are the manual workers - the proletariat, while the spiritual people are the bourgeoisie. It is not bad to be a bourgeois. After one has worked for a long time in the field as a proletarian, they will start resting and become bourgeoisie setting the world right from their point of view. To have order in the world, one should not rest longer than necessary; but they should not work more than their strength allows them either. Light and darkness are two phases in nature which alternate - we work in light and rest in darkness; when we work, light is outside, darkness inside; but when we rest, light is inside and darkness is outside. Only if the worldly and spiritual people think and understand life this way will they find the touching points of mutual agreement in clarifying the Law of Labor. Christ says, "I came," i.e. the Spirit has come. When the Spirit comes to you, He will give you a clear idea of life. Christ has come to you so that everyone who believes in Him should not walk in darkness. I do not consider faith in the ordinary sense that many people maintain. Only the pure, sinless person can have faith as they can believe in everything and doubt no one. This is faith, not "beliefs". Faith is a quality of the Angels. Some say, "I have faith." No, you have beliefs. Your faith is like a cobweb changing 100 times a day - you believe one minute and do not believe the next minute. One day I met a young student who had studied some occult sciences and who told me that he believed in God. But later, after studying socialism, he confessed that he trod on his idea of God and now he became a man. By the words "trod on his God" I understand that he has trod on his egoism. When someone says that they believe in God, they mean that they believe in themselves and consider themselves a divinity. All people today are "divinities" so that those who say that they believe show they are valorous to confess that they believe in themselves as divinities; while those who say they do not believe in God hide this fact. The world is full today of Christs, St Virgins, St Johns, St Nicolases and so on. The world is suffering from them. The real Lord in not here yet! Where is He? See where He is: when you come to love all people in your soul, this Lord has sent you a ray; when all contradictions vanish in your mind, when you realize your duty and are ready to sacrifice yourself, the real Lord has spoken in you and you and He are one and the same thing at the moment. Christ says: "I came with this Lord who lives in me, I came with Him and through Him I should give light to all that may believe". Who? Those small, pure souls. What a great thing that is for a person to be pure in the world! Upon purity rest all ideas, all happiness, all health and blessedness of humanity. If a person is pure, they will not walk in darkness, but will have a clear idea of life and order it as it should be ordered. I know two brothers in Varna, one of whom graduated from the military academy and became an officer gradually rising to higher positions until he attained the state of colonel. His brother did not attend any higher school and served his time as an ordinary soldier. One day the soldier met his brother in the street and did not salute him. The colonel stopped and asked him why he did not salute him. The soldier answered, "You are my brother and I need not salute you." "I am an officer in the first place and then your brother - that is why you should have saluted me," answered his colonel brother. "I arrest you for two days." And today the world is full of colonels outside and ordinary soldiers inside, of bourgeoisie and proletarians - an emblem of light and darkness. When did you become a bourgeoisie or a proletarian? You were not born a bourgeois or a proletarian, but a person who must think and understand the Law of Light and Darkness. Light implies wealth, while darkness - poverty, but there are different degrees of light. For instance, there is light at sunrise, there is a broad day noon light and light at sunset. That bourgeois whose sun has risen will look at things one way; but the person whose sun has set will look at things another way. Today Christ is solving a great social problem - the problem of the so called class struggle. This is not an ideological struggle. It is the same which has existed for 8,000 years, expressed in the same way: "You come down so that I can go up." So far the minorities have ruled, but in the future the majority will rule. The minorities have worked till now, but the bolsheviks will work in the future. This can happen. You will say, "How is it possible for a gentleman to work for the simple men, for the proletariat?" But I shall ask you: how is it possible for a mother and father who are bourgeois to work for their children - the proletarians of the world - to get up early in the morning to feed them and supply all their needs, to sacrifice so many sleepless nights for them and so on? The parents know that in this way they must fulfill their duties to their children, because some day this proletariat will take revenge themselves on their parents. The mother, who is love, works; so does the father - these bourgeois must put on their aprons and work for the proletarians, because these proletarians will cast them out of the house some day, take their money by force and make them work. This has been so and will be so. How long? Until this class struggle comes to an end for it is solely materialistic. This is a transitory state in the life of humanity. After thousands of years another epoch will come when people will live in a different way and this struggle will be substituted by a life of order and decency. Today we consider people in their relations to their kind according to the sentence: dog eat dog2. However, I say that a person is a brother to the others. If we consider Darwin’s theory of the origin of species and make a study of the origin and conditions under which the wolf lived, we shall see that originally it did not possess these same qualities in the character which were developed later because of the conditions under which it lived. The wolf is a representative of an ancient culture and today it manifests itself in human society and in life. Why? Because people do not understand the Great Laws, which govern life. I shall demonstrate to you figuratively the relations of people in contemporary life. Let us admit that the roots of a tree have a deep consciousness in themselves and all of a sudden a small root starts on its own away from the tree and meets great obstacles. This small root cannot find a way out and it returns to its father and crosses him. The father does not know that this is his son and begins to struggle with it. The same way all people are struggling with themselves, with their children, trying to cut them off and get rid of them. It is the same roots which have met obstacle in life, or otherwise there would not be any disharmony. Christ says, "I came to show the true way to all who believe and have the purity of the Angels." People are still reasoning whether they will live after their death or not and whether life has meaning or not. This is no life, but only sediments of the darkness in which they live. Life is unique and it can neither die or be born. If I pour out the water in my pitcher, does it die? The pitcher has neither been alive, nor can it die. Therefore, in their physical state people are pitchers into which life is poured. The pitcher is only a condition, but life is everything. When the pitcher is filled up, it comes to life, but when it is emptied, it dies. Life in the body is heterogeneous, but in death - homogeneous. Scientists today say that matter is homogeneous. This is 50% true. Diversity cannot be born from homogeneity. If there was no heterogeneity in colors, nothing could be born of their uniformity. What is heterogeneity? It is all the necessary forms through which creation, life, must be manifested. Life cannot be manifested only through a single form, but through a limitless number of forms. When these forms combine and give expression to a greater form, we say that life is uniform, i.e. all the forms have the same aspiration to give expression to a higher form. But this higher form is not alone; there are more similar forms which combine and form other worlds. When we study nature, we observe the existence of this Law of Uniformity and Diversity. This, however, should not hinder us. A person who is in the dark is resting and instructing the young. They may be writers, poets, princes who will sit in the shade; but if they are proletarians, they will work only when there is light. Therefore, God created the world for the proletarians, i.e. for the workers who progress and not for the bourgeoisie. We shall liken the rich people to wealth collected in the past; the poor - to wealth which is being collected now. Thus, the rich people are of the past and the poor people - of the future. If you are a rich person, you are of the past; if you are poor, you are of the future. In the Jewish language there are only two tenses: past and future. There is no present tense. They say that everything happening now is past and what is going to happen is future. The present is only a transitory moment; it is a point which takes no place whatever (unclear). Be people of the future then! Christ says, "I came to give Light to the people - to the poor, to the people of the future - that they may not walk in darkness, the way of the rich, i.e. of the past." All sins are sins of the past. We bear our sin as a shade and every person who wants to get rid of it must become a person of the future; otherwise they will bear their sin as the snake bears is skin. When someone says they want to live in the future, I understand they want to live without sin. Therefore, the poor are people of the Good and the Light, while the rich are people of sin and darkness. These words may seem bitter to you, but let someone come and prove this is not the truth. I do not consider a rich person only a person of money, but also the person of knowledge and power who does not employ their wealth for the good of their kind, but rather for their stumbling in evil. I call them bourgeois. People who do the will of God, I call proletarians, or people of the future. I also call the proletarians "bees", workers for the new culture. The word "proletarian" is a class word; it is not an exact expression and so we must say ‘Workers of the New Culture, of the New Science’. What is the New Science? That we all should live in the Light; that we all should be happy and spoil neither our happiness, nor that of others. Only by two words I can spoil your happiness so that for 100 years you will not find it. Imagine that I call you and place before you a bomb with a fuse. If the bomb explodes what will become of you? In the same way, in every thought of yours there is explosive matter which, when exploding, creates all those conditions we call evil. I explain evil as matter we cannot control, because it is not submitted to our will. The matter under our will, which we can control, I call good. The external world is controlled by another will, but the inner world is under our control. If God, Who controls matter outside, loses His contact, all existence would vanish. That is why we must hold the reigns of our horse, for once they get out of control, the horse runs away and overturns everything, so misfortunes come thereby. These are general ideas. Every day your horse - your mind - walks with his tail up, ears pricked, brave, undaunted; but someone passes by and tells him something and he is immediately startled. A rich Jew walks bravely on his way, but someone meets him and tells him he will live only two more days. The horse is startled - the mind of this Jew - and he immediately closes his shop and says, "From now on you will have a holiday." All people get startled this way. Ever since the war I have been hearing people wonder what will become of Bulgaria. Many are more fearful than necessary. Bulgaria is not the only entity, there are others as well. Tell me, were there Bulgarians, Serbs, French, Germans, Englishmen when God was creating the world? There were not. They came later of themselves. You may object, but I ask you: does a mother bear her children as professors, teachers, priests, judges and so on? She bears children who become learned people, generals, doctors, engineers and so on, later in life. Our positions in life are the different roles we play on the stage. While we are on the stage, we are clothed in different costumes like actors, but as soon as we come off the stage, we are already brothers. When we go to heaven, we shall laugh a little at this struggle when we remember the different events of our life on earth. I shall explain your position by an example. An Indian God, being satiated with the nice life in heaven, wished to be allowed to come down to earth to live for a while. He was given permission and so he chose the form of a swine and got incarnated in a small pig. He started to live like all pigs - poking his snout in dirt and mud, lying in the shades and growing fat. At one time he married and had about fifteen piglets. He lived peacefully and happily. They waited for him to return to heaven for a year, two, three, ten years, but he did not return. They called him from there, but he did not want to go back. He said, "I feel very well here." They decided to take away his piglets and force him to return, but in spite of this misfortune, he did not want to return. They took his wife away, but he started looking for another wife and they did not succeed in persuading him. Finally, they decided to send him a fatal illness, which caused him to return back to heaven. When he awoke in heaven, he started to laugh at the life he had spent on earth. Many people today have the experience of this bourgeois, digging and solving different problems on earth. Different misfortunes come to bring people to their senses, but when they leave the form of the swine, they will understand what their state had been. What does the form of a swine mean? It is the extreme materialism existing today. What does it consist of? Namely, that the people get together and start talking about this and that, about the other world, the good in life; but at the same time they keep their geese, hens and wine, living luxuriously. When the poor listen to their talk, they say to themselves: these people talk all the time about the other world and live for God, but they know how to live in this world. And so the life of the rich with their materialism appeals to the poor who make it an ideal they aspire to attain. This ideal becomes the aim in the life of the poor and thereby the teaching of materialism is given rise to. The poor say, "We want to live like you." Since the rich people became the cause of the deviation of the poor from the right course, God will place them in the position of the poor so that they may correct their mistakes. Such is the Law. That is why Christ says, "I came, a Light in the world to explain and make things clear." There are no contradictions in nature; only those we ourselves create them. How? We cannot control and direct part of the matter God has given us and that is why we create evil. All sins have their origin in matter. Every sin has a form. Show me a sin that has no form. Some person is considered an egoist. What does their egoism consist in? They want to have houses, money, to dominate their wife/husband and so on. People say about some that these are greedy, misanthropic, etc. All sins have their material motives. When we smooth out all bad forms, all sin will vanish away. Therefore, bad forms create evil and that is why people are advised to create beautiful forms. When two scientists get together, they offer different theories about the sun, its conditions and so on. Other scientists begin to argue whose opinion is more truthful and divide as followers of the one or the other. Today all scientists argue about which of the science authorities have more following. Two priests argue which of them has more parishioners and so on. Christ and Moses cannot agree or come to terms in the world. Christ and Mohammed can come to no agreement on the earth either. There is no such a Moses, such a Mohammed or such a Christ. That Christ, Moses or Mohammed who cause division among the people, are not Servants of God. When a person is sent to bring some great Divine Idea, they have no right to enslave people, or look for their own benefits. Christ says, "I, the Spirit, bring this Light to the people who believe, i.e. who have purity." For instance, do you believe in what I am telling you? You will say that you have not verified it yet. But do you believe in Christ? For two thousand years on end people have been verifying Christ. As much as you believe in me, you believe in Christ. Did the Jews believe in Moses? Up till now I have not yet met a person in the world who believes in their Master completely. Those who say they believe in Christ, or in whoever it maybe, do not speak the real Truth. To believe in Christ does not mean to stand reverently in a church. It means to have the disposition Christ had in His Soul. I am not talking to you about religion, we have had enough of religions. We must live in a Divine Love, in the Divine Affection, in the Divine Spirit. Let the present religions remain for the bourgeoisie, for the people of the past; the Divine Life is necessary for the people of the future. Some think we are trying to lead people into new kind of delusions. Such a thought is far from me, there is Love in me which is a movement from up high downwards. I understand what affection is - a movement of the human soul from below upwards. I understand what the Divine Spirit - a Power which keeps everything in harmony. So long as you keep your present religious conceptions, we shall never be able to come to an agreement. Can you say like Christ, "I came, a Light into the world"? Can you be Light to yourself and your brothers? This is required of all of you, because you can all become in this sense saviours of the world. If you expect a single person to save the world, it will never be set right and order restored in it. We must all set about righting and ordering it; which can be achieved only when we maintain the Divine Order of things and strive not to break it. When someone asks me if I believe in Christ, I find this the most banal question for it is the same as if someone should ask me if I believe in the Light, in Love. I walk in the Light; what is the use of believing in it? Everyday I speak with God, how should I not believe in Him? Asking me such questions means that they want to take me down from my position and make me a demon, an antichrist, a bourgeois. I do not want to be a bourgeois or a proletarian as people understand them today. I am not speaking to you about the historic Christ, but about this Living Christ Who is in you and among you. Drive this wedge out of your mind - this thought that Christ is outside you. This Christ is the Spirit; and when you understand Him, you will see Him in every person. So long as you seek Christ only in a single person, you will never find Him. I have already asked you: if someone wants to make a study of you, will they be able to understand you only by a single hair of yours? If someone loves a person and takes only a hair from his head, can we say that all their love lies in that fact? This would be a whole idyll! I see how the religious people take a hair from Christ and look and look at it; then put it back in its place, not understanding anything. People do not take only hair, but also pieces of His cross and still the world is not set right. Why? Because people are occupied only with the physical aspect of Christ. Christ has said, "Whoever does the Will of my Father will live in Light." By this I do not have in view the personal life of people, but I want to clean the streams. I have decided to clean up the muddy water not because I hate it, but to give way to the pure water and to water the gardens where pepper, cabbages, carrots and other vegetables are planted. Muddy water is necessary for the gardens, while pure water is needed by the Pilgrims of Life returning to God. What an idea this is! When God created the world - without any nationalities - the world was happy; but today, ever since the old Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans, Greeks, Philistians came, happiness vanished from the earth. I am interested in modern science and life and in spite of all the contradictions I come across, I can still find many useful things. I stand in greater admiration before a barefoot child than before a rich, well-dressed one. This poor child is excellent, because you can talk with them. They are modest, while the well-dressed children have external forms, and are insincere, by which they want to show that they are not simple. I meet a drunkard who has drunk much and who excuses himself saying, "Excuse me, sir, I am an ass, I have taken a drop too much." I say to him, "You are not an ass, because the ass doesn’t drink; but you are a frank person for which I respect you." At times when a person drinks, they can become a bourgeois, because an industrious person never gets drunk. All drunkards are bourgeois. Now let us return to God and live without the religion of hatred, envy and avarice. By this, I do not want to say that religion must be cast out. Let the class struggle exist, because it is just as useful as those worms which cultivate the soil. The farmer says, "I plowed the field." No, it is not you who have ploughed it, but those worms that live deep in the earth. Thus, in the class struggle the proletarians and the bourgeoisie are the worms that have been working for a number of years and have oxidized the soil. After that, the Angels will come with their ploughs to sow this soil and say, "You have worked enough; we thank you, because you will have to eat and drink for thousands of years and you will all be brothers." The Christians say that in those blessed times they will be in Paradise; the Turks say they will have whole mountains of pilaf3 without coupons! However, Christ says, "I came, a Light of the world," and Light is the meaning of life: it is food for the mind, the soul and the heart. That is to be content in yourselves, nourished in life and have energy and desire for work in life. Now when you go back home, you will begin to philosophize, "Can a person live without religion?" When God created the world there was no religion. Religion appeared in the world when the devil came. Before that people lived in Love and every teaching which was not directed by Love was not recognized as Divine. In my opinion, religion is a sanatorium - a hospital for sick people. When a maiden is disappointed in life and when a lad looses his loved one, they become religious. Therefore all religious people are bankrupt bourgeois, while those who serve God out of Love are people without religion. Those who are in the hospital should better not leave it prematurely. Yet, if they nevertheless want to leave it, they must consult a doctor whether it is time for that, if their organism is functioning rightly. If the doctor allows them that; let them enter the broad path of Light where one can live without religion. "You are free," he must say, and sign a certificate for their freedom. The church at present is a hospital and the priests and ministers are the nurses and doctors there. Now the time has come for some of you to leave the hospital and I am at its door. Although I am a minister acknowledged by no one, a prophet without portfolio, I shall ask you, "Was your life in the hospital pleasant and did you learn your lesson there?" You will say, "Oh, those injections ruined us!" The doctor says, "A person who does not live in God will test our needles and live in the hospital." I say, "I do not carry any packing such as needles or knives and do not have any pharmacy or bag on me. You should breathe pure air, look up, not walk in darkness and let the sun shine on you that you may not go back to the hospital again. If you enter it a second time, your condition is dangerous and more complex. The doctor will appear again, use all scientific means, watch how your temperature is rising constantly and soon the sick person will go bankrupt and be carried out of the hospital. There is no life at such a high temperature so they will take the person to the autopsy room, open up their brain, stomach, bowels and find out the reason for their dismissal. Christ says that people can live without thermometers. Do not be troubled by the idea what is useful and what is not useful in life. Everything is useful, but we should stop thinking that life exists only at the hospital. The hospital, the church, the concert hall, the school are transitory things, but life implies something much more serious in itself. In real life there should not be any confusion, but constant work. In only three words I shall make a definition of what Christ talks about: torment, labor and work. Some student says, "I was tormented much until I entered high-school and labored much until I graduated." After passing through torment and labor one comes to work. This is the Teaching I am preaching to you now. I say to those who have been tormented to stop that and begin to labor; and to those who have been tormented and have labored, I say, "You need not be tormented and labor anymore. Come to me and I shall teach you how to work." These are the words of Christ in the quoted verse, "I, My Spirit, will come and teach you what to do." Now is the moment for those who have graduated from school to stop and show their certificate or diploma, because they were ignorant before that. Today all over the world people want a diploma, if you do not have one, you cannot become a teacher, a minister, a judge and so on. The future life will not be the life of the past. Christ says, "In the future there will be no need of certificates," and the present life will serve as a basis of the future one. New forms will be worked out and we know what these forms will be: Brotherhood with Love. Now, those who have not entered school and do not know the Light will be tormented and labor. Few are those who work - they are only some poets, artists and musicians. The main thing in work is not to have any confusion in your mind. Christ says, "I bring you the Divine Love. Enter it; manifest your affection and then the Spirit will come and enter you and you will understand the Inner Meaning of life". Talk of the Master held on May 4, 1919. 1 John 12:46 2 In Bulgarian the saying is: A person is wolf for the person. (ed. note) 3 23 pi.laf or pi.laff - n (Turk & Pers) a dish made of seasoned rice and often meat (ed. note)

Note 5 This Teaching Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. 2 John – 9,10 The above lines constitute the core of the appeal, the word transgresses1 has a double meaning. For example, the child starts walking and what a joy it is for the mother. She will go out to let the neighbours know that the child has made the first step. Do you understand why the mother is thrilled? Her child, so far moving on all fours like the animals, is already upright, i.e. walks, and this is joy for the mother. The Apostle says, "Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." I believe that many dare transgress, but there is a double transgression. When a person loses one’s temper, hatred comes into one’s soul and the person transgresses. Having transgressed like this, a person can no longer abide in the Teaching of Christ. The Teaching of Christ is Divine; it is a Teaching of the eternal Life, not of the human temporary life. Life can be divided into three categories: animal life, human life, and Divine life. Animal life is a life of continual suffering; human life – of continual labour, and Divine life is a life of continual Love or of Blessing. The human and the Divine principles keep changing in everybody’s soul. For example, you love somebody – a friend of yours, you give her gifts, you invite her home, you receive her well, but one day you say, "I already hate her." How can Love be transformed into hatred? This love is human, a love of consideration. And nowadays, all homes and all societies suffer from such love all the time. If you are rich or educated everybody receives you well when you join a society. Once they have taken what you have, they show you the door through which you came in. Although you have entered through this door so many times, you still haven’t learnt your lesson. When this Teaching is being talked about, you say, "It’s not relevant to me." Both the good and the bad sides of this teaching are relevant to you, because if you suffer, you suffer for your sake, and if you rejoice, you again do it for your own sake. Nobody can suffer or rejoice for you. In this respect everybody bears his or her cross. Many of you wish that somebody else would bear your suffering for you, therefore, you keep telling one person, another person, and then many people about it and you say that people do not understand you. Let’s assume that your ankle is sprained and you go to a neighbour of yours to put it into joint, but she, not knowing anything about this art twists it and she keeps twisting it and causes you much more suffering. So, you go to another neighbour of yours, but she can’t put it into place either and your pain gets even worse. Who is to blame for this – you or the woman who does not know how to set it? You are to blame, because you allow a person, who does not know anything, to play with your ankle. You have to place yourself into experienced hands. The Scripture reads, "Confess your sins to each other." I now give you another order, "Hide your sins from each other." If you confess your sins to each other, the way you allow your neighbours, who understand nothing, to deal with your ankle, they will twist them and nothing will come out of it. Therefore, confess your sins to the one who understands. Christ’s Teaching restores the Divine harmony or the lost virtues of the human soul. First of all, it has to make you pure in the heart. You will say, "Can a person live in this world and have a pure heart?" Yes, it is possible. When one stays in water, one can always be clean. The second thing, which Christ’s teaching can do for you, is that your soul will be a virgin soul. What does this virginity mean? Farmers call virgin soil such soil that is rich in juices, while soil poor in juices is not virgin soil. Hence, if your soul can deliver something good, something supreme, it is virgin soul. If it cannot deliver such things, it is not virgin soul. John says, "Let’s try this teaching." Abiding is similar to a human being staying in fresh air, living in it, and breathing it in. When we enter Christ’s teaching, when it settles in our souls, it will inevitably produce a certain relief in our souls; we will feel a special Purity within. So, purification will come with the very Teaching itself. Contemporary advanced physicists have big disks to clean themselves. When some of them make experiments and cannot clean themselves easily, they get into those disks, switch on the electricity and in five minutes they are clean. Christ’s Teaching is this Divine electricity and by letting it into your souls, it will generate this Purity. It reads, "He that abides…" If many of you fail to succeed or progress, they transgress something, but the way little children do. When we transgress a certain Divine order, we immediately lose our temper and equilibrium. This Teaching has to exist in this world so that we can live peacefully, because it is food for the soul. Just like we have to receive food everyday and to transform it into strength, in the same way Christ’s Teaching has to be transformed into a constant strength. I notice that many of you rather than becoming peaceful and humble become nervous and touchy. This is a painful situation. There is another mistake with you as well: you think that you have learnt a lot and because of this each one of you judges the others at large. Many of you wait for some strength, some revelation, to come to them out of the blue so that they can show the world that God is with them. God has been with you for thousands of years, so you do not have to show the world that God is with you. The world needs the Sun, just like our Sun, to deliver food to the world. You think that by lighting a candle you will enlighten the world. No, other people will light a bigger candle and yours will be left in the background. You have to apply Christ’s Teaching for your souls’ sake. When I tell you a certain truth, I see you – you turn your heads to the others and think that these words refer to them. I exclude nobody; I speak to everybody. Evil is evil, even if clad in golden garments. Nobody can love a person who has leprosy. The soul is the one that tunes the body. When your soul is pure, when Christ’s Teaching is in it, your body will be healthy and you will forbear everything with ease, you will gladly endure even the greatest sufferings. Do not forget that our earthly life is not a bed of roses. Pay attention to how little children fish in the river; they take a small fishing rod, place a small worm onto it and swing it into the waters, and the fish eats the worm and gets hooked. It often happens that you too get hooked and the devil takes you out; swallowing the bait, you believe you walk along the Path. The first thing that you face is to cut the line and then call the doctor to take the hook out of your throat. I can see many such hooks in you, left from the past. How many bullets are left in soldiers? Doctors say that these will come out little by little, but when the weather deteriorates, pain is sure to show up. Christ’s Teaching is a Teaching of the Divine and eternal Love. So, if a person can love you ten times a day and can hate you ten times a day, do not trust that person’s teaching and do not let such a person into your home. Love is the one that has the Eternal Life. If you have this Life within you, you will understand the Divine secrets. I want you to lay these two principles in your life, because they are identical: the one who transgresses does not deliver. A woman, who cannot weave, should not be allowed to sit at your loom – she will spoil the cloth. A servant, who cannot cook, should not be let into the kitchen. A person who has not studied should not be allowed to teach your children. Do not let leprous people in, because leprosy will penetrate your souls. Nothing impure should enter Heaven, as Heaven is your soul. Now you are ruled by this principle: you are like idle students and you want your teacher to be lenient. This cannot happen. Consider architects, who have completed their studies; the teachers, who taught them, were always lenient to them. What is the use of this? You meet such an architect and you ask the architect to make a plan for you. It will be a plan like the plan of that person, who ten years ago constructed a building in Varna, and one of the walls collapsed shortly thereafter. What would have happened to the clerks if they were in? Hence, everybody, who graduates thanks to leniency, will create a false teaching and one’s thoughts and desires will be buried underneath. I am not saying that you are not on the Path, or that you haven't started seeking the Truth. However, when students do mathematical problems they know whether the problem is properly set or not. Many times the correct answer is marked to check against. Students, who do not understand their job, want their answers to be by the book, but gifted students say, "The answer, given in the book, to this problem, is not correct." Therefore, you have to correct the answers in the books and to do your mathematical problems in consistency with all the rules. The process you will pass through will be useful to you. Christ’s Teaching is alive and Apostle Paul says, ‘Christ is come in the flesh is of God.’2 How do you imagine Christ? Apostle Paul says, ‘yet now henceforth know we Christ no more’3. How then do we know Him? So, there are ways to know, to feel Christ. When we say that we can recognise Christ, I understand that Light can be recognised only by seeing, but not by touching, nor by smelling, nor by hearing. How do we recognize Wisdom? By hearing. So, listening is thinking. How can we recognise Love? By the tongue. Taste it and you will recognise it. The tongue contains two elements in itself: it imparts the greatest blessing in the world and wise speech comes out of it. Sweet nice words are the fruit of Love. Therefore, if you have understood Love, your souls will be the fruit. Each spoken word in Love is powerful. Sometimes your words are weak. Why? Because you have no Love within. Sometimes you say, "Let’s love each other!" This is as if we say that it’s time to eat and we talk about chicken and lamb but there is nothing on the table. These are words in vain. Let’s assume that I have served at your table chicken and turkey, either painted or made of gypsum, but poured with delicious sauce. Will they [dishes - chicken and turkey] be of any good to you? Is this what you call teaching? No, it isn’t. And you, who listen to me, have been and are still walking along this path. You say, "Let’s love each other!" So far, I have not noticed Love among you. I have been working with you for so many years, but I could not make a single rope out of your love, so that I can pull someone out. And God says, ‘I attracted you with the threads of my Love.’ What we call attraction or gravitation is a very thin thread. The whole Earth is sustained by such a thin thread; each soul is sustained by such a thin thread. If this thread breaks you will fall away from God. If you adhere to God, you will be joined by this thread and shall be in a centre, around which you can move. This is what the Teaching of Divine Love implies. I can check how many of you have this Love. Some say, "I am utterly offended." Why? "Because I was not welcomed properly." I ask you whether you welcomed God, Christ, as you should. This is not meant as a reproach, just a question about human development. Because, if we want the food we receive, to create our new body, it should run uninterrupted and continual. Divine Love is also continual and as soon as it runs dry the whole river within us will run dry. Divine Love never runs dry, while the human one runs dry every six months. As soon as love runs dry, the river-bed also runs dry, but at times there are great floods and waters get turbulent. When your soul is churned, your guiding spirit shows you that you reside in human love, not in Divine Love. If you do not love anybody, this indicates that the devil lives in you. The devil also has its love. When Love in you alternates with hatred, this is a sheer imitation of love and such love is called love of death, due to which everybody dies nowadays. I shall give you an example of such love: in Varna, a young gentleman, a rich shopkeeper, decided to get married. He found one young woman he liked and married her. Soon after the marriage, he fell seriously ill. Ill of what? Ill of his wife. He left for Europe to get treatment and after four-five years, he was saved. Therefore, if a certain teaching, with which you may come in touch, generates such a condition within you, you have to reject it. Place Christ or the visible God in you and say, "God’s Love does not change!" If you keep thinking like this, you will not say that you are sinful, because there is no creature that has been denied access to Divine Love. You cannot enter Divine Love and enjoy it, without knowing it. When you enter Divine Love, you will swim and everyone who cannot swim will drown. Some say, "When I enter Divine Love, I will drink only half a litre of water, so that I won't drown." All right, but there are millions, upon millions of litres of water there. This is why everybody will clutch at Divine Love, so that everybody can swim. What does swimming mean? When you walk on the earth you argue that you want to be in touch with God, but are you? You are lagging behind. When you are in the water, you will be immersed in it. Such is the law of swimming. The same law rules Divine Love too, but in it you will be on the surface. A person struck by lightning, places his face to the ground, so that the earth can draw out the electricity, which has entered the person. Similarly, when you are struck by spite you have to quickly fall down on your face! This is what it means to be immersed in this Divine Love, so that it can enter into you, so that it can touch the matter and penetrate inside you. John says, "Father and Son." Father is the one we came from, while the Son is the visible Love. The Love I talk about, is not something ephemeral, is not just a pleasant mood, but constant warmth. This you can check and verify. If, in half an hour, you experience a change to the opposite, this is human love. Sometimes your face becomes light and you say, "I’m close to Christ!" On the following day, however, you are in a different mood. These are phases of human love, which warm on one side and cool on the other. As soon as you enter animal love, you will feel a thirst for revenge. Subsequently the love of the devil is in this - the devil takes delight in revenge. Divine Love harmonises the two conditions of animal and human love, takes out their juices and places these into agreement. This Teaching is necessary for your personal life. You believe in Christ, you go to church, you light candles, you meet various people, and all the time you seek Christ. You tell yourselves, "When we die, we shall see Christ." Well, you can die now and still carry on living. Death is when we are dead for spite, not freeing ourselves from our physical body. Some say that death is prison. No, our shortcomings are prison. If you have big debts, your house will be sold, but you will still be liable and deductions will be made from your salary. So even if you leave your body, your creditors will get hold of you at your second or third salary, until complete repayment. What do you have to do? The only salvation is Christ’s Teaching – to enter Divine Love and everybody who loves God will help you. Problems are assigned to be solved at each school; God also assigns problems to solve – to every home. The problem may be your husband or wife, your children, your friends etc. I also often solve problems; you are my problem to solve. Many times, I have thought about why you quarrel among each other. By quarrelling you destroy what I build, you pick the flowers I plant. How will the advanced souls receive you when you go to them in Heaven? Imagine you are among students who can play an instrument, but you cannot. How will these students receive you? They will treat you as a listener. If you can play, they will receive you as one of them. The same principle is valid in Christian life. Some want me to make them perfect, to give them digested knowledge, to make them wise. No, there is no such teaching. The Teaching I preach is a Teaching of Love, of perseverance, of self-denial, and so on. You will study all the subjects on your own; you will study Bulgarian literature and other subjects. You say that Bulgarian writers are stupid. If I explain to you what, for example, Pencho Slaveikov4 wrote, you will see that he stands much higher than us, but if he comes here, you will leave him outside. You do not read and you believe that if you take and read one of my lectures, you will remember every thought and you will be able to repeat it later on. No, this is not yours; this is a reproduction – just like a gramophone playing. You have to sing and play, i.e. what I give you has to enter your minds, to be transformed into thoughts and feelings, to enter the Divine world and to bear fruit. This is the Teaching that Christ preached. He now helps us at this school. Sometimes you struggle, you suffer, but all of a sudden a bright thought comes to mind and you resolve the issue. This shows that you are being helped. Some days ago a man came to visit me who told me, "Somebody offended me, but since I started on the Path I did not want to treat him in the same way and I tried to find two such words which are smooth externally, but so loaded with meaning, that he would never forget them. So I decided to tell him nothing, not to give him the bitter pill…" You all administer such pills in Sofia society, but I would like you to take this gentleman as an example. This is the way to apply Christ’s Teaching. Love is actually what endures the offences. Two offences do not make one virtue. When God forgives us, he wants us to admit that we have offended Him. But when we reach a situation where we are aware of all this and when we start crying and grieving, God does send angels to help us. As Easter is approaching, give up these two words which are smooth externally, but bring no peace internally, but instead place the following words in you, "Father and Son". If you want to do something bad, ask yourself, "What will Father, who is up there in Heaven, say, when he sees me like this?" Or "What will my older brother say – the Son?" The bad desire will immediately be paralysed and the opposite action will come. This is the way to renew ourselves. Now big suffering is coming to the world, to purify it. You will say, "What does God think of us? What does Christ think?" Knowing what God thinks of us, we shall learn what Christ thinks of us. Because if we do not understand what God thinks of us, we shall not understand what other people think. Love will enter us only after having gone hungry for three or four days. You come back tired, exhausted from work, and I start preaching to you that God is Love. What will you make out of this Love, when you are hungry? After I wash and feed you, you will feel Love. This is Christ’s Teaching. Someone offends you – there is a chance for you to appear before God and to say, "Pray, God, transform this offence, this insult, into Love!" Sometimes you feel Peace in your soul after someone offended you and you say, "I was offended, but I have forgiven." Unexpectedly, however, in a year or two you remember the same offence. If three years after the offence, you are not concerned, then the fever is gone. You may be sure that when the Divine Teaching comes, there will be no offences in the world. This is why old Christians were cheerful when they were chased and prosecuted. A human being that walks in Divine Love accepts insults as a wreath. Make sure you do not restrict your Father and pay no attention to what I think of you, but to what God thinks of you. He says that your windows are closed, there is not enough light and although he sends so much food to you, you are still hungry and sick. Now, try to learn to transgress as little children, not to transgress Christ’s Teaching. If there is a hard issue to tackle, call to your Father and say, "Father, as you sent Christ to the Earth, let it be the way you said!" You have to set for yourselves the following motto, "We shall fulfil your will the way you want us to!" You will say, "We make a promise, because it is difficult to fulfil God’s Will." Once you allow such a doubt to enter your mind remember that it is from the devil. God’s Will has to be fulfilled for God’s sake, not for the world’s sake. What does God want? He wants you to fulfil what you have promised. This is what Christ wants. Christ, who is the world, is in the flesh, which does not die. What dies is human. You can know your friends in two ways. A friend, who only praises you or only shows your mistakes to you, is not a true friend. A friend, who at the same time shows your mistakes to you and praises you, is a true friend. The latter on seeing that you have a stain, takes the brush and cleans you, and you, in turn, thank him or her. Such a friend shows you the mistakes with this brush. You only clean the dust with the brush. The brush will be out of place if you apply it to your face. You have such toilet brushes to powder your face. Not that I am against powdering, neither am I against repairing your houses, but I say that you should never run the brush across your face, even if the powder is of superior quality. There is no better powder than Christ’s Teaching; I have never come across a better brush than this Teaching. This is why I recommend it to you! I tell you that when you apply Christ’s powder and Christ’s brush, you will look absolutely different. Living like this, Christ’s Teaching will bring you in harmony with Nature and you will be able to draw on its energy. Every morning, when you pronounce "Father and Son" you will be charged with a lot of energy. If you go out with doubts, you will hardly be able to cover your expenses. So, if we understand these two words, we shall be at one with the entirety of Nature and shall be in harmony with it. There is the question: which one comes first – teaching or birth? Birth. Consider if someone was not born of Divine Spirit, then what could this person learn. Some say, "I can’t understand this stuff. I have no impulse." How can you understand it; keeping in mind that first you have to be born, then the Divine must come into you and only then you will start understanding the simple things. The most basic principle of all is to be able to change your condition. If you are able to change your condition within five to ten minutes after somebody has offended you, then you have mastered this science. For example, a dog has bitten you: it’s an art to anoint the wound with such a cure that no scar remains. Christ’s Teaching cures any infirmities. I shall now tell you something concerning the hours. Someone asked if the time to get up is at five sharp. When you feel a great impulse to pray, you should know that it is five sharp, i.e. the hour of your mind. When you feel great grief, it is four o’clock. When you have messed up all your things, it is six o’clock. When you are hard hit by great misfortunes, it is seven o’clock. Some ask when to pray Do it when you have the impulse. Some say, "This impulse will visit me some other time." No, once you miss it, it won’t come again. Sometimes the Spirit tells you, "Get up and pray!" You say, "It’s not five o’clock yet." No, you should get up because the Spirit tells you it’s five o’clock! So, if you take two hours out of your time, you will be left with five hours. You may say that it is too early. Why? Because you went to bed late. Go to bed early – like the birds. You say, "I can’t go out early in the morning because I have not organised my work." Go out without having organised your work! If there is an earthquake while you are doing your morning toilet, are you going to finish your toilet before running away? When God calls you, you are not supposed to finish your toilet; it will be finished elsewhere. Nowadays, all of our external toilets will be pulled down and a real internal toilet will come instead, suited to your soul. God says, "I shall give you new garments." These new garments will be hygienic, warm, and pleasant and you will be delighted and fit for any work. Esotericism calls these garments magnetic. All diseases today are nothing but holes in these Divine garments. Your ear aches – there is a hole in the garment. You have pains in your leg – there is a hole in the garment etc. These garments cannot be mended with patches, you will turn to God and He will send to you masters to renew the garments, because they are skilled at this art. I now notice a sort of embarrassment among you. You should not be embarrassed; you should take an impartial viewpoint. You have solved a certain problem in the wrong way – you will have to start solving it again from the beginning. But you will say that you make no mistakes. You do, everybody can make a mistake, and even educated people also make mistakes. When you go back to do the problem again you will understand what you have missed. Your overall life is not bad, but you have made mistakes. Small mistakes are worse than big ones, as they are difficult to see. You need to harmonise your temperaments and I have decided to split you in groups according to your temperaments. Two nervous people when placed together cannot get along well, therefore, the one has to be hotter and the other one colder, so that they can pour into each other. Two busy-bodies cannot live together as they would kick each other, just like horses. All those who bite, who gossip, all of them are busy-bodies. Therefore, when you meet, ask each other "Are you a busy-body?" –If the answer is "Yes, I am," then you need to look for somebody else. A person of no mercy has a head like a shelter. In the future, education at school should be consistent with the principles of phrenology. Now when I talk to you, you kick each other, because you are not properly placed. Your currents are not identical. You have to be at a metre’s distance from one another, but now out of necessity, you stay as if in prison and you think, "I need trouble, because a trouble-less life is more trouble." If somebody grips your hand tight, when shaking hands with you, you will be displeased, but if you love this person, you do not mind. This shows that your thoughts are different. I do not mind shaking hands, but too much shaking hands is no good. But if you decide not to shake hands, this is even worse. Poor people must have somebody to work for so that they can become rich. Someone may say one is stupid, but such a person does not tell the truth, because if somebody else says so about the first person, the first person will be angry. You have no right to say that God made you stupid. God made us all smart, but later on, when we studied at the devil’s school, we became stupid. I would like you to follow good examples. Some of you have very good features, and I do not mean the artificial ones, but the ones given to you by God. Some style their hair as a big bun, some make their faces paler, but all of this is artificial, and this is taken away. The artificial additions are useful, but not substantial. So, virtues cannot be artificial, therefore, try to see only the good aspects in each sister. Christ’s law is as follows: never think that your sister is hypocritical or bad. Go to the mineral kingdom, take a crystal and examine it; then go to the plant kingdom and examine one wheat grain; then move on to the animal kingdom and finally you come to the human beings, you will see that human beings have virtues that are not to be found in the minerals, plants, or animals. This indicates that God lives in human beings. This is the reason why some of you stumble. If you think that one or another of you is still callow, you won’t be able to develop. If you allow a mistake within you, you will impede yourselves just like a small particle of dust in the eye impedes your sight. Now if I ask one of you to come in front and talk to you for about five to six minutes, you will not be able to put up with her. You will say, "Is she the only one experienced? We are also experienced!" Remember that there are no two people who have the same experience. Some exaggerate their experience a little. For example, a woman saw an old man in white clothes and a white hat, and she says, "I saw God!" Did this old man tell you that he was God? "No, he did not, but I presume that this was Him." You see a young man, you like him and you say, "This is the one for me." The young man, however, passes by and does not come back. This is what understanding the Truth means, the Truth, which is preached to us, to learn to speak the Truth without going too far. Some people, in order to show that they are very modest, take on sins they have never committed; while others deny sins they have committed. Both methods are wrong. Everything must be accurately rendered in Christ’s Teaching. The closer you are to the essence of the issue, the closer you are to this Teaching. I talk about the way in which you can correct your hearts, minds, and souls. I tell you that you, being servants, do not perform your services on time, you are a little late, and afterwards you offer false excuses. Speak the Truth as it is! This is the only way God can teach you and other people can support you in your thoughts and endeavours. Every book you read will be of significance to you. Some say, "Let’s only read the Bible." All right, let’s assume that you have investigated the Bible and you feel like reading another book; read it, do not think it is from the devil. Read every book from which you can learn a lesson. This is what abiding in Divine Love means, which is eternal and which brings all goods. It brings juices for the nose, and for the mouth, and for the eyes, and for the heart. If you have these juices, you will be immortal. Immortality is required to find eternal happiness. We can be happy on Earth too. You think you are unhappy. Why? Because God did not love you. If you say so, then these are your karmic sins. Therefore, come out of your cellars and take the words of Father and Son to heart. People with ideas need to struggle, but we Christians are pusillanimous people. Now if you are chased for a while you will start doubting whether this Teaching is righteous or not. Well, which teaching is righteous? You will ask yourselves whether this food is real or not. Eating or not eating from this food you will die all the same; the only difference is that those who have eaten more shall have more experience and knowledge. What is important is not to think evil of others. This is what I want from you. Your bad thoughts affect me very much. Do not make me throw up, because it will splash all of you. Speaking about Christ’s Teaching and saying that it will save you, I mean all of your hardships, I do not want you to become saints. To one of you I give the simplest of tasks – to add one plus two; to another one – to add three plus four. By adding one plus two you will receive three. The number three shows that you, being one, will die, and your children will remain to live off you. Mothers die, children grow younger, i.e. the juices of the number three will penetrate into your children. You say, "We will die then." Yes, but when you come back for a second time, the children will die and you will live. Death implies self-sacrifice. You should all look upon each other the way mothers look upon their children. Christ’s Teaching is a method of how not to get soiled. I shall recommend something else to you: when a sister of yours is in grief, in trouble, let five or six sisters go and visit her at her home and let them pray that things get better. If someone is sick, you will get together at his or her home and you will pray, even if that person may be at odds with some of you. You will say, "God, we decided to work the way you want us to, this is why we gathered together, to learn how to live!" This is how I want you to see Easter. Your hearts should be wide, don’t be narrow-minded. Divine Love is infinite. When you say that somebody is bad, you should understand that this person is the door through which evil and all impurities will pass. When you see that your husband is in low spirits, you should be aware that he throws rubbish out. On the following day, when you throw your rubbish out, your husband should thank God. Today you are happy, when it is not you throwing rubbish out and your hands are clean, but your houses are not. I speak to you today so that every evil, every malice, every doubt can die. Apply these practical rules and do not disclose the results, only keep getting stronger until you see the fruit. However, the Christians of nowadays only show off… You will now dwell on line nine and ten of this chapter and upon the words Father and Son. Master’s lecture, delivered on 17 April 1919 (Good Thursday). 1 In English the double meaning can be found in the origin of the word - From Latin - from gradi to step i.e. trans+gredi = to step beyond or across 2 1 John 4:2 3 2 Corinthians 5:16 4 Pencho Slaveikov is a poet – two years older than the Master Petеr Deunov, who died 7 years before this lecture was delivered Source

Note 5 Introduction to Love Ephesians: 4. I will give you the following example as an introduction to this lecture: imagine that there is a caravan of carts in the street and each one of you is driving a cart. Some carts travel smoothly, noiselessly, while others creak and make a lot of noise. What do you have to do for the carts not to make so much noise? You will take the tar-can, dip the feather in and lubricate the axle of the wheels, so it won't creak any longer. Creaking is the suffering in your life. In the same way, you should lubricate your heart, when it creaks, with tar. You should study Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians in relation with the proverbs. Each one of you should dwell on the most significant paragraphs of this epistle – the ones that constitute the core of it. This is a necessary introduction; therefore, keep this in mind all the time. Remember that every suffering is an introduction, a gateway to Love. Some ask, "Why do I suffer, why do I have difficulties?" This is my answer: because your book is being written, an introduction to Love is being composed. By this introduction, I want to make a point to you not to deceive yourselves by thinking you are very knowledgeable. Those who believe they know a lot, they grow old fast. The best thing to do, so that you do not grow old, is to think that you have a lot to learn. The same can be noticed with children: they are eager to learn a lot. You should never say that this becomes the young but not you – the old, because the thought that you are old will stay with you and you will actually become old. You won’t even notice how soon it will be before you are stooped over, you will look like a question mark and everybody will say that you are old. Bear in mind that youth is the gateway to God’s Kingdom. You need a new introduction in order to enter God’s Kingdom – to become young. I shall move on to explain Chapter four: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all wise lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (4: 1-3) Prisoner means a person who is called to God’s School. Paul says, "I, who was called to God’s School, pray you to study as I did, namely – with all the wise lowliness, meekness and longstanding forbearance, forbearing the others with Love." When you are in class somebody might nip you, might give you a nudge, but you tell yourselves, "It’s all right. This is a small room, Love will forbear!" Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace means to endeavour to establish links between the lessons, so that you will have that internal connection, which the Spirit, i.e. the Master has planted. With these words Paul says, "I listened to this Master with great attention." The epistle reads further on: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.” (4: 4) With this Paul says, "I subjected my body to the Spirit, by serving Him in hope." “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in us all.” (4: 5, 6) In these lines Paul says, "I did this, because I listened to the Lord and performed the thoughts of This one Lord, Who spoke to me about one faith – faith in respect of the mind." One baptism means to perform, to forbear all grief and hardships in gratefulness. Dipping into the cauldron is no baptism; baptism is a test one has to pass. Paul says, "Every time when the Master tested me, I delivered Good, i.e. I gave good answers, because I studied my lessons well." One God is understood to be the place, the conditions given to Paul by God, because Paul says, "In one God we live and move." i.e. we study in the same school. “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” (4: 7) In this line Paul says, "I used the grace of God." Grace is when in time of need, more superior spirits, called angels, descend to elate you, to help you, to enlighten you on a particular issue. This enlightenment can take various forms. It can reach you through a dream – by suggesting a particular thought when you sleep, and when you get up in the morning, you will feel it absolutely distinctively. Help does not always come in the form of speech. There are three ways to speak: speaking from the outside, speaking from the inside, and speaking from above, i.e. speaking to the body, speaking to the heart, and speaking to the mind. Somebody says, "Let’s start eating, lunch is ready!" – This is speaking to the body. I say, "Let’s love one another."’ – This is speaking to the heart. This second mode of speaking is not understood so directly as the invitation to eat, because you have certain experience in the latter. Consider how you will understand love. When I tell you, "Let’s get to know Christ!" – This is already speaking to the mind. How can we get to know Christ? Think about love and knowing Christ. Please, explain to me, being Bulgarians, how you love and how you know Christ. I know how we do it at home, but I want to know how you do it in Bulgaria. “Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.” (4: 8-10) Christ, when He was on the Earth, filled everything and said, "I conquered the world." The other victory – over the flesh – He left for you. There are three things, which impede Life, namely: flesh, the world, and the devil. The most dangerous enemy of all is the flesh. It is the bond between human beings and the world, and the world is the bond between the flesh and the devil. Christ, when he conquered the world, broke the connecting link between the flesh and the devil. You have a daughter, who is in correspondence with her lover, but, as her mother, you break this telegraph and the correspondence is over. Thus Christ severed the bond between the flesh and the devil and it has no place within you any longer, except if you invite the devil. Paul says, "I walked this path and there our struggle was big." All Heavens is understood as the manifestation of God in the complete human life. “And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (4: 11, 12) Please note that all these are given in order for the saints to reach perfection. Who are the Apostles? These are the ones to whom Christ speaks. Prophets are those to whom the Spirit speaks. Evangelists come after the prophets, and after them – the pastors and the teachers. Find what corresponds, within you, to apostleship. Consider this line, what apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, pastorship, and teaching can be compared to? The word prophet was in use even before Christ. Find the relation between prophets, evangelist etc. One has to develop one’s gift for apostleship. Apostle is such a person who is spoken to from outside. Prophet is such a person who is spoken to from within. Evangelist is such a person who has tried things. When you eat an apple, you will do as the evangelists and you will say, "It is sweet." Who is a pastor? The mother, who breast-feeds the child, is the pastor, the shepherd who grazes the sheep, the teacher who imparts knowledge. “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (4: 13) The Apostles went with Christ, listened to Him, and interpreted His Teaching. The Spirit worked with them. They were twelve in number. The prophets continued the work of the Apostles and out-numbered them. Evangelists were even more in number, while pastors and teachers – were the biggest in number. Find out how many prophets there were. There must be at least one prophet in every church. There must be at least one prophet in the smallest community. There must be at least ten evangelists to each prophet. This is the order of increasing, so gifts increase in the same manner. The gifts in human beings correspond to the prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers and all of them should be developed. Each one can be a prophet for oneself. Any perspicacious person, who can foresee things from far off, is a prophet. Such a person has been to school, has graduated, and starts applying the acquired knowledge, to make calculations and finally to predict that a certain comet in that many years will come back. When this prediction comes true, he is said to be a prophet. All these gifts are given to us in order to get to know the Son of God, until we reach the state of the perfect human being into the measure of age, of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Another line reads that we have the mind of Christ. By this Paul means the bond between the Divine soul and body. Saying that the Spirit will teach you, Christ places the Spirit higher than the soul. In certain aspects, the soul is placed between the Spirit and the body. Paul says, "In order to have the Spirit of Christ, you have to have this bond between the Spirit and the body." “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (4; 14) One can see from this paragraph that we should not be children in the world. Can your child go to Vitosha on a stormy night? It takes an adult to cross the mountains on a night like this. This is why Paul says, "I was not a child." I know that Bulgarians have a strong sense of inquisitiveness. Fifty years ago, a gypsy appeared in the region of Varna1 with a big snail, and she read the future by this snail. She became very famous for fortune telling and people from the whole region started visiting her. She made lots of money, became rich, and was subsequently assaulted and robbed by vagabonds one night. She could tell everybody else’s future but could not foresee that she would be robbed. Everybody likes to hear his or her fortune being told, but this is just for leisure. The future is usually read in a coffee cup, by cards, by the way a rooster crows and which direction it faces, by the donkey’s bray etc. One, starting on the road, also has one’s own divinations; for example, if one encounters an empty cart or a priest, one finds this disconcerting. These things have been implanted within you for thousands of years, only you have lost the key how to read them and therefore you are disconcerted. Why should you be concerned that you have encountered an empty cart or that a cat crossed your path?2 What do you have to do? You have to know the time when the cat will not cross your path, when the cat is not out. “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, Who is the head, Christ.” (4; 15) Paul means the purely spiritual Love, which does not change, which has no love-hatred poles. In the Spiritual world Love is manifested only by attraction. While you know the love, which contains attraction and repulsion: you meet somebody, you attract him, but soon you have had enough and you repel him. This happens to young and old alike. A lad first loves a girl, and then he repels her. This is the law of the Earth. When two creatures unite on the Earth, they will invariably kick each other. Kicking is inevitable. Let’s assume that you are lying in a single bed. Let’s assume that due to lack of space, your beloved will be on top of you. You will endure him for half an hour, but not longer, he will feel heavy and you will start kicking. There are no conditions for love on the Earth. When you love someone you have to keep that person at half a metre distance. In love usually the one carries or the other is on one’s back. The saying is, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’3 and it means to keep your neighbours at half a metre distance. If you love them more than you love yourselves, you will carry them on your back. A story from “Halima”: a gentleman was crossing the river and saw an old man at the river bank who could not cross the river. The gentleman picked the old man up and put him on his back and thus they crossed the river. When the old man had to get off the gentleman’s back, he did not want to and the other man had to carry him for one, two, three, and more days on his back. At one point, it dawned on him to take out his bottle of wine and have a drink, intending to get the old man drunk. He was sipping from the wine while the old man clutched at his throat – he also wanted some wine. The gentleman kept giving wine to the old man until at last the old man got drunk. He then climbed down from the young man’s back and the two of them started dancing. So, when the beloved one does not let go of you, give him a little drink and then both of you will dance together. Today you suffer all the time because of love. I call people on the Earth unhappy people because of love. All people suffer from love, and then they complain that nobody loves them. My recommendation on how to reduce the suffering in the world is to have less love. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.” (4: 17) You think you are very learned. The learned person is healthy, has no abscesses, experiences no pains, and is rich. Pagans spoke many languages and did not understand one another. People, who do not understand one another, speak many languages. Some speak the language of the stomach, others – of the heart, still others – of the mind. If I tell you to get to know Christ in His fullness, you will tell me, "Do you have vouchers? Do you have sugar?" This is different from knowing Christ. Some say, "When we get to know Christ, there will be more food." If we get to know Christ in order that He gives us more food, this is a complete misunderstanding of the issue. Food is necessary only as long as you have a cart. Hence, if you have a cart, you will need a tar-can. If you dispose of the cart, you will no longer need any tar-cans. You will be left only with the horse; therefore, you will take food for you and the horse in the bag. When you reach a very steep place you will leave the horse, leave the bag with the horse’s food, and will take only your bag. Human beings need three tar-cans: for the cart, for the horse, and for oneself. You have a husband - so you will keep a tar-can for him. You may not want it, but those who are bonded should remain bonded. You have children – you will keep a tar-can for them. Think about the attitude of children to their parents, of the husband to the wife and vice versa. Why do men seek women and women seek men? You will write an essay on this topic to exercise yourselves. “Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.” (4: 18) I interpret this thought back to front: when the heart is hardened, there is less work to do, and when there is less work to do, the mind is darkened. Hardened hearts bear no fruit. You will eat less, by eating less you will make your mind hardened. The word heart refers to the soil. The body has to invariably be healthy. The heart stands for the conditions, for life, i.e. what is produced by the heart, while understanding stands for the fruit of the internal process. “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (4: 19) Paul says that Purity is necessary inside Life. When the heart and the stomach are hardened, there is a sort of decay, a sort of stinking, going on inside. This is why they should not be hardened. “But ye have not so learned Christ.” (4: 20) Christ’s Teaching is a Teaching of Life, it is about understanding the main principles, but not the way they are in Heaven, but the way they act on earth. If you know Christ, when you lose your temper, when you are dissatisfied with something, you should immediately polarize yourselves and get into the state of composure. If the surface of the sea is agitated, this does not mean the deep waters are also agitated. When we get to know Christ, we will have this Strength not to get agitated and will be able to command ourselves. You want to command Forces, which are in Nature. No, command the Forces within you. You cannot command things until you learn the language of each thing. You can’t understand an animal before you learn this animal’s language. When you say gee to the horse, the horse starts going. We have to learn the language of these live Forces within us, so that when we tell our heart to be quiet, it should keep quiet, and when we tell our mind to stay put, it should listen to you. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (4: 22-24) The old man means all the deceitful habits, thoughts, and desires, which were planted in us in the past and which now manifest themselves. These old habits represent the old clothes, which have holes and the wind penetrates through them. The old man is torn, while the new one is intact - having no holes. The Spirit is the connecting Force for the mind. To be renewed means that you should lubricate yourselves a little every day. The Spirit is a Force, which transforms work into fuel, and the mind uses it. And the new man should be created after God in Righteousness, Holiness, and Truth; in Righteousness – in respect of the body, in Holiness – in respect of the soul, in Truth – in respect of the mind. Therefore, repudiate the lies, which are a feature of the mind, a shortcoming of the mind; you should always tell only the truth to the people close to you. All disputes between people close to one another result from lies, because we deceive each other. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” (4: 25) Do not fool yourselves! Do not mislead your stomach either. Often in America when people are hungry, in order to suppress their hunger, they eat ice cream or drink coffee. Do not deceive your stomach with coffee, tea or anything else. This will not make your cart go. You have to send something substantial to your stomach. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.” (4: 26, 27) Anger is another shortcoming; it is a feature of the heart. You heart should not burn, because this is dangerous. Do not make room for the devil that lives in your body. Do not allow the devil to take root. “Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (4: 28) “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (4: 30-32) Your work this month will be to find the main, fundamental ideas, which Paul imparted in this epistle. You will find the ideas that refer to the body, the soul, and the spirit. Try to find a method through which you can apply this Teaching in your lives. The subject is vast, therefore, it will be enough if you apply it partly at least. Do not think that I want you to become learned overnight. What is important is to understand the exercise at a certain moment. Find the link between the epistle to the Ephesians, and the proverbs. The second thing that you will observe is to curb your tongue, not to talk a lot. Consider in advance what you are going to say. You are excited – do not talk! Say only the most substantial things, let your tongue and speech be under control. So that there is no creaking of the cart, no horse tripping over its feet, and the master, driving the cart, should not feel dizzy. The third exercise, which you will do at least once a day, is as follows: you will sit comfortably in a chair, or you will be standing on your feet, you will open the window, you will leave, for the time being, your backpack, so that you can be in good humour, you will close your right nostril and you will inhale with your left nostril until you will count up to ten. Afterwards, you will close your left nostril too and with both nostrils closed you will keep the air in your lungs until you again count up to ten. Then you will open your right nostril and will let the air out again counting to ten. After this, you will close your left nostril, and you will inhale with your right nostril in the same way, as in the beginning. You have to do this exercise ten times in sequence or two series of five times, whereby you will inhale alternately with the left and with the right nostril. Before you start doing this exercise, you will open the Holy Scripture at the epistle to the Ephesians, you will read ten lines every day, starting with Chapter one. Be willing to understand the main ideas of the lines and the most important one to flow into you. Master’s lecture, delivered on 16 January 1919 1 Varna – a big town on the Black Sea coast. 2 А cat crossed your path has a meaning of bad luck in Bulgarian. In most countries there is a saying connecting good or bad luck with cats. In England a black cat is lucky and a white cat unlucky. In America it is the opposite. Both sayings empty cart and a cat crossing your path are fairly well known. 3 Matthew 19:19 Source

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno A Divided Kingdom "And knowing their thoughts He said unto them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."1 "Divide and dominate" is the slogan of the world today as well as of every home, every mother, every father, every daughter, every son, every chief, every king, every nation and every culture. If someone asks me about the reasons for the suffering of humanity, I shall answer that the slogan, "Divide and dominate" is the reason. Therefore, as long as you have this slogan, misfortune will follow you as the shadow follows its master. Christ says, "Every kingdom, every organized life, every organized nation divided cannot stand." I shall tell you why it cannot stand. Every house implies the conditions from which all benefits flow, since the kingdom is built upon the home. Christ says, "If a kingdom is divided, the house cannot stand either." Therefore, both the kingdom and the house will collapse together, or in the commercial language - they will go bankrupt. To go bankrupt is to become a slave, an ox yoked in the field with a person with a prick behind you saying, "Since you have studied how to divide and dominate, come on now - plough!" Today all Bulgarians in the fields preach this teaching all the time, "Go on, son, divide and dominate, divide one furrow from another." You say, "How nice these fields look!" But I ask you, "Cannot wheat grow in the earth without it being divided?" In the distant past, before the existence of human beings, how did all fruit and flowers grow? The way all plants are cultivated today is new. A man says, in order that my wife should cook better, she needs spanking." The mistress says, "If my maid-servant is to tend to her work better, she should not go out often and needs spanking now and then." Whenever the maid comes back from some place, her mistress immediately gets angry and demands to know where she had been loafing all that time. However, what is the result of the present order of life? Every person, rich or poor, hungry or fed, feels a nervousness, a discontentment, like something is lacking. What will happen if your heart, your stomach, your eyes, your hands and feet and some other part of your body separates from it? Today people act according to the Law of Division as sons and daughters are divided from their parents. If you enter a religious society, there you will also find division. The heart, the stomach, the brain and the lungs in all people are not at their places, they are divided. They say that worldly people quarrel about money, but what are religious people quarreling about? Therefore, money is not the cause of this hassle, it is only a condition for that. Why do men and women quarrel, why do brothers and sisters quarrel, what is the reason for that? It is a false idea that people think they will be happier this way. Only unorganized things can be divided, organized things are not divided. You cannot divide virtues, for if you divide them, evil is born. If the bottles in which you carry water crack and fall to pieces, where will your water be stored? If the inkpot of a student breaks and the ink is spilled, what will become of the white dress of the student? It will be stained. The inkpot will say, "Since the teaching is divide and dominate, I became divided and where the black spots are - that is my dominion." Christ says, "Every house divided against itself shall not stand," i.e. when division appears, no rational life can progress any longer. The home is the Emblem (Symbol) of Love; it cannot stand if instability arises or evil, hatred, oppositions are born for these are nothing but gaps. The first impression of gaps is awkwardness. If we step on marshy ground where there is no hard footing, we sink. Therefore, division causes gaps in life that are the places of evil. In present day life, in order to organize a society, it is necessary that all gaps should be filled up. You have strong teeth, but in time a small cavity appears in which the deposited food particles start decaying and the tooth begins to disintegrate and emit a bad smell. Why does it smell badly? Because there are cavities in the tooth. It is in a process of division and its particles are in conflict. Someone asks me, "Why do I have a headache?" Because there are cavities inside. "My stomach aches." Because you have cavities inside. If a particle wants to separate itself from an organ, quitting its job, and if there is no other cell to substitute it; an unhealthy condition in the given place arises, which is nothing other than an interruption of the existing divine bond. If you have failures in life, they are due to this great law. In such cases the doctors say that the cells in such a place have fallen ill. When there is division in us, we feel awkwardness. When does division take place? When avarice appears, i.e. the feeling of possessing and dominating which is called individualization. By the process of division nations have arisen, as well as the home and so on. This process is admissible in nature, but there is no life in it. In cosmogony it is called chaos. Billions of years ago there were great wars among the gods in the space in which they used enormous cannons. The worlds were created by the volleys of these cannons. Out of fatigue, these gods diminished and became the small people who are reasoning today about great questions - "We divided the world after creation" - not realizing they created it. I say, "You gave God the materials, you brought the stones out of which God created the world." The human body is formed the same way. At first there was struggle among the small cells and after they were exhausted, God brought them together and today they all form the human organism. We say, "How wonderfully people are made!" Christ says to His disciples, "No work can succeed, if there is division." You accept a thought and then you doubt, "Am I right?" I say, "You are divided and that is why you cannot have any success." You decide to build a house, or to take up some science, but you start wavering. You will not succeed if you are divided. If a girl and a young man doubt each other, they should not marry. Doing this, both men and women today begin to play with each other during their whole life, creating a fire in which they eventually burn up. In this way the whole family will disappear because division entered therein. Learned people say in such a case, "This family degenerated," but I say, "There is division in this family." Someone may ask me, "Shall I enter the Kingdom of God?" If there is division in you, you cannot enter It. "Shall we become learned, shall we be saved, shall we be good?" If you are divided, you will not become learned, you will not succeed or become good." You will ask me, "But can a person not be divided?" Yes, they can. The process of division is mechanical, not spiritual. In the world there must not be any spiritual division. What you call division, for instance the sprouting of a tree, is not division, but multiplication. Multiplication is an organic process. Division is the breaking of ties with the very source of life. People today frequently create bad thoughts themselves. We see a person aspiring to God but we doubt the purity of their intentions and say: "The reasons they are aspiring to God are not religious or noble, but some devil has obsessed them." We act as some Jew. Today all people accuse the Jews, but the word "Jew" is not bad, it has a deep meaning. Everyone bearing a cross and suffering is a Jew. Why do they suffer? Because they have not learned the deep meaning of this word. Some will ask me, "But what does the word "Bulgarian" mean?" Some philologists say that the word comes from the word boulg`our2, but that is not its origin. Then I would ask you, "But where has boulg`our come from?" In the original language every word had a definite meaning. All languages today are translations of an Ancient Divine Language, which is also the original one. Three languages originally sprang from it: Chinese, Hebrew and Sanskrit. The Chinese write vertically starting from the top down, that is the first translation. Hebrew is written from right to left, while in Sanskrit the writing is from left to right, i.e. from east to west. That is how we also write. The Chinese language is positive, but the other two are passive - from them sprang the rest of the languages. The Turkish word iş3 signifies the original being working. Hebrew has the yod4, while other languages, such as French, have the double u - w. The Turks say, işbu5, meaning that we must listen to that Being which is working within us. We know this root and say, "Shia,"6 i.e. I am doing something. He Who sent me originally to the earth taught me to work. Christ says, "Every Kingdom divided against itself shall not stand." Let us take the following example: if the child in the womb of its mother wished to be separate in the very first month or if the mother wants to part with it, she will abort it. This can happen from the first to the ninth month. When the ninth month is over, the child does not separate but it is born. This process has reached its final stage and the child is born. Everything that has started working finishes its cycle. Therefore, each kingdom which does not reach the end of its way shall not stand. I want you to observe this law, which has relevance in your life. Some ask me, "Why did these misfortunes come to us?" You have divided something within yourselves. What will happen if your heart and mind become divided? Some say, "Let me have a mind, I don’t need a heart." Others say, "Let me have a heart, I don’t need a mind." These are delusions. A young woman says, "I am looking for a young man with less brains and more money." Happiness does not rest on money. Often people say, "In order not to suffer, one must not love." Unhappiness springs from the fact that when a Divine Thought or Divine Feeling comes to us, we want to abort it. This gives rise to great suffering. Therefore such a house, such a society, such people of learning all degenerate and new people come in their place. In the verse I read to you, Christ makes two comparisons: every kingdom and every house. Christ says, "If I cast out evil spirits by God’s Spirit, the Kingdom of God has come to you." Christ does not say that He separates, but that He casts out the evil spirits. Casting out and dividing are two different concepts. For a man to cast out his wife and to separate from her are two different things. If you cast a person out, that means you are looking for another place where they can work; while if you separate that is to break the bond the person had which provided they with conditions to work. When someone tells you there is no God, they separate you. When a man assures his wife that she can live with another man just as well, he has separated her. She starts living with one man after another to her undoing. This is a general law. The Turks say that a rolling stone cannot make a foundation. Some say, "Let us change our ideas," but changing ideas and rolling from one place to another are two different things. To change ideas is one thing; but to roll ideas another thing. To change oxen is one thing, but to turn them into flat sausages or dried meat is quite a different thing. Now we wish to reform present-day society, but the first thing we must learn is to stop dividing. For that, you should learn the art of uniting. It is a very easy thing to divide, but it is a very difficult thing to unite. When the word "divide" comes to your mind, let its opposite, "unite", appear as well and you will learn in time to transform dividing into uniting. You can separate only the unseen things in your organism. Therefore, the hidden law in this verse is: The first and most important thing is not to divide what is good. The religious, the good people must not be divided. In America there are many outstanding ministers, but often people start gossiping and want to substitute one minister with another. If that is done, will the world be set right? In some countries, people are dissatisfied with their king, calling him a bad person and wishing to substitute him by another king. Such endless divisions appear also within us. The evil lies in the fact that we want to change one thing for another. Do you think that the second king, knowing there is a dethroning, a changing, will not take precautions to keep his throne by creating an army with a cavalry and setting up prisons and scaffolds for the criminals? And what is all this that he will perform? Nothing but division. By this he wants to say, "Instead of me losing my throne, you will lose your place." I ask you: what is wrong with the king keeping his place if he is not disturbing you? Would a cock disturb you if he perched on a hedge or a tree and crowed? I have seen children throwing stones at a cock when he crows, but he says: "Why should I not sing in this place?" You are a cock and can take one place; but in this world there is room for thousands of cocks. Then I say - in life the cocks must crow and the hens must cackle. The crowing of the cocks forecasts nice weather, while the cackling of the hens means that the divine work given them to perform is completed. If a hen tries to crow like a cock that is not a good sign. When a cock crows he says to the hen, "There are favorable conditions for you to lay your egg." Then he walks around the hen, asking her, "Did you finish your work?" "Yes." "Well, then, I am glad we accomplished a fine work for the Lord in this world," the cock answers. But more people ask, "Why does the cock crow, why does the hen cackle?" The hen says, "Give me more work." People say about someone that he sings like a cock or that she cackles like a hen. I respect all men who sing like a cock and all women who cackle like hens, but only after they have finished their work. Religious people often cackle before finishing their work, before the egg is laid. What is the meaning of the laying of an egg? These religious people have a project, for instance, to form a society and start talking about it - how they will form it, what they will do and so on, but they only talk and do not act. A young maiden draws up a plan for her life and starts dreaming how she will marry, how she will live with her husband, how she will bring up her children, but all this is cackling before the work is done. When you have a plan, begin to sing, this is the song of the cock; but when you finish your work, cackle. When one thinks, they must sing; but when one feels, one must cackle. When I say that a person must cackle when thinking (these are synonyms), I mean that there is a similarity between thinking and singing. Cackling and feeling are also synonyms. I am explaining a philosophy and it makes no difference whether you sing or cackle. It means that people are free to sing or cackle, i.e. whom the Lord has asked to sing, let them sing, and whom He has asked to cackle, let them cackle. But if the cock refuses to crow and the hen- to cackle, there is division. Many women ask, "Why has the Lord made me a woman?" That you may cackle, which is an excellent work. It means that you must announce to the world that the work is finished. When a cock starts crowing, it shows that the work is in the beginning stage; but when a hen cackles, it shows that the work is at its end. I say that the tail of the snake is much more important than its head. The snake catches its victim by its tail; the wolf catches its victim by its mouth; the horse kills its victim by its hooves; but most animals use their tails. The tail is woman, i.e. that member of the general organism who finishes the work. The head begins the work but the tail finishes it. I shall not go into detail about the tail. Some say, "We do not want to be tails." I ask you, "What is the head worth without the tail?" The whole body is the tail of the head. Therefore, we should get rid of our wrong notions about the tail and the head and know that at times we are the tail and at other times the head. When we perform some movement, we are tails; but when we find that Great Law of Organizing, then we are heads. Many women are tails now, but in the future they will be heads and many men who are heads now will become tails. But there are all kinds of heads: garlic, onion, ox ones, heads of flies and so on. It is very generally said - heads. What kind of a head do you want to be? If you had the head of a cock that crows or the tail of a hen that cackles - would you be doing lofty work then? Taking an egg a hen has laid, you can learn how the world was created for it contains the clue of the whole universe. All truths are hidden in that egg. The whole world is nothing but an enlarged egg. When a hen lays her egg she cackles, meaning to say: "I have laid this egg, the same way God has made the world." You take the egg, boil it and do not understand how the world was made. We act the same way with many fine thoughts which come into our mind. We must take the egg and taste it with our mind and not with our stomach. We sell the fine things in us. A beautiful thought comes to the mind of a girl which makes her features attractive - her nose, her mouth and eyes - but she begins to sell herself. They tell her that a young man owns 1,000 leva but she does not like him. Or another young man has 5,000 leva but she does not like him either. She is looking for a wealthy duke and sells her face. Some author gifted by God starts writing something, but they begin thinking how much money they will get for that. If they think of gain, they cannot express any Divine Idea their writing. Take for example the novelists of today writing a novel in which the heroine faints and dies. I do not understand why the hero or heroine must die. This means that this author understands that the heroine has gone astray from the source of the Divine. A man or a woman who faints have parted with God. When a person overeats, they faint which shows that they have eaten unnatural, impure food. People who eat natural food do not faint. When students read some novels today they like the idea of a hero who faints and try to imitate him. A young man speaks to a girl, she faint out of love and he tries to bring her to. "Every kingdom divided against itself shall not stand." If such man and woman get married, they will not live well together. Keep in mind that what I am talking to you about are relations within nature as well. I am talking to you about that Great Law in Nature, that Living Great Truth which you also may come in contact with, i.e. the new teaching in the world. The Law in this Great DivineTruth is the following: contemporary people of learning will bind and unbind you, yoke and unyoke you; that is why there will be a prick. This is no religion. In the Divine Teachings you will bind and unbind your self. When you come to me and say you want to follow my teaching, I shall ask you: "Are you ready to bind and unbind yourselves?" Now we want all people today to turn from an animal state into rational beings. I want you to put on your yoke by yourselves and to take it off. I ask your ox, "You who have will, do you know why you have a yoke around your neck and can you get rid of it?" You go to church, bow and cross yourselves, but I ask you, "Do you know why you make the sign of the cross, what have you learnt in this life by this act?" You should know that placing your hand on your forehead is a sign that this head must think, i.e. my cock must crow; when your hand is placed down, it means: does my hen cackle? Is there love in my heart? When you place your fingers on your right side you are asking, "Is my egg laid?" On the left side it means, "Is my egg being hatched?" All this means, doing a great work for God. You will say that I interpret these things my own way. You interpret them in a different way then. So when you cross yourself, put this idea into action. I want to say that every act, thought or feeling of ours must have a definite value within our soul. In this world you will have many hardships for the following reason: there are hens which do not lay eggs so they do not cackle and if they do lay eggs, they hatch them in other hens’ nests, or hatch the eggs of other hens. When you hatch the eggs of someone else, discontentment rises in you. Let me explain what this means. Every egg is an Emblem (Symbol) of a life. If you seek the Divine Life, you will find it in a Divine Egg; if you seek intellectual life, you will find it in an intellectual egg; if you are looking for love, you will find it in an egg of this kind. In this respect people are very practical and have common sense: when they want to have a nightingale hatched, they place the egg of a nightingale in a nest; when they want to have apples, they sow the seeds of apples. You cannot sow one kind of seed and get a different result. People in this world act the same way, namely those who divide. This dividing exists inside you and all misfortune comes from it for it is a destruction of human power. In our present culture this law of division exists. You have sons and daughters and wish them to succeed in life. If you can bring unity in your own souls you will be able to do the same for them and they will succeed. Make several experiments, not only one; for the first experiment may turn out successful, but it does not imply that all others will always turn out successful. An experiment is successful when in every case it turns out well. I have watched jugglers who skillfully stuck twelve daggers near the chest of a woman without hurting her. All their throws turned out successful. When you watch such a sight, you think the woman will be stabbed to death. You must be such master too. But what are you doing today? You stab the heart or the head of some person quite skillfully. Someone leads a spiritual life for five or six years and then gives it up. Why? Someone has stuck a knife in their head or in their heart. Division has taken place in them. In my view God is not a need but a necessity of the world. Life itself, thought or will are manifestations of God. All that is sublime or noble in us is divine manifestation. No Lord exists outside of this. Someone says, "I want to see God." You cannot see God if you first do not feel Him, as you cannot see the fruit of an apple, if you have not sown the seed of one. Many of you have not laid eggs, but you say, "I got this and that done." No. The work has not been finished if the cock has not crowed and the hen has not cackled. One must think while another must feel; one must begin the work and another must finish it. I want you to finish this work. You will answer me, "We are people incapable, uncultured." I do not want you to turn the earth, it is turning anyway; but I do want you to finish the work that you are appointed. You say, "I cannot set the world right." It is set right. "I cannot help the poor." Not only you, but the whole world is taking care of them. I ask you: “How do those small midges live which you do not take care of?” Therefore, in the philosophy of today and in our minds there are vacuities; a result of which disharmony appears and we pass through painful states. Christ told the Jews they were divided and every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation which means that "since you do not believe in me, your kingdom will not progress." The same applies to your religion. And actually their kingdom ended there. This law is true of all nations. Every nation that says that people cannot live rightly in this world cannot expect anything good. The Bulgarians, for instance, have no success in war. This shows that one cannot make progress on the principle "divide and dominate." A mind and a heart are necessary. You as a nation must learn to think well and to feel rightly. There is no nation which does not feel the oppression today. All nations which have oppressed other nations will be crossed out as an organization. All such nations have disappeared and only ones in which there is no division have survived. Paul says, "There is neither Jew, nor Greek; neither Scythian, nor barbarian." You say, "He is a Christian, but he is an Englishman; that one is a German and so on." There is no division in Christ. The Jews are people of the heart, but since they are very near the stomach, they are materialistic people who like money. They are close both to the spiritual and to the material that is why they pierced Christ in the region of the heart. They said, "We want to become a great nation," that is why they lost what was given to them and for 2,000 years they have been without a kingdom. Now they are being placed again in the old land. The Jewish kingdom will be small.7 God says to them, "Your land will be neither large nor small." So the heart is already defined. You will ask me, "But where are the Bulgarians?" The Bulgarians are in the liver, because they are very rancorous, they like the land very much and say, "We need wheat, wheat." The liver is necessary but when it is enlarged, misfortunes arrive. If it becomes small this is also bad. The liver must function in order to produce bile. Therefore, if the Bulgarian people vanish in the world there will be constipation and thence - great suffering. Today everybody is asking, "What will become of us at the Conference?"8 God is telling those at the Conference to be careful with the liver, because if its bile bursts, all cultures will go to the devil. You will find the places of the other nations. So do not groan and worry for God is taking care of the liver since it is a very necessary organ and the body cannot do without it. Therefore, there must be no division among you. There is a close connection between the heart and the liver. They are very sympathetic to each other.9 The heart is very sensitive, while the liver is more passive, so they like one another. And so I solve the problem of the Bulgarians - as the liver they are in their place and the bile will not burst. Be grateful you are Bulgarians and do not be troubled what will become of you. All of you must try to have unity in your thoughts without any division or fear. There may be fear, but in its place; there may be poverty, but meet it and send it off politely. When a poor person visits you, wash their feet, feed them and then see them off. Act the same way with wealth. Remember that in all our beliefs, every teaching is in its place: that is why Christ says that there must not be any division among us. Today there are many divisions, many parties competing for supremacy in ruling; but it would be better if all of them united and played all together as in an orchestra. At this moment unity is necessary, not division. Bulgarians cause themselves much harm by this division. I do not blame them for this, but rather turn their attention to this fact, because the cells of the liver are the most stupid and uncultured cells, but they contain the conditions of the future culture. Tthere is a great difference among the different kinds of livers. For instance, there is a difference between the liver of an ox and that of a person; between the liver of an angel and a seraph also - for the cells of the latter think like human beings. Do not think that if you are the liver, you are very cultured. This condition in which you find yourselves on the earth is very uncertain for there is much division among you. You Bulgarians do not know which Lord you are serving for you are Anglophiles, Russophiles, Germanophiles and all other kinds of names, but I say, "Turn to God and cross yourselves before Him. He will make you wise and good so that you can lay this egg and hatch it well, or it will become an addled egg." There is a close connection between politics and religion. Know that the present culture has inscription, "Join yourselves and unite." It says in the Scriptures, "If hands are joined there will be no success for thieves also join themselves." When Bulgarians make a horo10 they join hands, but that is a gain. Why do they dance in a circle? To be inspired by the motion of life and then the lad and the maiden get married. Marriage is a strange motion. Do not move in a circle, but walk in a straight line. I make the following analogy: the four wheels of a wagon roll while it is moving, but what do they learn? Nothing, they only raise the dust around. If I ask the axis what it has learned, it will say, "I did not turn like the wheels and I did not learn anything." If I ask the oxen who move forward what they have learned, they will say, "Nothing, we only raised the dust on the road." The driver will tell me the same thing. But culture does not consist of nothing. You will roll and you will not roll; you will move and you will not move; you will hold the reins and not hold them - culture consists of all this. When we return home we shall interpret this and say that the wheels rolled, the axis did not move, the oxen moved; there were reins. We are a Divine Wagon which is moving to transport the Divine Life from one place to another: to the mill, then to our homes to make bread when we return home. Where is our home? In the field, nearer the Lord. I would prefer to eat out in the open, in nature, by a clear spring than to be in the best restaurant in Sofia. The home is amid nature and then it is closer to God. By saying that every Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, Christ meant that every kingdom and every home based on violence will be divided and vanish away. Therefore this criminal teaching must be discarded and in the future there should not be division among you. If there is division among you, you will only see the back side of life, because you and life will move in two opposite directions. If there is division among you, you will see only the back side of God, the back of the Kingdom, the shadow of things. Do not be divided, but let several sisters unite and attract people. I see you divided into parties now. When I look at you, I can tell who is a radoslavist, who is a democrat or a radical. How do I know you? By your heads, for every head has a special shape. Since you are a radical, do you know how to pull out roots? Do you know their laws? If you are a democrat, do you know the laws of democracy? Some call themselves priests, Christians or teachers, but you must know your subject both in theory and in practice. If you do not know this, you are nothing yet. Sometimes I see you in the position of professors, but where is your practical experience? You will answer, "That is how we have studied." Yes, but I told you to roll and not to roll. To roll means you are in the periphery; but not to roll means you are in the center. They who are self-possessed are in the center. If you give up this teaching of division, all winter days will be nice and you will not catch cold. I cannot catch cold even in the draft, because I do not divide, living under another law by a different stove. They who do not divide cannot catch cold. The Lord says, "If you obey Me and do not divide, your world will be clear and all blessings will be poured down on you." If you listen to the Lord and do not divide, but work for Him, He will manifest Himself to you. How? As a musician in a house. He enters the house and if he is in a good disposition, he takes the violin and starts playing, but if he is in a bad mood, he will not play. You want the Lord to play for you. But if the Lord finds your strings broken how will He play? You say, "We want wonders." Silly wonders do not exist. In the world exists only one great wisdom wherein everything must be in its place. Do not divide, but unite and send out good thoughts everywhere. You ask, "Can this be?" Yes, it can. In my vocabulary there is a single word "CAN". Some say, "Then we can divide." No, this cannot be because they who divide lose their power. You can become weak. To such a person I say, "You can become rich, in order to become poor." But to another I say, "You can become rich." So that the result of these two "can’s" is that one is wealth, the other is poverty. This is what Christ meant by His words to the Jews, "Cast out the evil spirits with the Spirit of God, I put order in life and do not divide; but you will be placed in a school to learn the Law of Uniting." Let the Bulgarians learn this lesson from the Jews and avoid being put in their position. The Jews will say, "It is unforgivable for the Bulgarians not to have learned this law in the course of these 2,000 years. What a sin will they commit, if they do not listen to you now." But today all people say, "What evil people the Jews are!" No, they are very good people, because in my opinion, "the worst people" in this world are the best people in the other world and "the best people" in this world are "the worst" in the other world. Do not divide your mind from your heart; let all men and women unite and let all nations unite in this future culture. Finally, let the human spirit be united with God. Only then can we have a higher culture bringing to the world the long expected peace and joy. Sermon held on December 8, 1918 1 Matthew 12:25 2 Bg., pounded wheat, (tr. note) 3 Turkish for 1/ work, 2/occupation, 3/ question (ed. note) 4 יּ- the Hebrew letter yod (ed. note) 5 Turkish, (dated) this very one, the present one. (ed. note) 6 Bg., verb: sew (tr. note) 7 Israel was established in 1948 some 40 years after this talk was delivered, (ed. note) 8 Bulgaria was punished for its part in World War I (through the Treaty of Neuilly) by loosing territories and being subjected to heavy reparations, (ed. note) 9 In 1943 Tsar Boris cancelled orders for the deportation of Bulgaria’s Jews in the face of protests led by prominent political figures and Metropolitan Stefan, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. (ed. note) 10 Horo is a traditional Bulgarian dance in which the dancers join hands to form a chain. (ed. note)

Note 4 A Brief Analysis ‘The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.’ Proverbs: 31:1 The word king should be understood to mean the human spirit. The word mother should be understood to mean the Lord; the Divine mother who taught him. ‘What, my son? And what, the son of my womb?’ (31: 2) The word son should be understood to mean a person who is on Earth. ‘And what, the son of my vows?’ (31: 2) Mother-nature always has vows for her children. ‘Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.’ (31: 3) The first thing is not to give your strength to women. In this context, the word woman is understood to mean the human heart, which has deviated from the right Path. Therefore, give not your strength to it. The destroyer shall be understood to mean one of the vices of the human mind, namely pride. ‘It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.’ (31: 4, 5) The first rule for the human spirit is not to drink wine. Strong drink should be understood to mean processed wine, which has in it a little honey, sugar, and black pepper. Wine should be understood to mean money. Even the best of people, when given money, lose their self-control. Wine also implies all the weaknesses, which blur the human mind, either thoughts, desires, or actions, which distort wishes. In a human being one’s good thoughts and desires are afflicted. Anybody, who afflicts one’s desires, distorts the internal judgement. Just like you distort your internal judgement, in the same way you will look externally, and the same way you will look internally too. This is the Divine law: one represents the physical world externally, while internally – one represents the Divine world. The people around you can never make your world better than you have made it yourself. And those of you, who wait for their happiness to come from elsewhere, beguile themselves; therefore, they end up disillusioned. Do not expect your happiness to come from somewhere else - it is within you. Who should be given wine and strong drink? ‘Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.’ (31:6, 7) Give strong drink to those who have hardships, while wine – to those who are sad, angry, or gloomy. Give drink and food to bad, angry people! You can’t understand why you should give food and drink to bad people, and not to good people. You can’t imagine this contradiction. If you have a hard strap, which is of no use, you have to place it in oil to get softer, don’t you? Soft straps are not to be put in oil. This implies that the energy, which is hard, has to be fed and put in oil to get softer. Aggrieved people, because they are hard, let them have wine and bread then they will become fit to work. Good people have this softness per se. ‘Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.’ (31: 8) To "open your mouth for the dumb" means that the smart people should defend those who can’t speak; while those who can speak should not defend themselves. ‘Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.’ (31: 9) You women, who are mothers, should judge righteously. When you are in the judge’s seat, you should forget all of your personal relations; you should not think about yourself, you should be one with God, with humankind, i.e. God’s interests should be your interests, and the interest of humankind should also be your interest. The big includes the small interests, while the small does not include another small within itself. ‘Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.’ (31: 10) A virtuous woman should be understood to mean a good heart. The Scripture reads, "I shall give them a heart made of flesh, and I shall deprive them of the heart made of stone." A virtuous woman implies a good heart. It is better to acquire such a heart than precious stones. ‘The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.’ (31: 11) A man should be understood to mean the human mind that also has a heart. It reads, "The heart of her husband does safely trust in her," because the heart that is meant is wise. Think for the sake of your heart! As long as one wish of yours allows you to think, it is a wise wish, but if it does not allow you to think, it is dangerous. Note how a mood of anger influences you – you fly into a fury right away and you do not consider the implications. This is the silly woman inside you, i.e. the silly heart. Spoils imply all the joys for which we strive. All the joys originate in the heart; it is the soil where Divine good grows. ‘She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.’ (31: 12) By not disappointing anybody, by not offending anybody, you will have more friends and more people who love you. ‘She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.’ (31: 13) Christ says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Matthew 7: 7) So, according to this line the heart obviously seeks. Seeking – this stands for the wise desires of human beings. She has been seeking during all the days of her life. What has she been seeking? Wool and flax. Wool and flax have two different features: wool retains the warmth, while flax releases it. It is hygienic to wear flax clothes in summer and woollen clothes in winter. Jewish priests always wore flax under-clothes. A wise woman always seeks and works wool and flax; wool and flax denote two noble desires. Woollen and flaxen threads make the best of fruit. The hands here denote that this woman has a wise will, so that she can weave something out of the wool and flax. Flax – this is the thought, and wool – this is the desire. When she can feel and think, she knows what to weave out of all this. Wool implies ardent desires, and flax shows a little bit of equanimity. While the expression "and works willingly with her hands" means that she develops everything using her will. ‘She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.’ (31: 14) This means that she has a steering wheel and she can steer the ships. Which one is the human steering wheel? This is our tongue. Ships stand for the mouth, where she places the food from afar, from within. So, she is aware that she is like the merchants’ ships. ‘She riseth also while it is yet night,’ (31: 15) This means that the Sun does not see her in bed. She is up before the master comes. ‘and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.’ (31: 15) Her household – this is her body. The heart, the mind, and all the desires – these are her servants, to whom she gives instructions. ‘She considereth a field, and buyeth it: With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.’ (31:16) She considers a field with her eyes, because the eyes are a source of the Truth. She sees what is useful and what is not, and she buys the field. The field should be understood to mean the external conditions of the physical field, which God has given to us. The fruit of her hands should be understood to mean the world of her heart. The vineyard means that all noble thoughts and desires are planted in her. Such a person is said to be magnetized. ‘She girdeth her loins with strength, And strengtheneth her arms.’ (31: 17) The expression "she girds her loins with strength" should be understood to mean her will. She is a woman who develops her body; does exercises, she is not idle. Her body is very well developed; there is no infirmity. She can tell the difference between her movements, desires, and thoughts very well and thus she strengthens her arms. ‘She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: Her candle goeth not out by night.’ (31: 18) The word night should be understood to mean the time when she is beset with grief and misfortunes. But even then her candle does not go out. A woman who, when in trouble, can say, "So far I have been regularly to church, I have believed in God, but from now on I will not go to church," is a woman without a candle. ‘She layeth her hands to the spindle, And her hands hold the distaff.’ (31: 19) Contemporary people discovered that the Earth spins around its axis like a spindle. And women have long believed that since the Earth spins around its axis, they should also spin around themselves. Which is to say that every woman should turn both her sides to the Sun. Joy and grief are the two sides of women and every woman has to turn simultaneously according to both of them. The side, which is the joy, is light; and the other side – the grief, is dark. This is why women should spin their spindles! When grief comes, spin your spindle! Stand up and ask, "Is my spindle spinning?" And what are you doing? You leave the distaff and say, "The Earth does not spin." No, the Earth spins all the time. This is why women should also spin all the time. If the Earth stops spinning, all people would die, while thanks to this mother, you all have clothes. The distaff stands for the Divine world. This spun thread shows where energy comes from. The distaff-ful of wool stands for the Solar system. The distaff is to be fixed at the waste belt. The Milky Way stands for the belt of the human spirit. The Solar system aspires to this belt. Everybody has to have a distaff-ful of wool. If the spindle stops spinning or if there is no distaff or distaff-ful, everything turns upside down. ‘She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.’ (31: 20) You cannot stretch out your hands to the poor, until you wash and spin your wool. The word poor in this line means all seeds that are still not sown. You open your hand, take these seeds, sow them in the garden – and this is one good deed you can do. Once you open your hand to the poor, you are in agreement with the Divine will. When you help somebody else, you help the weak, not the strong, and the poor are the future of the world. ‘She is not afraid of the snow for her household: For all her household are clothed with scarlet.’ Scarlet clothes in esoteric language mean magnetic clothes. There are people who are prone to any disease - they are naked. Any person, who loses one’s temper and who experiences doubts, is naked. And, indeed, Adam and Eve after the sin lost their clothes, and as a result they could not withstand the external struggle. This is exactly where the strength of Christianity resides – anybody can get clothes. When we start acquiring these magnetic clothes, we notice one Force within us. This fact can be found in everyday life too: when we put on certain clothes, we experience a pleasant sensation, special warmth, but the moment we take off these clothes, we experience an unpleasant sensation. Grief is nothing else but an indication that our clothes were stolen. When we have our clothes on, we are cheerful and merry. This is a very true law. When your children are cheerful, they are in clothes, but try to take their clothes off – grief is fast to come. So, the cause of all the sufferings that you experience is that you do not have such clothes. If you were clairvoyants, you would see what you look like with these clothes on and with these clothes off. ‘She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; Her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, When he sitteth among the elders of the land.’ (31: 22, 23) The husband stands for her mind. When her mind speaks, everybody will listen to her, because the husband of such a woman is decent. If she is idle, nobody will listen to her, because her husband is not decent. ‘She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; And delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; And she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And in her tongue is the law of kindness.’ (31: 24-26) Everybody needs this law of kindness. Think about these lines on your own; I will elaborate on them some other time. ‘She looketh well to the ways of her household, And eateth not the bread of idleness.’ (31: 27) This woman will never take just any food; she chooses healthy food in all respects. It is known that idleness is the mother of all vices. Altogether, contemporary educated people have become very idle. They go to church to lie to God, they light a candle and they say, "Let's pray, let’s light a candle or two, so something might come our way." They take a lottery ticket, and after that, they go and sit in cafes and wait for something to come their way from this ticket. When the draw day comes and when they see that there is nothing for them, they buy a new ticket and start on their way to the church to light a candle and to pray again. They buy shares, but the sale rate falls at times and then they lose everything. Such people are idle. No, you will work; you will develop everything in you! The misfortunes that you have suffered so far are your past and by suffering, you actually pay your old debts. Why does she not eat bread of idleness? In contemporary society, there are many such examples of people eating bread of idleness: a lad courts the girl of a family; he is in nice clothes, has a good house, but has certain debts. He wants to marry this rich girl so that she could pay his debts. The father and mother are in a hurry to catch him, without being aware of his material status and they get the young ones married. The creditors, one after another, start claiming their policies and they say, "Now he is rich, he will pay his debts." The parents are dismayed and say, "How strange, he was a very good person." Yes, but because you united with this idle man, you will bear the consequences. When a spirit comes and tells you that you can have an easy life, you should not put money on that horse and should not believe these promises. ‘Her children arise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, But thou excellest them all.’ (31: 28, 29) It is true that mothers, like these, are respected by their children and the world respects them too. In these lines, Solomon describes the ideal woman or the aspiration of the human soul. ‘Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: But a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.’ (31: 30) The words fears the Lord mean that each woman, who is devout, will be praised. ‘Give her of the fruit of her hands; And let her own works praise her in the gates.’ (31: 31) Study the whole chapter this month. You will make the effort to experience the strength of these old formulas, to see what magic power the distaff possesses. When you are in low spirits, you will do the following experiment: picture in your mind ten kilograms of wool; you will take a big cauldron and should picture yourself washing this wool little by little. You will wash it once, twice, three, four, five times until it is absolutely clean. Then you take one of the carders that the gypsies have and should start carding it. Keep carding it for about half an hour, and then make it into distaff-fuls. Then you place it in big carding machines and make it into big distaff-fuls. Take one of the already prepared distaff-fuls, put it on the distaff to start spinning. I would like you to describe to me what feelings you experience before you start spinning. You will prepare a detailed description similar to the one produced by a natural scientist while observing certain processes under a microscope. Pay attention what thought comes to mind after each distaff-ful. We have this formula about the carding and spinning of wool from Esotericism and for half an hour it will contribute much more than a pedagogue for a whole year. You will do this experiment with the wool at least four times a month. If one of you falls ill with the Spanish disease1, let her wash the wool while in bed. If these experiments yield results, they will be true and authentic. What we have invented and concocted cannot be experimented with. Do not let knowledge into you that cannot impart strength to you. When some thought comes to mind, dwell upon it, keep it for a day or two in your heads and if nothing comes out of it, then it is a futile thought. Do not retain desires and thoughts that contribute nothing. You should be spinning the spindle all the time, the thread should constantly run from above and thus you should spin two or three spindles. You should start running such a process in your mind. It does not take praying only - it takes work also. What does the word praying imply? Breathing is of significance provided your blood circulates. The moment the blood enters the lungs and gets purified – this is what praying stands for. If there is no blood in your lungs, what is the point of you taking in air and praying? And in order to pray, there must be air to purify the blood. Sometimes you pray but you do not know for what. You say, "God, bless us!" but you do not know in what you want to be blessed. You say, "Lord, please, let my situation improve!" Is your situation bad indeed? But you may say, "I want to be like other people”. Are you not like other people? Now in order to pray, food has to be chewed by your teeth, to get into your stomach, and the stomach will do its job – it will convert it into juices, which will penetrate your lungs and only then you can start praying. Only conscious people can pray. Some ask, "Why should we pray?" To get your blood, thoughts, and desires purified! If you do not pray voluntarily, then the Providence will set up conditions for you to pray. Even the toughest people pray: when sick they call the doctor and say, "Please, doctor, help me!" When the Lord places you in deprivation, you are fast to find your way to a creditor and pray the creditor. The Lord made it a law that one should pray. Some people say, "I do not want to pray to God." All right – choose somebody else, whoever takes your fancy. There are people who pray to their horses; they tell the horses, "Come on, gee, gee-up, horse!" You pray to your horse to help you drive your load. From a purely psychic point of view, praying is a necessary law. To pray to God – this is the right thing to do, this is like fresh air. If you do not pray, you will fall further down and down. All the environments that you will fall into are less pure. If you are not in the mood to pray, go down to your stomach and do some work there. When you do these experiments, you should not have selfish aspirations, but all of you have to start studying the Divine laws, the way you study subjects at school – natural sciences, Bulgarian language, and geometry and so on. Everybody who has come to the School has to verify what is true and what is not. This is not like newspapers; newspapers can announce that a city has fallen and within a day or two, they may announce that the city was recaptured etc. For example, newspapers announced that the Romanians2 had invaded the country and everybody was in low spirits. Last night there was an article saying the Romanians did not invade. Somebody comes to you and tells you that you are heading into trouble, and you start worrying – this is how the Romanian invades your head. You resemble that maid who dreamt that she got married and she had a child and then the child died. She got up in the morning and told her mother about her dream. Both of them were upset and started crying. You create many troubles in your mind by such fictional things. A woman says, "I heard that the sisters do not think well of me," – this is how the Romanians invade her head. Shortly she says, "No, I was wrong, they think well of me," – the Romanian leaves her head. Both are equally true. A priest may tell you that you are a heretic, but I tell you that you are not – the Romanians have invaded and left your head. When you enter a School, you have to have a critical mind, in order to examine things, to have an attitude to the Invisible world and to these laws. This is the only viable way to build a solid character. While now you expect everything to be granted to you. I want you to wash, card, and spin the wool yourselves. If you do not know how to spin and card, I will teach you. This is the only way for people to become noble and elevated. One has to work and to work and to work again! I do not say you have to labour, I say you have to work. Difficulties and labour I leave for the people, because these belong to the world. When you are gloomy and grieved, tell yourself, "I should get some work done!" Master’s lecture, delivered on 5 December 1918. 1 The Spanish disease was how the virus flu was originally known. 2 The Romanians – referring to the military actions in the region of South Dobroudja during WW1. Source

Note 4 He that winks He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. Proverbs 10:10 This month I want you to read all of Solomon’s proverbs and to learn by heart the ones that impress you the most. I will tell you later on why you have to learn these by heart. Please note that out of all the human senses the eyesight is one of the most highly regarded. The eye responds to light and we get in touch with various objects through light. Certain vibrations in the air make the ear sensitive. With the sense of smell, it is again certain vibrations of air particles through which the smell is transmitted. But when it comes to taste and touch, we have to use purely physical means – touching with the tongue or feeling with the fingers. Hence, the eye is of significance purely to the mind. There are two instances in winking: the one when the eye is closing, and the other one when it is opening. The opening is the day – this is just one moment. When one closes one’s eyes, a period of twenty-four hours passes. It is exactly when you close your eyes when all the crime in the world takes place. All of you do this winking. When a bad thought enters you, you should wink. Somebody is in the wrong – so such a person often winks. A girl winks at a boy and a boy winks at a girl. This expresses an improper movement of the human mind. Winking indicates lowering down by one degree. The eyes of winking people get smaller, and people with small eyes are known to be cunning and wily. This is the impact of winking. Your mind will also degrade under the same principle. As soon as your eyes become smaller, your mind degrades too; all noble thoughts and feelings fade away. This shows that your world and mind get narrower and the knowledge you have also shrinks in scope. Solomon, who compiled these proverbs, says, "He that winks with the eye causes sorrow." To whom does he cause sorrow? To one’s soul. Because its windows are getting smaller and less Light penetrates, but it is Life that enters through the windows as well. If a Divine thought comes to you and you tell yourself, "Now is not the time," this indicates that you have winked. You are asked to do some work, but you say, "Now is not the time,'' – you have winked. You wink today, you wink tomorrow, you wink the day after tomorrow; you wink at a lad, at two lads, at three lads, and shortly after they might set out after you; this is already a scandal. If a maid is serious, nobody will be chasing her. There are many such lads in life; do not think they exist only on the physical level – some of them are in the heart and in the mind too. By a winking person, we understand a person who does not want to learn the Divine principles. We, Bulgarians, are in the habit of motioning agreement or disagreement with our head. When Bulgarians confirm something they move their heads downwards, and when they deny something, they move their heads upwards. You will notice that horses also move their heads like this. This movement is meaningful: when horses move their heads, they mean to say, "Master, the path you, your wife, and children have started along, will not take you to a good end." On the physical level, horses symbolise intelligence. If a horse moves his head when you pass by, this has the following meaning, "My friend, things will not take a better turn until you throw this thought out of your head." Correct your behaviour and go to see this horse again and you will see that the horse will no longer make movements with the head. When your mind makes movements like a pendulum of a clock, this indicates that you will hardly make any progress in your work. Make sure your mind does not make pendulum-like movements; it should keep in its place and should keep working. This is relevant to certain psychic situations: people, who are very nervous, keep winking. When one starts losing one’s spiritual equilibrium, one starts shaking one’s head, winking with one’s eyes, and shuffling one’s feet, but these movements are not right, they are like a whirl, which can only make dust. The principle of sorrow can be explained along the same lines. Somebody says, "I am sad." Fine, keep your eyes open! "But my soul finds it so difficult." Keep your eyes open! "My back aches." Bask in the Sun! Keep your mind vigilant and alert and open your eyes to God! You say, "Why should I be thinking of God of all things right now when I’m in such a plight?" With these words, you have closed your eyes. A maid falls in love with a lad and she closes her eyes to her mother, to her father, to everybody at home, and she can see only the lad. In the same way, we also close our eyes, our souls, and our hearts and start thinking of transient things only. Human beings have three types of eyes: one pair on the physical level, another pair for the soul, and a third pair for the mind. If you find this hard to believe, do an experiment: when you get up very tired in the morning, stop for a while and tell yourselves, "I shall not wink!" Channel your mind to God; start thinking of God, of everything nice, and of the angels. Allow yourselves not more than five to ten minutes to think about this and you will immediately recover the equilibrium of your soul. Well, now, how do you cure yourselves? – You get up in the morning, you feel tired, you place your rucksack on your back and start visiting and complaining to neighbours, "Do you know how heavy it is for me?" The other one replies, "Well, do you know what happened to me?" Afterwards, the two go together to a third neighbour and tell her of their difficulties. She, in turn, complains about her difficulties, and what can come out of it? Everybody carries his or her rucksacks. Not like this! You three sisters get together, take a seat each, make sure you face East, think for a short while, for about ten to fifteen minutes and your mind will immediately brighten up and a certain Light will penetrate it. At that moment even if the smallest thought comes to you, you should apply it. "But a prating fool shall fall." This Proverb has the symbols of the eyes and of the mouth. He, who winks, causes sorrow, and the prating fool is the one who has been winking for a long time. His mind, due to continual winking, has grown feeble, which is to say that he speaks about what should and should not be spoken. All contemporary people suffer from this. Your husband has done something, has said something offensive to you and you immediately start going from one house to another telling others what your husband is like. By repeating the same stuff, you dip in the same basket, "My husband is cruel, a vagabond, and I thought he was a decent man!" While the other one responds, "Yours is a blessing, you should know what mine is like!" Whose fault is it? Your husband has winked and you are trying to wink right now. Your husband has winked and you open your big mouth. The thing that corrupts the world most, that causes the worst sufferings, is exactly these non-harmonic non-beautiful images. For example, you speak to somebody, but that person makes wry faces to you. What is the meaning of this wry image? If you slip, you will fall. So, those who wink will burden their souls; while slipping is nothing else but falling. Say you fall from a bridge during a car accident – this is slipping. Falling always entails loss of equilibrium of the soul. During such falling the greatest misfortunes happen. Most important of all is to keep your mind vigilant and alert. Another important rule is to think carefully about what it is that you want to say. Consider whether what you want to say will be of benefit to you or to somebody else. If what you will say will not be of benefit to anyone, then keep your mouth busy doing something else. The mouth is not a drainpipe. The mouth should give vent to all things supreme and pure, to everything that can ennoble people. However, the bad words coming at times out of your mouth should be channelled in another direction, designated especially for refuse. I will show this principle to you, to make it clear what effect a physical thought has: if you do not keep your thoughts open, i.e. if you do not control your thoughts, these impurities will spill out of your mouth and it will not be long before you also suffer and you will have to have an enema administered. You say about somebody that he or she is constipated. I say, that person must have winked, that person has not watched his or her tongue. Each thought has a physiological impact upon us; therefore, your mouth should only let pure things out. Otherwise, you will have to call the doctor. You need no doctors, what you need is to find the reason for each disease. You will say, "I have made my mouth into a drain-pipe and I have to clean it!" Everyone has made his or her mouth like a drainpipe and want to live happily. Your mouth should be like a fresh water tap. If you are constipated, you are not into science. The intestines and the stomach should be free. Later on, I shall talk to you about the relation between the head and the stomach. There is a very close relation between the soul and the spirit in the body. Bear in mind that the stomach is the head of the soul. The stomach is male. There is a close relation between this man and the head; they get along very well, as they are men. The lungs are the wives of the mind, and the heart is their child. The stomach also has a wife and a child. I only want to bring to your attention the fact that each thought, passing through you, will have a certain impact upon your organism and this impact will manifest itself either now or in a later life of yours. If you do not correct your thoughts now, they will remain like this for a thousand years to come. Some may say, "By blessing I am saved." How? When you fall into the water and when I take you out, you may be saved by blessing, but after getting out of the water, you will have to get down to work. I dwell on the quoted line, because I know that you deal one another many blows with your mouths. Do you know that the human mouth is one of fastest shooting weapons; an awful gun it is. So far, it has been under somebody else’s control, and we have to free it. A person, who cannot think well, beats one’s head against the wall. I put people into two groups according to the shape of their heads: some have sensible heads; others have heads like gourds. If your head is gourd-like, you have no chance of succeeding. You have to make your mind work - to do the work it has to. I do not want you to lose heart and not to work. When you find out a certain mistake, be sure it was planted from outside; it is not a feature of the soul. You have a rucksack on your back – this is not an intrinsic feature of yours, do not think that you were born with the rucksack. A bad thought has entered you; it is not yours, get rid of it. When I tell you that there is a bad thought in you, I mean no offence to you, but I want to make you complete internally. The very thought, while residing in you, will offend you. In order for these thoughts to settle, you have to find thoughts opposite to them. Do not wink, but keep your thoughts open. It does not matter who will come to you, let anybody come, what matters, however, is not to wink at that person. Because Christ says, "Whoever enters through the fence are thieves and rogues." Each thought should enter through your eyes and mind. Each thought coming through your heart is a rogue. Such a thought should not disturb you, but such a thought should be kept outside the fence. There are three compartments within the human being. There are three compartments in the Orthodox Church as well, which have been determined for thousands of years. These show the human development. The first compartment is for the guests, the other one – for the believers, and the third one for the priest, who officiates and who understands how to serve God. The Priest is the Teacher. The altar is the Teacher’s place, from which the Teacher goes out, places fire and incense in the censer and burns it. If contemporary priests wink, why should they do this, why should they burn incense? They do not know why. I know why they do. You also often do this: you place incense in the censers and you start chasing the devil. Devils are not chased away with incense; incense is merely a disinfectant. Burning incense shows that your heart should be equally warm. Nice thoughts should stream out of your hearts to refresh the atmosphere, where you live. If you burn incense in this way, you understand the symbol of incense very well. But if you carry your book under your arm without reading it, it will be of no use to you. This is why God has given you eyes, which are the windows of the soul. Hence, all the time when there is light, we should keep our eyes open and should receive as much light as we need. Sometimes you say, "It’s very light," other times you say, "It’s dark." Well then, open your eyes wider! There are people who travel at night and it is dark for them, but in the evenings, there is also light. Only that it takes more sensitive organs to receive it. This is the light used by clairvoyants. True clairvoyants see better at night than in daytime, but they do not wink. They keep their eyes open. You should always keep in mind that your eyes should be open! Some people are said to have "died with their eyes open" and people hurry to close the eyes of the departed person. Now all teachers and priest do their best to close the eyes of the people. Open the eyes of the people! For example, somebody is parading in life, and you tell such a person, "And you believe that you will become a Christian! You are too late; we have learnt so many things already!" This is what I call closing of one’s eyes. What do you know?! This should not be done, never, never! Tell this brother of yours, "My brother, you’ve done very well, you have started all right!" It is not important when he arrives. When I go out for a walk, I walk slowly, I examine carefully all the bugs, everything I meet on my way, and finally I get there. There is no need to hurry, in order to get sooner to Cherni Vrah1. When you set off to Cherni Vrah, pay attention to the springs on your way, watch what bugs, what butterflies there are; and if your mind is continually vigilant, you will see how God works. I would like all of you to open your eyes in this way. You ask, "What shall we do to save ourselves? How can we save our souls?" Everybody who does not wink is saved, and those who do wink, they are drowning. Therefore, do not discourage anybody. Now, looking at your faces, I can see that they appear to be strict, but they are not strict because of real seriousness, but because of sorrow for the wasted youth. You keep saying, "There was a time when I was young and beautiful!" You are not old; do not fool yourselves! The thoughts you have within, the thoughts are old, your clothes are old, but your soul is always young. When your body gets old, it is no longer capable of transmitting your thoughts and God tells the angels "Go, undress this child of mine, whose clothes are quite impure and cannot be washed!" I say, "My brother, they will undress you." Or put in your language, you have to depart and to come back again. When I speak about open eyes, I want you to keep your physical body always clean. I will tell you what influence good thoughts have upon your physical body. A saint, who has lived a pure life for a long time, has a specific pleasant smell, a sort of very nice internal fragrance, called nux. When you are in a very fine spiritual condition, when you have been thinking about something, you can feel such a fine fragrance that belongs to a supreme spirit, which has visited you. Take fasting for example, during fasting one can have such thoughts and can see such things, which other people cannot. There are religious people who pray a lot, but see nothing, they only think of how to save themselves. Dispose of such thoughts! There are sufferings in the other world, but there are worse sufferings in this world. When you commit a crime, you feel a great hell burning within. Everybody has experienced this hell within one’s soul, why should you be looking for another hell? The other hell is a toy. This one, the internal one, is formidable and then you say, "This worm will not stop gnawing; there is no end to it!" It is like a tapeworm, against which you take medicines, you throw it out, but its head remains. You say, "How did this tapeworm get in?" Because your eyes were closed. An impure spirit got into this tapeworm, which constantly sucks from you. This tapeworm will get out on its own accord if you learn how to keep your eyes open, and your mouth under control. You can train your will in such a way that you will get rid of the tapeworm within one minute. So now, we, contemporary people, who can cure ourselves on our own, need no doctor. You have to strengthen yourselves! In order to find out whether you have strong thoughts or not, you have to do the following: you suffer from rheumatism, which no medicines can cure; find out first what food rheumatism needs and after this, start moving the rheumatism with the strength of your will from one place to another place in your body. The moment it starts moving from one place to another, you should tell the rheumatism, "Mister, you have entered my organism, when my eyes were closed, but now, please, make your way to the back door!" And we have many back doors. When someone gets a cold, doctors prescribe aspirin, which causes people to sweat. The pores, through which sweat goes out, are the back doors. I do not say that you have to sweat, but I say that one thought allowed to enter your physical body, has to leave the body through these pores. The pores sacrifice themselves for our eyes and say, "We are ready to serve our master." Through them, all impurities go out. When one makes a mistake in the moral world, one feels the dregs settling. Do not dispose of this sorrow, but have the courage to study the cause of it. Some say, "I want to be a saint!" If you want to be a saint, start along the Path where saints have walked. But your backbone starts aching, so you promptly find your way to me. Pain, sorrow, and sufferings are necessary; don't be sorry about it, but find a way to utilise them. The devil has entered you, but we shall not throw the devil out, we shall make the devil work for us and we shall tell the devil, "We have worked for you for eight thousand years, it is now your turn to work for us for so many years!" Devils are intelligent creatures and because of this, we have to make devils get down to work. The main exercise for you this month is the following: strengthening of the will. Not the will we have, but the wise will, the Divine will. While developing your will, your thoughts should be strictly defined. You should not be dwelling on two thoughts simultaneously. You will first understand one thought; you will first do one job, and only then should you move to another. Everything within you is linked in a chain. I shall clarify what I mean – we follow a Divine plan and each one has different work to do. Let’s assume that one of you is a weaver, another one is a clerk, a third one – a vineyard farmer etc. Tradesmen will apply their thoughts in trade, weavers – in the weaving business, farmers – in farming; altogether everybody in his or her individual callings. Weavers will weave hard and steady; their yarn should be strong, the thread should also be strong, not irregular. Because each thought is actually spun from the thoughts and desires dwelling in your minds. This is how the entire thought is formed. This thread should be strong and made according to all rules. This thread, thus spun, will penetrate your Will in the form of a Force, because human will, must always be applied in the material world. We shall encounter obstacles and challenges where we want to apply our thoughts. Such a world is a puzzle for us. For example, you marry a man and you want to be happy, but the two of you can’t agree. Whose mistake is it? Something is missing in the man, but something is missing in you too. Both of you have entered with eyes closed. If his head is slanted or flat at the back, if his eyes are rather small, and his lips are very thin, what do you expect from such a man? This shows you are not meant for each other. Well, what else can you do then? To make your lips fuller, to develop your heart! In order to develop your heart, you have to put your will into action. Phrenologists argue that contemporary people have forty-one doors through which they receive visitors. You try one of the doors – no entry, try another door and you will finally find the door, which will let you in. So, there are many ways to influence people. Even children are aware of this principle and please note that when children want something, they start with these words, "Mummy, give me this!" – No way! The child starts caressing and kissing you and finally you agree. The child has opened one of your doors and has entered. These are smart children and thus children apply their will. But you may say, "I do not want to be a hypocrite." You have no choice, you will caress, you will fondle and you will indulge this man! His hand is soiled – you will wash it, you will bandage it too. You have to study the human soul; this is not an easy art to study. I mean the relations between healthy people, but if the two of you are sick, then you will ask a person close to you to help you. Sometimes a child is born – the child will cure the father and the mother. Each individual member can save the whole family. Open your eyes to God! You will remember that there is no Creature brighter, kinder, more sensitive, and more responsive than God is. No angel, cherubim, seraphim can be compared to God. Some say, "Do you think God will have time for me?" By not having faith in God, you cause Him suffering. Philosophers say, "Do you think God will have time to spare for you? You are nothing more than a low pigmy!" Remember that God spares time for the smallest creatures in the ocean; he can hear even them! Don’t you believe He will hear you? And what you, the people of the 20th century, do is keep your eyes closed and deprive yourselves of the Divine Light. If we live in a cellar for decades on end, we will have many diseases. I assert this is true not only for the physical level, but also for the Spiritual world, where the same causes are at work. We pray to God, but we wouldn’t get out of our cellars. The first thing for you to do is to open your eyes to God! Well, you may say, "I do not know what God is." This is not important. I may not know the elements of the Sun, but I bask my back in the Sun and I enjoy the sunrays. While educated people say, "Do not enjoy the sunrays, as you do not know what they are!" A person having started on the way to God, no matter how little one thinks of Him, is a saved person, no matter how bad such a human being may be. Remember that no human being can perish in the Teaching I preach to you. Even if you lose your hands, your legs, your eyes, your ears whatever, you won’t perish. You say that someone was "ordered to leave". It is all right a person is ordered to leave the school for a year or two, but later on, they will admit the same person again to study with them. Those who disturb the others are ordered to leave. If you do not follow what you are taught, you will be ordered to leave, so that others, who want to listen and follow, can come. Now, from a spiritual point of view, I often hear you beat the desks. Science is not learnt like this. Beating the desks at school is of no help. Those of you, who have will, should not practice it on the desks, but on their rheumatism or when one has a stomach-ache. Embrace pure thoughts and you will find out what strength pure influence has. If you make progress of one hundred millionth of the millimetre, this is a success. Do not think that by starting with this Teaching you will accomplish a lot. I will consider it a great success if you make progress of only one hundred millionth of the millimetre. This is a kind of progress too. Knowledge progresses uninterruptedly in the entire Eternity. This is the speed I progress at; do not lose heart! Any scientist, who wants to observe life, progresses slowly. But you want to finish quickly and to say afterwards, "I am fit for professorship." This one hundred millionth part of the millimetre is an eternal and accurate measure. I will present to you a figure: imagine the projection of the centre of infinity and assume that it has to make a complete circle for 24 hours. Do you know what speed it will need to be able to travel one hundred millionth part of the kilometre? It moves so slowly here, but the speed it develops travelling above is very high. Movement is very slow at the centre, but it is very fast above. If the matter of your heart starts moving at such a speed, your heart and mind would melt. Therefore, we have to move warily down here, so that the movement above can be harmonic. Do not lose heart! In order to be able to practice your will, you should always replace one unpleasant state with another pleasant one. I will give you a method to strengthen your will; for example, you experience a very unpleasant feeling and you can’t get rid of it. Stand up, spare an hour and go visit a family, which is in a much worse situation than yours. Do not say, "I am at my wit’s end and do not know which way to turn, why should I go visit other people?" Go to a family that has neither fire-wood, nor bread, has nothing at all, stay for about ten to fifteen minutes and see if there are any protests in there. Come back home and compare their situation with yours. I want you to build up your edifice. Implement whatever noble thought comes to your mind. You will not implement it by the book, but by the way your heart tells you to. You will implement it, not because you have to, but by following the principle of the Divine Will. You may say, "Well, first, I will repair my home." Look, aren’t all people homes of God? If we manage to help one person, it will all go to the home of God! Do not trespass the law of your father and mother, let your will be in agreement with theirs and you will be saved. Do not go to excess in strengthening your will. It is enough if you do an infinitesimal job every day. For example, it would be enough, indeed, if you give somebody a glass of water. You may say, "Well, so small a job!", This is also something accomplished after all. Another rule: do not go visit various houses and families, when you are very sad or aggrieved, in order to relieve yourselves. Do not take your rubbish to the people close to you. This is not scientific. This is not the way to relieve oneself! Thus, you will go there in order to take advantage of them, but unwittingly, you will allow others to take advantage of you. If you visit other houses to relieve yourselves, to leave your rubbish there, everybody will get to know about this and nobody will let you in. I want all of you to be clean, not to have anything under your nails. Clean your clothes, wash your hands, and then you can go to God! Because the very thought to be clean, is a will, the very thought to go to God clean, influences your mind. If you are not clean, take off your clothes, wash your hands and go to God, go and pray! Students who are not clean are not admitted. This is not to say that you should be pedantic and scrutinise other people whether they are clean or not. Everybody should see for oneself. Those, who pay attention to other people’s impurities, become corrupted. So, we shall start moving from the physical to the Spiritual. I like secular people because they go down very well; they pay attention to physical cleanliness. It takes just a step for them to enter God’s Kingdom. If they possess this art – physical purity, they will move on to spiritual purity. These things are useful to create a favourable atmosphere for the human thought. The impurities set up a sort of unpleasant atmosphere, where students get demagnetised. It takes Purity to get the mind working; it takes a clear night to be able to see the sky. When Christ says that those pure at heart will see God, He points out that Purity is a necessary condition for seeing. So, you will look upon Purity as a condition for the strengthening of your will. This can only be acquired through studentship. This is a religion! The goal of religion is to cultivate the heart, but we should not stop there. God should be revered in Spirit, in Truth, and in understanding. We have to know how to manage the strengths that God has given us. There is a sort of constipation in the soul and in the heart, which has to be used wisely. You say about something, "Let's have it like an ox on a lead." You can’t do this! What does lead mean? The lead is a principle, which can rule the thoughts of your soul, mind, and heart. Do not pay attention whether you are in the mood or not. Read a little bit today, and when the day is gone try to understand what you have learnt. Put this down in a notebook. So far, you have lived a promiscuous life at random: you get up in the morning and until noon you are in the kitchen, in the afternoon, you again have various chores to do here and there and in the evening, you go to bed tired. You think the following day has the same promise for you and you ask, ''When shall we get free?" You will not get free, because you acquire knowledge while working; you strengthen your will in these difficulties. Do not judge others; leave them to their mistakes, but the stronger should help the weaker. There is no better prayer than the one to help your brother. God, to whom you pray, is wise and says, ''Listen, don’t go against your conscience before Me, go out and get this job done!" But you will say, "God, I am not in good humour." You are not in good humour, because you have placed a bigger burden upon your shoulders than you can carry. This is as if a child has taken an algebra book and peruses it, though the child can only do the sums. The situation is similar to your thoughts: sometimes you have very nice thoughts and feelings and you say, "I’m in a very good mood." This mood you have from a friend of yours who visited you and treated you. Do not fool yourselves about these treats, because tomorrow you will be left without any treats. The important thing for you is to work and to remember that every day you should perform a job necessary for you. The heart should beat neat, the soul – fresh, the mind – alert, and the spirit – strong! Help one another during this month. Do not scare each other that the Master said this or that. I have said everything on the spot, but you interpret things in the wrong way. Those who study are always ahead, while those who do not, always lag behind. Many human souls have risen so high that they have reached the angels; however, there are also many angels, who have fallen. Keep in mind that you have all the possibilities to study and if you do not study, this is a sin to your soul. You should not say that you have grown old. Only the devil is old. Keep in mind that you are young for this Divine knowledge and apply your will in the knowledge! Some are rich; others are poor. Poverty is work; wealth is a rest. Look here; there is a good poverty and there is a bad poverty, i.e. bad work and good work. Work is good when you know how to do the job, while it is bad when you do not know how to do the job. Similarly, there is a bad wealth, and there is a good wealth. But at some other time these conditions will change roles. Today you are poor, you should say, "Thank God, I have a job," and start working. Tomorrow you are rich, you should say, "Today I will take a rest." Now I say we will move the world by one hundred millionth part of the millimetre, but all of us have to work together. When I tell you to transform hatred into love, you find it incredible, but hatred can always be taken out, because it is within us. How can it be taken out? If you want to purify water, leave it to settle or put some alum in it, so it can clarify. Bear in mind that you are in a School and you will follow the lessons taught. Those who listen to me, but do not follow, do you know what they look like? It is as if these people are taken around an inn and allowed only to smell the dishes and then asked to leave the place, while these people, are very hungry at that. Smelling will not sustain you through life. In the same way by a lot of smelling they only serve Christianity and say, "It is excellent, it is delicious!" Those of you who want to enter Christianity through knowledge, should understand that you can be saved, can be cured, can be dressed, but knowledge cannot be imparted by blessing. This is human. Paul says, "Partly we know, party we study." It’s not only thinking that counts. To think is a duty of yours. Praying indicates that you have to pay back your debt. You say, "I breathe." You must breathe; this is not a job for your spirit. Knowledge originated from the Freedom of the human spirit, from the understanding of the Divine Will. I want you to be free, to reason; your mood is not of importance. Teachers cannot give marks to students by blessing; if the students do not study, they cannot be given excellent marks. The excellent mark must be within you. I have no excellent marks, I give nothing by blessing; excellent marks I give only to those who know how to work. What is the meaning of the excellent mark? This is a matter of progress, of development. When I give you one grade above excellent, this is a matter of perfection. You want to start with great deeds, but you have to go back. When Christ came from the other world, God sent him into the lowest position, to school. He studied for thirty-three years, although he came from most noble roots, he humiliated himself, he was diligent, he got into carpentry and made chairs. He made chairs for you, who now argue about chairs all the time. Chairs symbolise a certain position, which a human being has to have in the world. Both at home and outside – people argue all the time about chairs. Christ studied the art of making chairs, so that you feel comfortable when you sit in one of them. Christ also wanted to save people. What does this mean? He taught them to eat healthy food. You have to feed your soul with healthy food, your mind – with healthy thoughts, and your heart – with healthy feelings. Master’s lecture, delivered on 7 November 1918 1 The summit of the Vitosha mountain near Sofia, 2 290 m. Source

Note 5 Getting Full and Getting Empty 1 The Scripture reads, ‘Without faith one cannot please God’. I shall paraphrase this line a little and I shall say, ‘With faith one can please God’. Bear in mind that it is faith that appeals to the Lord. The Scripture reads that we shall be granted whatever we ask for in line with God’s Will. This is not the commonly accepted faith, not that faith that people have, but it is the faith of children – among children you will look for it. You have to have the faith of children, not the faith of adults. I want those who listen to me, not to think that they are adults. If they so believe, there is no point in them coming here, there is no need for adult people on Earth; they are people for Heaven. You may say, ‘I am fifty or sixty years of age’. Do not fool yourselves with your years. I say that one’s age is appreciated by one’s experience. The more experience you have, the older you are and vice versa. What matters is what valuables you have in the backpack of your life. You may carry a load of fifty kilograms, which is fifty leva worth; you may carry a diamond of only one gram, which may be tens of thousand of leva worth. It is not the quantity, which is important for the load, but the quality. Some say, ‘I know that the Sun spins.’ I ask whether your Sun spins. You say, ‘I know that the Moon gets full and gets empty’. I ask whether your Moon gets full or gets empty. This is where knowledge resides – to discern what is good and what is evil. Keep an eye on your heart as to whether it is getting full of good and empty of evil. Only then you will know the meaning of getting full and getting empty. You know that the Moon takes fourteen days to get full and fourteen days to get empty. Similarly, your heart should spend fourteen days on getting full of good and for fourteen days your heart should work on emptying all the swill out of you and out of society. Afterwards, you will feel light. This is what doctors do too. When people see that somebody’s stomach is upset or that somebody has diarrhoea, they immediately call the doctor to put an end to the disorder. Hang on, let the sick person throw up, so that the sick person can be relieved, let everything, that has gathered inside, flow out. A man may be in a fury, flying at others; do not stop him, let him shout, so that everything can get out. If this annoys you, close your ears or go farther away; it is none of your business to interrupt the flow. This is the philosophy of the New Teaching; this is the Teaching of Christianity! Sometimes, your husband is cross with you, he shouts at you, and you feel an urge to stop him. Easy, let him throw up. Well, but he will make me dirty all over! You keep away from him, not just right in front of him, pass him the bucket and stay behind, meanwhile let him throw up. Do not interrupt him, help him and be grateful that he has relieved himself from such a burden. But what do wives usually do? She will start going from one house to another and telling people, ‘You know what misfortune beset me – my husband threw up!’ On the contrary, this is quite fortunate, as he is now relieved. I regard all people who throw up as reliable. So, from now on, you will speak less and do more. This is what teachers do with pupils at school – in order to teach them to work, they give them tests, homework, to write compositions etc. Do not think that after entering the Spiritual world you are already holy and pure. This will come on its own accord; do not worry about it. If, on seeing a candle, you start thinking how it spreads light, when it gives better light etc., this will bring no benefit to you. Leave thinking aside, strike a match, light the candle and make use of it. Only an aspiration to be obedient to God, Who is complete in all respects, is required from you now. The Lord, I speak about, can see you, because He has millions of eyes and ears. He sees you through cats, flies; He can see you when you chase them. The Lord sees everything, because there are many secret places from where He watches you. The Lord is neither in cats, nor in flies, but He sees through them. When He sees you passing by a pear tree or looking at a flower, He is already aware of your intentions. Everything is known to God. When you drink a little water, He, through the water knows you internally. The most important and necessary things for you are as follows: obedience and attention. What does obedience mean? Obedience means to do something, and attention means to be attentive when the Lord does something. The same with you now – you will have to listen and pay attention. You may ask yourselves what else I have to tell you. You are only required to be obedient and attentive! If you are sent with a hose in hand to any garden, you are required to point the hose and to water the garden, not to think why you were assigned to water the garden, why not somebody else? You were found; the hose is in your hands, keep watering and do not think any longer about it, because the one who waters the Divine garden, benefits from its fruit. Read chapter nine by Prophet Daniel. This chapter is closely related with what I asked you to do. You do not know your future, it is hidden from your sight, and you do not know what the Lord has in mind. It is said, ‘Pray, in order not to be tempted.’ Many of you are busy with a lot of work, but there is also more important work for which you have come. I shall be brief, what you have to do is to think within yourselves for about four to five minutes and to see whether you are ready to do this voluntarily, without repenting your decision later on. You will do the following: for ten days on end starting on 27 June, you will get up at about four o’clock in the morning, and during the time from four to five o’clock you will read chapter nine by Daniel, you will carefully think upon it, you will pray and you will confess to God, as you do to a priest, your sins, the sins of your relatives, the sins of your people. And if the Lord so wishes, He will forgive you. In this way you will send your petition to God, however, what resolution it will get, is up to God. At the same time, the departed people close to you will also pray for themselves and also for you, so there will be prayers below and above – just like trees feed from below and from above. You will leave yourselves in God’s hands. You will eat twice a day: no butter or eggs, only vegetable food. You will eat in the morning after praying, and in the evening before praying. In the evening, you will eat before the Sun sets, and you will pray and read chapter nine after the sunset at about eight o’clock. The Lord has imposed fasting all over the world. After breakfast in the morning, and after dinner, you will thank God very much. During these ten days you will observe absolute fasting of your heart and your mind: not a single bad thought, bad desire or word of gossip. During these days ask God only for important and necessary things, not for stupid ones. You will pray to God to strengthen all of your brothers and sisters, wherever they may be; to help all the suffering people, and everybody who fights evil. You may read the Good Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and others. Be careful not to overdo it, make sure your heart is always warm. Approach the Lord with faith! Have faith in His grace and kindness. And you will see the result. Master’s lecture, delivered on 26 June 1918 in Sofia 1 The lecture was titled ‘Lecture to Women’ in the decoded shorthand notes Source

Note 4 Keeping Spiritual Energy Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD. Isaiah 62:3 The word crown has a double meaning. This word implies a proper circular movement, proper giving. All the bodies in space, which keep their energy, move along a circular orbit. What is true of space bodies is also true of human beings. Therefore a person, who wants to keep one’s energy, should move along a circular orbit, or put in simple words, this is a job done in the easiest of ways. The science that teaches methods of how to keep spiritual energy is very necessary for the proper development of human beings. All modern sufferings – individual or common – result from the loss of Divine energy. While you were young, the energy you had in your organism was so much, that you were inclined to believe that it was inexhaustible forever. This, however, is just an illusion in earthly life. This energy can be lost the same way you can lose your money. It flows out of you just like water flows out of a cracked bottle. Similarly some wine-makers pour sweet wine in bottles and bury it in the ground for several years, where it ferments slowly. During this time, a certain quantity of carbon dioxide is formed in the wine, therefore it should be opened with utmost care, because all the liquid can burst out at once. Likewise, human energy, stored in the human soul, can at times flow out at once, which is what happens at times of great joy or great sorrow. This is why one should know how to rejoice and how to grieve. This is also an art. No mistakes should be made in this respect, because one may be harmed. I shall give you an example, which clearly shows the impact of great joy: an English ship, worth about four to five million leva was raffled in Tsarigrad1. It went to a porter, who was invited to go and see what he had won. However, along the way, the porter went crazy out of joy. Now people go crazy due to a great joy or great sorrow. What does crazy mean? This is a loss of spiritual energy or the inability to comprehend spiritual language. There is no point in being too glad, but we should not be too grievous either, because great joy implies great grief and vice versa. This is a true law. You say, ‘When we go to Heavens, we will be very glad, but when we descend to Hell, we will be grieved’. These are two opposite poles. You, who do not understand the Divine principles, who are not familiar with them, say, ‘Why do those, who are down there in Hell, suffer?’ I would ask you, however, ‘Why are those, who are up there, rejoicing?’ What is the difference between suffering and joy? Grief results from the fact that we have lost what was given to us. For example, if we lose our health, money, hearing or something else, we will be aggrieved. Hence, we have to learn to keep what God has given us. In order to be able to keep what was given to us, we shall have to inevitably double our energy, to which purpose there is a principle in the Gospel: doubling is actually the principle of sowing; if farmers do not sow, they will lose. In this respect your mind is a field, which has to be sown. God has placed the seed in your depository, and when the right time comes, God says, ‘Sow the field!’ You answer, ‘I shall not sow this year, because I have plenty of food, I shall take a rest’. You leave your minds uncultivated and they, to put it scientifically, fall in atrophy. The core art in keeping spiritual energy is the cultivation of the human mind. There are three ways to spend human energy: firstly, in the physical organism – through your hands, legs, muscles, stomach, lungs; secondly, through human thought and reasoning; and thirdly, through human passions. Most dangerous of all, in terms of spending energy, are human passions. Those persons, who complain that their memory grows fainter, they will know that passions have taken the upper hand in them. This can be noticed in young girls and boys at about fifteen-sixteen years of age. At this age, they start falling in love and therefore they start forgetting and cannot learn their lessons. This is also true of adults – they fall in love with other things, but this is no love, this only seems to be love, this is love for the drink. Any drunkard is in such a situation – he is in love with the glass, a glance at the glass can make any drunkard happy. There is a similar situation in respect of thoughts too: from an esoteric point of view, there are purely physical thoughts, there are thoughts of desires and there are spiritual thoughts. The thoughts of desires are the thoughts that bring suffering to contemporary society, i.e. such is the epoch we, the people, live in today. This movement is within us; this striving should be a crown in the hand of the Lord. By the hand of the Lord we understand God’s Will. One should have a strong will in contemporary society and I will give you methods to strengthen your will. You believe you have a will. Yes, you do, but this is an ordinary will. In order to have a will, you should know how to move in a circle. In America, there are chairs called rocking chairs, which are the most foolish invention. Whoever sits on such a chair gets rocked. Do not sit on such chairs; do not rock. When we want to get apples down from the tree, we shake the tree. When you have an unvaried thought – say for example that you do not love someone, you send thoughts from you to him and from him to you, which is just like sitting on the rocking chair, and within less than a day or two you will feel spiritually upset. You will ask me why someone called you by an offensive name. That person must have called you so in order to try your will. The Scripture reads, ‘you need a helmet, to repel the foe’. The foes from the invisible world may only fling one bad thought at you through anybody – through your wife, through your husband, through your children or through somebody else; even those whom you love most, can toss a thought to you which you do not expect. You have to beat off every thought! You have heard the old saying, ‘God will do everything’. How can he do everything? Let’s assume that you grow and feed silk worms in a room and then you let in a boy of two or three years of age. What will the boy do with the silk worms? He will go round and smash all of them. The same will happen when you let a two-year old thought of yours in the most sacred of all of your rooms and within an hour it will have smashed all your silk worms. By silk worms, I mean certain types of thoughts, actions or desires of your will. We have to follow strictly the methods which nature applies in our lives. In nature we can never imagine the Sun to be a dark circle, because it would not be any Sun then, we always picture it as a light circle. Light is a circular movement. Firstly, you impart into your mind that each thought, desire or action, which penetrates us, is sent from the Invisible world and keep in mind that whatever happens to you, has had to happen inevitably! If you understand these principles of movement, you will know that a thought, which was thrown away by somebody and which has travelled from the one end of your orbit to the opposite end, will fall away on its own. If you are at this end, you will be able to understand it; therefore never grasp a newly arrived thought at the moment it crosses your orbit at the one end. Therefore Christ says, ‘Do not oppose the evil’. This means; do not oppose, but stay at the other end and try to catch it. You will certainly need experience now. What does this experience consist of? Many have asked me the question of how to develop, to make progress, how to see this or that? I would like you not only to see, but also to acquire things. You may see a wheat grain – this is one thing, if you take it and sow it – this is another thing. So it is not sufficient to feel one Divine thought that is granted to you, but you have to acquire and apply it. Say for example you want to see an angel. You may see as many angels as you wish, you may go to them, but when you come back, you are still the same, you only recount what you have seen as performance and this is the end of the issue. You have to learn these principles. It is important when you see an angel, to interact with the angel’s intelligence, with the angel’s spirit. The same is true of Nature – it all starts with feeling and then comes seeing. There are many animals that neither feel, nor see. One day when they grow up, when they come to where we are now, they will say, ‘We can now see what our obstacle in life was’. I will give you an exercise to do for about a month. Many of you can do it. Do not think that when you experiment, everything is pleasant and everything leads to results. Sometimes there may be a bad result, but this should not discourage you. Sometimes the worst results have the best of effects. I shall give you an example to elaborate on this thought: a wife of a Turk laughed a lot, her jaw got dislocated and her mouth was distorted. Many doctors were called to fix her jaw, but none of them could do anything. Therefore one day her husband took her in his cart to drive her to a very good doctor. Along the road, however, the horses got scared, over-turned the cart, the wife fell on the ground and thus her jaw was fixed and back to normal. The Turk wanted to visit a famous doctor and see whether the doctor could help his wife, but God found it good for the woman to fall off the cart and thus to get her jaw fixed… This is why you should not consider that falling off a cart is something bad; on the contrary, it will restore your jaw back to normal. The experiment consists of the following: firstly, when a thought of hatred comes up within you, it should be transformed into love! I shall give you a methodology how to transform hatred into love: try to put yourselves in the shoes of the person you hate; assume that you also make the same mistake in respect of God and say, ‘God loves me despite of all of my mistakes, therefore I will do the same to that person too – I will love that person!’ Whatever mistake this person could have made or whatever his or her behaviour might have been to you, you are in the same situation in respect of God. God has not changed his attitude to you. He loves you. Start moving your thought from you to God, and then start moving it from you to others – to the person you hate. The love, that God has for you, will pass on from you to the other person and the other person will be placed in the same situation in respect of you, as you are to God, i.e. the attitude will be generated in the mind of that person. Secondly, during the entire month, do not spread any gossip about anybody, or if gossip is spread about you, keep silent, pretend this does not concern you. You may be a little sulky, but consider this is another person, not you. If a woman places her hands into stale dough, are her hands stale too? Even if your whole body goes stale, believe that your soul is not stale. Do not assume that external staleness is necessarily internal. Do not think it is easy to give up gossiping, this is a serious business. I do not want you to refrain from gossiping for a lifetime. I want you to refrain only for one month, to test your will. When I ask you to transform hatred into love, the former shall not disappear all of a sudden; it will keep on showing up. If you succeed in all of your experiments, you will feel an internal peace and acquisition of a drop of energy. However, if one day you fail to succeed in your experiment, you will lose a small part of your energy. You will be losing and gaining during these thirty days, but what counts is that the final result should be good. You may fall off the cart, but in the end, you jaw will be restored back to normal. I give you these two experiments, because they take effect along the natural Path, according to which the angels work now in the world. They will assist you. Thirdly, produce a good thought within you and keep it for the whole month. When you make this experiment, you should always think that you are free, do not think that the external world or your attitudes to people can counteract you. Before starting the experiment you will say the following, ‘At this moment when I start this experiment, through the Might of God which is in me, I can do anything!’ Do not be confused by the word anything; it implies anything good, not anything evil as well. There is no force that can beat you at this moment. In your mind you should keep alive the thought of ‘whenever one wants to do something good, the Divine conscience is vigilant. As soon as you decide to do a good deed, there comes a bond between you and God, a conversation is started. The moment you decide to do good for God’s sake, God takes care of you. These three experiments, which I give you, will be the foundation for the renovation of your thoughts and hearts, before you start fighting. I can see that quite a few of you live the life of people buying lottery tickets and waiting for something good to come down their way. The second year they buy a ticket again, and again in the third year, but there are no sure chances that any gain will come their way. This is not the way leading to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God can be taken by Force, knowledge is acquired by Force, and everything in the world is acquired by Force. By Force means through those wise creatures placed higher up than the angels. These are the Divine Forces and through them everything can be acquired. These creatures are the archangels. Later on, when you will have done these experiments you will be able to get rid of rheumatism, headache, heartache, tuberculosis and other diseases, which exist not only in the organism, but up there in the mind, and in the heart. The Scripture reads, ‘Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord’. Crown should be understood to mean most supreme angelic Creatures. To have a crown of the Lord is to bond with the supreme spirits of Love, who are the spring of Divine Love. Anybody, drinking from this spring, shall no longer be thirsty. There are two categories: a crown and glory. Glory – these are the archangels, who are the bearers of God’s Will in the physical field. When you want to strengthen your will, you will call an archangel who is mighty and strong. This is one principle, which works without any suggestion. The ideal the mother had, before she conceived, her child will be exactly like this. Our thoughts and desires become exactly like the creatures we think of at a particular moment. If a maid is in love with a stupid lad, such will her child be. She looks upon the lad through different eyes, she imagines him to be much more ideal, while in fact he is not; her imagination is one state of affairs which does not correspond to the state it manifests itself. We should not be looking at the lad’s soul, but at his manifestations. We should not be looking at his outer appearance, that he is handsome, that he is neat and tidy etc. He may be neat and tidy at one point of time, but such a tidy horse has no intelligence. I understand movements in terms of wisdom. Tidiness, I understand as a case when someone fixes your broken leg or relieves you when you feel indisposed. Let’s take, for example, somebody whom we believe is tidy. He goes to a prayer meeting and has bad thoughts about one person and about another person. These are the tidy people, who spoil the mood of a prayer meeting; these are the good-looking maids and lads, these are the dark-eyed and dark-haired people. If you are tidy you have to go out predisposed, and to predispose others also. Different is the crown and the glory of the Lord and, indeed, in such a meeting one soon gets older. How can you not get older? If I start punishing one of you all the time for being ugly, you will see that within a month this person will darken. If you keep telling somebody that he or she is good looking, this person will improve. When I sometimes see darkened people, I say, ‘Somebody must have been working upon you!’ I do not want worms inside God’s home. If there are worms, let them stay outside! If I catch anybody, I will throw out such a person over the fence. And those who do their experiments well, if they have fallen over the fence, I will take such people back. This is an excellent experience. When I decided to speak to women, it was raining. And I told myself, ‘This rain shows that women are not lucky’. But I see the weather improved today. This indicates that women are also given credit. The shining Sun indicates an agreement as well. This is not merely comfort; these are facts. When you decide to start with the first experiment, do not let yourself stumble over anything. Do not waste your feelings, your thoughts and religious beliefs that you have. Each man or woman should apply his or her experience. We have come down to Earth to gain, so that we return richer to God. Not losing is easy, but to gain is an art, because the minds of many of you are idle. This loss is called by esoteric scientists demagnetising. If you cannot do these assigned experiments on your own, ask somebody else to help you, and work together. You have to have patience in all this work. You should usually start with the experiments in the morning or when you feel like doing them. You may ask whether your prayers will be accepted. We are bound to pray, but should not be interested whether God will accept our prayers or not. In order to be successful in this life, you need a strong will, a strong mind and a strong heart. These can be acquired only through a pure and holy life. Without these no success can come to you. If you go over the entire history, from one end to the other, the most successful have been those men and women who lived a most pure and holy life. Do not think it is easy to be a pure and holy human being. If you are soiled you must have been drinking and you must have fallen. Altogether, purity and holiness have the upper hand in the world. We are wrong to think that we were conceived by our mothers in sin. Anybody who does not follow God’s Will was conceived in sin, while those who follow God’s Will were not conceived in sin. Some say, ‘We are sinful’. Yes, we are, I do not deny that we make mistakes, but I do deny that we were conceived in sin. Anybody following God’s Will was conceived in Love. Christ wants human beings to be righteous in their souls – what one is above; the same one must be below. You are worried – do not hide it. When you are worried, this means that your children, who are within you, are very unwise. But this will be taken care of too. By doing these exercises all difficulties will fade away and bliss will come to the world. In this way, we will finally make people not steal and not lie. You will now train your will in order to become pure and holy. When you attain this you will have the will power to pick fruit from the Tree of Life, to see that everything is possible. This is the only way to make life interesting. From now on, you will always be at School. So far, you have not attended such a School. Up to now, you have been washing the dishes, chopping onions and so on, from now you will make a start with the letter a, which is the voice of the will. This is the only way to apply your will. Master’s lecture, delivered on 26 June 1918 * * This lecture and the previous one are immediately after one another in a common paper in the decoded shorthand notes, having only one date (26.06.1918) in the beginning. It is possible that Saving Spiritual Energy lecture was delivered later. (Editor’s notes). 1 Previous name of Constantinople. Source

Note 5 Simplicity ‘This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightiest war a good warfare’. 1 Timothy: 1: 18 The word warfare and feat are similar because it takes the right warfare to perform a feat in the world. The word feat implies elevating. Warfare elevates the human spirit, while lowering down is the fall of the human spirit. Above all, it is simplicity that is required from all of us, which is not to say that you should be simple, but that all the knowledge you have, should be simplified. Things should be simple in their foundation, just like the warp is simple before one starts weaving, and then it becomes complex through intertwining. So, concepts should be clear and simple in their foundation. Simplicity should reign in your minds and hearts. I want you to grasp the word simplicity in order to understand it. When you are worried, please, pronounce this word and you will feel peace in your soul. Each good word should generate peace within you. I shall speak to you about the word warfare and I shall draw your attention to one fact, so that you can understand the contradictions existing in life. Since I notice such contradictions among you and you cannot clarify them. Do not think that I want to give you a dressing-down. No dressing-down; I want certain thoughts and desires to become clearer to you. Imagine you are in a rich garden, you are sitting on a chair and there is an apple tree with beautifully shaped leaves and blossoms in front of you. You take delight in watching it. Let’s assume that the leaves of the tree are quiet and tranquil, talking to one another, saying, ‘How nice the Divine world is; we live in peace and agreement!’ But some time afterwards, there comes a wind, the leaves start rustling and some of them fall. In this society, up there in the tree, rows begin, ‘You do not understand Christianity, you are a savage’ etc. You are in a similar situation, when you start going from one house to another and you say, ‘Do you know that woman, she is such and such a woman.’ This shows that there is a wind amongst you. People ask why somebody goes from one house to another to spread gossip about this woman and about that woman. I ask, ‘Why is there a wind?’ The cause is external. You have to understand these external movements that are beyond you. If you are a leaf and if there comes a wind, you will inevitably bump into somebody. This is why you should tell that person, ‘Sorry, I did not mean to!’ This is why you should forgive one another. When the wind abates peace and agreement will reign again, but if the wind comes again, rows will start anew. This is one actual fact of life and you should say, ‘A wind is blowing.’ Each one of you should have a cap, so that when the wind starts blowing, you can put it on your heads and everything will return again to peace and agreement. Such a cap implies that one can restrain one’s thoughts and desires. If one has such a cap, one’s thoughts and one’s desires will be in order; if one has no such cap, one is in trouble. If you enter the Divine Life, there will be no such winds, there will be slight puffs of wind instead, which will only stir the leaves like the leaves of aspen trees and these puffs of wind will show that you live in the world of winds. Whatever you do, you will tell this leaf, ‘Be assured that I will never do this again and that I repent.’ Everyday there will be mistakes and repentances. Such are the people – moralists who say that we have to live a good, fair and honest life. No matter how clean the tree leaves are, when dust falls upon them they get dirty. Similarly there will be dust and cleaning, and rows and so on in everyday life, but this life has to go on. When you, two sisters, get together and start quarrelling, you will say, ‘Sorry, my sister, there is a wind, therefore we are shaking.’ This is the right resolution to the problem. When you are cross with each other, get together and say the following formula, ‘Christ is equal to y [whai],), 0-0, 1-1.’ This is the meaning of the last line of the Proverb1. ‘This one, who listens to me, will live in peace and safety, not fearing any evil.’ This is the same law. Sometimes, there is a struggle between the mind and the heart, there is a split between them – the heart desires one thing, the mind – another; there is a dispute. You decide to do one thing, but actually you do another thing. Life is not cheap words. Let’s assume that two of you have a hundred dca2 of land each left by their father. One of you is a good worker, tills her land, made a garden, planted fruit trees, and the rest of the land is planted with wheat, barley, corn etc. However, the second one says, ‘I do not need these things’ and leaves her land uncultivated. Both go to see their wealth, one of them has wheat, corn; she takes delight in everything, life has a meaning for her; while the land of the other one is grown with weeds and she says, ‘Life is meaningless.’ Who makes life meaningful or meaningless? You say, ‘The Lord should grant us this and that!’ The Lord has granted you land, which is your heart; cultivate it! The heart can be cultivated the way fruit trees are cultivated. Grant your heart all the good wishes, plant the desires in it! You should plant on time, not out of season. For those who plant trees there are two planting periods – summer and winter. Farmers also have two planting periods – summer and winter. There are certain planting periods for those who plant corn, too. So, when good wishes rise within you, do not postpone them for after having done the other work, you should plant them immediately. If you start asking how to plant them, this means you pay attention to what various people have done to you. Put everything aside, plant the good wish! Let’s say that you may be indisposed; leave your indisposition aside, your indisposition and you are two different things! Do you know what you look like when you are angry with one another? Imagine a fly comes and spits over your nose; you immediately start shouting, ‘What right does it have?’ You start chasing it, you are angry with all the other flies. Just clean your nose and this is all there is to it! Somebody has said something about you; clean it and that is all there is to it. But you ask, ‘Do you know what this fly did to my nose?’ Leave it aside. Somebody insulted you; do not tell others what that person has said to you, because you plant it in their minds. But you, however, start telling each other what insults you have suffered and thus you spread the words among the entire society. One woman tells something to a second woman, the second woman tells it to a third one, a tag is added to the original words and in the end there is a big story. Such are the students of the 20th century. This, of course, for the world, for the people who have no work, is useful, but for those who have work, there are more serious things for them to do. So Apostle Paul addressed the Timothians with the following words, ‘To the King of centuries honour and glory be forever. Amen!’3 If God has given you such a heart to glorify Him, you have to plant the good wishes in your hearts for the Lord to cultivate them. All the good wishes are to be planted only in the morning; nothing should be planted in the evening. Seeds grow in the evening; seeds should be planted in the morning. This is the rule in the spiritual world. Do you know what morning means? – Morning is youth. In the morning, the Sun is a young lad, at noon – the Sun is a married man, while in the evening – an old grandfather. When you watch the Sun in the evening, it says to you, ‘Well, everything is gone, it has been a hundred years since; you should have come when I was young, when I worked, so that I could give you something.’ Go to the fields and ask an old man to help you, he will tell you, ‘I am old, I can’t, my bones ache.’ Ask someone young, and the young one will promptly come to your aid. Who reaps the field? – Young lads and girls. In order to work in the world, you will have to be young; in order to be young, you should not sin. Those who sin get older, those who do good get younger. So, use the words, ‘Let my Sun rise in my soul and renovate my heart.’ This will bring rejuvenation. This shows that you want to be good, and a good person is a person with many fruit trees in one’s garden. How to plant – with or without water? Certainly, with water. This law acts in the following way. You try to make an experiment. Sometimes you may have a big misfortune or unhappiness in life, which may be of a different nature. You are in despair from what has happened to you. After such unhappiness, a good thought is always bound to come; water it. Now is the time. One who has not suffered cannot have good thoughts. When you are beset with sufferings, this shows that the Lord pays attention to you, that it is time to plant. This is the right interpretation. Somebody has said something about you, a deadly insult, you will suffer, you will weep, but there will come a sort of calming down, a good thought will come. Get to work immediately, and plant it! This planting will pay off the debt for the insult. I will explain to you the law which states why you should not take revenge. Let’s assume that somebody breaks into your house and steals 1000 leva4 from you. However, on the same day you have a very important job from which you will make 100 000 leva. If you start running after the thief, you will lose 100 000 leva. The Lord says, ‘Forget about the 1000 leva, you will gain 100 000 leva, see to your work.’ Somebody insulted you but at the same time you have an important job to do for God; finish your work, because you will lose double the amount if you decide to avenge yourselves. Is there any philosophy in this? – Yes, there is. Try it for yourselves to find out whether it is true or not. Apply this on the first chance you get. I often meet people along the road trying to get 1000 leva. - Where are you going? - Money was stolen from me, 1000 leva. - You will lose 100 000 leva. I am telling you also, I have seen you running after 1000 leva; be aware, you will lose 100 000 leva. This is what the Gospel preaches: do not seek revenge, because the Lord says, ‘Revenge is for me’. ‘Do not judge, in order not to be judged.’ Everybody has an important work to do in the world, rather than judge others. You will then have a peaceful and calm life; but only if you listen to your Lord – the One you know. Every day you may try who this Lord is. As long as you perform His Will, you will be calm and peaceful, if you do not perform His will – you will not be at ease. Why then is the Lord not there? The Lord comes only in times of suffering. The Lord descends when the world is in greatest sufferings. When one is in dire straits, the Lord visits such a person, and when one feels fine, the Lord says, ‘Ask this person here.’ We say, ‘God rest his soul, he has departed.’ But I say, ‘this person has gone to visit his Father in his fatherland, has gone to his home, and then he will come back again.’ So this is what happens – sometimes the Lord comes to us, sometimes we go to Him. What does this remind us of? When a father gets his son married, the son is separated to live in a new house and sometimes the son visits the father, sometimes the father visits the son. Tell me, when do you visit the Lord? - When you are in great desperation, when you are in suffering. And if someone tramples down on your toes at this time, then the Lord has visited you. This is why you have to pay visits to suffering people. From now on, you will know that you can visit God ten times a day, while the Lord can visit you – once a day. Praying is appealing to God. You are aggrieved, you are sad – pray. The Lord gives comfort in three ways: He will send a person to help you, he will send an angel, and He will descend Himself to comfort you. You ask why we were born. To visit the Lord – this is why you were born. This is the great law, according to which people in grief and people in earthly need get closer. If they have no need, we would not understand what the niceties in Life lie in. You will remember this thought: Life, the way it is, is the best life, and you, the way you live now, have the best of lives. Some may say, ‘I am a bad person.’ In what respect? You are not bad, but you have land that you do not want to cultivate. You are lazy. You have to work. Get down to work – you will not be sinful. How does sin come about? If you do not work, you will sin; you will be thinking where to take something from, what to do and before you know it you will be in debt to the whole world. So, you are not sinful at heart, but some of you do not want to work. For example some say, ‘How can I get up at four o’clock in the morning? Is this time for getting up?’ Yes, it is, because the night is meant for sleep, but the morning – for work. When the Sun rises, everybody should be out of bed, and when the Sun sets everybody should be in bed. This is what birds do as well. If you want to understand Christ, this is what you have to do and this how you have to live. When suffering comes, you should say, ‘It’s time for work’. Get ready to sow! When the first good wish comes to you, sow it and within a year you will see how rich you will be. This is what the Bulgarians mean when they say, ‘One’s eyes have opened.’ When one becomes rich, then one’s eyes open. For example, a poor man makes a windowless hut; when he becomes better off he immediately opens one, two or even more than two windows. Those who know, they have windows. The sufferings sent to you are necessary for your development. Saying ‘Let my Sun rise’ is an indication of the incarnated human being on Earth. You have to use this Sun which rises. Every morning, when you wake up, you are born, and every evening when you fall asleep, you die. Therefore, if you do not get up on time in the morning to give birth to your child, it will die. Please watch people who get up late, they are indisposed for the whole day. We say about them that they have not given birth to their children. You have to comprehend the deep meaning of things, not to stick to the letter of the things. Under ‘morning’ I mean all the good conditions given to you by God, therefore do not postpone them. They are one morning in Life. Is there any reaction in you to getting up early, say for example any disease? I will recommend several rules: I have noticed that some people walk very fast, but you have to walk lightly, because otherwise you sweat, which accounts for the light diseases. The second rule: watch the colours of the Sun, particularly on Midsummer Day. While watching, sow good thoughts in yourself. Let’s assume that there is a profusion of good thoughts in you; you have to share these thoughts with others, so that they can also sow some of them, i.e. you should transmit them to others too. If there is any disharmony among you, let it decrease by fifty percent at least. I will give you a third rule: when you hear that two sisters have had a row, you should say, ‘there has been a wind, so let’s get together and pray to God for them to make up.’ You will send your good thoughts to them. Apart from this, get in groups and all of you take turns to visit them at their homes. You will get the following result: for example, one of your sisters has 100 leva, somebody comes and takes it from her. Therefore, when you go and visit her, each of you should give one leva and she will recover the loss. She has suffered and this is why something good must be given to her. These issues should not be considered from your point of view, but they should be resolved on principle, the way issues are resolved at school. Human beings cannot live on principle until they unite with the Lord, until the Lord starts living within them. Can a divorced woman live a good life? Never. Leave a child without a mother and it will become rough. If the child lives with the mother for fifteen or twenty years, she will impart a little delicacy to the child. While those who have lived without mothers are a little bit more callous; therefore they are given sufferings, to ennoble them. When somebody is suffering, I say, ‘Your mother has departed early; therefore you need sufferings to become ennobled.’ This is the path for those who want to develop, to grow, and to become elevated. The fourth rule: go and see fruit trees growing in somebody else’s garden, so that you can, similarly, plant fruit trees in your garden. The fifth rule: you should put down in your notebooks what good, either in words or at heart, you did for the day, if any. If you send a good thought to somebody, note it down. It is often said that the Lord will rectify the world. How will He do this? Through us. If branches do not blossom and do not set fruit, how can they develop? This is the practical side of it. You are very touchy; you are shy of being exposed, of making a fool of yourself before some people or before other people. How many times a day have you been shy before God? As long as you do not see Him, you are not concerned. In time I will give you a method to transform bad words into good ones. I want you to be inspired with these good ideas. Try to apply everything in your entire spiritual life – in eating, drinking, walking, and singing. This is what a spiritual person should be understood to be – to do everything for the Glory of God. The sixth rule: watch out that no desire to avoid people will arise in you. I want you to have friends from the outside, from the world, not friends from among yourselves only. Why do people marry? To become closer, to befriend each other, don’t they? As early as now you will have to open your purse and start giving to others too. There is nothing to fear, because the one, who gives, always wins more than the one who takes. The seventh rule: you feel aggrieved on a certain day, burdened, you think that there is no meaning in life; go further down, see those people who are more aggrieved, more burdened than you and you will understand that life is meaningful. And when you want to become elevated, watch how people above you live, imitate them in life, because life has such a spill over effect. If I do not impart something from myself to you, you will learn nothing. Life is imparted through contacts, through influence, thus transferring both the good and the evil. I know many good men, who get worse in a company of bad women, and I also know bad men who improve in the company of good women. The law is very true: we influence one another. And you say, ‘What are we like?’ Put away your old notebooks; turn a new leaf and start writing, ‘From now on I will take and give Christ’s rules!’ You will be cheerful and jovial. The eighth rule: be careful not to tell your daughters, ‘you do not know life, you have to be smarter; you are young, when you become old you will understand it.’ Do not bring them up along these lines; do not talk to them about old age. Your daughter is cheerful, let her be cheerful, let her play, let her sing, leave her alone. When she gets angry, you say to the Lord, ‘Thank you, God, for letting me see what nice faces my daughter makes!’ The same is true about Nature: you see how a tree bends, makes faces, but this is also enjoyable. You want your children to do what you yourselves do not do. Strange it is how sinners want their daughters to be saints. Let them fly in rage, let them cry a little, but when you look upon all of it from a philosophical point of view and when you are composed, this will have an impact over your daughter too. In the new up-bringing you will apply Christ’s Teaching. It will have to be an entirely new up bringing; do not add new patches to the old style. You cannot sew new patches of cloth to old clothes. You may say, ‘My daughter will be good, if not now, later on!’ Because whatever one thinks, happens. You and your daughter are one and the same thing. Why don’t I think evil of people? Because this is a reflection. When I think evil of people, it will come back to me. The thought creates things and is reflected upon you. You will apply these rules this month. You will go out to watch the sunrise up to the 24 June and afterwards you will take a rest at home for twenty days. There are other ways to apply the law of walking: if you are not in a position to go out, you will get up early and after praying, you will take an imaginary walk. And when you say, ‘I can’t go out today’, you thus spoil your work. If sometimes you want to visit a sister of yours, but if you are not in a position to do so, sit down in your chair and visit her spiritually. You should not impart negative thoughts that you cannot do one thing or another. Even if you are taken to bed, you should say, ‘I am now repairing my body, but my soul can go!’ So, the law should always be applied by using the word can. This is how human will is manifested. If you are not clear about certain things, several of you should get together and think it over. Because only what you try and learn will be of use to you and will strengthen your faith that you have a positive Science on which you can rely. Master’s lecture, delivered on the 31st of May 1917. 1 Quotation from the Bible, Proverbs 1:33 2 Dca – a measure equal to 1 000 m2 3 1 Timothy 1: 17 4 Leva is the national Bulgarian currency Source

Note 2p To Take and to Give “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 The word thief is a common word that everyone knows. Is there a child that has not stolen a cube or two of sugar from the sugar bowl, or is there a child that has not dipped from the honey jar without permission, or is there a child that has not touched his father’s money bag without permission, or is there a child that has not climbed up other people’s fruit trees to pick apples and pears without permission? In this verse, however, Christ does not talk about such kinds of thieves, but about thieves that act in three different ways: these thieves come to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. It is interesting to learn how the desire to steal was born in man. People have noticed that children are born with clenched fists; however, people die with their hands open, unclenched. What does the fist symbolize? It is one thing if a grown up man points his fist at you, and an entirely different thing if a newborn points his fist at you. The word thief (kradetz in Bulgarian) is a common word, known to everyone, but it is also a meaningful word. Its root, sog, comes from Sanskrit and means causes and consequences, darkness and disharmony. In Turkish the root of the word thief is karas and is similar to the Indian word karma, which means fate. The notions of cause and consequences have a deeper meaning than the word fate. Light and darkness are two manifestations of Nature that possess different qualities: light brings warmth, whereas darkness, i.e. the thief, taken in its broadest sense, takes away warmth. Hence, at night, after the Sun goes down, one feels cool. Therefore, darkness absorbs the Warmth that carries in itself the element of Life. When the air temperature cools down the plants lose part of their warmth, too; then, in order to maintain their warmth plants absorb part of the Earth’s warmth, which causes the Earth to cool down. The overall cooling results in the formation of different atmospheric currents. Night is different from day in that there is less Warmth and Light. When they look at the different manifestations of their lives, people say: This is our culture. Yes, this is your culture, but it is a culture of darkness, i.e. a mechanistic culture. Every mechanistic culture is transitional and inessential, for it takes away more than it gives. In the broader sense of the word we call such culture a culture of thieves. Take the pig as an example, for it has tried this culture, too. While the pig is in the process of fattening up it receives a few visitations a day from its master who gives it plenty of food; however, once the pig is big and fat its master pulls out his knife, puts it to the pig’s neck, and, a few squeals later, it is all over. Thus the pig tries out its master’s culture first hand. While it is in the process of fattening up the pig is like a factory for its master, for it accumulates a lot of material on its back. The master, on the other hand, is the thief who comes with his knife to steal the materials that his worker, the pig, has accumulated. From a Divine standpoint a thief is someone who is distancing himself from God. In the process of distancing himself from God man gives way to his selfishness, because he has lost his inner Light and Warmth. Jesus defines the thief as someone who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. If you meet such a man he will destroy you first, and he will kill you, and then he will rob you. There are three types of thieves: there are the thieves in the physical world who rob other people’s safes and moneybags. Then, there are the thieves in the Spiritual world who rob people’s hearts and feelings. Finally, there are the thieves in the Mental world who rob people’s thoughts. When people discuss a certain topic (like we are discussing the topic of the thief right now) they look for logic and try to find if it is present in a statement or not. It is important what kind of logic people are looking for. There are three types of logic: the logic of forms, the logic of content and the logic of meaning. The logic of forms is a mechanical process: for example, we say, “A man is a biped being and a chicken is a biped being, therefore a chicken is a man.” The religious people, on the other hand, say, “The blood of Christ saves and a man who has bathed himself with this blood is a saved man.” I’m asking this: is the blood with which a man has bathed himself really Jesus’ blood? This is a logical thought: it is true in content but not in meaning. Man needs to know the art of transforming blood into energy, into Power. A religious man should study the spiritual language; for example, blood is red, but what does the colour red stand for? Spiritually, the red colour is the carrier of Life: where there is Life there is also Warmth. Therefore, it is Jesus’ life that saves people and not His blood: this is the logic of the meaning. Blood is a symbol; it is the form of something, and Life, presented in the symbol of the colour red, brings salvation for man. Man can save himself through living by the laws of Love, i.e. by adhering to Christ’s teaching: this is the deep meaning behind the concept of the blood of Christ. “The thief does not come except to steal.” Theft is a part of the idle, lazy man’s culture. If someone does not like to work, he lives off other people’s labour, and if such a person does not voluntarily receive what he needs he resorts to theft as a form of violence. You might say that this is strongly put. No, it is not strongly put, but it is the logic of forms, of content, and of meaning. I am using all three kinds of logic because I am speaking the Truth. In this case, the logic of meaning has an advantage over the other two kinds of logic. Besides these three kinds of logic there are another four kinds, but I am not going to speak of those today. All in all, a thought is true when it takes into account the three kinds of logic. Therefore, the concept of thief that Jesus talks about is true because the thief acts in all three worlds by robbing man of his form, his content, and his meaning; the thief also takes away a man’s Life, feelings and thoughts. If all you rely on is the physical logic of form you will inevitably fall into delusion. For example, if you see that someone is crying you might think that he is suffering, but tears do not always imply suffering. Once there was a villager who loved eating ember-roasted eggs, but his wife would not let him eat eggs, for she wanted to sell them for additional income. It so happened that this villager’s wife fell seriously ill and died. The villager breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself, “Now I can eat as many roasted eggs as I want.” After coming back from his wife’s funeral he went right to the fireplace and put a few eggs into the glowing embers imagining the pleasure of eating them undisturbed by his wife. At this moment a few women, neighbours of his, dropped in on him to express their condolences regarding the great misfortune that had befallen him in losing his wife. Being so fearful of his wife the man forgot that she was not alive anymore, and so he quickly snatched the eggs out of the fire and hid them down the front of his shirt. The hot eggs burned him so badly that his eyes started streaming with tears. The women neighbours saw the tears falling from his eyes and commiserated, saying, “These must be such painful times for you, brother.” “Yes,” the villager replied, “It is really painful especially down the front of my shirt.” This sentence is true in form, but not in meaning, because the villager was not crying about losing his wife, but because of the pain caused by the hot eggs hidden down the front of his shirt. Here is another story: in an evangelical school there was a young man who would cry every time he would read the Bible. Seeing this, those around him would think to themselves: “This young man will make a good preacher.” Why was the young man crying? He would look out at the windows of the women’s school that his beloved attended. He was in love with one of the schoolgirls, but she did not respond to his feelings and this is what made him sad and cry. However, the people around him thought that he was crying because he was so touched by the Word. This young man merits respect because he expresses his feelings through his tears, but people did not understand the content of his suffering and drew the wrong conclusion. I will give you another example to help you see the religious convictions of some people and the logic that they are based on. One young mister went to an evangelical preacher and started crying and wailing: “My sorrow is so great, I feel like I will burst. Please, pray for me so that God can help me fulfill my desire.” The preacher thought that the young man had repented about something and that he had realized his mistakes and was wishing to get back on the right path of life. He turned to the suffering man, saying, “Come with me and let us pray together.” Then the preacher started praying like this, “Oh, Lord, help this repentant sinner, cleanse him of his sins, enlighten his mind and soul, and let him come into our enclosure.” After finishing his prayer, the preacher asked the young man, “What is the cause of your suffering?” “Oh, my suffering is great”, the young man replied. “I love a young woman and I want to marry her. If I cannot do that, I will kill myself, for I cannot live without her. If God helps me fulfill my desire I will believe in Him. If He does not help me, I will not believe in Him.” After saying that the young man went home hoping that his prayer would be answered. Not before long the young man paid another visit to the preacher and told him, “Praise the Lord for not fulfilling my desire. I went to a gathering where I saw my beloved dance with a young officer all night long without paying the slightest attention to me. I do not want a woman like that.” The Turks have a saying about young men and women like the one from the story; they say, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” To be religious does not mean that one has to belong to a certain sect or that he should enter into some enclosure. If a master has ten thousand sheep he can put them into ten enclosures, and not only into one. By studying the internal meaning of Life man comes to the conclusion that because he is a thinking being he belongs to God first, then he belongs to humankind, then to his people, to his family and finally, to himself. Therefore, if someone asks me if I am a Bulgarian, I will respond like this, “I am a thinking being that belongs first to God, then to humankind, then to my people, then to my home and finally, to myself.” This is the logical and correct way of thinking for anyone who wants to have a correct grasp of the deep meaning of Life. The Self, i.e. the individual, selfish element in man is related to life on earth. Hence, to live for oneself first means to think only of one’s stomach and lungs. However, man’s meaning and purpose does not come down only to his head, or lungs, or stomach. Therefore, the Self is a form that needs to be in concord with all other forms that have content and meaning. In other words, just like there needs to be concord and unity among all people, so should there be full concord between the head, the lungs and the stomach; then we can call such a man a man of strong will in whom the wise and conscious willpower unites the mind, the heart and the body. Under the word willpower, in the broader sense of the word, we understand the inner content of the human, the inner strength that must participate in the creation of forms. Every form is created so that it can be filled with certain content. In this case, the relation between the form and the content corresponds to the relation between the content and the meaning of things. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus speaks of two opposite characters: that of the thief and that of the shepherd. The thief has three distinctive features: he steals, kills, and destroys; the shepherd has one - he gives Life, and gives it abundantly. The word life means movement; it is willpower that gives one an impulse to move and to live. When God created the original man He breathed Life into his nostrils and he became a living soul and started to move and live. The phrase abundant life means conscious and sublime Life in which one’s judicious willpower finds the correct way of expression. When he speaks of the thief who takes and the shepherd who gives Jesus takes into consideration not only the external logic of things, and not only the theory of knowledge, but also its application in practice. By living and by applying things man learns to distinguish different forms and acquires true Knowledge, for he learns to distinguish the thief from the shepherd. If you want to acquire positive Knowledge about Life you need to focus not only on the theory of Christ’s Teaching, but also on its application in life. Theory is condensed knowledge and practice is diluted knowledge; theory is condensed Wisdom and practice is a diluted one, i.e. Wisdom that has been put into practice in Life. Consequently, every theory about Life, no matter how correct, true and good it might be, remains misunderstood to a certain extent unless it is applied in practice. The logic behind things is tested in Life and through Life. For example, a young woman wants to get married and she thinks, “I will marry this young man, then I will have a few children, and I will bring them up well. I will treat my husband well, etc.” The young woman has good ideas, and her theory is correct, but her logic is wrong, for the young man whom she intends to marry is a bad apple and she cannot fix that. There are so many fathers and mothers who advise their sons and daughters about going down the right path in life, but their children just won’t listen and they end up being off track. I am not telling you this to discourage you, but to let you know that a man who is off track cannot be set right. A man that is off track is someone who has consciously distanced himself from God. These are those people who live only for themselves: they regard Life from the viewpoint of physical logic, and because of that they have distanced themselves from God and they cannot be set right. They are right for themselves because they live according to their own selfish and limited logic; however, those around them should not delude themselves to think that they can set such people right. There has not yet been a young woman to set right a man who is off track, nor has there been a young man who has set right a woman who is off track. The only being that can set right the men and women who are off track is the mother. The art and science of setting one right who is off track is the sole domain of the mother. When can a mother do that? She cannot do this after she has given birth to her child, nor while she is pregnant, but she has to do it at least a hundred years before becoming a mother. You might say, “How can she find these children and how can she raise them if she cannot see them yet?” I will clarify my thought by using the following example: when a chemist describes the properties of some colourless and invisible gaseous substance people are not very likely to believe his words because they cannot see anything. This, however, does not mean in the least that the substance does not exist. Once he knows all of its properties, the chemist takes this substance and condenses it until it turns first into a liquid and then into a solid substance; then, once it is in this new state the substance becomes visible to all people and they can believe the chemist’s words. The same holds true about the children who have not yet been born, but who can still be influenced by their mother, nevertheless. Even though invisible they still exist in the form of the thoughts and desires that have been cherished by the mother in the distant past. All the mother needs to do is condense her thoughts and desires, and turn them into liquid and solid bodies until they become real and visible to all. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What can the thief steal? He can steal the most valuable thing in man, namely, man’s thoughts, feelings and desires. It is scary when a thief comes to you and steals your heart. What does a thief do when he wants to steal a man’s heart? He starts circling around this man and telling him that he is good, smart and beautiful, that there is no other like him, etc. If this man gives in to these flatteries he will lose his heart; later he will cry and he will be sorry that he has believed the words of this flatterer. There is a popular story about a rooster who found a piece of cheese and perched up on a tree to eat it in peace. A fox saw him from a distance, quickly trotted to the tree, sat down underneath it and started talking up to the rooster, saying, “You are such a beauty, my little rooster, I have never seen another one like you! And your voice is so melodious; I cannot get enough of your beautiful warble! Sing me a song, please, to fill me with happiness and joy.” Flattered by the fox’s words the rooster opened up his beak and started singing. The cheese fell down onto the ground, and the fox snatched it in its mouth and ran away; it did not even wait to listen to the rooster’s ringing song. Is this fox a friend of the rooster or is it a thief? There are many such thieves walking among people, too, but today they capture only the ones that rob the full moneybags, and not the ones who rob people’s hearts. The latter thieves are more dangerous because no one can see when and what they are stealing, and, as such, they are invisible thieves. Everywhere you go today- be it among scholars, or in the schools, in court houses, in churches- everywhere you will meet thieves who rob people but go by unnoticed. Do not look for the thief in your neighbour, but look at yourself and you will see that he is in you, too, and if you find it in yourself you should work on him to correct his ways. One should be honest with oneself and with one’s neighbours. You should correct yourselves first and then your neighbours. To do this you will need to live a pure and holy life; you will need to be a lit candle that brings everyone together. If your barn is full of wheat, then people will come to you one after another. The heart of the good man should be filled with good feelings and desires, his heart should be filled with bright and sublime thoughts, and his willpower should be applied to noble acts: this is what it means to be perfect. Nature has put a mark on specific places on the human body to show when one’s mind, heart and willpower are distorted: all these can be seen on one’s nose, mouth and chin. You may say that no one can see this. All of Heaven can see this and knows you: they know what thoughts, feelings and acts are important to you. The beings in Heaven, in the Wise world, observe you through people around you: this is what makes people look at each other from tip to toe. As soon as you meet someone you take a good look at him and think to yourself, “I want to see what God has written on this man’s chin, mouth and nose.” A man’s head is a book which recounts his whole Life. Just as you know a man by his house, so can you tell what thoughts he is preoccupied with by looking at his head, for man’s body is his house. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” Who may have Life? Those who want to understand it and look into its inner meaning. Man should understand Life the way it is manifested today and not the way it was manifested two thousand years ago. The present-day Jesus is what matters to us, and not that Jesus who lived two thousand years ago. Someone might call this blasphemy. I am asking you this: what apple are you more interested in - the one that you have in your hand today or the one that grew in your garden some ten, fifteen years ago? Back then it used to bear fruit that was good for that time, but what is important now is the fruit that it bears today. Jesus of the present day is more important to us because He lives among many people, whereas two thousand years ago He lived only among the Jews. Back then He let himself be crucified, but today no one can crucify Him. Jesus was strong back then, too, but He sacrificed himself willingly. He said, “I am ready to sacrifice the form and content of things for their meaning.” Because people today are already looking for the meaning of Life and understand it, Jesus says, “Now I require of people to understand the content of Life, as well as the forms through which this content is expressed.” Back then Jesus wanted to turn people’s attention to the logic that lies behind the meaning of things; today he wants to turn their attention to the logic that lies behind the content of things. In the future He will create the logic of forms. Therefore, man becomes perfect when he combines in himself the three kinds of logic: the logic of the meaning of things, the logic of the content of things and the logic of their forms. A perfect man is like a lit candle that burns with white Light, i.e. it burns without soot and smoke. Whenever I meet someone who presents himself as being spiritual, I ask him, “Is your candle burning? Is it saving your neighbours? Is it setting their minds, hearts and willpowers right? Do you have a secret room, a temple, or a sanctuary inside you?” Whenever I hear someone call his father and mother feeble-minded or foolish I already know that such a person does not have a sanctuary in his soul. A father was once complaining to me about his sons, saying that after he had them well educated they would call him a simpleton and an ignorant person. He told me, “I am a simpleton and an ignorant person, indeed, but I realized that one needs education and made sure my sons received it.” On a different occasion a mother was complaining about her daughters and about how after they finished their education and became teachers they would turn around to call her a simpleton. She said, “If I were to become a mother again in the future, I would put my daughters at the loom and I would teach them to weave so that they can appreciate what they don’t have.” It will be good for your rude sons and daughters if you could give them each a hoe and send them out digging so that they can learn the logic of content. Someone may object that I am not speaking in the spirit of the Gospel. Which Gospel are you talking about: the written one or the unwritten one? Jesus said a lot and of all that He said very little was written down. Where does the rest of the Knowledge lie hidden? Bring me those books in which Christ’s Words are recorded, and we will see which one of us is right. Jesus said a lot and presented matters in their broader sense: where is all of this? He who abides by Christ’s teaching should be the first one to be a role model by demonstrating how one can use one’s mind, heart and willpower. The one, who can work with those, is someone who has achieved something great and wherever he enters he brings the Divine blessing with him. Not having achieved anything, people argue on and on; every time they meet they ask each other, “Are you of the right faith? Do you believe in God and in His trinity?” What does the word trinity mean? This word is abstract and hard to understand. Those who argue on this topic know neither God, nor His trinity. This is why Jesus said, “No one knows Father, but the Son of Man.” Religious people stand behind religion, and scientists stand behind science and every one is trying hard to bring out something new. The new is not in the form and content of things, but is in the three kinds of logic that pertains to the forms, to the content, and to the meaning of things. It is important that man should recreate his life according to the three kinds of logic so that he can enter the true and positive Life. Once he reorganizes his life man will have overcome the external conditions of his life and then there will be no external enemies for him, as well as no external thieves and bandits. Then man will cease warring with his neighbours and with those around him, for he will know that there are no enemies and thieves more dangerous than the ones that exist within him: those are the ones that crucified Jesus. What was Jesus accused of? He was accused of wanting to become a king, and of wanting to bring about reforms. Jesus was considered a political criminal for his time, as He opposed the rules and ways of the Roman Empire. Jesus was crucified, but what was left of the Roman Empire? Did it survive? People today need to think correctly by employing all three kinds of logic so that they do not repeat the mistakes of the previous generations. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Those, who recognize Jesus and have Him in them, talk constantly about all the Good that He did for humankind; they say that He atoned for humankind, and that He gave up His Life for people. Merely stating what Jesus did is not enough; you must apply His Love to your Life, you must try it out. Mere talking without any application does not do any good for man. If that was the case then the drunkard who leaves his wife, children and home, and goes from one tavern to another searching for the best wine in town, deserves more respect. How many Christians have given up their comfort, all their goods and privileges with the only goal of trying out Jesus’ Love? How many Christians have tried Jesus’ good wine? You may object that I am not speaking in a holy manner. I will repeat this to you: do try the good wine, i.e. the Teaching of Christ, and you will be able to differentiate for yourself between the two kinds of wine: the physical wine inebriates and dazes man, whereas Jesus’ wine clarifies and refreshes you. The man, who partakes of Jesus’ wine will find himself connected to Love and will love people and all living beings; he will love and be loved. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” This Life is already at work everywhere in the world, and among all living beings, both superior and lowly. Those, who are not in contact with Love, are still expecting the New Life to come from somewhere outside and above; they may wait forever, for this is not how the New Life will come. Where is Jesus’ Life? It is everywhere. Even if you look for it in the wheat grain or in the corn, you will be able to find It there; you will find It even in the animals if you were to look for It there. However, according to the law of similarities that states that similarities attract, every person will be able to use the kind of Life that is similar to this person, i.e. the Life that attracts him. Can two young people marry each other if they do not love each other; can a writer write a book if there isn’t some idea to inspire him? Man can attract to himself only the object that he loves. You cannot grow flowers unless you love them, for flowers have their own language that is known only to those people who love them. Do an experiment to test the validity of my words: take a pot and plant a carnation or some other flower, then start watering it, weeding it and growing it with Love. You will notice that this flower will have a wonderful aroma when it blooms. If you stop taking care of the flower it will stop giving off such a pleasant aroma. This is the flower’s way to tell you that it will return to you as much love as you give it. Old-time Bulgarians knew this law and applied it to their lives: they would cultivate their fields with Love, and they would seed and grow their wheat with Love, and that is why they would enjoy such bounty. Someone who does not know the reason for all this bounty would think that this farmer is a sorcerer; he is no sorcerer, but someone who applies Jesus’ Teaching and is ready to give up his life for his field. Consequently, the field reciprocates with the same: it produces a bountiful yield. You should do the same: invest your good thoughts and feelings into your neighbours so that they may evolve and become nobler. What do we see in the world today? The relationships among people are typically based on some interest. It is rare to meet someone who can love truly: most people love someone either for his knowledge, or for his riches, or for his status in society. If someone tells you that he loves you, ask him why he loves you; in any case, you will be able to know that he loves you either for your knowledge, for your riches or for your looks, for if you lose these qualities, his love will disappear, too. Therefore, you should love man for the essential man in him, who is but a ray radiating out of God. If you find the real man, you will be able to love him regardless of his external qualities: he will be your brother and your sister. The world will become a better place when people start loving each other like that. And then the verse that says, “I have come that they may have life” takes on a new meaning: Jesus came to give Life to the poor, to the suffering and to the wronged, because they have the right conditions to manifest the essential man. God says, “I will remove from them their heart of stone and I will give them a new heart, in which I will write My law, and they will know Me.” Today the new heart is being made: God is collecting the blood from the battlefields and is using it to write down His law into the New heart. What does this war today represent? It is judgment day for mankind; in other words, today all people are being judged, but not in Heaven like they expected, but on Earth. Some religious people think that man lives on Earth for a certain time, after which he dies and goes up to Heaven, where he stands before God’s court to be judged. Man’s judgment is on Earth and so there is no need for him to come out of his grave where he has been locked up and to go to God for judgment. Man is locked up in his body, i.e. even while on Earth he is already in prison and will be judged here. What should a man do to improve his Life? He should open up the windows of his house, i.e. his consciousness needs to be awakened. If his windows are narrow, he should widen them, for man needs more Light. In other words, broaden your thinking, and open up your mind to let more Light in. People today have many ideas, beliefs and convictions, but they need to broaden those by putting on big, wide windows. Big windows can let in both a lot of light and very little light, whereas narrow windows only let in little light; big ideas encompass small ideas, but small ideas exclude big ideas, for there is no room for those. It is time now to widely open up the windows of all churches, schools, homes, and courthouses. It is time now to set correct and truthful relations between the human soul and God, between priests and their congregations, between teachers and their students, between men and women. It is time now to let more Light into everybody’s minds and hearts, just like Light is emanating from their souls, illuminating them. I wish you that you may open up the Bible and the Gospel of your mind and your heart and that you may start reading in them everything that God wrote thousands of ages ago. Jesus says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” What does this thief want to steal? He wants to steal your candle. Once he has stolen it you will be left in darkness, but one cannot read in darkness. There are many who live in darkness, saying, “This is how it was meant to be; there is nothing we can do about it, so we will have to resign ourselves to the way it is.” This is the way Turks understand things; they say, “Put seven layers on top of it, and seven layers on the bottom and do not even think about it, for this is how God has made it.” This is incorrect logic; one should not think that way. God did not create the wolves, the bears, the foxes and the bad people: He created the good and reasoning people. Do not think that everything which exists was made by God: God allowed for the existence of evil, but He did not create it. When you meet someone who wants to be close with you, first ask yourself what kind of people he belongs to: the ones whom God made of soil, or the ones whom He made after Himself. Present-day people were made of soil: their culture is the culture of soil, and of mud. God took some soil and made man out of it, breathed into him and he turned into a living soul. God put Life into man, so that he can live and learn, and understand that Life has a deeper meaning than what he can imagine. By talking about the thief Jesus wants to protect humankind from him, for everyone can look at oneself and realize that evil is in himself, and in his distorted views. Therefore, if you want people to be cultured, and if you want to be cultured yourself, you need to apply Christ’s Teaching, the Teaching of Love. If you have a child that is stubborn and willful, you should try an experiment on him: apply the method of Love with this child. Start loving this child and don’t ever think of his negative features; instead, try to think that this child is good and reasonable and you will see that after a while your child will improve. A story has it that one day Archangel Gabriel noticed that every morning God smiled down to someone and talked to this one softly and lovingly. Gabriel was intrigued by God’s behaviour: he wanted to see the soul towards which God would pour so much gentleness and Love. He set out on a journey around the world to look for this soul. During his journey Gabriel visited many scientists, preachers, and priests, but could not find this soul anywhere. Then he went back up to Heaven to look for this soul from up there. As he still could not find it, he finally went back down to Earth one more time, determined to go to all the remote places around the world. One day he found himself at a primitive shrine where he saw an idol worshipper- a simple and wild man- who was bowing before his idol, and was talking to it. It was here that Gabriel found God who was smiling at the idol worshipper and was talking softly to him. At this moment Archangel Gabriel realized that the form of his logic was wrong. He thought that God could only be smiling to some scientist, or to some spiritual or holy person, and he didn’t even think that God could be smiling to someone who was so simple that he did not have a true idea about God. There is a Bulgarian proverb, which states, “God looks not at your face, but at your heart.” Religious people today, who belong to various churches[A1] (Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Catholic, Buddhist), consider themselves to be of the true faith. It does not even occur to them that there are people outside of their churches[A2] , to whom God speaks softly and lovingly. Why? Because those people’s thoughts and feelings are right, and their soul aspires towards God. Man’s situation is defined by his soul’s aspirations, for it is the aspirations that determine the way God will look at this man. If God looks benevolently on people, they will be saved. God will talk softly and lovingly to that person, who has the right aspirations. Now I wish that all Bulgarians may have the aspirations of that idol worshipper at the primitive shrine, so that God may speak to them softly and with Love. You might say that the idol worshipper had wrong concepts; his concepts might be wrong, but his aspirations are right. Rejoice if your concepts are wrong and you have delusions, because God has decided to be soft with and benevolent to all who are weak, lame, mute, suffering, wronged, lost and so on. God is God of the orphans, of the poor, of the widows, of the suffering, and not God of the rich, the full-bellied, and the dignitaries. Once God used to be God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, but now he is God of the poor, of the suffering, and of the widows. God says, “My servants did not do their work on Earth properly. Now I am going down to Earth Myself to finish My work: to make this world a better place.” This world will become a better place, because God is already working in it. He is coming down to Earth to give Life to everyone, so that they will accept and apply His teaching, and so that they may do that not for their own sake, but for the sake of all humankind. Some may say that they are poor, lame, blind: do not be afraid, for God is coming for your sake. Is God not coming for the sake of the rich, as well? He is not coming for their sake, because they do not need Him. He will turn to all lame, crippled, and blind, saying, “Work as hard as you can, all of you, so that you may learn My teaching, and so that you may become healthy, strong and rich. My Teaching is like a laden table, full of tasty dishes.” Partake of all of God’s blessings, be merry and rejoice! I wish you all to open your ears, to listen, and to apply God’s Word. Those, who have not done their work well, need to finish it. When they turn to God, then God will teach them how to live and how to understand His words. The judgment of the world is upon us: God is coming down to Earth to judge people and to give everyone their worth. If someone has lost an eye, God will order a new eye to be put in; if someone has lost a leg, God will order a new leg to be put on; if someone has lost an arm, God will order a new, healthy arm to be put on. A judge’s verdict can be fair and well-deserved, but God’s verdict is even more just and reasonable. God will satisfy all and will provide them with conditions to evolve correctly in their mind, in their heart and in their soul. You should aspire for this God. Many ask where God is, and not being able to find Him, they ask for proof that He exists. No matter what proof you receive, you will find yourself in a ridiculous situation, for it will be like lighting a candle in broad daylight when the Sun is shining, and then pointing the candle towards the Sun, saying, “There, you can see the Sun.” It is ridiculous to have to prove to someone that God exists. If someone wants me to convince him I will take him by the hand and I will tell him, “Come with me, open your eyes and look, open your ears and listen!” Your aspirations and your rightful concepts, your Life, and your movement are all due to God. He is the One speaking in you, and moving you, and so then, look for Him inside you, not outside of you. He says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Therefore, look for the One who gives Life, and not for the one who comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I wish you all to go deeply into yourself and to turn to God, Who is in you; I wish you to be able to understand Him, and to know Him. It is only then that you will understand to differentiate between the logic of form, of content and of meaning. Jesus pointed out to you the logic of meaning; now you are to study the logic of content, and in the future, you will study the logic of forms. Today you will interpret things according to their content, and in the future according to their forms. May 6, 1917 Sofia [A1]Churches are only of the Christian faith, as you have Buddhist here you should write [various religions] [A2]Same as above [religion or faith]

Note 6 What God Has Joined Together “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Mark: 10:9 Let’s go back to what God has joined together. I take these words in a very broad sense, i.e. the way Christ understood them to mean. They cover the entire human life in all of its manifestations. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” This putting asunder is the source of all suffering in life. There is no need to argue about this statement; anybody can verify it from experience. When you are put asunder from your husband, from your soul, from your brothers or sisters, friends, from your house, from your fatherland, you feel sad. Why so? The word fatherland has a meaning a bit different from the meaning people usually understand. Fatherland is usually taken to mean home, family, but what family is on the earth, in Heaven it is fatherland, a Divine home. Contemporary people understand putting asunder to mean parting only between a man and a woman, i.e. what they call separating. Putting asunder is supposed to mean separating of any thought and desire from your mind and heart. When you separate a good thought from your mind or a good desire from your heart, you commit a crime. “Do not throw away what God has joined together!” The exercises1 that I gave you last month are connected with this great law. In the first sentence you say, „Let my Sun rise in my soul like this.“ Why? Just like the Sun in the physical world is the cause for the growth in Nature, just like it, rising above the horizon, refreshes Nature, similarly there is a Sun within human beings, which rises and refreshes them. When the rays of the natural Sun shine in the desert, they warm only the sand and if you travel bare-foot in the sand, it will scorch you. If its rays fall upon soil rich in seeds, they bring good, they develop these seeds, and create life, and if you travel through such a place, you feel fine. If your Sun rises under the same law, you will experience it and you will see that everything said here is very true. If you have put asunder what God has joined, your Sun will rise the way it rises in the desert and there will be hot and cold currents. Have you seen how people take their clothes off in summer, they are out of breath, they feel hot; this hotness is due to the fact that that there is insufficient vegetation. Why should your Sun rise? To make everything good within you grow. Now, you will add the following to the first sentence of the exercise, “Let my Sun rise in my soul like this and renovate my heart.” You will also add some new words to the sentences in the persons, (in the second person singular), “You can! – Let God’s Sun rise in me like this and renovate my soul. (in the third person singular), “He/she can! – Let the Sun of my spirit rise like this and renovate my mind. (in the first person plural), “We can! – Let the Sun of our Angels rise like this and renovate our hearts. (in the second person plural), “You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise like this and renovate our souls. (in the third person plural), “They can! – Let the Sun of all Suns rise in our spirits like this and renovate our minds. The work on the renovation of the heart, soul and mind will take a whole month. This is the meaning of the line, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” This is the law, to which you now return, to put your heart, soul and mind in agreement. Anybody who has put asunder what God has joined has lost this harmony. There are many women, whose husbands died, but some of them are alive, though people consider them dead and vice versa, there are dead women, who are alive. So, according to my understanding a certain woman may be alive, but she might have been dead for a long time staying at home, just like some abandoned skeleton in the zoos or like a stuffed bird in a museum. The Turks have a saying for similar cases “For the show”.2 This is my understanding of Apostle Paul’s epistle saying, “Do not accept a widow below sixty years of age.” Number six is the number of Love. Paul shows that such a person is not ready to work yet. Therefore, young widows have to get married, and bring up children. This is a great law. The word marriage means Life. Contemporary people do not understand Life, since they do not understand the spiritual meaning of things. You have a child who does not eat; the mother believes that the child is sick and she worries. But what will you say about a child who has stopped singing? What about a child who has stopped praying? A person, who has stopped eating, singing and praying, is a sick person. Eating refers to the body, singing – to the heart, praying – to the mind. Some philosophers say that a person should not pray. I tell them, “Some germs have entered your mind, and therefore you are sick.” Certainly, you have to try experimenting. You are now in a School. I do not tell you to throw everything out when you go back home. I do not teach you to throw everything out, but to put it to use. When contemporary people have cloths, they collect them and make rugs3 out of them. You have a fertiliser – fertilise your field then. So, make it your task to go back to the words of, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” What does this joining together imply? The joining of the Sun with human beings is conditioned by five senses. We may be joined together with the Sun through our eyes. If we damage our eyes, we shall be deprived of this good. If we damage our sense of smell, we shall not get in touch with the aroma of fruit, which is created by the Sun. If our taste is damaged, we shall not understand this internal good, which is contained within the fruit. We have to keep our eyes clean. How are the eyes damaged? When a woman loses her husband, she starts crying for him and keeps crying for him, and her eyes fail. Why should she cry? Previously she did not want this very same man, and now she cries for him. According to me, in this respect crying is not natural. Crying should imply certain softening of the heart. Any crying, which does not bring about softening, is no good. I will give you the following example to clarify my point: a thief was sentenced, for stealing twenty-five leva4, to a three-year stay in prison. The barrister who defended the thief said, "He did not steal intentionally; if he were a thief, there would have been ten thousand leva at the same place, which he would have taken as well." On hearing this, the thief started crying. "Why are you crying?", the judges asked. "Because I could not take the ten thousand leva." Many people now cry not because they have stolen twenty-five leva, but because they have not noticed the ten thousand leva, they failed to take it. It is often the case when some people cry and say, „I’m sorry for not having this or that.“ I say you are sorry for not taking the ten thousand leva. Knowledge is necessary inasmuch as it could be useful to you. The numerous hypotheses and philosophical theories are necessary inasmuch as they represent exercise for the mind, but Life needs the essential stuff, because it always imparts health, Peace, and a special internal Joy. So you have to think along analogous lines: just like the Sun generates springs, forests, mountains and all the goods on earth, just like this your Sun, when it rises in your heart, will create all the goods according to the same law. You shall only have to work sensibly. You are the masters of your lives and there is no force that can counteract you, because God, who had joined these things together, takes care to maintain this equilibrium. Any thought, regardless whether it is good or bad, which is generated within you, triggers a big struggle. Two sensible forces struggle simultaneously within you; both of them tell you how you should act. Sensible Life is necessary for you, not to society. Society is a condition for individuals. Christ says that it is not the individual who is made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for the individual. One should not become a slave to society. Society is the medium for the development of individual souls. The collective societies are units put together. You ask why God created the world. He created it for your soul. But you say, “Society and the world need to improve!” If all people are healthy, if they sing and eat, while you are not well, what benefit will this world be to you? What is the use of there being many angels and saints? The world will improve when you improve. When I speak of society, I mean the internal human being. You should never say, “What can I do?” How did the world start deteriorating in the first place? Everything has come from the people, from individuals. Some Parisian woman fancied wearing a wig and in time you see all the others following her example. A certain woman had a whim to make a tight-fitting dress – all the others start wearing tight dresses; or some woman decided to wear a loose gown – all the rest imitate her. A man felt like having trousers with broad turn-ups – this becomes fashionable and everybody starts following his example. One is an example to many. Do not think that whatever you do in this world has no implications. Implications there are – for you and for the others. Therefore Christ says, “Fear not, your Father has the good will to give you His Kingdom.” In order to be strong, you have to restore this togetherness within you. You have to renovate this disharmony, which exists in you, because there are many thoughts in you which trouble you, there are many contradictions. Say for example, you ask me what your future will be like. Sometimes I tell you, “I can tell you nothing.” Why? Because I see that the future is very bad for that person. A monk was very pious and made five hundred bows each time. Another monk, on seeing him, recognised that he was very pious. The first one wondered how the other could know, but did not think that, because due to all the bowing he did, his fingers got corns. Similarly, everybody has one’s own corns and these corns make it obvious what you do. Christ says, “You, women, have to go back to your initial situation!” To which situation? To the situation when you fed on the fruit of the Tree of Life. There comes a bitter thought, a bitter desire – this is from the Tree of knowledge of the Good and Evil. Whatever thought comes to your mind, reject it immediately and replace it with a good one! You hate somebody. Do not attempt to remove this person or to avoid him or her, but find somebody else whom to love. Secular people understand this law better. For example, when a man does not love his wife, he finds another woman, whom to love. The same law is at work with secular women: she does not love her husband – she loves somebody else. This reaction cannot be avoided in the world. Do not think that you act in a different way. You may say that this is not the case with you. Such is the law. In order to evade it, you will always apply the opposite. You may say this teaching is wrong. If it is wrong, there is no point talking about it. Put the right up in front, and the wrong will remain as its shadow. Out of all of this, you may learn how to rectify your husband’s mood and how to rectify your own mood. However, what is it that you do? You appeal to God and pray, “God, take this man, or take me, so that I can be free from him!” But you do not know that you will not be free then either, because if he departs, it will be even worse for you. There are many examples from spiritualism confirming this. As an example a man who did not get on well with his wife, freed himself from her and then married another one. But his first wife, although dead, managed to drive the second one away. When someone says, that they cannot live with their husbands or wives, this means that there are some dead men or women who are in the way. The dead men and women have a great influence and that is why Christ says, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” When a human being enters this Divine harmony, all the discontentment with life will fade, because now people are not in their proper places. And now I meet men and women who are suspicious. For example somebody is said not to be sincere. If that person is not sincere, how can this be counteracted? I have collected many pictures, all from characters without any joining together, without any music. In the second person singular of the verb can, you pronounce “You can! – Let God’s Sun rise within me like this and renovate my soul.” The soul in this particular context shall be understood to mean the boundary of your world, what is shaped internally within you, all the potential hidden in you; because the Sun is inside you and only this Divine Sun is in a position to renovate this big and large soul. You sometimes think that you are very small, or you wonder what you are like. You have never seen how large your soul is. Each one of you has three faces. Let’s take a woman called Mary for example: there is one Mary at the physical level, there is another one among the angels and one more in the Divine world. The three of these Mary's are connected, but when you talk to me about any of them I ask you which one of the three you are talking about. True Love consists in loving the three Mary's. There comes a man and loves only one of the Mary's; you say, „You can’t do this. You have to love all three of them!“ The wife, on her turn, loves only one of her husband’s faces – the one at the physical level. Such women or men are said to be heartless. Mary’s heart is among the angels. This implies knowing the soul of the person! And then you will start looking upon people in a bit different way. By knowing the person on the physical level, by getting to know the person among the angels and by getting to know the person who is in the Divine world, you will then understand what a great creature the human being is! When you say, „I can, you can, he can, she can“, these are your three persons: you, i.e. I, you and he or she – I, the one who is here; you, the one among angels; and he or she, who is with God. Human beings and the angles make a couple, while God shows the direction where the angels should aim. This is how a triangle is formed – this is the first geometrical figure. When we get to the plural of the verb can, we say, „we can, you can, they can“. When we say „we can“ this means that we, all of the people, all the human beings on the Earth, can. „You can“, means you, the Angels above. „They can“, means all Gods who are up there. If this is the way you understand this profound thought, these supreme feelings will start awaking within you immediately, they will start growing naturally and then everybody around you will be predisposed and will love you. No one can love you, if you, too, do not love. In order for the flower to blossom, the Sun must rise. When your Sun rises, your soul will inevitably blossom. It is when the Sun of your spirit rises, then your mind will also blossom. This is the contemporary philosophy: to peel away all of these shells! You may say, „This is a very difficult philosophy, we have so many shells!“ Take a nut, take the shell off and only then you can see how big it is. Some people are very big, but take away their wrappings and you will see how big they are. You have to stick to a teaching that has contents within. You are tense and you say, „What new ideas could he tell us?“ Do not think of what new ideas will be told to you, but rather think how you can apply this Teaching to yourselves. A cart driver, on passing by a tree, thinks to himself, „What a nice axis for my wheels this tree will make!“ A wood-chopper, on passing by this tree, thinks to himself, „What a nice beam I can make out of this tree!“ A miller on passing by a spring thinks to himself, „What nice water for my mill!“ Similarly you also, on passing by a tree or by a spring, think of what you can use it for! Those of you who experimented last month, have you noticed any results? Do you have an appetite? The harmony between eating, singing and praying is the first thing to be restored in you. Avoid self-judgements. If you believe there is a mistake within you, correct it, do not judge, but correct yourselves! If you believe you made a mistake and if you do not correct it, this is not the right approach. Watch the colour of the Sun in the morning. When the colour is intensive red and this makes an impression upon you, this means that you are very blasé about life. If, at sunrise, you notice a cloud, this shows that there is a cloud across your Sun and therefore you should try to remove it. Let’s say you are not predisposed, you do not love somebody – you have such a dark cloud upon your Sun. The Lord can see it and He says, „There is a dark cloud across Mary’s Sun“. Try to derive pleasant feelings from things around, a sort of childish disposition; do not think that you have lived long enough, that you have suffered long enough. An ox, who has carried many loads and was whipped 50 times everyday, what does such an ox know? He only knows the law of whips. If an ox has worked well for twenty years and his master has stroked the ox on the back, what does he know? He only knows to be stroked and nothing more than this. How many times will you see dark clouds across the Sun, nevertheless each day it will bring you a blessing, new thoughts, and new desires. This Sun is certainly just an object of the Suns rising within you - the Sun of your heart, of your soul, and of your mind. Some may ask you what these Suns are. This you will keep to yourselves. You will make an experiment and when you see the results, only then will you tell others as well. If you do not see for yourselves, at the slightest failure, you will think that none of this is true. Make a small progress, but in your small success, you should be confident! I shall now give you some additional sentences to the prayer I had given you: I believe in You Lord, Who spoke to me in the past.5 You have imparted in me all the good seeds for my life. I believe in You, Lord, Who speaks to me now. You grow the good within me. I believe in You, Lord, Who will speak to me in the future. I will rejoice in Your Life. The word Your (Твой6) is meaningful. It implies a union of these three principles. In the letter T the vertical line stands for the man, while the horizontal one stands for the woman. These aim at a union or there is an aspiration between the active and the passive conditions, between the two great Forces at work in the world. And the letter в embodies the unification principle, the working method. We should be glad the way work is done in this world. Keep saying, „I will rejoice in what You prepare!“ You may say that you are like that person who believes only when given money. When I give somebody money, there is no need for such a person to believe, as it is already a fait accompli. Many times you ask, „What will my future life be like?“ The way you get up in the morning and say „I will do this, I will do that“, the same way your future life will be too. You say, „I will smash this person!“ You will also be smashed in the future. When you say that you will do a favour to someone, this means that you will be given favours in the future. You have to be good and cheerful, because the greatest secrets are revealed to you through suffering. Secular people are cheerful and enjoy life, while spiritual people impart a sort of seriousness and thus it appears that they impose serious rules in their lives. A spiritual person should be understood to mean anybody who is conscious of one’s life. I shall give you an example of a really spiritual person: a master-mason was giving instructions to his apprentices on how to lift a big stone on top of the house, but while he was showing them, the stone fell upon his hand and tore one of his fingers away. He turned to God and said, „Thank you, God, for not tearing the whole hand!“ Anyone who has similar views on life is spiritual. Contemporary women should create a great atmosphere; they should all help one another. All of you should try to be predisposed internally and to be pleased with the little you have. I have heard a woman saying about another one, „She did not welcome me properly.“ How could she welcome you properly when her husband had beaten her and she had some problems with her son? This is why spiritual people should have good thoughts about other people. By saying that somebody is good, we will really make that person better. You will study the law of rejuvenation. This is the resurrection. You should not say, „We have grown old“, on the contrary, you should say, „We are young, there is a lot of work to do from now on!“ You should not say, „I will die“, on the contrary, you should say, „I decided to make a new house!“ Say, you have lost your money, you will say, „I gave it to the bank“. Interpret things the right way. One day, Christ’s disciples, when passing along a dead dog, said, „What a bad smell!“, while Christ said, „What nice white teeth it has!“ Beware of this, do not say that something smells bad, but wash your hands. Washing your hands implies being righteous. This is the only way the world will become righteous. But it takes long years before you get to know the manifestations of people. Master’s lecture, delivered on 3 may 1917 1 The exercises are given in the Righteousness and Salvation lecture dated 5 April 1917 (editor’s notes) 2 „For the show“ is taken to mean „to expose“. It usually has a negative reproachful connotation. 3 In the original shorthand notes there is the word books standing for rugs. 4 Leva – this is the Bulgarian national currency 5 In the shorthand notes there is no „me“. 6 The Bulgarian for Your is Твой Sofia, April 22, 1917 Source

Note 1 The Will of God “He who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 The phrases, the Will of God or the Will of the Father are classic ones. However, the phrase the Will of God brings out a smirk on the faces of contemporary people: why so? This is so, because people are not sure if God exists or not. The world has a twofold manifestation: it has a conscious and an unconscious manifestation. We are in the unconscious world when we deal with the chaotic state of the world, of the matter, of the forces, and of the laws which are at work in the world. This unconscious world is one with no laws, or even if there are any laws, then they are mechanistic, irrational ones. When Christ says that not everyone who calls out, “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of God, we should know that He has in mind the well-formed, conscious world, which is one of law and order. Therefore, only the one, who does the Divine Will, can enter the conscious world. The Divine Will is linked to the sensible side in man, for only the sensible one is able to do the Will of God. In the physical world this Will is expressed through the law of necessity, i.e. through the mechanistic laws. The motion of the wheel in factory machines is a mechanistic one: man cannot counteract it. Once this wheel is set in motion no one can stop it, unless someone pushes the button that operates it; you can pray to it as much as you want, but praying has no effect on it. If you get caught in the wheel, you will be spun around it and crushed, for the wheel is subject to the law of necessity, which is a mechanistic law, and there is no Intelligence in this law. This is why all those people who only serve their own will view the world as a sum total of coincidences. The word coincidence means to them a world of chaos, i.e. a world that has no relation to man’s personal life. Just like the factory wheel has no relation to man, so the mechanistic laws in the world have no relation to man. When speaking of doing the Will of God what I have in mind is the Intelligent life that does have relation to man. There are intelligent and conscious laws that are at work in this Life. When we speak of culture, and of Virtues, and of law and order in the world, we have the Intelligent will in mind, i.e. the Will of God, which penetrates the consciousness of individuals, societies and nations alike as long as they are in unison with this Will. I am not talking about the individual will, because God’s Will is above all. Jesus says, “He, who does not fulfill God’s Will, cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Only the one whose higher consciousness is awakened is someone who can fulfill God’s Will; only the one who has the feelings and abilities necessary to perceive the essence of things is someone who can fulfill God’s Will. When a student studies mathematics he needs to have an understanding of the mathematical relations between the numbers and the mathematical procedures that are done with the use of these numbers. Every formula that is applied in mathematics is, in fact, a living construct, not an inanimate one as it might appear to be. A seed that has not been planted appears to be dead, lifeless; however, as soon as it is placed in the ground it manifests its life. It is the favorable conditions that make it possible for the Intelligent life to manifest itself in every being. In this sense, every person can be regarded as a seed awaiting the favorable conditions to sprout. It is not important what kind of a seed the human being is (the human being may be a seed from an apple, or a pear, a vine, a rose, etc.); what matters is that as a living being man is also a sentient being. Overall, all people who have sweetness in them are intelligent and conscious; those who have bitterness in them are unintelligent and unconscious. The bitterness in people must be transformed into sweetness the same way the bitter, sour and tart juices in the fruits gradually turn sweeter. Man must transform his bitterness into sweetness through internal means. Therefore, when someone says that his life is hard and unbearable, he should know that the bitter juices prevail in him. Such a man should expose himself to the Divine light more often so that his fruit can ripen and the bitter juices can turn sweeter. It is only then that man will enter the Conscious life and will become a citizen of the Kingdom of God; then there will be nothing impossible for him. In studying man philosophers dwell on man’s three basic elements: mind, heart and willpower. The will is an expression of the internal harmony between the mind and the heart, and so the will expresses a certain principle that connects two opposite forces- those of the mind and of the heart- by having them work in one reasonable direction. It is through the willpower, assisted by the mind and the heart, that man can bring out his ability to transform the inferior in him into superior, and the crude into something noble. The human culture stems precisely from both the individual and the collective human will. Whether it is the collective or the individual consciousness that is at work, it is still one and the same law that governs it. In Bulgarian the word will (воля, pronounced “volja”) is made of four letters. The first letter, В is made of a vertical line and two semicircles. The circle represents the Divine life, which is connected to the vertical line, the latter being the direction in which we should be moving, i.e. upwards, towards the head. Many question the existence of God by saying: Where is He? God is where man’s head is. He who has a head on his shoulders cannot deny God’s existence; if he has no head, he can deny everything. If there were no other force counteracting the earth’s gravity, man would have been turned upside down. It is due to this other force that man’s head points upward, towards the center of the Sun; it is due to this other force that man can walk erect. Knowing this, make sure you keep your head clean: nourish it with clean air and Light, as well as with pure thoughts and desires. Do not import into your mind any thoughts that bring disturbance and doubt. Everyone is afraid of the war and everyone wishes that it would end as soon as possible. What causes this war? It is due to the failure to do the Will of God. What caused the fall of Nineveh? Nineveh was once a highly evolved cultural center, but its citizens lived a bad life, and would not do God’s Will, thus dooming themselves to perish. Likewise, Assyria and Babylon were centers of culture, but they also perished. There is a certain similarity between the culture of the people of Assyria and Babylon and the culture of people today. Those people used to know a lot of things, they knew the elements and their properties but they abused their knowledge by using it in a bad way. They would start wars and kill each other- people today do the same thing. It was for this reason that the old peoples perished, and it was for this reason that their Power and Knowledge was taken away from them. If the nations today follow the same way they, too, will disappear; if the European nations do not come to their senses they are facing the same fate that befell Nineveh. Those who disobey the Will of God deprive themselves of His blessing. Just like men rid their organism of impure substances through sweating so will God rid His organism of all men and peoples of this modern culture who do not do His Will. This is a Divine law; it is an intelligent one that regulates Life. What will happen to us? Nothing bad will happen to you: those who live in the Divine world should not be afraid. Think right and do not fear anything. Sometimes you say, “Nothing depends on me.” I say that much depends on you. If you were to place even one single grain of wheat on one of the trays of a scale that has been balanced with equal weights, then that single grain would affect the scales. Who knows, you might be that last person whose presence could turn the motion of the Divine wheel into a different direction. And still all people keep thinking that it is God Who has to come down to Earth to set this world right. It is true that God will set the world right, but He will do this through people. When it comes to setting the world right, man is directly concerned whereas God is concerned indirectly. The world was created for man to learn in it, to discipline himself and to entertain himself. God is interested in us as much as we are mindful in studying and observing God’s laws. The day when we break our relationship with God, the Original Reason of all things, will be the day when God will stop taking interest in us. Man is free to choose whether to do or not to do God’s Will, but he will also bear the consequences of his free and foolish will. The prophet Jonah is an case in point of someone who does not do God’s Will: God sent him to Nineveh to preach repentance to its inhabitants, but he declined under the pretext that God would extend His Compassion to them and He would pardon their sins, thus making Jonah look like a foolish liar. Jonah said, “I don’t want to subject myself to the ridicule and mockery of these cultured people, Oh Lord. I will preach Your words to them, then You will forgive them and in the end it will look like I’ve been lying to them. I know You, Lord: You are merciful and kind.” Jonah bought a ticket to Joppa planning to reach the city of Tarshish, where he boarded a ship and set out to sea. What happened on the way? A storm arose in the sea and the sailors decided to propitiate it by throwing Jonah over board. The city of Nineveh lay on the bank of the Tigris river; it was a beautiful city and its culture was like the present-day culture. Back then the population of Nineveh was about one million people, of which there were no less than about a hundred and twenty thousand children- all of them so innocent and so young that they weren’t even old enough to distinguish between their left hand and their right one. When the citizens of Nineveh repented and pleaded to God for mercy, it was because of the little children that He withheld His punishment. What do the ship and the sea represent? The ship represents organized society, and the sea represents the world and its deeds. Jonah fled from God and hid away from Him in the ship, i.e. in one organized society, among cultured people, who, lost in drinking and eating, tend to forget all about God and say, “We are our own masters and no one can tell us what to do.” But the sea, i.e. the world, becomes stormy and the ship starts swaying from one side to another. Man becomes agitated along with the storminess of the sea, and loses his influence among the members of his society. In breaking his connection with God man also loses his mental and moral powers and starts to grow old; people then start treating him with disregard and turn away to younger, more capable people. This is the situation that Jonah put himself in when he went aboard that ship and set off to sea, i.e. to the world; it was because he did not know the law of Light that his journey took such a fatal turn. In order to pacify the storm, the sailors decided to throw Jonah into the sea where he was swallowed by a whale. Jonah could not swim and so he fell into the whale’s mouth: the whale represents death, and death swallows all those who do not do God’s will. Jonah spent three whole days in the belly of the whale, all the way praying from the bottom of his heart. He prayed thus, “Please, God, save me from the mouth of the whale, i.e. from the mouth of death, so that I shall do Your will.” God listened to his plea and asked the whale to spit Jonah out onto the shore. Thus saved, Jonah went back to Nineveh to do God’s will, and there he preached repentance to the people. What happened to Jonah also happens to every person: man goes on board the ship and because he refuses to do God’s will, he ends up in the sea. The only thing that can save you is to pray to God from the bottom of your heart like Jonah did. You may object by saying that one should live a little. However, it is after you find yourselves in the belly of the whale that you will learn about life; in other words, once you are in the grave, then you will learn about life, for man retains his consciousness even there and he goes through great suffering and great tribulations until he frees himself from his body. Man’s link to this world may consist of one, or of many or even of thousand strong fibers, and it is not easy to sever those. The righteous man is linked with only one fiber and he can break it very easily; the sinner is linked with multiple fibers and cannot set himself loose easily. The soul and the Spirit are in a difficult situation while the fibers of the body are being broken. What helps break these fibers? What helps is man’s doing God’s will. Every fiber is like an atom that acts on the matter, molding and transforming it; therefore, these fibers have their place. If you cannot set these fibers in motion so that they can turn the wheel of Life you will be like a factory that has ceased working a long time ago: such a factory is doomed to bankruptcy. If the fibers that are at work in the stomach stop working man grows alarmed: he sends for the doctor right away so that the doctor can restore the activity of the million fibers working in the man’s stomach. If you were seers you would be able to see that the whole world is constructed of interwoven fibers like a spider web. Only this is no spider web, but different ways through which God works, as well as different ways through which one can do God’s will. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” This verse pertained to people back then, but it also pertains to people who live today, two thousand years after Jesus lived. Back then they were in an embryonic stage, they were like a seed, but Jesus spoke to the seeds, too. He wanted to warn them that one day- even if that day is two thousand years away- one day when they find themselves in a difficult situation, going through trials and suffering they will need to know how to do the Will of their Father if they are to rise out of this chaos and keep on evolving. Who is our Father? You read about Esau who addressed the people of Israel, saying, “Israel, know thy Master!” Israel, however, turned away from its Master, its Father, its God. Philosophers often ponder the question of what came first: the chicken or the egg. There are two opinions on this matter: some say that the chicken came first, and others maintain that it was the egg that came first. I think that the first opinion is more plausible. To pose this question is to ask what came first: the cause or the effect. The cause came first and then came the effect; therefore, the chicken is the cause, and the egg is the effect. The word chicken implies an old person, i.e. the lowly human mind. The dove is the symbol of the evolved human mind. Through his evolved, superior mind man can do God’s will, because this mind is the greatest gift, the greatest good that has been given to man. Now that you know this you should always strive to keep your mind pure to save it from corruption. The smallest rust that penetrates into the mind can corrupt it. He, who has corrupted his mind, is lost for Life; he might still be alive physically, but he cannot benefit from Life, for the great Light cannot enter his mind. Jesus says, “If you do not want to lose the meaning of Life and lose Life itself, you should do the Will of God.” What sums up the Will of our Great Father? One of His laws states, “Do not do unto others what you do not want done unto yourself.” The word law means that which has been manifested into the world in a certain form; in other words, laws are nothing but different forms through which God’s Will can be fulfilled. According to the occultists only the one who is able to fulfill God’s will, the one who has been able to manifest his intelligent will, can be his own master, as well as a master over Nature and those around him. He who connects with God becomes one with Him and is free to claim that the development and the evolution of the whole mankind is his own development, too, and that the wellbeing of all people is his own wellbeing, too. The opposite is also true: such a man’s success is success for the whole mankind, and his wellbeing is wellbeing for the whole. This necessitates a correct relationship between the human soul and God. Then God will want to convey to us all Knowledge, and all blessing that He has in Him; He says, “My grace is your grace and your grace is Mine.” This is the true relationship between the Great Father and His children. How can one tell when there is a correct relationship between the human soul and God? There is something that everyone can use as a test. Imagine that someone falls seriously ill: such a person should try to connect with God. All he needs to do is turn to Him with a heartfelt prayer, and he will have a response. Every time you have a response to your prayers shows that you are connected with God and He listens to you. Say this, “Lord, help me through my hard times; help me rid myself of this illness so that I can serve You in Joy. I want to dedicate my Life to serving Love and doing Your Will.” If you pray with these words, you will receive an immediate response: your temperature will go down, your condition will improve and, in a few days, you will be completely healthy. People today expect to have great results without doing the Will of the Great Father, but this is impossible. Such a life is a mechanistic one and it cannot bring man satisfaction, and for this reason man is dissatisfied with Life. Under these circumstances, instead of ridding himself of illnesses, one becomes even more ill. There was once a German doctor who was interested in nervous system disorders, and studied about four hundred different manifestations of nervous system disorders. He gave them all different names, but when he came across the four hundred and first manifestation he could not think of a name for it, and so for everything that was above the number four hundred he termed with the common word americanichi. What causes nervous system disorders? Men’s sinful life causes them. Someone who is a neurasthenic is in a situation where his nervous energy is constantly drained out of him, and he becomes deficient. You come across people who live well and treat their bodies well, but are neurasthenics: this is because they carry out the consequences of their ancestors’ bad lives. A pauper wants to know what he can do in order to get rich and to set in order his muddle of debts: the only way for him to improve his situation is through mindful work. A sick man wants to know how he can restore his health: health is related to Mindful living: by living mindfully and doing God’s the sick one will soon be able to restore his health. Religion comes to help the one who wants to learn how to live mindfully. Being religious is not only about going to church, and listening to sermons and beautiful music, but is mostly about following through with what you’ve learned. The Good needs to become a part of man’s whole being and must penetrate into the Life of all people: from the king to the shepherd, and from the richest home to the poorest one. All people should have equal rights and obligations. What do we see in societies today? We see that all men, all societies and all peoples strive to become rich, strong and powerful. This is a good goal, but it is not well applied in practice. When one becomes rich he starts thinking only about oneself; when one becomes strong he starts abusing the weak and the poor; when one acquires power, one starts ruling over those around him. Don’t you know that God helps the weak, the poor and the suffering? Therefore you should strive to be like Him: if you are rich, you should help the poor; if you are strong, you should protect the weak; if you have power, you should rule over yourself first. He who can rule over himself can also rule over others. Knowing this, do not turn away from any opportunity to help the weak, the poor, the suffering, the short-witted, etc. Today someone may pass as an idiot, but some day God will lift him up from that state and will make him a philosopher: this is why it is said that what is impossible for man is possible for God. God is all-powerful: He can transform the caterpillar into a butterfly, and the butterfly into a caterpillar. Once you used to be butterflies, but today you are caterpillars. You should not take offense when I say this. When I say caterpillar I mean it as a symbol for the materialistic understanding of Life. Once up on the leaf, the caterpillar thinks, “I should eat as much as I wish, for if I eat a lot I will grow up fast; if I eat a little, I will remain little.” This reasoning holds true for the stage at which this caterpillar is; but there will come a day when it will lose its desire to eat leaves and those around it will say that the caterpillar’s stomach is upset and it cannot use food any more. It is not that the stomach is upset, but the caterpillar is passing into a different stage- that of a butterfly- and in that new stage it does not need leaves or medicines to treat its stomach. Before it reaches the butterfly stage, the caterpillar weaves little threads back and forth until it makes up its cocoon, and then it spends some time into this cocoon with no food or movement. After a while the caterpillar breaks the cocoon open and emerges back into the world, but this time as a butterfly, equipped with its own proboscis, and it sets out from one flower to another, sucking sweet nectar from the blossoms. Some sick people do not ingest any food during the whole time of their illness: why do they do that? They are like butterflies, passing from one state into another, and they do not need any food during that period. Those, who do not understand this situation, start to worry and look for a doctor to help. If someone is not eating, this does not mean that he is sick, for there are people who can tolerate hunger, difficulties and temptations and are still stronger than those who eat, and who avoid all difficulties and temptations. It is the difficulties, the temptations and the sufferings that temper one’s character. Sometimes a man would pass as an honest person, but he has never been tested. One can judge one’s honestly only after he’s been tested: if one is bribed with a thousand leva to do some dishonest deed, he may turn down the money under the pretext that he is an honest man; if he is then given ten thousand leva, he may still decline the bribe, but once he is given one hundred thousand leva, he may close his eyes and sell himself. So, someone is honest up to a thousand leva, another is honest up to ten thousand leva and someone else is honest up to a hundred thousand leva: not one of these people is truly honest. True Virtues are not relative, but are absolute in their expression. Once a Frenchman was bribed with one million dollars to commit a crime; when he was put before the judge, he said, “Your Honor, you have no right to sentence me, because what I did was simply carry out a sale: I sold myself for one million leva.” Jesus came down to Earth specifically for those sold-out people: He came down to pay for them. They have sold themselves to the dark powers and they cannot buy themselves back. When Jesus comes across someone who has sold himself, Jesus asks him, “Whom did you sell yourself to and for how much?” “For one million.” “Well then, I will pay it back for you.” Almost all people today have sold themselves to someone. If you doubt this you should ask yourselves where your mother, father and children are. You may say that they have died. What is death? Death is but a sale. In this sense, dying means selling. Is a hen that lives in its master’s coop a free hen? There will come a night when its master will thrust his hand into the coop, grab the hen and put the knife to its neck: the hen will cluck once or twice and that will be the end of that. You go through the same process: there comes a night when your master comes to you, grabs you by the neck, puts the knife to your neck and it’s all over with you. The priest will come next to pray for the peace of your soul. How will your soul obtain peace from God? By doing His Will. You say that death is frightening, but it is only frightening when man does not do God’s Will, for then man rots and starts to smell. If man does God’s Will then when he is ready to pass to the other world, he will simply take off his old garment and will sever his connection with it: therefore, the cure against rotting is in doing God’s Will. You should do an experiment to test the truthfulness of my words. Why does man, after coming to this Earth, not do the Will of the One, who has sent him down to study and work among people? You might object that if you do experiments you test God. Are you not testing God when you sin? When people hear about studying and working they say that they are unable to fight the evil and the devil in the world. The kingdom of evil and the devil is over. Today Jesus is coming into the world, accompanied by evolved Beings of light, and by Good Spirits. Once they come the world will become right again, and all people will be healthy and full of energy. The churches will be filled with true worshippers and servants of God. Then Jesus will ask them, “What are you doing”, and all believers and religious people will reply that they are trying to turn everybody in the world to God. The thief, too, once he gets a hold of your purse will turn it inside out: no, the world does not need to be turned like that. You need to be filled with power and joy if you are to set a good example for the world: even in your suffering you should still be filled with joy. This is what it means to do God’s will: it means to live with no fear of death. Death does not exist for the one who is connected with the living God, for he can hear God’s voice and does His Will. If such a man makes a mistake he immediately hears inside of him God’s soft voice, telling him, “You are not doing a good thing. Correct your mistake!” The one who rejects this voice and refuses to listen to it will bear the consequences of his actions. Listen to God when He speaks to you with Love like a father; should you not listen, He would distance Himself from you and you will be at the mercy of the law. Man should have the courage of that American woman who dedicated herself to her beloved one who came back maimed from the battlefield. He went to the battlefield to fight for his country, but he was wounded in a big fight and lost one of his legs. He wrote to the woman he loved, “I lost one of my legs. I don’t want you to suffer with me, so feel free to find yourself someone strong and healthy to love.” She responded, “I accept you the way you are.” In fact he was wounded much worse than he told her at first, but he did could not confess to her all at once about how bad his situation was. After a while he wrote another letter, “I lost my other leg, too.” “I accept you with much greater Love”, she replied. Finally, he wrote to her, “I am like a corpse, for I lost both my arms.” “Now my Love for you is even greater”, the woman wrote back. How many men and women could remain loyal in such a situation; how many people could pass such a test? It is very rare to come across people who are ready to serve each other with Love and patience if one of them falls ill and is bedridden for a few years. There was a Bulgarian woman who took care of her ill husband for twenty years and she would always say, “Not for a single moment have I grown tired of helping him.” “How come?” “Because I love him.” This Bulgarian woman, like the American woman from the previous story carried the Divine inside: they carried Love. One cannot enter the Kingdom of God if one’s heart is not filled with Love. As long as man thinks only about eating, drinking, wearing nice clothes, having fun and being rich he will never get to know Love; such a man’s heart will remain empty and his mind- encumbered. Why wouldn’t man open his mind, heart and soul to the great in the world so as to be filled with God’s Love? Why wouldn’t he enter this great world of suns and planets? Today Jesus appeals to people’s souls, saying, “Fulfill God’s will and you will become masters of your mind, of your heart and of your soul.” How can we achieve that? By turning the letter K on its back with the two sticks pointing up: in this position it represents the boat of human life. Set your boat out in the sea, put up the sails and sail freely; grasp the rudder with your hands and head out into whatever direction you wish. If you are nervously agitated, you can turn your K with the sticks pointing down and start swimming. All people-men and women- suffering from nervous agitation should go to the front to feel renewed. God likes those who are brave and selfless. One cannot love someone who is fearful or someone who is cold as ice. Only the one who carries Love inside him and spreads it generously around can be loved. If you do not give you cannot receive either. All people, all families, all societies, and all peoples need to be revitalized. Bulgarians, as a people, also need to be revitalized. It is up to them if they will listen to me or not, but it is my duty to tell them the Truth. When I say it I will go away. Where will I go? I will start from the tree roots and will gradually make my way up along the trunk and towards the blossoms, the fruit, the seed, then to the Angel world, and finally to the Divine world, which is my final destination. You might say that I’m going too far. The divine world is not far from people, but it is rich and full of energy: those who go there will acquire a lot of energy and wealth. I, too, go there to acquire more energy so that I am able to come back to people again to work among them and to help them. It is a pleasure for man to work among people and for the people. It does not matter if they will understand him or not, or if they are rich or poor. Does the child understand its mother who feeds it, bathes it, raises it, and disciplines it? The child does not understand its mother while it is little, but one day it will grow up and then it will be able to understand her. The intelligent one understands things and is grateful for everything that he has been given as well as for everything that people do for him. As the child grows older God gives it His blessing and gives it light to become an intelligent person who can have a correct understanding of Life. I wish you that you may be good, mindful and just, so when I meet you I can be happy to see people that I can talk to and with whom I can share my thoughts and wishes. There is no greater good for man than that to meet good and intelligent people with whom he can get along well? When I say things like this some of you wonder what I am planning to do. I am planning to do one of the two: either Good or bad; I am planning either to speak the Truth to you or to hide the Truth from you. If I choose to hide the Truth this shows that I live in a world of chaos; if I speak the Truth that shows that I live in accordance with God’s will. What will one gain from choosing to lie and to do evil? Not only will such a man win nothing, but he will lose everything and will bring ruin onto himself. What is a lie like? A lie is the shadow of Truth, it is the shadow of all Being: a lie is like fake precious stones. Once there was a merchant coming from Malaysia with a bag full of precious stones that he was selling for cheap. A Jew, who was also a merchant, wanted to buy all the stones, but he did not think he could afford it. However, the merchant with the precious stones told the Jew, “My friend, I will sell you this whole bag for ten thousand leva. I have smuggled all of them and that is why I am selling them to you for so cheap: I want to get rid of them so I don’t get myself in trouble.” The Jew thought that this was his lucky moment and, not wanting to miss this opportunity, he decided to buy all of the precious stones. When he went home and looked through the bag he realized that he had been cheated: only a few stones were real precious stones, the rest of them were all fake ones. Today there are many people who carry around bags full of fake precious stones that they present as real precious stones. In the end both they and all those around them realize that they have been fooling themselves. Their knowledge is false, too: they think that their bags are full of real Knowledge, but some day they come to realize that they have been fooling themselves. What good is man’s knowledge if he cannot use it to stop the falling of bombs? A scientist goes to the battlefield, but he, too, runs to hide away from the bombs; what good is his knowledge then if he cannot use it to stop the bombs from falling? You might say that only God has the power to stop the bombs. He who lives in accordance with God and fulfills His Will, is able to stop the bombs, for if they can listen to God, they will listen to you, too. Some people wait for the Pope to say his word to bring peace. Do not wait for anyone, but turn to God and say, “Lord, You are our Father, You can stop the war.” When you recognize God as your Father He will listen to your voice and come to your help. You do not believe in your own power and you think that man cannot do anything about these huge events that are taking place around him. He who does God’s Will can do anything. If all people- Bulgarian, Russian, French, English, German- were to turn their voice to God the war would end and peace would come. Why do people wage wars? People wage wars over nothing: they fight over some trade deals. There is one thing that all people and nations should know: the world is not some anarchy; on the contrary, it is an intelligent world, and God has sent all people into it so that they might live and work mindfully and help each other like brothers. God sent Jesus, His Only Son, down to the world to show people how to live. It is time now to put Christ’s teaching to practice and to put an end to all arguments and misunderstandings. May all mothers, fathers, children, rulers, priests, teachers, and workers be filled with the desire to fulfill God’s will and to enter God’s Kingdom as its citizens and then the peace will come. The New Culture that is coming will lay the foundation for the fulfillment of God’s Will. When this New Culture is applied then people will understand what the present-day culture is like: they will wonder themselves how they could live this way and how they could allow for wars and destroying each other to take place. However, considering the current stage of development of mankind, war is an inevitable process, for it represents man’s passing from one stage into another, just like the caterpillar is inevitably transformed into a butterfly. There is no force in the world that could stop this process, therefore there is no force in the world that could stop the war: the war will continue for as long as it takes for man to pass from the caterpillar stage into the butterfly stage. How will the people of the New Culture be different from people today? They will have a strong willpower, and they will be good and mindful. Nothing will be impossible for such people: they will be able to achieve anything they want. This is why Jesus says, “Not anyone who cries, Lord, Lord will enter the Heavenly Kingdom, but only the one who does God’s Will shall enter”. Do the following experiment: tell yourselves in the course of one month that you are willing to do God’s Will and you will see that the One Who has created you will manifest Himself. He will enlighten your mind and your heart so that you could understand Life and fulfill His Will. Everyone should do this experiment on his own and by his own will, with no pressure from outside, for only in this way can one expect results. The Scriptures say, “The time is coming and it is upon us now when the true worshippers will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.” I say, the time is coming and it is upon us now when the future people will fulfill God’s Will and will be healthy in their mind, heart and body, and whatever they say, they will act upon. They will not need loans and guarantors to vouch for those loans like people do today, for their word will be like a law, because it will be coming out of God’s mouth, and God will be their real guarantor. The world will become a better place when all people, societies and nations, as well as the whole of mankind have God as their guarantor. Doing God’s Will with Love should be every man’s motto; this should be the religion that every man should use as guidance in his Life: Bulgarians should live this way too. And then one day when I see you I will be able to say, “You are fortunate to be doing God’s Will and to have God as your guarantor.” Now go to your homes with the idea of doing God’s Will, and with the idea of living without any man-made bills and guarantors. May God be your guarantor and may His Force be within you. Sofia, April 22, 1917 Source

Note 1 Jacob and Esau “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Genesis 28:12 Jacob and Esau: this is an interesting topic for discussion. Anyone who has read the Bible knows of these two characters. Jacob and Esau were two brothers: Jacob was the younger one and Esau was the older one. The age difference between them was small, for they were born only a few hours apart. There are seven characters that can be outlined in the story of Jacob and Esau. According to the prophecy, Jacob and Esau would become two different nations, of which the elder would serve the younger. Jacob and Esau jostled each other within their mother’s womb, thus causing her great discomfort. The story has it that Esau was the first one to come out, followed by Jacob whose hand was grasping onto his brother’s heel. They were very different in appearance: Esau was hairy while Jacob’s skin was smooth. In other words, Esau was manly while Jacob was feminine. From a physiological standpoint, Esau is a man of nature: he is straightforward, candid, and impulsive; he lives from day to day and does not value Life. He represents a lower culture. There are many people who are like Esau. After a good meal these people say, “Thank you, Lord, for giving us food. Tomorrow you will take care of us again.” They express thankfulness only in regard to their food. Jacob is feminine, but also bold, at the same time. He has some negative traits: he is cunning and deceptive. Jacob is like those moneychangers who gain from everything. Whatever he undertakes Jacob wants to come out a winner. According to Jewish law, Esau, being the firstborn, was entitled to his father’s blessing. However, Jacob harbored the desire to obtain his brother’s birthright. He was looking for an opportunity to make his wish come true, and soon he was presented with a chance to do that. One day Esau came in from the field, feeling famished and tired, and he saw that his brother, Jacob, was eating lentil stew. Esau asked his brother to let him have a pot of lentils. Jacob told him, “I will give you some, but if you sell me your birthright.” Esau begged him, “I will sell it to you, I swear, just give me food to eat. What good is the birthright to me if I am famished?” At this point of the story, there are two more characters that come into play: the mother, Rebecca, and the father, Isaac. The mother loved Jacob more, for he had taken after her in his thinking and in the aspirations of his heart. The father loved Esau more, for he was a natural man with common sense. The mother represents the mind in man, and the father represents the reason, which has reached its highest point of evolution with the human being. Jacob’s mother, just like Jacob, himself, wanted for him to obtain his brother’s birthright. But the father who loved Esau more thought that, by law, it was Esau’s right, being the firstborn, to receive his father’s blessing. As Esau’s father was growing old and his eyesight was weak, he called Esau and told him, “I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” Then Esau left to hunt some game and bring it to his father. However, Rebecca overheard what Isaac told his son Esau. She, then, went to Jacob and told him, “I overheard the conversation between your father and Esau, and I want you to listen to my advice. Go out to the flock and bring me two choice goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then you will take it to your father to feast, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.” Jacob said to his mother, “But Esau is a hairy man, and I’m a man with smooth skin. My father might touch me and then I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” His mother said, “Let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say.” So, Jacob went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebecca took Esau’s clothes and put them on Jacob. She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. This is how Jacob tricked his father into blessing him, instead of blessing Esau; and for this he later paid the consequences. All thoughts, feelings, and deeds, be they good or bad, bring forth their fruit. This is a law that any person can try out for himself. People of the 20th century do not recognize this law and live according to their own rules: they eat and drink and never even think about the consequences of their Life. Men and women live in discord, but expect to have good children, regardless. If their children do not turn out good they wonder whom they have taken after. It does not even occur to them that they, themselves, might be the reason. The Divine law states the following: in order to have good children the father and the mother must be in complete harmony with each other. This does not mean that they should be absolutely the same, but that they should have things in common, and that they should love each other and get along with each other. There are some subtle differences between men and women, but those differences are difficult to perceive. A number of famous philosophers, scholars, and writers have attempted to describe the difference between a man and a woman, but their attempts fail in the end. They can describe that difference to a certain extent, but never fully. Commonly, women have oval lines, whereas men have straight or angular lines. The oval lines render softness to one’s character, and the straight lines render firmness and sharpness. With men the chromatic scale is more prevalent than with women. In the story about Jacob and Esau we can see what advice the mother gave to her son. Rebecca made Jacob deceive his father, so that he could obtain his blessing. The fact that she gave Jacob such advice shows that she had deceived previously, in her past, as well. Someone says, “Today I lied.” This means that you have lied before, too. Lying was not born today. It has its roots in the distant past, from times immemorial. Who is the original source of lying: the human being or the animal? When did lying first appear in human life: during his ascent or during his descent? When he lied to his brother, Jacob was thirty-two years old; this is the period when a human’s character is formed. Therefore, Jacob was at an age when he consciously stole the blessing that belonged to Esau by right. Following his mother’s advice, Jacob fled to his uncle Laban to hide away from Esau and to avoid his fury. Jacob left his father’s home and set out on a journey. On the very first day of his journey, right after sunset, Jacob had a dream: “He saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” God saw what Jacob did and gave him what he deserved. This shows that He can see all of man’s thoughts and desires; He notes everything and for each deed he gives out either a reward or a punishment. Jacob went to his uncle Laban’s home; Laban was a smart and practical man and he became Jacob’s teacher. In Laban’s home emerge three new characters: Laban, himself, and his two daughters- Leah, the older one, and Rachel, the younger one. On his way to his uncle’s home Jacob met Rachel by the well; he helped her get water, then kissed her and told her that they were related. From this moment on he fell in love with her. Being a practical man, Laban asked Jacob to name what payment he would like to receive for his work during his stay with Laban. Jacob answered that he loved Rachel and he would like to ask for her hand in marriage in return for his work. The name “Rachel” is very meaningful; this name stands for the sublime ideal in the human being. Laban promised that he would give Rachel to Jacob, but on the condition that Jacob would work for him for seven years. Jacob agreed to this condition. When the seven years were complete, however, Laban gave Jacob his older daughter, Leah, for a wife, instead of giving him Rachel. It was not before the morning after the wedding ceremony that Jacob found out that he had been deceived. He asked his uncle, “Why did you deceive me and not give me Rachel as you had promised?” Laban replied, “According to our laws the older sister should be the first one to marry, and only then can the younger one marry. I will give you Rachel in marriage, as well, if you work for me for seven more years.” This is the law of retribution: Jacob deceived his father and his brother, and for that he, in turn, was deceived by Laban. He had to serve for fourteen years for his two lies: seven years for lying to his father, and seven years for lying to his brother. Many people think that Jacob’s mistakes do not pertain to them: they think that they never lie. For as long as man is on Earth, he is bound to play some role: either the role of Isaac or Rebecca, or the role of Jacob or Esau, or the role of Leah, Rachel or Laban. These seven different characters play their specific roles. People often sell their thoughts and wishes, and, in doing so, they are like Laban who sold his two daughters so that he could profit. The world is like a stairway on which people descend and ascend, lie to each other, persecute each other, chase each other, love each other, and hate each other. Those who love each other cannot marry each other. Instead of marrying for Love, people marry for money. Leah represents a woman who was married for money, and not for Love. Jacob had to marry Leah first before he could marry Rachel. The same thing happens in the Life of people today. A young man loves a young woman, but he cannot marry her, for they are both poor. Not being able to fulfill his desire, he meets another young woman, who is rich and supports him through his studies abroad. He promises her that he will marry her. This second woman is Leah; he marries her after a while and leaves the first one, telling her, “You are beautiful, good and noble, but in this world one cannot live on beauty and nobleness alone.” Laban was a smart man, but Jacob knew the art of becoming rich. After having served his uncle for fourteen years for his two daughters, he decided to stay and work for him for another seven years so that he could save something for himself, too. This way he acquired a great fortune: sheep, goats, and camels. When the strong sheep and goats conceived, Jacob would plant white-striped trees in front of their watering holes and when the animals looked at them they gave birth to striped and speckled foals. Afterwards he would separate his sheep and goats from Laban’s ones. Thus Jacob became wealthy and acquired many herds, servants and maidservants, camels and donkeys. Finally, after having spent twenty-one years with Laban, Jacob returned to his brother. Many people wish that they could be rich, but becoming rich is an art. If someone wants to be rich, he should be bold like Jacob. Jacob had some bad traits, but God put him through great trials and suffering to make him nobler. Many times would Jacob lament his fate! Even though he was an adult already, he had to tend his uncle’s flocks and he had to answer to him for every lost kid or lamb. Through his suffering and trials Jacob learned the art of contemplation. He made a connection with God; he prayed to Him and talked to Him until one day he decided to round up his wives, sons and daughters, as well as all his possessions, and leave Laban’s house to go back to his father’s home, and to his brother Esau. He fled from Laban and started his journey back home. When he approached his father’s home Jacob sent messengers to his brother while he, himself, spent the night in prayer. During that time a man came to him and he wrestled with this man all night, until dawn. Seeing that he could not overpower him, the man touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, and pushed him aside, saying, “Let me go, for it is daybreak already.” Jacob answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “Who are you? What is your name?”, the man asked. “Jacob”, he answered. “From now on you will not be named Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God, and with men, and you have overcome”. It turned out that the man that Jacob wrestled all night was an Angel. What does the name “Jacob” mean? It means Opposer. He stood his ground, i.e. he resisted both God and men. His name had to change because his character had changed. If a man’s name does not change, his character will not change either. In order for man to transform his face, he needs to transform his character first and then his name will change, too. Man’s form and name are one and the same thing in the other world. The number of letters in one’s name, as well as the order in which the vowels and consonants are arranged, are things that have influence on man’s character and Power, as well as his soul’s qualities. For example, the name Rebecca – the mother of Jacob and Esau- has two opposite meanings that are related to the two peoples that came from her. The peoples then were on the path of involution, whereas the peoples today are on the path of evolution. However, to this day there still exist two cultures: the culture of intuition, and the culture of pure reason. These two cultures can only be reconciled if the currents causing them are reconciled first. This is all too natural! When you want to classify a plant first you need to study it closely: you need to study its root, its stem, its leaves, etc. When you study man you can clearly see the two currents in him, i.e. the two different expressions: that of Jacob and that of Esau. Esau represents the course of human nature; Esau did not value his birthright and sold his blessing for naught. He said, “What good is this blessing to me? Life is on Earth only; everything that exists is on Earth only. Only today is important, and so there is no need for me to prepare the conditions for tomorrow.” Esau did not even think that the past life and the present one are connected. The present life is a result of the past one, and the future life is regarded as a consequence of the present one. Remember this: man is not on Earth for the first time. If this was your first time on Earth, how, then, would you explain the contradictions in your character? If you come out of God for the first time then you should be pure, you should be able to know Him. Is this so in reality? Most people do not know God because they have strayed from the right path. Therefore, man did not just come out of God, but has been created thousands of years ago. Someone was in prison, but now is given back his Freedom, and everyone says about him, “This man has been released from prison and is entering Life.” Is this his first time in Life? He was in Life already before he was thrown into prison. Man will come in and out of prison many times before he learns something and cultivates a character. When you read “Les Miserables” you see that Jean Valjean spent some time in prison, but there he acquired something valuable: he cultivated his character there. Every person enters Life after having spent some years in prison, i.e. in the lower spheres of the Astral world. The fact that he was in prison means that he needed to undergo some schooling so that he could cultivate character and become a better person. Once out of prison, man still needs to work on himself for a long, long time in order to build character. Observe the characteristic traits of those children who were born fresh out of this prison: at first they are selfish and they think only about themselves. Give an apple to a third-year old and watch his reaction. He will hide the apple at first to keep it for himself. It takes a long time of teaching to cultivate nobility and tenderness into a child’s character. Yet, some children are impervious to all mentoring efforts and remain rough and selfish. You might object that children inherit their qualities from their parents. Well, where did their parents acquire their qualities? Thinking in this way is neither a science, nor a philosophy. Man’s bad desires and deeds are due to misunderstanding things. Esau and Jacob wanted the same things but differed in their methods of acquiring those things. Jacob used violence, but he had to undergo great suffering to learn that his method was wrong. Similarly, some people attain their desires through suffering that make them better people. Other people, on the other hand, do not need suffering. They have a different way of attaining their desires and becoming better people. A sculptor needs to hammer at a statue for a long time before it is finished. Nature, however, does not use a hammer, but employs different means to work on its statues. Hammering away also constitutes a culture of some sort, but this culture is lowly and coarse. Nature has its own culture that is far better. For example, the ripening of fruits is a kind of culture, but Nature does not use a hammer. You should apply the same method, for this is the only way in which you can attain your desires. There are other ways, too, but they involve big expenditures and great difficulties. Give way to the good urges in you and do not worry about how they will be realized. Leave them to nature and it will take care of everything. If a sculptor is working on you give him a hammer to chip away as he knows best; if nature is working on you let it manifest freely. When you study yourself you will notice that some days God works on you and other days you work on yourself and this way there is a constant rotation. You will work for eight hours and then let God do the work for the rest of the time. It is through changing of work, precisely, that man is inspired by beautiful impulses and is enabled to express himself as someone great and talented. When man sleeps God works hard on him. This is why when man gets ready to go to bed he should put aside all his “backpacks” and relax so that the Spirit can work on him freely. When man wakes up he can pick up his “backpacks” again and he can go on with his work. Dreams have an instructional effect on people. Through having a bad dream one can correct a wrongdoing of his. One’s consciousness is awakened and he sees that he has strayed in a certain respect. The better one sleeps the healthier he becomes. Do the following experiment: in the course of one month try to sleep calmly without any disturbance in your thoughts or feelings and you will see that by the end your overall condition will have improved. If you suffer from neurasthenia, you will be cured. If you want to be healthy, stay away from bad thoughts and desires. People create their own sufferings and difficulties. When they see that an acquaintance of theirs has advanced and has taken a higher position they look for ways to slander him and take him down from his position. The meaning of Life is not in looking for the wrong in other people or in taking them down from their high position; the meaning of Life is in the work that you can do. If you are a sculptor you must perform well the work that you were meant to do. If you are asleep let nature do its work freely: such a sleep is Divine. If one sleeps like that he becomes relaxed and receives God’s blessing. Jacob’s dream was also Divine, and Jacob fell asleep to wake up thinking of Rachel. It was the thought of Rachel that gradually transformed the practical and sly Jacob into a nobler person. Before he started thinking of Rachel Jacob would work for money; as soon as he started thinking of her he was ready to work for free. And so, if people ask when this world will become a better place I will say this: The world will become a better place when all people- teachers, priests, preachers, mothers and fathers- start working for free. Everyone should work freely, out of Love. If one does not serve God, he cannot become a better person. In this same way Jacob understood what it meant to serve God, i.e. to serve Love. “Where can we find God”, you ask. You can find Him in Rachel, for she represents Love. Human character is tested through Rachel, i.e. through Love. A Frenchman spent many years in Africa and made a great fortune. Finally, he decided to go back to France to spend the rest of his Life there. He had two cousins living there and he intended to live with them, for he did not want to marry. In order to choose with whom he should stay he decided to test them first to see which one would prove to be a better and selfless person. He brought his two cousins together and told them, “I was rich and I earned a lot of money in Africa, but then I lost everything and here I am now, coming back to Paris to die in my hometown. Which one of you, two, would be willing to have me live with you?” One of them answered first and said, “Come and live with me for a while.” However, after the very first week this cousin told him, “You need to look for another place to live, for you cannot stay with me any longer.” The man went to his other cousin who told him, “You can stay with me for as long as you wish, brother. My home is your home: you can have and use everything as if it was yours.” After a few months had passed the man decided to reveal his true situation to his cousin and told him, “I wanted to test the two of you and find out which one is a true man so that I can stay and live with him. You were the one who showed selflessness and Love for me. I am rich; I did not lose any of my fortune and what I have I will leave to you.” When he learned about the man’s true situation the first cousin went to his relative, whom he had earlier told to leave his home, apologized and invited him to go back and stay with him for as long as he wished. “It’s too late now”, responded the rich relative. The day will come when God will appear before each one of you in the form of a poor widow, or a poor young man or some suffering soul and he will put you to the test to see if you are ready to accept Him with Love and selflessness. He will test you to see how true you are to your ideal. This is the only way in which you will understand the deep meaning of Life, just like Jacob understood the meaning of the tall ladder on which God’s Angels descended and ascended. Today this ladder is bigger and is more branched out. I wish you all to see this ladder and when you come to the first ladder I wish you to understand the meaning of the earthly life and the meaning of the sufferings that you were given. Sufferings are but the shell that contains the blessings of Life. Just like a seed is enveloped inside its shell to protect the nutritious germ so do sufferings envelop all the blessings, and so man can receive them only when he is able to use them wisely. This is why he, who is looking to find happiness and bliss in the world, must go through suffering first. Christ says, “Those who have ears to listen should listen.” And here is what I say: He who does not believe in my words shall try them first. Once he has undergone trials and sufferings he will understand that they contain the blessings of Life. Jacob had to pay for one lie with twenty-one years of service to Laban, and Moses paid for one murder with no less than forty years of service to the Jewish people. Every wrong and every crime will be atoned for through suffering. Knowing this, a woman should not wonder why her husband is treating her badly, for at some time in the past it was her who had treated him badly. Likewise, the maid should not wonder why her mistress is treating her with such cruelty, for at some point in the past it was her who had treated her mistress badly. This is the law of karma. If you trace the history of mankind, of peoples, of societies, or of families, you will see that this law works everywhere systematically and relentlessly. If you want to have good sons and daughters in the future you need to apply the law of Love. Karma is resolved only through Love. Jacob had twelve sons but only Joseph was born by the law of Love. Jacob worked for seven years for Laban, and after seven years he married Rachel whose only son was Joseph. If one is able to serve with Love for seven years he will give birth to Joseph. If one marries in the common manner, with no Love, he will have Leah whom he will not love and who will bear him many sons. The law of reincarnation is a law through which man can atone for and free himself of the wrongs of his past. The human mind and the human heart are born and reborn following the same law. One American writer once described the day when his mind became clear. This clarity brought him great jubilation. Reaching such a state is but a moment of new birth. This man’s joy was as great as the joy a mother feels after giving birth to a son or a daughter. Just like a child cries when it is born, so does every man cry when his heart and mind are awakened. Great is the moment when the human heart takes the wheel in its own hands and starts directing the fate of its own life. What Jacob saw in his dream several thousand years ago also pertains to people today, i.e. to people of the 20th century. Today God’s Angels are already descending and ascending; a new culture is being born and people and nations are being brought together in a new way. The sufferings that modern people undergo show that they are in the state of a woman who is about to give birth. As soon as she gives birth, the Angels start reincarnating into human minds and hearts one after another. God, who sends his Angels, follows the consequences closely. Every person will be given the chance to hear God speak. If you go out early in the morning in spring, at the time when nature is waking up and flowers are blooming, and if you go deep inside yourself you will be able to hear the soft voice of God. If your hearing is well developed, you will be able to hear gentle, barely audible music, which will bring peace, tranquility and joy into your soul. If you go into the forest you will be able to hear the soft rustle of the leaves that is transformed into a gentle and pleasant melody. The better developed one’s hearing is, the greater the chance that he may be able to hear the soft voice of God. He does not say much: He may say one word only, but it will be remembered throughout the ages. If a young man and a young woman cannot forget the words that they have told or written to each other how much more memorable are the words of God! Is there a young man or a young woman who has forgotten the words “I love you” that they have said to each other once? A young man told me the story about an experience he once had. For some reason he once reached a state of great despair in his Life and he decided to commit suicide. At this moment he overheard the soft voice of his friend that was coming in from the next room. The young man listened closely to the song that was reaching his ears, and he clearly made out the words, “I am only thinking of you and I shall never forget you”. These words caused such a change in him that he gave up on his decision to commit suicide, for he told himself, “There is One Who is thinking of me. This has the power to make me want to live and enjoy everything that I have been given.” Since you know that there is someone who is thinking of you, you should not lose heart. If even one thought alone can make you love Life, then you must love it all the more knowing about all the care, effort and work that is being done for you by not only one, but by many beings. Listen carefully to the words that each person speaks to you so that you can see into their meaning and understand the appeal of the human soul that calls out for liberation. If you hear someone complain about Life and say that he wished he could die you must know that this person wants to die like a tree blossom dies, but first he must set fruit and his fruit must ripen after some time. If you look at it this way, death can be seen as a symbol; it is a passing from one Life into another. When one dies, he is born again; when one is being born, he dies again. Therefore if someone wants to live and be free, he must renounce the everyday cares of Life. This does not mean that you should not think. Think without worrying. Everyone must decide on the program for his Life and then should strive to realize it: and all this without worrying. If you have a father like Jacob, and a mother like Rebecca, you should tell them, “Please, do not teach me to lie, for I don’t need such a lesson.” If you have an uncle like Laban, tell him not to abuse his neighbours’ Love. Many young women and men are unhappy because their parents are against their choice. Let everyone choose for oneself the young woman or the young man that correspond to one’s own heart. If they make a mistake they will suffer for it and will correct it for themselves, in which case they will be suffering for love, at least. No one in this world has been free of suffering. Suffering for one’s ideas is meaningful and elevates man. It is preferable that one should suffer for some idea than to not have any sufferings have been justified. However, if her children die then her sufferings are wrong. In this same way man’s thoughts and desires are born, then live for a while, and then die. A life in which thoughts and desires die right after being born is a meaningless life. Give your good thoughts and desires the chance to live for a long time and bear fruit that you and your neighbours can enjoy. Man has a soul that wants to love; man has a mind and a heart that want to evolve correctly. What will become of you if you kill the life of your mind, heart and soul? What Life is the one in which the mind, heart and soul are not a part of it? Express yourselves freely without lying, stealing or murdering, because everyone receives his due. Every twisted or wrong thought that man gives birth to will follow him throughout his whole Life: on Earth and in Heaven. You need to work correctly and wisely for yourselves, as well as for your neighbours and your people. What might happen to one nation or another should not bother you. Soul is more important than nation. Someone who brings peace and wellbeing to people is worth more than a whole nation that brings sorrow, sufferings and destruction to humankind. Where is the great Roman Empire today? It fell apart, but the Roman people did not disappear. Back then there lived one true Man in the world and they crucified Him side by side with the vagabonds, but His ideas are still alive and govern the world to this day. This man was worth more than the whole Roman Empire. This great man was Jesus Christ. Today all Bulgarians want to know what will happen to Bulgaria. If Bulgaria follows God’s ways then nothing bad will happen to it. Everyone should take care of one’s individual development and should give way to his good thoughts and desires, and should gradually get rid of fear in the process. The better person you become the lesser fear you will have. If you have Jacob’s character you will inevitably suffer. Rebecca, Laban and all other characters reap the fruit of their doings. Today most people are holding the keys to the material world in their hands and wherever you go they will tell you: You must pay for your expenses. Likewise, when someone preaches he also wants to be paid. There needs to exist at least one calling for which people would work for free. There is no calling more sacred than that to serve God with Love. He who serves God always speaks the Truth: the world needs such people. Such people come out of Rachel. This is what is required of women today. Can you play Rachel’s role and tend the sheep like she did? Can you live among shepherds and be respectable? How many men should a woman have and how many women should a man have? They should have one man and one woman. In other words: Man should have one mind and one heart. Two minds and two hearts bring ambiguity into man, and all ambiguity causes harm. One mind, one heart and one will lead to Good. When a woman falls out of love with her husband, her wings fall off. When a man falls out of love with his woman and desires another one, he is committing adultery. Love must be pure and selfless. Laban, too, loved Jacob, but he also used him. Women should strive to be like Rachel and give birth to Joseph. If men and women give birth to sons like Joseph they will be chosen men and women, and they will give rise to a chosen people. “God’s Angels descend and ascend on it.” They ask the Bulgarian young women, “Are you ready to give birth to sons like Joseph?” And then they ask the Bulgarian young men, “Are you ready to give birth to sons like Joseph? Are you ready to live well? If you are ready, we will come to Bulgaria.” Joseph came to Egypt and saved its people from perishing, he saved them from starvation. “When will the Angels come into to the world”, you ask. This depends on you. They may come in an hour, but they may come after many years. God’s Angel will come down to you when you allow your soul and your Spirit to express themselves. This Angel will know you and you will know Him. “But we are sinful.” Do not think about your sins. We do not deal with past things. We do not deal with the present, either. The past and the present are important only as much as they create the conditions for the future. A great future is awaiting you, and you should work towards it. If someone brings a dirty shirt to me I will not ask why the shirt is dirty or whose it is, but I will put it in the wash basin, pour some hot water on it and wash it until it is clean again. If your shirt is clean you should keep it this way, and should make sure that it does not lose its cleanliness. Aspire to that Love that cleans and elevates the human heart. Who cleaned and elevated Jacob? His beloved Rachel did that. God told him, “I am giving you Rachel to love, and you should not think about other women.” Jacob, whose name today is Israel, now lives in a different way than before. For this reason he ranks among the chosen ones, among the learned people of higher culture who bring Light to the world. These people have sacrificed themselves for mankind. All people today are gathered at the bottom of the ladder and are looking up to its top from where God is asking, “How do you intend to live now that you are descending and ascending on this ladder? Are you going to keep on lying to your brothers and sisters, and to your mothers and fathers? Are you going to be seeking after other men and women or are you going to love only those who have been given to you by God and who provide the conditions for your evolution?” Then He turns to the mothers and the fathers and asks them, “Are you going to keep on selling your sons and daughters?” “We have suffered a lot, oh Lord.” God has no pity for people who suffer. He is happy, for he knows that they are about to give birth. God says, “I am as happy when I look at the blooming flowers in the gardens as I am when I look at your children, playing, frolicking and enjoying God’s world.” It is a great thing when man lives for Love and enjoys the world. Then the Life of all people- men, women and children- will turn into songs and prayers. The world will become a garden of paradise. This shall happen, but there is one thing that is required of man: he should keep descending and ascending on the ladder, whose top rests in Heaven. He, who stays by this ladder, will benefit from Life’s blessings. He is like those trees that grow along rivers. They use the water from the rivers to grow well. The ones that are far from rivers are doomed to perish. The Divine blessings: Love, Wisdom, Truth, and Justice descend on the Divine ladder. Be alert so that you may benefit from them. You need to carve out the path for at least one rivulet in your gardens so that you can receive at least one stream of this great abundance. This is the only way in which you can transform your Life and enter the new that is already arriving into this world. The new is like the month of May. Everything has come to life and has broken out of winter hibernation and is out of its cocoon. People, too, are already coming out of their tombs; they are rising from the dead. It is said in the Scriptures, “Come out, all of you who are dead, so that we may enter, who are alive.” What is the meaning of this verse? It means: Come out all you dead, who are alive so that we may enter: we, the alive ones, who are dead, so that we may rejoice. Do not worry if you are of the alive-dead or of the dead-alive, for it is good for both sides. Anyone who comes out of the tomb is already pure, and anyone who enters will be cleansed and will return again, but this time pure and renewed. Enjoy Life and sing praises for being alive. In the story about Jacob and Esau I outlined seven characters, of which only Rachel merits emulation. I now wish all women to be like her; I wish you to bring beautiful and great ideals to the men, women, and children around you. I also wish all men to be like Rachel. Aspire for the new Teaching that Jesus Christ brings through the woman. This Teaching will dry the tears from the eyes of the suffering ones. What kind of woman am I talking about? I am talking about the kind of woman who has Rachel’s character. Such a woman will bloom and set fruit and her fruit will ripen. However, the one who has Leah’s character will have to be transplanted time and over again. Women must save the world and they will. Only mothers can save the world. If anyone thinks that the world can be saved and improved outside of the mother is fooling himself and is wrong. All priests, preachers, teachers, and governors should unite around the mother. The most sublime word, the strongest word in the world is the word “mother”. The words “God” and “Lord” mean “Divine Mother”. All people talk about Love without knowing it. We are talking about Rachel’s love that requires that man should be ready for sacrifice. Without this Love Nature will remain a secret for man. Like man opens up to the one, whom he loves, so does nature open up its secret hiding places for the ones, who love it and whom it loves. He who carries inside the key of Love can penetrate into the great secrets of Being. In conclusion I will say this: In today’s world there are six forces at work: Rebecca, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Laban and Leah. They create the difficulties and the sufferings for mankind and make it weak. A new force is now coming into the world: Rachel. She brings Light to the human mind. One appeal can be heard everywhere: let women move forward to the frontline! When men move back to the rear and women move forward to the front the world will become a better place. God, the Angels and the saints have great faith in women. I, too, have great faith in them. Therefore, the world will become a better place when men become women’s beloved sons and brothers. This lecture was delivered by the Master on April 8, 1917 in Sofia. Source

JUSTIFICATION AND SALVATION From: Lectures to the Sisters, April 5, 1917 Thursday, Sofia) “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:10 I will dwell on the two words of justification and salvation. I want you to apply these words and make an experiment with them. Every woman is striving for independence. While she is a maid, she seeks to get out of her father's house, to free herself from her mother and father, to become a mistress in her own house. This aspiration is natural and Divine. When she gets married and enters the new life, she brings to her house her dowry – shirts, pillows, mats; he donates this and that, orders her house and enjoys this new, nicely ordered house. And indeed, homeless women are unhappy. A person without a home is a person without character. The body is the house of the human soul in spiritual life. According to the same law, just like with women, the soul should enter the body and organize it. Some people want to get rid of their bodies and they say, ‘When am I going to free myself from my body?’ There are bodies out of which one can break free. These are the unhealthy damp cellars without windows, where people catch rheumatism. Getting out of them does not mean that we leave healthy houses. Paul in one place in Scripture says “house not made with hands” (Corinthians 5:1) The concept of justification derives from the expression to make things right. Which human being is just? The one that does not sin. But in order not to sin, one should have knowledge, should understand the meaning of things around oneself, and should make the right choice. You strive for freedom. Every woman should have this freedom, but if she can use it to build the happiness and health of her husband, of her children. No husband, to a woman who is not free, is happy. Do you think that sick woman is free? Woman, whose heart, and mind are constantly disturbed, are not free. I do not mean that your mind should not be excited. Disturbance and excitement are two different concepts. The mind and heart should only be agitated on the surface, not deeply disturbed, in order not to be troubled. The latter indicates that they are shallow, their depth is only ten centimeters. I ask, ten centimeters deep, what can be done? If we take ten centimeters of fabric, what can be made of it? The first and most important thing for a woman is to have depth in her heart of at least ten kilometers. At such depth, whoever tries to disturb you will drown. What do young children do when they come across a shallow puddle of about 10 centimeters depth? They get into the water, disturb it, and enjoy it. Men, when they come across such shallow women, confuse them and feel satisfied. Then women in their turn say, ‘We are very unhappy’. There is a good deal of turmoil in shallow waters – frogs croak there all summer long – a lot of commotion and noise, which abates only in winter. This is to say that your hearts should not be shallow; there should not be any commotion in there. I ask you what is the solution for such a puddle of stagnant water? You will pour a stream of fresh water into this puddle; you will dig a gutter so that the fresh water can wash away all the remains of the past. Christ’s teaching is a fresh stream, which should enter your hearts and wash them; after cleaning them, it will leave the sludge to fertilize your fields. You may ask how to dig such a spring. The spring of fresh water will find you on its own accord. Christ says to the Samaritan, "The water which I will give you shall become within you a fountain of water springing up to eternal life." Hence this spring should be understood to mean salvation. When someone finds themselves in a desert, where there is no water, their mouth becomes dry, it feels irresistibly thirsty and water is the only salvation, otherwise they are doomed to drop dead. Just like the traveler in the desert, many women die of thirst along with their camels – with their own baggage. You have heard the word spring. When you go out for a walk outside Sofia, I would like you to try the water of such springs.But the high society ladies, and indeed most of the people, go for a walk not farther away than Boris’ Gardens1, they walk along the same alleys every time, where there is nothing else but dust. They inhale much dust and when they come back home, they say, ‘What a nice walk we had!’ I say: you just filled yourselves with dust. People, when they adopt Christ’s teaching, often use the same trite phrases and afterwards they say, ‘I got a headache from listening’. This is because you inhaled dust. This is not a place for justification and salvation. The words justification and salvation have seven meanings. I'm talking to you now about one of the meanings and if you understand it, I will then move on to the other meanings. A friend comes and says, ‘Let’s go for a walk, but not far away, because I have a headache, I have palpitations, I am not used to it’. This shows that you are people with short legs, while the Truth needs long legs to walk. So you will unwittingly come to the position of committing crimes. Once people's legs become short, they start thinking of cunning things. Someone says, "I can't go to Vitosha Mountain." Now, if you can’t go to Vitosha, how will you go to Christ? Christ’s Path is narrow and steep; it is a Path of the sensible human will. In your mind, say, "I'll go with my friends to Vitosha Mountain!" If you can’t go in real life, at least follow them mentally; travel the whole way with them in your mind! That's the philosophy of Life. When you meet your beloved, before you get married, they call you Angles, they love you, they die for you, they can’t live without you, they kneel before you, and much weeping, crying, and pretense are pouring out. However, this is not because they can’t do without you; this is a way to produce an effect and they want to say, ‘Let them see what the Lord is like!’ When they get married, women start kneeling. This is your philosophy - instead of men, you now kneel. Why? Because your minds and hearts are shallow. Do not get me wrong! If I measure and try to fathom the depth of your minds and hearts, I will merely ascertain one fact, as it is. The words I say to you, I interpret them, I use them figuratively, do not take them in their simple meaning. Your hearts can be shallow and deep at the same time. If sludge continuously enters your hearts, the bottom will be filled, and they will become shallow. There are lakes, which have become shallow, but there are lakes, which have become deeper… Why should women feel a desire to see men kneeling before them? Kneeling, this is the law of selflessness, of self-sacrifice. When you form angles during kneeling, you show that you are ready to go down and sacrifice oneself. When you stop and sacrifice yourself for somebody else, it means that you kneel before that person. But when a lad kneels before a girl, he lies to her. Tell me how many Bulgarian girls there are who have an ideal relationship with their husbands and have never exchanged bad words? I will let you ponder and establish the Truth on your own. The Truth must surface – nothing more and nothing less! I don't want to present this truth as glamorous as to blind you. I put it through many clouds, to make it bearable to your eyes, thus wanting to spare you the illusions, which cause unhappiness every day, because these illusions take you away from God. When God sent a woman or a man to the Earth, He gave them a budget. It is unfair if somebody eats up your budget. No one has the right to take it from you unless you give it voluntarily. You tell somebody, ‘You make no sacrifices for me.’ There is no need for anyone to make sacrifices for you, because if a person makes a sacrifice for you, in order to elevate you, such a person will go down. This is the Divine law – one is going down, while another one is going up. If the man is going down, the woman is going up; if the woman is going up, the man is going down. Well now, when you walk you cast an anchor, capture the man, and keep him down, so that neither he nor you go up. You stop at one place and keep looking at each other. Such are contemporary women – they stop their men and do not let them go up. This accounts for why you sleep – since you cannot go to the other world, you cannot go up or go down. When you are asked why you sleep, you answer, ‘To go to the Lord’. When you say, ‘I slept fine’, this is so because you were up, but your impression from there is flattened, and there is only a shadow of something pleasant which stays with you. Sometimes you say, ‘I did not sleep well, I had bad dreams’. This indicates that you must have stopped your husband from something. This unnatural situation sometimes stems of utter selfishness, that exists in women. Selfishness gives birth to selfishness, unhappiness gives birth to unhappiness, sorrow gives birth to sorrow. When I talk about suffering and unhappiness, I mean sorrow as a wrapping of the Divine Truth. And contemporary people wrap grief in joy and, thus they sweeten it from the outside. There are such pills – coated in sugar, but bitter inside. The Lord, now, supports neither homeopathy nor allopathy. The former cures with small doses of bitter powders, so that these can be effective; while the latter – with big doses of bitter powders; and the pains cease. When healthy, a person does not need any pills. I know a lot of people who out of habit swallow an aspirin or quinine pill, so they don't get sick. With that, they're self-suggesting they might get sick. Say one word every day that's positive. With this, your situation will improve. All of you who listen to me, please make the following small experiment, and I allow you one year for this, and afterwards you will be free: the first six months will be positive – you will plough, sow, reap, and the other six months will be passive – you will be gathering new energy. There should be no shadow of doubt because what I say can be done by anyone. It's ridiculous to say you can't. Someday I will gather little children and I will make an experiment with them and I will prove little children can do what you can’t; small children will do it, because their faith in them is greater. You may say, ‘We may deceive ourselves’. You may deceive yourselves the first year, but you won’t deceive yourselves in the second year. You should dispose of the thought that you may deceive yourselves. There are no deceits where the Lord works and you should know this line, ‘All that will happen to those who love the Lord, is for their good.’ You will adopt this motto: ‘Whatever happens to us, the Lord will turn it around for the better.’ And then let all the bad thoughts, bad desires come, let all bad people take a stand against you; you should fear not! There should be no fear, keep fear away from you! I will now talk about the verb “can”. What kind of an experiment were you conducting until now? You were using it only in the first person: I can. From now on you will use it in all persons: I can, you can, he/she/it can, we can, you can, they can. When you encounter an obstacle, you will tell yourself, in your soul: "I can, we can, he/she/it can! I can. You can, Lord, who is within me, in my soul. Your great Spirit which guides me, can!” Then you will use all three persons in the plural. Your Faith and your Purity will help all who are above to contribute to the Divine idea to be realized in your Life. Divine patience and perseverance are required in this Way, until the Light overcomes in you. You will do this experiment whenever you feel weak. You will do it in the morning between 4 and 7 o'clock. Exactly at 4 o'clock in the morning you can get up and start your meditation experience voluntarily. When the sun rises in the morning, you should say: (in 1 person): I can! Let my Sun rise in my soul. (in 2nd person): You can! – Let the Divine Sun rise in my soul. (in 3rd person): He/she/it can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise. (in the 1st person plural): We can! "Let the Sun of our Angels rise." (in the 2nd person plural): You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls. (in the 3rd person plural): They can! - Let the Sun of all suns rise in our spirits. So, you need six suns to rise. You will stop at each sun for four minutes; a total of twenty-four minutes should be spent on the rising of the six suns. The rule you should follow is: you will get up quietly, calmly and after washing, you will stand silently, without any disturbance - nothing to scare you. You may be in a bad mood when you get up, you may feel as if the world is to blame. But you stand up and say the above words calmly, each for himself. You will take a notebook and every morning for six months you will note at what time you got up and how many times you were late. As you say these words, you will feel a pleasure under the solar plexus and your spirit will be uplifted. It may take you six years to understand how these suns rise. Continue this experience for six months, and also pass it on, recommend it to some of your friends. You should start on April 6. Some will ask if it will be possible to do it so early, etc. There should be no such thoughts! You will note in your notebooks what the weather was like by dividing it into separate columns: clear, cloudy, rainy, windy. All these conditions of time are good. If it's rainy or cloudy, never complain during those six months. If it is rainy, you will say, "Today the weather is rainy - God purifies, and the fields will bear more." You will look to implement all this. And you will ask your friends to promise to fulfill it. In the first month, when you say all six points, you will emphasize the first one the most; in the second month you will say it all again, but you will emphasize the second point, and so on. I want you to be quiet, calm, and the blessing that will come will be as much as you need. The rain, as it falls, will give each plant as much moisture as it needs. I want you to produce a favorable wave of everything that happens to you during these six months, you will try to learn a lesson, take the good side out of the nuisance, and find the benefit of it. You will say: "For good will all this be - for him who loves the Lord!" Then you should use the following sentences: I believe in You, Lord, who spoke in the past. I believe in You, Lord, who is speaking to me now. I believe in You, Lord, who will speak to me in the future. Let Your Light come upon all of us. Let Your Name be glorified. Let Your Kingdom come. Let Your Will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. During the day, if you are persuaded to read a psalm or something else, read it, but only if you feel a deep inner desire to do so. As you read the sentences above, think about things that can lift you up, think about all that is most beautiful in the world, and you will see how you will be presented with the best pictures. Only in this way will you be able to face the past and prepare good conditions for the future. This is the way in which you will be able to strengthen your will and ennoble your mind and heart. Of course, the world will go the same way, but everything will turn out for the better. During these six months you will sometimes feel more discouraged; then you will use the following sentence: "Lord, make my heart warm with Your Love!" If your mind is sometimes clouded, you will say, "Lord, enlighten my mind with Your Spirit!" or "Give Light to my mind through Your Spirit!" Then stay calm; it may take one, two, three, four hours, but you will have a result anyway. Once the six suns rise one after the other, there will be a result. During these six months you will try to be on good terms with your husbands, with your children, with those around you and you will only talk about useful things. If you sometimes lie and say something bad about someone, you will write it down in your notebooks - you have to be honest with yourself. Another rule: if one of you can't help yourself, she'll call another sister to help; if both cannot help, they should call a third and perform their prayer together. The gathering should always take place before noon, no later than 12 o'clock, because that’s where there are good influences. This is how one can be “justified” and “saved”. This is the primary meaning of these words. Pass on this guidance, this piece of advice to all of your beloved female friends. If you have a deep awakening, share these ideas with other people also; then you both will be blessed. This will illuminate your Light in front of the people close to you. Peace to everyone! From the lecture: “Righteousness and Salvation”, April 5, 1917 Part of the series: The Great Mother - a series of talks in front of a spiritual group of sisters (Thursday talks) 1917-1932. ====================== Note: From another source I found that during the first month of the exercise, the words are: (in 1 person): I can! Let my Sun rise in my soul. (in 2nd person): You can! – Let the Divine Sun rise in my soul. (in 3rd person): He/she/it can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise. (in the 1st person plural): We can! Let the Sun of our Angels rise. (in the 2nd person plural): You can! – Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls. (in the 3rd person plural): They can! - Let the Sun of all suns rise in our spirits. However, during the second through sixth month the words change and become stronger: 1. I can - Let my Sun rise in my soul and renew my heart. 2. You can - Let the Divine Sun of my spirit rise and renew my soul. 3. He/she/It can - Let the Sun of my spirit rise and renew my mind. 4. We can - Let the Sun of our Angels rise and renew our hearts. 5. You can - Let the Sun of the Great Lord of Peace rise in our souls and renew our souls. 6. They can - Let the Sun rise of all Suns in our spirits, and renew our minds. Nevenka Dimitrova

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Light "You are the light of the world."1 My last sermon was about the salt - the first divine element in life, but today I shall speak about the second element - the Light. I shall try to put Christ’s words in contemporary language as it is spoken in the 20th century. What does Christ mean by the word "light"? Every word has its own sense. Only when it produces a certain effect on the mind or heart of a person can it be understood. For instance, if you hold a match, you can understand its effect only when you light it; otherwise it would make no sense. Therefore, the words in a spoken language are matches; however, each one must have a box on which it can be lit it at just the right time, in order for the word to produce its effect. We should not be like the little children who only take matches out of the box, light them and throw them away. This is no philosophy. There are many writers today who are constantly taking matches out, lighting them and throwing them away. I ask you what effect may their matches thus lit produce? You yourselves must decide what the effect of such lighting would be. In the future, the words should be salted in order to contain Light in themselves. You still have a vague idea about Light. The words "illumination" and "light" have the same root, but illumination is a reflection of light. Light is a compound of that divine element related to the human mind which allows for sound reasoning using logic, content and sense in our thought. In modern physics the scientists are disputing whether the illumination comes from the sun, or it is something different. There are scientists who object to the idea that illumination comes from the sun. They maintain that it is a special kind of energy that, in reaching the earth’s surface, clashes with it and gives the reflection of illumination. Light is an inner process. It is an element, which can always be tested. Light is the most real thing in the world. It is thousands of times more real than the world: it creates human thought and desires; it is a conductor of the spiritual world and exists in the form of ether; it is the wrapping of the human spirit and the human mind; without it no one can think or feel. Anyone who has studied at primary school and has graduated high school has had difficulties with the solution of certain problems. S/he knows that these problems cannot be solved immediately; however, after working on them for awhile, some illumination is thrown on them and they are solved. It is the Light that clarifies them. I shall give you some rules so that you can test everything, for I am not speaking only in theory but am giving you a positive science that can be tested. Light is the healthy state of the human mind, an atmosphere in which a person must live all the time. When writers lose this Light, they become fruitless; when teachers lose it, they lose their methods and cannot teach; when mothers lose it they lack the patience and love necessary to raise their children. If you do not have this Light, you cannot manifest Love and Truth. Christ says, "You are the Light." Who are "you"? The first element is the salt, the Law of Balance which maintains balance in all things. The second element is Light which raises things and makes them grow. All thoughts and desires grow and develop better in the Light. A person who lives in Light is like a fruit tree growing in fertile soil, producing ripe fruit. When your mind is teeming with philosophic thoughts, do not rejoice yet. This may be only a blossoming. To find out if you have Light, test whether your thoughts may set and acquire roots. When a person is not ready to die for a thought of theirs, it means that the thought is not yet born in them. Before I make a more detailed explanation on this question, I shall give you an example out of Bulgarian life. I have a purpose of putting life and sense to these examples. Many have heard this one but I shall give it in a new light. The story goes that a Turk during the Turkish yoke visited a Bulgarian chorbadji2. On entering the room, he saw three icons on the wall and an icon-lamp burning before them. The icons represented the Holy Virgin, St George on horseback and St Nicolas. "What are these three pictures for?" he asked the chorbadji. "They protect me from all evil and so far no evil have I suffered," answered the chorbadji. "How strange, I have so many well-paid servants, but they do not protect me so well," said the Turk. "How much do they cost?" he asked. Then he bought the three icons, took them home and lit an icon-lamp. He sent all the servants away from his house, saying to them, "I need no more servants for I have found loyal men to keep my house." However, one evening robbers broke into his house and robbed him. He went to the icon of the Holy Virgin and said to her, "I can not complain about you for, being a young woman, you have a child to care for." He turned to St George and said, "I cannot complain about you either for you are a young man riding your horse and getting pleasure out of this." Finally he turned to St Nicolas and said to him, "You are an old man having neither a child nor a horse to ride, that is why I shall punish you," and he turned the icon head down. After that St Nicolas somehow found the stolen riches and the punishment was lifted. The Turk said, "Now this is how you should act." What does the Holy Virgin represent? She represents the woman with her heart and the child is the heart she is breeding. A person has come into the world to breed, to regenerate his/her heart and bring it up as a child. You ask, "Why do women bear children?" By the law of childbirth, God is teaching you how to raise your child, i.e. your heart. If a mother gives her child pure milk, it will be healthy; but if the milk is polluted, the child will die. What does the icon of St George represent? St George represents the human mind and the horse - the physical body. A person must ride their horse, for if they do not ride it they will lose it. You must feed your horse well, but you must not overfeed it. What does the icon of St Nicolas represent? St Nicolas represents a man of good heart and good mind who has attained the highest position in life - that of the rational divine life. He must deal with the raising of all humanity; all people must be like children to him. He must sacrifice himself for others as a mother sacrifices herself for her children. As St George looks after his horse well, feeding him properly, so the sound-minded elderly people should look after the young people; stimulating their minds and hearts to live a sound life. That is why Christ says, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden." If you have Light you will be able to discover it. If a palmist looks at your hand, s/he will tell you if you have Light or not; similar to when you enter a European city, you know what kind of people inhabit it by the order of the city and its houses. When you enter a house you can guess what the housewife likes. If the red color predominates, she is a woman of desires, a changeable person. Those who wear red hats, a red girdle, have the idea that the world is a battlefield where they must fight. I do not deny fighting, but it must be based on a divine law; it must build, not destroy life. If it destroys life, it is anarchy. The purpose of fighting is the acquisition of freedom, while Light has this very purpose in view - to make us free. The word "freedom" implies the idea of divine harmony in our thoughts and desires, and of order in the world. Everyone should be in his/her place and make use of the abilities hidden in her/his brain and heart. Present day scientists are constantly weighing the brains of dead people for the purpose of different investigations. Human thought has its marks namely in the brain, which is a garden. What the soil of the human brain is, such will be person’s thoughts. The human brain contains the same zones as those of the earth. Thoughts grow in it the same way as flowers grow on the earth. Every thought has a form which may have the character of a sheep, a wolf, a bear, a fox, a snake, a spider, an ant; for all these forms are qualities forming the human character. This Light enters us the same way as the illumination comes from above and elevates everything in a person. It engenders growth to both the good and the evil animals, regardless of whether they are sheep or wolves. And when these animals complain that they are suffering, this Light says to them, "Fear not, next year I shall create you again, only work a little now." When we complain of sufferings in our life, Light says, "You be careful and I shall create in you all that is necessary." It does not, however, tolerate doubt, feebleness, lack of faith, which are negative qualities. Light is a life of divine harmony and only a person possessing this harmony can know the greatness of Light. It is a rational element. Physicists of today say that if two illuminations of two opposite poles, each with a different wave- length and vibration meet, they are neutralized and darkness is the result. The same is true of Light. Man is one pole of Light and woman the other pole. They get together to create divine harmony, but they can achieve that only if the length of their vibrations is the same; in which case a feeling of love wells up in them and they feel an expansion of mind and heart. However, both must create Light. As Christ says, "You are the Light," meaning all people. When He says, "I am the Light," He means "I and My Father." One person cannot set the world right by saying, "I shall set the world right." S/he does not understand the Law. There must always be two, four, six, eight and so on: couples are necessary. The number two, of which the students are afraid, is a law of contradiction. Two is in conflict with one. Add one unit to two and it becomes three, then four and so on. Suppose you are an intelligent person and you meet a friend of whom you become suspicious without knowing why. You should have facts in order to be suspicious of a person. Do not allow a doubt if you have no scientific grounds. When someone becomes suspicious, s/he says, "I do not know why, but I feel something - that is why I am suspicious." This feeling is not yet proof. For instance a drunkard says, "I have a weak stomach so I must drink a little wine." Then s/he reasons further, "Why should I not drink a little more? After drinking a little, I feel better." Yet this feeling is only temporary for on the next day he will feel badly. When you apply the rule that it is good to drink a little wine, you abuse it later and spoil the good effect of the wine. The human organism is so constructed that it does not tolerate anything superfluous. Chemistry teaches us that every element combines with another in an exact weight ratio; or an element combines with another with an exact number of atoms, but only as many as are necessary to produce a sound, constant compound. This is a Law. In the same way, human thoughts combine according to the Law of Light. This Light has special hues in the spiritual world. They can be passive or active. A hue which is a reflection is passive; however, when it comes directly from the Source itself, it is active. Every thought which causes division in your mind is not divine, as it is only a reflection of Light. For instance, you want to build a house, to become an engineer, a writer or to study medicine; however, the division in your mind shows that the subject you want to take up is not for you. Before the liberation of Bulgaria, when there were only a few professions, fathers advised their sons to become doctors or engineers because these professions were profitable; and not to take up professions which were not profitable. What kind of a doctor, or engineer or a priest would a person who has no inner attraction to their work be? They will be like that doctor in the Middle Ages who had a very easy method of curing: he cured his patients by phlebotomy after which he gave them hot water to drink which resulted in their death. He wondered if all the other doctors cured their patients successfully. It is the same with doctors today who give a medicine to a patient who then dies. Then they say the patient had a weak heart, or try to justify themselves by some other causes. But that is not the case. A doctor should understand the human organism and the temperament of each patient and then prescribe medicine in conformity with that. A sanguine and a choleric person cannot be cured the same way. Why? Because these two organisms contain different elements which have their own specific reactions. In my opinion, all existing illnesses are due to the disharmony that takes place in the divine Light. How many of you believe in the afterlife? You will say, "This is what some great men have written, or that the apostle Paul has said it." But what is your experience of this reality? You will say, "When we die and go to the other world then we shall understand if there is life after death." In order to comprehend this Light, you must have Spiritual Sight. All people who have developed this sense have certain marks in their eyes; they have certain spots around the iris which show the degree of the development of this sight. In western Europeans this sense has begun to appear as intuition, preconception and so on. Some day a great world will be revealed to you in which Light exists. This Light comes from within, not from without. Occultists today say that those who have this Light have magnetism. Such a person is soft and easy-going, they have love and readily forgive. What destroys and spoils people today are the following seven elements: pride, anger, voluptuousness, sloth; miserliness, jealousy and greed. Pride is not of God. God has created people to have self-respect, but they have estranged themselves from Him by their pride. Such a person bears the marks of their pride on their face, hands and nose. I shall not start explaining these now. You yourselves should study these things as many writers have written about them. When you feel pride in yourself, that you are something great in the world, look at yourself in the mirror and remember the features in your face, the expression in your eyes, as well as your whole disposition. When you are in a state of love and kindness, look at yourself again in the mirror. Christ says, "There is nothing hidden in man." Everything is hidden for the blind people. Some people say that I have been reading certain mysteries to you. For those who have eyes there are no mysteries. I have an apple seed in my purse - here it is - this is the mystery; sow it and in ten years’ time you will see its blossoms and fruit; then you will understand this mystery. You may say, "There may be something dangerous in all this." The fearful will not enter the Kingdom of God. How does a good person differ from a bad one? The person who lies speaks fast, but the person who tells the truth speaks quietly and calmly, asking people to test his/her words. I, too, want you to test all things. By this Light I can be in contact with the advanced Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and with your friends in the Other World - the world of divine harmony. If you love someone who has gone to the Other World, you can speak with him/her intelligently, reasonably. There are certain mediums who, not understanding the language of the spirits, begin to twist the truth and use lies. Do not lie, speak the truth, because a lie has short legs3. The truth moves with great speed and its legs are long, so it can help the unhappy spirits. When someone says, "My legs are long," I say, "You are lucky, but I wish the legs of your soul and heart to be long; too, so that you may bear this Light." If this Light develops in us, we shall be able to avoid 90% of the evils taking place today. Light is one of the fundamental elements in bringing up good sons and daughters. I recommend this rule to all women: not to allow their mind to think negative thoughts. And another: let those who have lost the sense of life greet the sunrise every morning. Watch the sunrise in the course of a month and see what you feel. In the spring, when the flowers bloom and the trees are blossoming, watch them and see the result - you will feel the sense of life. What do people do today? They sleep until 10 o’clock in the morning and in the afternoon about sunset they go out to enjoy its dying beams of light. They go out for walks in the autumn when the leaves are falling. Nature should be studied at its particular time. But what are people like today? Someone reads the New Testament and wonders what Christ meant by certain words. Christ could read very well the Book of Divine Nature. When I read a book, I ask myself whether its author has Light or not and what are the colors he lacks. After reading a book, I can describe its author - the kind of head s/he has, his/her face, hands, thoughts and so on. Some want to know who and what kind of a man I am. What I am speaking to you is what I am. If I rob you, I am such; if I heal you - I am such. You may ask, "Why should he heal us?" It makes no difference who will help you, I or someone else. According to me, I should give someone the surplus of my knowledge and of my life, because it is not mine. The Light coming from within me is to be spread out, "All of you are Light." For 2000 years the Christians have been reading this verse and cannot understand it. That is why you have to turn the icon of your St Nicolas head down, he ought to keep your house and your possessions for he is your reason. Say to him, "You must reason well, or I shall turn you upside down." You ask, "What is Light?" When it enters your soul, your face will be beautiful, your eyes will be shining; a pleasant warmth will be emitted from your hands and you will emit a pleasant odor. But how do people smell today? Very badly. The violets and some other flowers help you hide your natural smell. The violet you use says, "God is manifested in life in humility, not in pride. If you are a valley of good soil, God will sow the best seeds in you; but if you are a bare, proud peak, there will be nothing but eternal snow on you." This is the language of the violets and when people use their perfume, they should learn their language. However, I am not blaming anyone by saying this. I wish you all to have the fragrance and color of the violet. When you pronounce a word or write something, there must be a fine fragrance in it. According to the conception of this Light all people are colored flowers. What is a teacher, a preacher, a farmer, a father, a mother, a brother or a sister? They are great divine flowers. Have you seen the color of a mother? When you enter the life of the Light, you will understand what color a mother is. There are no more beautiful colors in the world than those of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or close friends. Do you have these colors written within yourselves? Is there a person who has not sent Light out of him/herself at least ten times? Who has not spoiled the colors of his/her mother and father, of his/her friends inside him/herself? From now on we must build and create. If you want to raise the Bulgarian people, you must build. Bulgaria has need of Salt and Light which makes for growth. That is why all people of learning must consider and think about this. There can be no Bulgaria without Salt and Light. The Bulgarian nation has a root down in the earth and a branch in the divine world - this nation must bear fruit on its branch above. This is the only way a nation or a soul can be characterized. The souls are individual, but at the same time - collective. Collectivity is the Law of Harmony. We can feel Light by our soul, by our heart and by our will. One thing that destroys Light is anger. An angry person is without will. It says in the Scriptures, "Be angry, but sin not." Anger is a certain energy used in the wrong direction. Everyone has experienced a weakness after anger, which shows there is a state of demagnetization. Another element that obstructs light is voluptuousness. It is the grave of love. How many young men and women have gone to the grave prematurely because of it. Love is harmony whereas voluptuousness is poison. Yet another element that destroys light is sloth. If you go to America, you will see that besides school education children study certain handicrafts. Everyone works there making their own living and considers it humiliating to depend on others. There people respect those who work. I wish everyone in Bulgaria to aspire for work - this refers to the townsfolk, not the peasants - for they are endangered by indolence. The element of envy is also destructive to Light. Envy and pride are a brother and a sister. Whoever is envious, is proud as well. The person possessed of envy delights in the suffering of others. You remember Shakespeare’s tragedy "The Merchant of Venice," where the miserly Jew insisted on the pound of flesh to be cut off his debtor’s body even when the latter was in a state to pay back his debt. There are many other examples where envy manifests malicious joy. A man went to court with another man and after hearing them the court decided to impose a greater penalty on one of them and asked them what penalty they would prefer. The one who would have a lighter penalty proposed that both eyes be taken out of the other man. "But we should take one of your eyes too, then," said the judge. "I agree," said the man, "if both eyes are taken from the other one." A person of such cruelty cannot have Light. Envy obsesses politicians as well and there are quite a few of them in Bulgaria. Give way to the noble people! If a person possesses these vices mentioned above; obstruct his way, he is not in his place. When Christ says, "You are the Light," He means the people of the future. When God created the world with the stars, moon and sun, He said, "This is for the people of the future." Someone says to me, "Tell me about my past life" It is inscribed on you. You may have a disordered organism now, but that does not mean that you are ill. As soon as the conditions obstructing Light are taken away, this disorder will disappear. Another vice that impedes Light is greed - the desire for many possessions. I shall give you an example of greed. In Spain there lived a millionaire who enslaved whole regions. All people complained of him, so the Spanish king issued an order for his imprisonment. In the prison, whenever he wanted water or bread, they made him pay 1000 leva for a piece of bread or a glass of water. "This is the greatest cruelty imposed on me," said the prisoner. The king answered him, "This is your punishment, go away now and do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you." That is why God sends you all these evils. You say about someone that he/she was born feebleminded. It is not true that his/her mother and father have born him/her so, as everyone is his/her own father and mother. There are two theories about this: some say that the mothers pass their own qualities to their children, while others say that the child exists in the invisible world as a sensible being, choosing a suitable mother, a suitable environment, influencing the mother by suggesting good thoughts to her mind. A pregnant woman can determine the character of her son/daughter according to the kind of thoughts engaging her during pregnancy. We can oppose the divine world, but when its law becomes active, its power will do away with our unreasonable opposition. You, men and women who are here, are the Light. Evil does not exist for me. I understand that evil does not exist in divine harmony, but outside of this harmony there is evil. If you decide to live a noble and good life, you will have this Light, it will be with you. This Light is rational and all ancient mystics who had this Light saw a boundless world tinged with the most beautiful colors that filled their soul. When you are in high spirits, you have this Light, but you cannot keep it long. Sometimes you think that I am speaking well, but you say, "Who knows what purpose he has in view." My purpose is to fulfill the will of God. I am not one of those who deceive people; up till now I have neither said a lie, nor have been lied to. You can win my favor only by Goodness, Truth, Love and Wisdom. If you decide to serve God, only then will God come down from His greatness and make you good people and great spirits. I am preaching to you about the Living Lord", the Lord of the Twentieth Century Who tears down prisons; sets the prisoners free; and brings harmony, order, joy and gladness. He brings such blessings as people have not even thought of. He will turn this earth into a garden of paradise and you, Bulgarians, will live in it. You will all be living when I shall meet you again and I shall see whether what I am speaking to you is true or not. These are not illusions as some may think. Illusions can be known by the following quality: you may nourish someone with illusions telling him/her you have given them real food, but in forty or fifty days they will grow weak and die. A person faints and grows foolish with illusion. I wish all Bulgarian men and women to be great - great in virtue, great in love, great in righteousness, great in wisdom, great in that divine truth of Light of which I am speaking to you. Think about Light; it is with you. Test it, be self-reliant and enter as the bees into every blossom to gather honey. Do not remain to spend the night there - that is voluptuousness - but take your honey and go to the beehive. This is what Christ wanted to say by the words, "You are the Light," and "A city placed on a hill cannot be hidden." When you enter this city, you will understand the sense of your earthly life. You try to imagine what your future life will be like. Know it is within you and depends upon your present life. It is the same with every silkworm, which possesses all the necessary elements for its turning into a butterfly. It will not be long before you become like this butterfly. Now, you are walking on the earth in a straight line, asking yourselves if there is another life; and with your little wings - your mind and heart of Light - you will alight on the most beautiful divine tree, the Tree of Life; you will understand its sense and be joyful and happy. Sermon held on April 1, 1917 in Sofia 1 Matt. 5:14 2 A wealthy owner of estates and money during the Turkish domination /1393-1878/ (ed. note) 3 Bulgarian saying (ed. note)

Note 5 God’s Will Knowledge is powerful in the world only when applied. Many of you do not apply it and at that all of you want to wear nice clothes and to eat delicious dishes, without knowing how to acquire or prepare them. Everyone should know how to warp, weave, etc. Some days you are cheerful – this is a sort of fertiliser; grief – this is another sort of fertiliser. Someone is in a good mood; in half an hour it will change. Do you know why this happens? Everyone entering Spiritual Life will awake within oneself all the bad features of one’s previous life, which have been dormant and now that Divine blessing has come, these have sprung up. You have to get rid of the weeds in your garden! Some say that they were better persons before they entered Spiritual life. Ninety-four percent of your love is a waste; only the remaining six percent1 is Love. Get rid of the waste – fertilisers should be in the field! You should keep only the good – the six percent[1]. You may say that I am pruning you again for something – but this is no pruning. You have not seen pruning yet. An artist should carve and cut for a long time before the statue comes out fine and graceful. I want all of you to be prepared to implement God’s Will. Imagine that you are living in the early Christian times. How many of you are ready to endure the prosecutions and trials? You have small trials at home – with your husbands, with your children, but these are nothing. What is important is to implement the Will of God! But what is it that you do? If the Divine Will is in agreement with your will, you are prepared to follow it, but if this is the opposite case – you are not. The new teaching needs to produce neither monks nor nuns. It needs absolutely healthy people who can bear the hardships of life. And those of you who understand this law, this Teaching, will be ready to help one another. Each one of you has a thorn in one’s flesh. Paul also had a thorn, about which he prayed to God. But he did not tell God where his thorn was. God told him, "Too much is My blessing for you." Similarly, you too should tell God where your thorn is, so that He can take it out. You do not have to have identical aspirations. If everybody weaves nothing but cloths, there will appear strong competition. You all want to be good. What is virtue? To do properly whatever it is we do – no matter whether we cook, weave, sew, etc. This is what being good means. You want to be like an exhibited statue and you would expect everybody passing by to say how nice it is and to admire it. I do not want you to be like that Englishman, who started running away from his automated machine, into which he wanted to implant soul. Christ’s Teaching is not an automated teaching. This is a Teaching for the soul. Many doubts will be roused in your minds when you come in touch with this Teaching. You may say that you experience no doubts. How many doubts does a newly wed wife have about her husband! This is so because she has no faith in him. You start on your Spiritual Path according to the same law and you ask yourselves, "Shall I get to the end?" Doubts show that the doubting subject is not an independent person in one’s work. If one is bad, one has the form of a bad person; if one is suspicious, one has the respective form. All forms take after the person. Everybody aspires towards Heaven; everybody is willing to please God. What have you sacrificed for God, what have you done? You always say God has not given you this or that. However, what have you given? Can you make bread from the flour you gave to God? You have to do some good thinking. You keep talking about Love all the time. But it is Love, which gives Power to human spirit and mind to endure hardship; that is Divine Love. In order to have it, you should replace your love with the Divine one. If you listen to me, I shall tell you where you can get this Love. When someone insults you, you start grieving. This shows that your love has boundaries and fails – so this is no Love. Paul says, "Love never fails." Nuts, before falling down, shed something – what they shed is not the nut itself, but the shell. Someone says about someone else that one’s love has failed, but this is only the packaging of Divine Love. You should shed all shells and keep the Divine core, which is Love and which contains such a Power that when you summon it, everything melts in this Love. I can read your faces – you are people who worry. I would give you a failing mark, a poor mark or a satisfactory mark, but no more. You say, "I pray a lot." This means that you eat a lot. Praying and serving are two separate things. Everyday you say; "Let it be God’s Will." Husbands say, "Let it be God’s Will," but wives say, "No, let it be my will." This is what husbands and children do and it is no good. You have started trading with a big company and you say, "We trade wholesale." But one day you go bankrupt and you see that this is no work for you. You should think three times before speaking! You are all teachers, and you say, "This is what Mr. Deunov should do!" Tell me what to do and I will do it exactly as you say. But I will also tell you what to do, and you have to perform it. If you do not walk properly, you will become more anxious, you will lose sleep; you will become suspicious and in the end you will want to hide this from the people around you and you will put on a mask. However, my Teaching will impart a pleasant nuance to your soul, you will be calm and cheerful, and you will need no masks. Some of you are thirty years of age, others – forty, but you have to study at the most one hundred and twenty years, which is to say that there is still a lot for you to learn. God asks how many of you are ready to implement God’s Will? Three times you take[2] from me, however, what will you do for me? Christ says, "It is not only bread that will keep human beings alive, but every Word coming out of the Divine mouth will keep them alive." You will tell me what you want me to do for you. You may say, "But we neither take nor give." But then you do not belong to this School. God will show one Path only for those who have the good will to always win against their thoughts and desires within. You will put a chain link to your bear and you will give it a little flour from time to time. Husbands are angry and beat their wives; you keep criticising the others. I would like to ask you whether you are at peace with yourselves? Try not to have any disturbances for a month, to be quiet and calm, and you will see how good you are. From now on, whatever misunderstandings or rows you may have, God instructed, "Get rid of any impurities!" God is not the God of wrath, but of Faith, Hope, Love, Justice and Purity. Those of you who do not follow this law, should go to Egypt to make bricks, but those of you who want to follow it, this is now the Path through the desert leading to the Canaan land. There are a lot of important issues for you to resolve in this life. Do not postpone them. Tune your thoughts positively, "I will implement God’s Will!" Say this to yourselves; do not say it to others. Impart purity and sincerity to your thoughts, your desires, and your souls and Love will manifest itself, and God will bless you, and Heaven will strive to cultivate everything sown in you by God. Make room for it to grow, now is the most favourable time, when you can accomplish a lot within a short period. What previously took a thousand years to grow, can be ripe within ten years now, what previously took a hundred years to grow, can be ripe within one year now. Women should make a union, should help one another! But now when you sit at home, you keep gossiping about other women being such and such – only questions and criticism. You can’t go on with such devil’s masks. Take them down! You should now learn from the Lord. You will be measured by the measure you apply to others. I can now make you like bees, by putting you in the cauldron, but I want you to become good on your own accord. Because when the time comes, you will be good out of necessity, while now it is time for freedom, for choices – you yourselves should choose to be good. The good within a person – this is the human being; this is its share. What you will do is a blessing for your homes, for your children. If you keep My commandments, I will pray to My Father to send you the Spirit of Comfort, this is what Christ said to His disciples. We shall boil tomatoes and out of one hundred kilograms we shall make nine or ten kilograms. I shall give you tomatoes and chopped wood and you will boil them. I shall boil tomatoes for those of you who do not want to boil tomatoes, but I will demand such persons to bring tomatoes and chopped wood to me. You should always think of things that grow. The thought of ‘I can’t’ is a contradiction. In the law of Love ‘I can’t’ shows that there are impediments and obstacles. I have started photographing your thoughts and one day I will show them to you. The psalm singer says, "And the Lord deleted my sins." Your brain cells should be filled with more elevated stuff! So that your hearts and your minds can be ennobled, so that you can be healthy – absolutely healthy! This is what Lord’s Teaching is about. I do not want to listen about a teaching that cannot be applied. All of you should be healthy, happy and blissful! Health is of the body; happiness is a feature of the soul among angels, while bliss is a feature of the spirit with God. This is why there can be no happiness and bliss on Earth. The lessons scheduled for 1917 should be learnt in 1917, the field should not be left uncultivated. I will divide you into categories. These who can weave will walk all right, but it is no good for those who cannot. Many complain that life is not going fine. This is because the cloth is not properly fixed – you should try and put it on again. Only those who can apply the teaching should come next Thursday. We need no people who are just listeners. Try to settle your relationships; try to be sincere with your soul, with God and with people. Wherever good grows, evil also grows. Whoever works more, eats more, wears out more clothes etc. Each of you should become a hearth of the Divine Spirit. The Lord sends His Spirit to us every day, but we have to be ready to receive the good that God sends to us. I want you to assist me in smoothing the misunderstandings among you. You often make much ado in your minds and hearts; this is useless. Try to calm down your thoughts, reach a helping hand out and work. I see you divide yourselves into parties, into young and old. The first thing is to acquire the Divine Spirit! To build up the Good! Otherwise with your bad thoughts you create karma and illnesses. The Lord wrote that everything will come out all right, and I would like you to grow in your hearts and minds, in Wisdom, knowledge and Love, and not to hinder one another. The first law is the one of suffering. The second law is the one of temptation – spirits tempt you through people. The third law is the one of the Divine blessing. What great laws these are! I wish you could understand them. You will learn them together – in theory and in practice. If someone comes to criticise, you should tell that person, "Do you have a loom? Come, let’s weave together!" Someone does not have a good life – his loom is not properly set; you should cut the cloth and should warp it anew. "Out of order" are the looms of men and of women and now you all weep… Master’s lecture delivered on the 29 March 1917. [1] In the original text the word ‘kilogrammes’ is used, however translation contains ‘percent’ as it makes better sense. The source of this mistake is not clear. [2] There is an explanation note in the decoded short-hand text, specifying that what is meant is ‘taking [food]’. Editors, sticking to the allegorical style of the Word, omitted this note. Source

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Salt "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, where with shall it be salted?"[1] Christ begins His sermon on the mount with nine blessings. The blessings He is speaking about have a relation to another world, they are not about the earthly life. Christ says about the earthly people, "You are the salt." I shall speak about the salt because life cannot exist on earth without salt. The physical world is a world of salt, not of light - which is the world of the angels. "You," which "you"? Do not take this word in a narrow sense. For those who believe, "you" implies all people in whom the Divine consciousness is awakened. All people in whom this consciousness is awakened are the salt of the earth. By the word "salt", all occultists, cabalists and mystics understand the power of balance - that element of power which keeps things in a balanced state. In order to walk in the street, you must have balance. When a ship is being built, they put a load of salt on its bottom to keep it balanced so that the waves will not turn it over. The word "salt" implies that power that thickens matter, keeps it from disintegration and creates conditions for the higher powers of the world to work. Salt is a necessary element on the earth for the healthy condition of the human body. When an organism loses its salt, it loses its base, and as a result of that all kinds of illnesses attack it. The people call someone a neurasthenic; but I say that they have lost their salt - their energy flows out. If we could see with the eye of a clairvoyant the nerves and the arteries of a neurasthenic person, we would notice in many places there are cracks from which the energy flows out. Such a person is weak. Why? Because they have lost the Divine Salt, which is a basic power for maintaining human life on earth. What are the causes for losing this salt? In the first place, the unrestrained human passions. After every expression of passion, regardless of what character, one feels a weakness. You have all experienced this. Passions are not necessary to people who have salt, but only to those who have none. Christ says to His disciples, "You are the salt and if the salt should lose its power, i. e. if it loses its saltiness, it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden by men." But why should it be trodden upon? Treading is a reaction so that it may acquire its saltiness again. When you suffer, that is treading; the angels throw you out among the people and you become weak because you have lost your saltiness. If you had been rich, you become poor; if you had been wise, you become foolish. You lose your saltiness, but as soon as this happens, you lose the sense of life too and then all contradictory teachings spring up: whether people should get married or not, whether they should have children, whether they should love their wives, and so on. The Epicurean philosophy takes hold according to which a man should have many wives and experience everything. You may try everything, but then you will be thrown out and trodden upon by all sensible[2] people until you obtain your saltiness. Then the second process will come; the light will come, your mind will be illuminated and you will understand why you are suffering. You will understand that these things do not agree with life. Every thought, every desire which does not serve the building of the human soul and which is destructive, is not a necessary desire - it is losing your saltiness. When a husband treads upon his wife, let her say to herself, "Tread upon me that I may become salty." A husband trodden upon by his wife shows that he has no salt. Bulgarians call a bear-trainer to come into a village to make his bear tread on their sick people - or to salt them - and they get well. This power is hidden in all people. Scientists today have given it different names, while the occultists call it "magnetism," among the other names that they give it. When a person has this salt, they are magnetized. If you have this salt, you feel a certain pleasant warmth below your solar plexus and you get up in the morning well-disposed. However, if you do not have enough salt, you get up badly disposed, ready to be harsh and rude with people. Getting angry at the first person you meet means that person is asking you to tread upon them a little so that they may become salty. The person who comes to tread upon the angry one has this salt which will immediately restore the person’s balance. I want you to put my sermons to a test and to see their results. Only the person of deep convictions and experience is strong, for if you believe everybody, you have no salt. I believe that God speaks to people according to the salt they possess. If you have salt, He will say to you: "When you get up, go to dig your vineyard and to sow your field." If you are a judge you will study your cases, do other work, and you will understand Him. If you do not have salt, people will tread on you, rob you, steal your money, take away your wife, children, house. God says, "Treading is necessary on those people who cannot do their work on earth." People often ask, "Why is the world not going well?" There is no salt in the world. Give people salt! Much salt is not necessary - you need only a quarter of a kilogram of the salt I am speaking to you about. That will be enough for the salting of the whole Bulgarian nation, so that it can become an excellent nation for at least one hundred years. Do you know how long your factories must work for the production of this salt? A scientist calculated that the original substance of which the world was created was thousands of times lighter than hydrogen and that to obtain only a gram of this original substance, all the factories in the world would have to work for three thousand years. You are the salt and in order to acquire this salt you must devote your whole life to this. If you had only one gram of this salt, you would be the richest person in the world. Wherever you went, you would heal people. When you enter a house where the husband and wife are at odds, give some of this salt so that peace and agreement will be immediately restored. Children are quarrelling - give them some of this salt; nations are warring, give them of this salt and peace and concord will be immediately restored. You say, "What kind of an alchemical element is this salt, what great power it has!" Upon entering the church, a priest who has this salt will silence everyone and all will turn to him. People want salt and if you do not have it, you can not have success. I am not speaking in the sense of judging you; I am only stating a defect that is common to all people, not only to Bulgarians. Everyone on earth has defects. If we were perfect, we would be among the angels with God. But since we must become well-bred, God has sent us to the earth - the place of wisdom where these great lessons can be learned. Today I am preaching to you about the salt. Why? Because you all want to be happy. In fact, everybody can be happy but you must acquire the ability to retain this happiness, not just attain it. You get up in the morning well-disposed and say, "How happy I am." Five or ten minutes pass and you lose this happiness, this good disposition. Why? You have no salt in yourself. Salt implies the world with all its forms. Since you cannot retain only the essence without forms, that is why I say that the world is actually-real and actually-unreal. Actually-real is that world which has all the forms with their content, but actually-unreal is the world which has the forms without their content. There are people who are actually-unreal because they have a body, but have no salt. If you have no salt, you cannot understand what Divine Delight, Divine Goodness and Love are. Only by means of salt, by a balance between your mind and heart in a calm state, can you comprehend this Divine World. Christ says, "The salt which has lost its savor must be thrown out and trodden on." That is why I have said many times that sufferings are necessary for they are the way of acquiring saltiness. Saltiness is the way to Light; the Light is the way to Love and Love - the way to God. As soon as we begin seeking God, the world changes the aspect it has had until now. All of you who are listening to me this morning think that at times the world has some meaning and at other times it does not. That is very burdensome. You have friends who do not understand you; children who do not love you; you sit among believers, but they do not understand you either. The thing for you to do now is to understand whose fault it is. Is it they who have no salt or you? Where the salt is, there the right is; where there is no salt, there is no right. If you have no salt, you must say, "They must tread on me." All people are parts of God, of His great organism and since such is the case, it makes no difference who treads on you - do not forget that this is of God, in all cases divine hands or feet tread on you. This is a thousand times more pleasant than if a bear should tread on you, as the Bulgarian practice goes. An Englishman tells of an experience of this kind. He went to India in order to study the life of the Hindu people. As an amateur sportsman, one day he took his gun and went to hunt in a thick forest. As he was carrying his gun in his right hand, he felt a strong blow on his left arm and fell to the ground. A tigress had hit him and carried him to her den where her little ones were. The tigress said to her children, "Get hold of this Englishman, tread on him hard and give him a good lesson. If he tries to raise his head, you tread on it." The Englishman wanted to raise his head and see what was taking place around him, but the tigress said, "Do not look up; there is nothing there, I am teaching my children." The Englishman said afterwards, "I was not angry that my left arm was broken; but that they trod on my head, so I could not see anything." Everyone who has no salt will fall into the claws of a tiger. When two young people are getting married for love, they go to the church, the priest prays for them and everyone kisses them. In a month’s time they part. The tiger has taken the bride or the groom. These people have lost their savor and will be thrown out. If there is a divorce between them, they have lost their salt and such people should not live together. Whether you are a man or a woman - treading is necessary. Bulgarians heal themselves by treading on one another. It is a pleasant massage, a nice rubbing. This salt is necessary for your physical organism, for your feelings and thoughts as well. The Law is general: it refers to the Angelic and Divine Worlds as well as to the physical world. Modern philosophers give different names to the qualities of the spiritual world. For instance, they call a person who has salt a moral person and a person without salt - immoral. People say about someone: "This person is highly intelligent, sensible," which means that there is a law of balance in him, or salt. Intelligence[3] is salt, so by the word "intelligence" is meant that condition when all human abilities are active. Salt is the soil. There can be nothing in the world without salt for the earth itself would be a desert without salt and everything would decay. Salt is a fertilizer stored up for years. Next to it there are other forces which build our organism. In order not to lose your salt, you should refrain from unlawful desires. I shall tell you a parable now. In the distant past a girl was born in a palace; she was the most beautiful girl in the world. When she grew up, her father found a good young man whom he wanted his daughter to marry. This young couple was so well-loved in heaven that God sent down an angelic representative to attend their wedding on the earth. When the angel came to the earth, he fell in love with the young bride and did not wish to return to heaven. He began to think of ways of possessing this young woman. God waited for him to return for a day, two, three days, a month; but the angel did not return. When God understood how things stood, wishing to teach the angel the consequences of his bad desires, He turned him into a songbird who would hop from branch to branch among all the other birds. The angel began noticing that other birds avoided him as he hopped around in the trees and he could not figure out what was causing all his sufferings. One day he hopped on a tree and started to lament over his life. Just then four robbers came under that tree to divide their booty. They divided it into equal parts. Two of them decided to go to town and buy food and drink for a feast. On the way back these two robbers decided to put poison in the food so that when the other two ate it they would die. These two men would then take all of the riches. The two robbers who remained under the tree while waiting for their comrades to return decided to shoot them when they returned and take their riches. The angel knew of the evil decisions of both parties. When the two robbers approached the place, both were shot from a distance; the other two ate the food and were poisoned. Only then did the angel realize what the consequences of unlawful desires are and why he suffered. When God sends you to a wedding in which He participates, do not have the eye of this angel. If you are a man, keep yourself from saying, "she will be mine," or if you are a woman, "He will be mine," because you will sing up in the tree for a long time. I ask you: “Are you not such birds thrown out of heaven?” Some ask, "Tell us why we have come down from heaven." We have all come down to learn that unlawful desires have bad consequences and to understand that a man who has no salt is far from God. People want freedom. That is why God sends them to earth and says to them, "Live according to the Law of My Freedom." The wrong thing in people is that they want freedom only for themselves. According to God’s law, we must understand the relationships which exist among us. The Law of the Salt is, "Do not refuse to others what you desire for yourself." You should give others a chance to develop their own abilities too. If someone has a field or a vineyard, do not envy them, but rather be grateful that they have everything. If you see someone riding a horse, do not say, "I wish this horse were mine!" Be thankful that the person has a horse. They are worthy of it. If you see a nice, well-furnished house, do not desire it for yourself. If you have salt, you will have everything you need. Say to God, "I want salt from now on!" In order to convince some people today of this Great Truth, you must argue a long time with them; while with others you need only try to convince them. Few are those who will agree with you at once. People whose Spiritual Sight is not developed need argumentation, which is like groping in the spiritual world. By their feeling of sequence, step by step, they will form a clear idea of the things which they cannot grasp at once. In our reasonings about God, we use the same analogy in order to form an idea of Him. All philosophic schools, with their thick volumes of studying the questions of God, are all groping - some closer, others farther from the Truth. Some have touched the little finger of God and say, "What small fingers God has!" Someone has touched His hand and says, "What a big hand God has!" Someone has touched His shoulder or His head and has knowledge accordingly. But this is only the external side of God – His manifested nature. It will be strange if someone should get on top of the roof of my house and say. "Now I understand Mr. Deunov. He is hard, because I am touching hard tiles." If someone should touch something soft, he would say, "How soft Mr. Deunov is!" I can be hard and soft at the same time. What do you understand by "hard"? Hard as a stone or hard in one’s convictions? Therefore we cannot have true conceptions of things from an external touch, but only vague ideas. If you do not have a sufficient amount of salt, you will not be salty and you will say, "Life is nothing but eating and drinking." I am not against eating and drinking. I do not recommend hunger or unnatural fasting. I have a different idea of fasting - everyone should eat as much as is necessary for the renewal of their body. Every day we should use a certain quantity of bread, water and air for the building of the body. Some think that if they do not eat, they will become better. No, if you do not eat, you will become worse. If you want to make a person better, feed them if they are hungry; give them drink if they are thirsty; and after they are nourished give them some of your salt and they will become better. If you do not feed them, you will commit a crime. If you meet a person in despair who wants to commit suicide, do not give them advice that this is a wrong thing to do or tell them not to despair. Take them to your home; feed them according to your custom; give them drink, and in an hour or two, after their food has been digested, say to them, "Let us have a talk now." Give that person a chance to feel well-disposed and tell you why their life is so dark. Instruct them and show them the way they should go. That is why God has sent them to you on that day. We often pray, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," however, if you do not fulfil His will as He prompts you, that day you will be without salt. You can do this experiment: if you are in low spirits, meet a friend who feels worse than you, call them to your home, feed them and you will notice how God has salted both of you. A woman who is dissatisfied with her husband meets another woman who is even more unhappy; and when the two of them get together and talk for awhile, God will salt both of them. This is a positive Christian philosophy. People often say, "You must not eat too many beans, too much meat as they leave sediments in your body." Ask yourselves why people eat so much - in order to obtain salt. When they have enough salt, they will not eat much. When you become normal then we can speak of a higher philosophy of life. You can do the following experiment, for you are all of the actual-real world: you may say to yourself, "Now it has come into Mr. Deunov’s mind to speak to us about salt; do we not know how necessary it is?" I am speaking to you about the salt so that you may make this simple experiment: stop and think for 5 to 10 minutes about the salt, about its influence on your organism, feelings, Soul, and mind and see if a change takes place in you and what you feel. Why is salt precisely such an active element? People often complain to me that they are in a bad mood – unhappy; but I say to them, "I know this, because I am also on the earth." "Yes, but your condition is quite different from what we are under." The difference lies only in the fact that I have more salt. I shall give to you of my salt, but you must make good use of it and distribute it well. When you have some leaven, keep part of it for future use. When you eat yogurt, put a spoonful aside as leaven and do not say the children have eaten it all up. I recommend to people today not to eat to complete satisfaction, because God will take such people from the earth. In such a case you will be like a Bulgarian man to whom money was lent and he started buying useless things with it. The man who lent him the money took it back to count it and did not return it, saying, "You are not a man who can use money properly, that is why you do not deserve it." When God sees that you do not use life rightly and abuse it, He takes it back. Many of you were healthy, happy and joyful, but now you are faint and weak. Why? Because you are not yet able to make a proper use of life. When you have salt in yourselves, you will be healthy people with a sound body and heart. Concentrate your mind on salt - the element of balance and uplifting - and try to comprehend it. The Hindus call this element "Prana," a power bearing life in itself. It can be found and drawn from the air, the food and the water. Now I shall tell you how to eat. We shall begin with eating in this life. When you begin to eat, the first condition required of you is to cast out all discontentment. You should try to love the small piece of bread you have, so that the energy that it has might penetrate your organism. This would create a pleasant feeling in you. But what do we find today? A wife cooks for four hours a tasty meal and when her husband comes home he is scowling and discontented, throwing cold water on his wife and all the salt is gone. The next day the wife is disgruntled and he eats without receiving any of this salt, because there is discontentment. Both the husband and wife are discontented. The husband says, "Is this a wife?" The children say, "What kind of a mother is this!" Another time the husband buys meat, butter, eggs and again all are discontented at home. In order to be content, prepare yourself in thinking that everything is excellent with you wife. When you chew your food you will see how tasty it is and what a feeling of pleasantness and happiness you will experience. Now you are complaining, "How can one live on ¼ kilogram of bread?" But in a quarter kilogram of bread there is enough salt for your subsistence. It is our discontentment which causes all the unpleasantness. You say to yourself, "When my stomach is empty, I do not understand anything about this eating." It is not your stomach that is empty – it is your mind and your heart that are empty. I have made different experiments with food, at times eating only two apples with some bread and I have been satisfied. It is not in the abundance of food; but in eating with a grateful heart that one is blessed. Do not be negligent of the little salt in the world; it is like the small grain of wheat out of which great things are born. The first thing we should do is to reform this feeling of discontentment which exists in us. When you have a small quantity of food, thank God for it and it will be multiplied. Because in living magnetism there is a power by which all particles which have a similar vibration to that of the central magnetism are attracted. If you are pleased with the food you eat, you will be able to attract from outside as many elements as are necessary to satisfy you. Some say, "We should not drink water, it is for the frogs; the wine is for us." You should drink water on an empty stomach from 100 to 150 milliliters in swallows. You should drink from half to one kilogram of water daily out of which you will take the necessary food for your arteries. You should breathe deeply through your nose, not through the mouth, so as not to swallow much dust. When people today learn to receive food, water and air this way, the other blessings will come of themselves. Do not think that things will be created in you and in your soul from now on. No, there are many dormant feelings in you. The human soul is rich, waiting for conditions to develop. The first thing you should develop is gratefulness for everything you have. Keep your eye from being like that of the angel I told you about. If you all apply this great "Law of Thankfulness", at least 50% of your affairs on earth will be set right. Then the angels watching us from above, seeing that we have started on the Path, will come to help us. Do not think that you are working alone in the world. Dig the earth and you will see how many small worms are helping the tiller; how many microbes are helping the farmer in preparing the soil; and how many elements form the grain of wheat. In spite of all this, we are children who are always discontented no matter what their father brings them. Every child must thank their father for everything he brings them. A child who does not kiss their father when he brings them something, has no salt. Some parents say, "My angel." It is an angel indeed, but without the wings. A daughter who does not thank her father and mother and does not kiss them is also an angel without wings. You who are listening to me will speak to others in the same way. Then we shall verify by experience the necessity of this salt for all. Today God is treading on people, salting the world: Englishmen, Germans, Russians, Frenchmen, and so on. From today on, the Good is coming. When you go home, obtain at least a gram of salt in order to be a useful member of your family, of society and the nation. Be thankful for everything, for only then can you obtain a Blessing. Then you will be wise, good, industrious and diligent. Sermon held on March 25, 1917 in Sofia [1] Matthew 5:13 [2] Here and later sensible is used in the meaning of having, containing, or indicative of good sense or reason, rational, reasonable, as in the collocations sensible people, made a sensible answer, (ed. note) [3] Intelligence as the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly (ed. note) Source

Note 1 All things have been delivered to me by my Father...1 "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." No one knows the Son but the Father; and no one knows the Father but the Son. The word knowing is related to the human mind. If it is not ready to comprehend the meaning of the great idea "of knowing" the mind cannot understand the relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. Here we have two values: Father and Son. They can be examined as the numbers 1:3. What do we understand by the number 1? This number is a symbol, that for some people has meaning and for others does not — all depends on their mind. When you say "one" you may understand a man, a woman, or a child, but you can think also of a horse, a cow, or a calf, etc. When you say the word "man" you think that you know what man is, but if you are asked to give a more precise definition, you will find yourselves in a difficult situation. It is easy to say "my son" or "my daughter" but even these words are not very clear to you. You have an idea about the daughter or the son as far as you understand the relationship that exists between you. Yet the true relationship depends upon the ties that exist between your soul and the soul of him whom you call your son or your daughter. The number "one" is the father, and the number "three" — the child, the son or the daughter. As mathematical ratio, the numbers 1:3 represent the relation of the diameter of the circle to its length: D:P. The number P=3.14. This means that the diameter is contained in the circle 3.14 times; we are using only the whole number - three. This will say that the father indicates the measure of the human path, and the son — the circumference of this path. And so when we say that no one knows the Son, we imply all the possible combinations through which he passes. When the diameter rotates around itself it forms a sphere or a ball, which indicates the possibilities and conditions which the Son brings. Do not think that it is easy to come to know the Son, to turn him like a wheel one time and to say that you have understood its movement. And when you say "diameter", again you have not understood the deep meaning of the unit. In relation to the number three, i.e. the length of the circle, the unit is diameter, but it is the unit in respect to innumerable more numbers. In mathematics all numbers begin with the unit. We pronounce the numbers one, two, three, etc. They represent the diameters drawn in a circle. The number seven represents the diameter of the universe. These are abstract, mystical ideas, that man will understand when he will be able to penetrate into the deep meaning of life. In this sense every one must understand the place and position which he occupies in nature. A man can be in the position of a mineral, a plant, an animal and lastly in the position of true man. Until he comes to this position he learns to distinguish and understand things. He passes through the minerals, studies them, and when he learns their properties, he separates the precious stones from the ordinary ones and begins to adorn himself with them. When he passes through the plants and animals, again he studies them: he cultivates them, he feeds them, he enjoys them, until one day he starts to pick and to kill them, using them for food. The husband comes home from work dissatisfied and angry, but when he sees that his wife has cooked a chicken or lamb, that she has set the table and has placed some fruit on it, he becomes well disposed and cheerful and starts eating with pleasure. He thinks that he has understood his wife, but this is true only for a few hours. The stomach is emptied and a new uproaring, a new discontent rises until the hunger is satisfied. In the same position are the wife and the children. All complain that they do not know and understand each other. What is understanding? To know things will say to master them, it means that they have become part of you - your flesh and blood. To know the horse, does not mean to harness him and lead him after yourselves; to know the elements does not mean to put them in flasks and keep them sealed. Knowledge implies conscious, inner relation between things. Such relationship can exist only in love. This will say that if you have love you will know things, if you lack love you will know nothing. Some one says that he is dying of love. He may die without understanding love. With dying one cannot find love. When a young maid cannot attain her ideal, i.e. she cannot marry the man of her heart, she says that she will die. This indicates that she wants to attain love but love cannot be found through death. When we speak about the home, about the mother, the father, the children, we imply certain relationships of souls that are tied together through love. When we speak about the church, again we understand the relationship of souls to something, that represents God's presence, or the presence of love. Some people say that outside the church there is no salvation, I interpret this statement thus: Outside of love there is no salvation. Without love things are dead, unconscious, mechanical. Christ says: "No one knows the Father but the Son." This will say that he who has no love cannot know the Father; he who has love can come to know him. It has been said: "God is love". Therefore only love can know itself. You can come to know an object if you have its properties; you can come to know your friend who is a well-known philosopher only if you have a philosophical mind, and are able to understand his ideas. Two people, one of which has a heart and soul, and the other has not yet manifested them, cannot understand each other. - Why? - Because they do not have the same properties. Some woman complains that her husband cannot understand her. - He has not yet come to know God and she wants that he may understand her. As long as man has not come yet to know God he cannot come to know anybody. He who does not know the Son cannot come to know the thinking beings, he cannot come to know also God. Accept this idea in your mind and in your heart and apply it in your lives. Christ says: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Christ appeals to all who are burdened to come to him and he will teach them how to wear their burden easier. "No one can come to me if the Father did not reveal Himself." The Son is the object to which each soul aspires, and the Father is the power that attracts the souls to this object. When a young man is attracted by a young maid, she is the object of attraction and the power that attracts him is love, i.e. the Father of whom Christ is speaking. Man must study love, God. How will he attain it? — Through the Son. This means that the Son, or the inner intelligence in man must teach him to recognize his Father, in order to be able to understand his relationship to himself as well as to his neighbor. Modern men occupy themselves with many questions, but 99 percent of these questions are unimportant and inessential. Only one of all 100 questions is essential. All other questions move around this essential and central question and for this reason they represent its food. When you explore the egg carefully you will find in it one important and essential cell — the embryo, around which are gathered all other cells. These represent the conditions and the medium for its development. Out of this essential cell will emerge the new life. In this sense I say: many things are necessary for the knowledge of the Son but one is essential — you must take his yoke. The yoke implies the relationship toward the external and internal conditions of life. Therefore you can come to know God only when you take His yoke and are ready to serve Him. To serve God will say to be ready to study with love all subjects. The external or objective world with all its manifestations represents object lessons for him who is ready to serve God. Is it not the same also in the earthly schools? In whatever school you may enrole - elementary, high school or college, the teachers or professors give lessons and problems which you must solve. These are object-lessons for you. He who is ready to serve his teachers with love will study everything as he is taught. God has created the world for us and not for himself. All animate and inanimate objects that surround us have their purpose. That this is so we can see from our organs. We have two eyes, two ears, a nose, mouth, chin, hands, and feet with five fingers on each of them — all this has its magnificent purpose. You may say that the ears are given man to hear and receive sounds, the eyes — to see and distinguish things. Besides this external purpose, the eyes and the ears have an inner, psychic significance. Truly, we meet people that can see and hear but who do not understand that which they hear nor that which they see. "No one knows the Son but the Father." By the word "son" we understand the rational beginning in man. Few fathers today can understand their sons. Some father is glad that a son is born to him because he expects that the son will work for him. This indicates that he looks upon his son as a servant. Many fathers have a wrong understanding about their sons. They think that the sons are obliged to tolerate everything that the fathers are doing. Even if they make loans and waste their properties they say that the sons will remain to pay off. Such fathers do not have a proper relationship to their sons but the sons, too, do not have a proper relationship to their fathers. Right relationships are those based on love. The son should not count on the wealth of his father, but the father, too should not misuse the love of his son, to expect of him. Both should be ready to sacrifice for each other. When love is present between them it is natural that the two will work together and will help each other. These are correct relations between father and son. I wish that in the future, when a young man and a maid marry they do not ask if they love each other. These are questions that love does not tolerate. Often the young man and the maid marry without to love each other but they say that they love each other. This is not permitted. Love excludes every falsehood. Do not ask if you love each other but rather ask the other partner if he is ready to sacrifice for you. If he tells you that he wants to enjoy life, he is not the right one for her. The inner meaning of life is in sacrifice, in self-sacrifice. Therefore the inner knowledge of the Son implies the law of sacrifice. Only he can sacrifice himself who knows the Son. When a man sacrifices himself he becomes strong. When you put water in a boiler and start heating it, it turns into steam and becomes stronger than it was before when it was in its natural state as water. Self-sacrifice implies a law through which one state can be changed into another, a negative thought can be changed into a positive one, and a negative feeling — into positive. If a solid body changes into liquid and the liquid — into gaseous, one can say that the law of sacrifice is at work. If you can change a negative thought or a negative feeling into positive here again operates the same law. If you do not sacrifice yourself how could you transform hatred into love? You say that you hate someone. Since you hate him you are in the state of being hard like ice. Nothing remains but that, you self-sacrifice, i.e. you expose yourself to fire that will change the ice into water, and the water into vapor. As long as there is water on earth there will be life also. All plants, animals, and people will use it. "No one knows the Son but the Father." What have you understood by the word "no one?" - No one is everyone who is not ready for self-sacrifice. This means that he who cannot self-sacrifice does not know the Son. The Son is the law of self-sacrifice. In respect to this law the chicken is in a higher position than the man who is not ready for self-sacrifice. Such a man is dead. The chicken that sacrifices itself for the good of man has a higher value in the face of God. In the Scripture it is said that no bird falls to the ground without the will of God. God participates in the life of all creatures - from the smallest to the largest. If in the eyes of God you are a bird that is ready to sacrifice itself for the others do you need to fear life? God takes care of you. To think of God means to live for the highest ideal in the world. To think of yourself will say to live in confinement. There is nothing harder for man than to live in a prison, in confinement. In self-sacrifice is hidden the knowledge of The Son. He who knows the Son is free. Christ has spoken of the sacrifice as a great process that takes place in the consciousness of man. As long as this process does not take place in man one cannot speak of knowing Christ. What knowledge is this if one does not understand the deep meaning of Christ's words? Christ said "I am the true wine". Who knows the story of the wine? Each year the wine sacrifices but few people realize its sacrifice. Christ also said "I am the living bread that came from heaven." How many people understand the meaning of this bread? The question about the bread is a social one. All societies and nations are trying to solve it. All people value the bread and realize that without it there is no life. One young man was telling his experience, by which he understood the true value of the bread. It came to pass that he had to suffer hunger for three days. He was so hungry that he looked for a way to find from somewhere a bite of bread to satisfy his hunger that was torturing him so much. As he was walking on the street he saw a dog carrying a piece of bread in his mouth. Without thinking too much he took a stone and threw it at the dog who, running, away, let the piece of bread fall to the ground. Without hesitating he picked up the bread and started eating it. Concluding, he said that he had to suffer hunger a few days in order to learn the value of bread. Christ says, "I am the gate, I am the good shepherd, I am the son of man, I am a teacher and adviser". These are relations of the Son to his neighbor, of the divine to the human soul. When I speak of God I do not have in mind an abstract, far off idea, but I have in mind Him Who has created the intelligent life and whom we can always try out. It is enough to pray sincerely to God for the health of some sick person and our prayer will be heard and answered. Help comes very soon when we obey the law of sacrifice. Pray to God without trying to tempt Him. When does man tempt God? - When his thoughts are in discord with God's thoughts, when he leads a sinful life. He who does not think about the future does not care to know if he leads a good life or a bad one. As long as he is on earth he does not care, but one day he will appear in front of his Creator to give account of his life. What will His answer be? God's light is so great that all his thoughts, desires and deeds will be lit up, will become objective and will start walking behind this man like a little child walks behind his mother. How will you cope with this situation? Then you will understand that there is nothing hidden. As long as you have been on earth you could hide many things even from yourselves, but in front of the great light nothing can be hidden, then you will understand that it is not indifferent if you have lived well or bad. No one knows the Son but the Father. Who is this no one? - He who lives for himself and does not know the law of sacrifice. First God has sacrificed Himself. He gave His Son for sacrifice so that no one who believes in Him shall parish. Through His Son He manifested His love for humanity, and the Son sacrificed himself in order to reveal His Father. These are mutual relationships of love and sacrifice that must be well understood. When we understand the relationship of God to us as our Father, and our relationship to God as His sons only then will our lives gain full meaning. Yet we cannot be sons of God as long as we do not self-sacrifice. Implant into your mind the thought that outside of love there exists no life; outside of love there exists no church, outside of love no families, societies or nations can exist. The only church that can unite humanity is God's love, the love of self-sacrifice. In it are included all idealistic people, all people who are selfless. What are these two states — self-seeking and selflessness? They can be illustrated with the rich and the poor who appeared in front of God to express their desires. First appeared the rich who started to demand: God, I want a big house, a palace, well furnished and trim, about ten servants to work for me, to serve the table with tastefull food, fruits and the best wines, so that I may eat and drink and have nothing to worry about. - Let it be according to Thy will, answered God. After that appeared the poor and said: I have only one desire — always to see Thy face! Let it be according to thy will! Both of them satisfied with that which was promised to them returned to earth and each one lived in his own style. The rich lived in a palace surrounded by his servants; he ate and drank, enjoyed himself and felt happy and satisfied. In this manner, days and years passed, until one day he felt that he was beginning to suffocate. It came to his mind to pray to God: God, I started to suffocate, I am sick of this condition. Teach me what to do. Immediately came an angel, opened a little window in his palace and told him: Look out! The rich man looked out and saw a tall ladder and on the highest point was the poor man looking out somewhere into the sky. - What is this man doing there? - asked the rich man. - He wanted always to look at God's face -answered the angel. For long years in a row he looks at God's face, he breathes freely, enjoys God's world and is not tired of it yet. Two states are presented to man: to be in the condition of the rich and to get suffocated by his wealth, or to be in the position of the poor, always to contemplate upon the face of God and never to have enough of it. To stand on the top of a high ladder and to look at the face of God from these without repletion means to know God. It is time to come to know Christ of whom has been preached already for two thousand years. Many people are considered to be Christian but they have not yet come to know Christ. What kind of Christianity is this when a brother coerces, robs and exorts his brother? Can this be called love? In love there is no violence, fear, bitterness. He who fears does not know love. Someone fears death. What can be terrifying about death? He who loves does not fear death, nor evil. There exists only one God in the world from whom everything emerges. What will we fear then? He who fears knows not God, knows not love. God is love. If this is true do not fear death nor the evil. God is life. If you live in God, death does not exist. Thank for the evil because God has put it to work to stimulate man to be active and to work out the inert matter in him. The evil creates in man contradictions, doubts, in order to produce in him friction which generates fire. Fire melts the solid substances, brings in them activity. When two solid bodies come in contact friction occurs between them that generates heat. Be glad when you collide with the solid, inert matter in you so that light and flames can be produced. What does the fire and light represent in man? The fire is a result of his passions and desires, and light — of his thoughts. Without fire and light no life can exist. All hard fusible metals in the fire melt; the fire burns all impurities and turns them into ashes. The fruit ripens in the light; in the light one gains knowledge. He who understands things in this manner gives meaning to his life. Be glad and thankful for everything that love brings. As long as love is with you, you are blessed. When it leaves you, with it you lose joy also. In order that love may not abandon you think about your relation to God with your heart and spirit. Christ says: "Only those with pure hearts will see God." Seeing implies knowledge; knowledge implies inner contact with love. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Christ is showing how a heavy-laden man can be given rest. Many years ago an American missionary was traveling in America in order to raise funds for charity. When he had raised a considerable amount he decided to return and deliver the money to its destination. In order to shorten his way he saddled a horse and passed through a mountainous area. When a well-known robber heard about the considerable sum of money that the missionary was carrying with him he hid in the woods where the missionary had to pass with the intention of killing him and taking the money. The missionary approached the place where the highwayman was hiding and felt a heaviness in his chest, as if something was choking him. He interpreted this feeling as warning, descended from the horse, prayed to God and relieved, he continued his journey. Hardly did he pass a few yards and he could see a well armed man standing in the woods but without fear he passed him. A few years later the same missionary was asked to confess someone who was dying. At his arrival the man looked at the missionary and asked him if he can recognize him. The missionary answered: I do not know you. - But I know you and will tell you under which circumstances I have met you. This happened several years ago. I had decided to wait for you in a woody place when you were carrying a large sum of money. I wanted to kill you and rob the money, but I could not decide to do this because with you was riding a well armed man in white clothes seated on a white horse. I was filled with fear and could not attempt your life. In this case the highwayman was a clairvoyant. He could see that which even the missionary could not see. The man who was riding the white horse was sent from the invisible world to protect the missionary. Modern man refuse to believe in spirits. Nevertheless they read the bible where it is said: "And the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending." As the angels ascend and descend so the devils also descend and ascend. This indicates that the ones as the others obey the will of God and the divine laws. There is no power in the world nor a being that does not obey God. The wise man makes use of the good and the evil spirits. He knows the law of transformation and applies it. Christ says: "Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from me, because I am gentle and meek in my heart and you will find peace for your souls." Many think that they have conquered the world, that they have great power, but when they are tried they realize how far they have reached, what power they possess and what they can accomplish with it. Modern man is not yet completely formed; he should not deceive himself by temporary success. One day when his eyes will open he will see that everything that surrounds him is living; then he will understand why is there hatred and love, evil and good, lie and truth. This indicates knowledge of God, and of Christ. Christ says: "If my words remain with you and you in me, whatever you ask in my name shall be given to you." This would mean that if you understand the rational Word, if you realize what your relationship to God ought to be, your lives will be a blessing to you as well as to your neighbors. Father and Son these are the numbers one and three. When you substract one from three you have the number two — divine love, mother of all things. This is called in Christianity the Holy Spirit, i.e. the inner power of man that purifies his mind and heart. One thing is expected of people to make contact with Christ. If once you come in touch with him, he will be with you in eternity, with all your joys and sorrows, in life and death. He is the gate that brings man from the transitory into the eternal, from the visible into the invisible, from hatred into love. Christ is the living bread, bearer of life. Christ is the master who teaches us the divine laws. When man understands correctly the Christian teaching he feels powerful to fulfill his obligations toward The Primary Reason, toward his neighbor and toward himself. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Only he who is connected with Christ can come to God. The tie is based on love and judiciousness. There can exist no connection between two people if they do not like each other; there can be no connection between those who do not understand each other. Only he can come to Christ who knows the law of self-sacrifice. In general a connection can exist where there is something in common. For example on the exterior the diamond and the coal do not resemble; the diamond is solid and crystal, the coal is black and is not crystal. From within they have something in common: they both are of one and the same substance - carbon. Coal can be turned into a diamond. On the same basis can the human soul change from coal to a diamond, i.e. to pass into the highest position - into superconscious life. When two people raise to this state, to their superconscious, they will always recognize each other, they will always understand each other. When they meet they will not ask, do you know me, what do you think of me, etc. These are questions that exist only among people on the ordinary level of consciousness. When they do not know each other people are ready to doubt one another. Everyone seeks to find in his neighbor some ulterior purpose. How can we distinguish between someone who has turned his face to God, and one who is far from Him? Make the examination first with yourself to know if you are facing God or you are far from Him. This you can find out from your shadow. When your shadow falls behind you, you are close to God, you face God. When your shadow falls in front of you, you are far from God. It is not the question of not having a shadow, but it has to fall behind you. Everyone must check where the shadows of his mind, and of his heart fall - in front of him or behind him and give himself an account of his position in which he finds himself. In general your shadow must fall always behind you so that your face may be well seen. When a man errs his shadow falls in front of him. When he corrects his mistake the shadow immediately falls behind him. He who loves, who speaks the truth, his shadow falls always behind him. He who hates and does not speak the truth, his shadow falls in front of him. In the Scripture it is said: "Their deeds walk in front of them." From this one can conclude that the deeds of some people walk behind them. How do you distinguish when your shadow is in front of you, and when behind you? When in your mind enters a bad thought, or in your heart a bad feeling and immediately change into kind, then your shadow is behind you. The opposite is also true, if the illumined thought and kind feeling change into unkind, then your shadow is in front of you. I wish that you may love and know each other. This will say that your shadows may be behind and not in front of your faces. Apply love in your lives as a great basic law of Creation. This is what God wants of all people and all nations on earth. "No one knows the Son but the Father." - Why? - Because the Son has sacrificed himself for his Father. And the Son, too, knows for whore he has sacrificed himself. He who knows the law of sacrifice knows his Father. He who is ready to sacrifice himself will find the way. In other words: Without self-sacrifice the gate to knowledge is closed. Wherever he may knock - on the door to science, art, music, everywhere he will find himself in front of a locked door. Without inner knowledge of the Father and the Son, everything changes into dust and ashes; everything crumbles and parishes, as the roots of trees rot. What tree can thrive without roots? Apply the law of self-sacrifice so that you may find divine life. When one hears spoken of sacrifice immediately comes the fear that one may loose his wealth, become poor. Is he who has millions in the banks happy? He bears a heavy load in his mind. His back is loaded above his powers, and any minute can give in. It is preferable to carry a pound in one's stomach than two hundred pounds on one's back. It is preferable for one to be poor but happy and satisfied with his position, than to be rich and constantly to carry around the thought that he may be robbed or killed. Inner peace is preferable than the greatest external wealth. Yet when you meet rich, learned, or beautiful people be glad that they exist. When you meet evil people again be glad. What would be the world like if there were no good and evil, learned and ignorant, beautiful and ugly people? Since God tolerates the evil, and ugly, the ignorant, we too, must tolerate them. When you apply the law of self-sacrifice you will understand why some people are evil. Years ago in one canton in America, a buffalo began to romp so much that the whole vicinity around was scared, nobody could go and tame him. At last a boy came along who could read the thoughts of the animals and speak to them. He put his hand on the forehead of the buffalo, patted it a few times and started to speak to him: What is wrong with you that you have become wild? - In my rear foot something is bothering me terribly. The boy bent over immediately, took the rear foot of the buffalo that seemed to have bothered him and found that a big fat thorn got stuck in it. The boy took out the thorn, cleaned his foot, wrapped it in a bandage and left him alone. The buffalo stopped raging. You hear a rumor that a woman or a man have become insane. They have not become mad but a thorn got stuck into their mind or heart. Come close to them place your hand on their head and quickly pull out the thorn. As soon as you pull out the thorn they will go back to their normal state. What are most people doing today? They carry with them a hammer and nails and whomever they meet they thrust a nail into him. Why do you have to hurt your neighbor? You may answer that you want to check how much they can take? They drove four nails into Christ and he died. He was a great and mighty spirit but could not endure the human nails. Do you think that the ordinary people can take more? Do not hammer nails into your neighbors, do not create for yourself greater sufferings. It is not an easy thing to put a man on the cross to nail his mind, his heart, his soul, and his spirit and after that to expect him to live. This is impossible! Instead to thrust nails into your neighbor take out the ones that someone else has thrust. When you see that your neighbor is sick in bed help him. - But he is a great sinner. - This is not your responsibility, you are obliged to help him, to give him at least a cup of water. To help your neighbor this is the meaning of the teaching of Christ, who has come to earth and has sacrificed for the whole of humanity. Times of great and heavy trials are coning. Of them it is said in the Scripture: "The anger of God is coming to the world." All will hear the voice of God and will understand if there is justice in this world or not; if there exists good or not; if there exists love or not. This should not scare you but you must know that God's wheel turns constantly, that it follows its way and will never stop to turn. You all must be ready in time to mount it. For this reason you have come to earth as to a great school. When you finish the school you will return to God to take your exams. There it will be checked if you have learned the law of the good and the evil, of love and hatred, of truth and lie. He who has studied his lessons well will remain there to continue to learn and work; he who has not learned them will return to earth to finish his school and become perfect. This is like having final examinations. Who passes all the exams with honor will resurrect and will be appointed to a high service. To pass your final with honor will say to have learned, understood, and applied the five great virtues. For thousands of years it has been spoken and preached about resurrection, I wish that you may pass your final examination, that you may resurrect because the world needs resurrected people. If the Bulgarian nation passes its exams it will resurrect and take a high position; if it does not pass, it will have no profit. This will affect every man, every society, every nation. God has said, "Call me on the day of sorrow and I will help you." Pray for yourselves, for your neighbor, and love your enemies. This Christ said. Why to love our enemies? - So that you may not become like them, and not descend to their level. Treat all with love and not with hatred. He who repays for evil with evil will follow the path of the fallen spirits. Who hates is in accord with those that follow the broad way. The loving person climbs up on the narrow path, and the one that hates descends on the broad way. "All has been passed onto me by my Father; and no one knows the Son but the Father." The son is the divine embryo that every one must water and cultivate so that it may grow and bear fruit. Out from the divine embryo raises the new man ready for a new work and a new life. This embryo lives in every soul but needs the conditions and space for its development. The more you trust your inner powers and possibilities, the sooner it will develop. Whatever difficulties and obstacles you may encounter on your way always say to yourselves: I can be just, loving, meek, humble, good, industrious - I can overcome and accomplish everything with the help of the divine in me. When the people begin to conjugate the verb "can" in the present tense the world will become better. Do not occupy yourselves with your nor with other people's mistakes. The mistakes fertilize the field of God. If your brother has made some mistake do not judge nor estrange him from yourself but help him to clean himself and change into new, clean clothes. If a brother rejects his brother, or the husband his wife, or the wife her husband, then they are acting contrary to the teaching of Christ. Love each other for God's sake. Someone said that he would want to love but he cannot. Why can he not love? Because he has not given place to God in himself. Only God loves and for this reason it is said that God is love. A husband and a wife who in the name of God have lived for each other die with joy as do the martyrs in the name of God. Their name is never forgotten. It is enough if only one person keeps in his mind the memory of you as a living monument worthy of following your example. Christ is already coming to the world sitting on a white horse to preach the Word of God. His voice will be heard everywhere. Like a sword of fire it will penetrate into the minds and the hearts of the people. Whoever cannot stand his light will become blind. Even the evil cannot endure this light — it will melt and disappear. The end of the evil on earth is coming. The divine light will produce reverse results: great darkness will descend on earth and in the souls of the people it will bring great light. Does not the same occur with the earth. When half of it is bathing in light the other half is in darkness. This should not distress you but remember: when you encounter with contradictions on your way this is to indicate that the divine sun has risen already. There are days of shadow that temporarily obstruct his light. Be prepared to make use of the blessings which God is bringing for his chosen ones. Who are the chosen ones? - Those that have illumined thoughts and noble feelings and desires. Today I am preaching of the living Christ, who will speak up through thousand mouths. Many preachers, priests, learned men, philosophers, musicians will appeal to people for work that will bring them inner deliberation. All together we will sing the hymn of God's love. Only this way we will understand what the love that will bring us to God and to the Son is. Only love can rejuvenate man. You may say one should not imagine things that can not be fulfilled. It is important to know what one imagines. There exists imagination that lifts man up toward God. There is imagination that pulls him down and away from God. The astronomer can see with his telescope the most distant stars and an ordinary man even with a telescope can see nothing. He wonders how it is possible that the astronomer can see so many things and at the end he says: everything is imagination. Point your telescope also to the sky, so that you may see God in His glory by which he is surrounded. Try to see Him and to recognize Him so that you may become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Try to find your place as a limb in the divine organism. As soon as you find your place do not fight for the first place. He who filfills his obligations properly is in the first place. Where will be this place? As Bulgarians you will be placed in the hole which the Jews made in the ribs of Christ. It is until today still open. All people, all nations have the same assignment: to fill up the hole in the ribs of Christ which is open already for two thousand years. Christ is already close to the earth. He brings his teaching with which he has decided to turn the earth upside down. He carries a new sign on which it is written: "The Kingdom of God is coming to earth." Whatever may happen with the world the Kingdom of God will be established. This is the decision of God, of the angels, and of all superior beings. Whoever does not believe let him pray to live to see the Kingdom of God realized on the earth. When he will see it then he will believe my words. He that can see with his eyes does not need a proof; he trusts in his eyes. How will the religious people act with Christ when he comes in flesh to earth? As soon as they will see Him they will want to check his preaching so that they may know what he will speak. Christ's preaching stands no revision. It stands no human judgment nor evaluation. This is true not only for Christ but for every one who follows His path. Whoever speaks in the name of Christ his words are accepted without any reservation. Whoever speaks in His name but abuses it is a liar and deceiver. Lie can reign at the most for a hundred years. After that it is caught and nothing will remain of it. The words that I speak to you are truthful and are true not only for today but also for the centuries to come. Today I am giving you seeds that you must plant in your gardens. The seeds do not belong to me but to Him who has created you and has sent you to the earth to study. Christ is coming to earth to bring God's love to all people. When they will join hands for mutual love, for brotherhood and equality, Christ will enter his church that is not built by human hands to teach people the law of sacrifice out of love and not by force. God will raise every soul and will put it in the right place. This means for man to learn the inner meaning of life. I wish you to recognize the Son and the Father not as people are teaching you, but from your inner experience. Can you say that the bread is good if you have not tasted it? Try it yourselves and after that give your opinion. Even in the Scripture it is said: "Try everything but keep the good." In conclusion I will give you the following rule: If you want to know if you are close to God or far away from Him see where your shadow points. If it is behind your back you are close to God; if it is in front of your face this will indicate that you are far from Him. Aspire to come to know Christ as the Wine, as the Living Bread, as the Gate, as the Shepherd, as the Son of man, as the Teacher and Guild. Sermon by Beinsa Douno, February 18, 1917, Sofia. (From the v. "All that has been written", p.23) 1 St. Matthew 11:27-30 Source

Note 5 The Crown of Life “Blessed is the one who endures temptation; because when the trial is over, such a person shall receive the crown of life, promised by the Lord to those who love Him.” James 1:12 You may find it a little strange that the Lord can put people to the test. Strange it may be to those who have not suffered difficulties in life and do not know the law of suffering. It does not take external concepts of life. Like for example a woman is beautiful, gorgeous, young, with a subtle complexion, and rosy cheeks, but she will lose all these external features. Some ask where this external beauty, gorgeousness, knowledge etc., is gone. The initial beauty will fade away. Well, one is in good health, but then one’s health is gone, where can one find it? One can keep it for ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty, sixty, for a hundred years but one’s health will fade after all. In the beginning, one grows up and studies, and then one starts losing, forgetting, until everything is gone. So, health, knowledge, wealth, everything will pass away. Your wealth will pass over to some of your friends and then again to some other friends of yours and it will pass away. If you have a house, it will be robbed, and other goods whatever you may have, these will be robbed as well. You want to be rich, but how; to be knowledgeable, but how? The way I preach to you: health, spiritual purity, beauty of the soul! Be knowledgeable, but in God! Have all the virtues in your souls and this should make you rich, knowledgeable, beautiful and teach a good Teaching to people, preach Peace, and you, yourselves should bear Peace, Love, Justice, Wisdom and Truth! Well, James endured a temptation and said, "Blessed is the one who endures a temptation, because enduring this, one will receive the crown of life." This means that your ship, when it starts sailing, will fight in the waves of life, but if it is not reliable it will be filled with water and it will sink. If, however, it is reliable, it will fight in the waves, no matter how strong they may be, and it will endure these storms. Now, your ship, on which you sail, is not reliable, because as soon as you encounter certain storms, temptations and troubles, your face drops. "The ship is gone," you say, "it sank." "Why," I ask you, "did it sink?" Because the words of that foe were grave. You have to make a stable ship! When a student is persistent in one’s studies, such a student will become knowledgeable. Students should study everything; students should do well at school. When you study you want to receive external crowns. Your life goes on monotonously and you are bored. What does your life consist of and why do you feel bored? You get up in the morning, right to the table for breakfast; breakfast is over, and you move on to lunch; lunch over, you move on to dinner; and then to bed, house-heating, putting off lights, and in the morning you start doing the same again. This is a wheel, running everyday, as if a horse is tied to a wheel to keep it going, to take water out for someone’s garden, to water it. So the horse keeps turning and turning the wheel and takes water out for two, three, five, ten years and in the end the horse will be skinned and buried somewhere. This is what the horse earned throughout these years of his life, turning the wheel everyday and in the end the gardener disposed of the horse. You shall have to please God first! I do not mean that God, who, scientists say, is in the space. I mean the living God, who is everywhere and within you, who wishes only a wealth of good for you. The world is confined. If you think the world will make you happy, you fool yourselves; it will tie you on its wheel to take water out and having done what the world wanted from you and having damaged your health, the world will skin you to the bone. With such a bad master you are bound to have a bad son, a bad father, a bad teacher. Whatever circumstances you may be in now, you have to solve the difficult problems. I shall dwell upon the issue of children. What are children meant for? Do you know why you gave birth to these children? To bring them up the way they should be. How do you bring them up? Mothers start teaching their daughters, "You must be proud, because you are not just anybody’s daughter. Do you know that you possess inheritance, you are educated, you can play the piano, and you are good-looking at that; you are much higher placed than her. So, stick to where you belong!" Fathers teach morals to their sons, "My son, do you know that I am not like what’s-his-name. You will inherit a good fortune, and what’s-his-name is simply a fool. You have to hold your head high, not to demean yourself; you have to know your price." Fathers instil pride and arrogance in their sons, teach them to be cruel to the weak creatures, while mothers instil pride and coquetry in their daughters, and all this depravity comes from the parents themselves. They give the germs of evil seeds - pride, doubt and any other evil. David said in his psalm, "They became alien from the time in their mother’s womb and forgot Your law, Lord." Maids are now proud of their external beauty, which they maintain by means of external augmentations. They look like a maid, who got engaged to a lad, but the fiancé, taking a friend with him, went to test her. Having greeted them with a warm ‘welcome’ she took the tray to treat them to a drink, but the fiancé decided to make her stumble so that he could see if she would get angry. So he sprawled his leg and she stumbled; she fell down and the tray dropped on the floor. But the maid got up to her feet, not uttering a single word, not flying into a rage and went downstairs into the cellar. So the lad thought to himself, "Well, what a kind maid, she did not fly into fury, and how clever she was not to get angry, not even nervous, she coped with the case!" So he liked her a lot and he married her. But after they got married the wife started scolding and shouting at the smallest issues. And he remembered that case, how kind she was as a maid and how well she stood that mishap. And she said, "Well, you think I have endured! You should have come downstairs into the cellar to see what happened to the table when I nailed my teeth into it and how I broke it in my anger!" Now you too are very kind externally, but if someone gets into your cellar, you may break this person’s bones. Modern Christians are like this maid – they are very good externally, they can forgive, but you should see them what they are doing inside their cellar! And all of you waste your time every day in idle, ill talk as to why this happened, why that happened, and you say, "There is no meaning in this life, no meaning in this world." I say, you have not tried the Teaching I preach to you. People put the Lord to the test and constantly tease Him, but He behaves very well to them. You may say that He can behave, He is strong. Yes, He can, because He understands how He can cure you, just like that lazy daughter who did not do anything, but only ordered, "Mother, pass me this, pass me that," and at last she fell ill because of her laziness, was taken to bed and made her mother call a doctor. Her mother sent for a doctor, the doctor came, understood what was wrong with her and gave instructions that the daughter should take walks and do exercises in the room. She was so idle that she would not do this, so while she was in bed, she played with her two thumbs to keep herself busy. The doctor came to visit her and finding her in the same position, he asked her whether she did any exercises, and she told him she had taken exercise. To his question how she did the exercises, she answered showing him what she did with her thumbs. The doctor understood that the maid was sick with laziness and told her that if she did not do as instructed by him, she would not recover her health… Similarly, Christians do the exercise with the two thumbs. The Lord does not welcome such a performance, the Lord wants live exercise of the hands and legs, the Lord wants you to get moving. He wants you to build up virtues, good deeds, to really get into action, so that you can become healthy again. Why are you ill? Because you are lazy. Your legs, your hearts, your minds, your eyes, your mouths are stiff, the only thing you know is to ask the Lord: "Grant me this, Lord, grant me that!" You want the Lord to be your servant. OK, but your legs and hands will become stiff. Why do your legs hurt? You have no Virtue. Why do your hands hurt? You lack Justice; these are given to you to employ them for good deeds. You do not do good deeds, so you will suffer. Why do your ears ache? You lack Wisdom. Why do your eyes hurt? You have no Dawning Light1. If your mouth hurts, you have no Love; if your teeth hurt – the same story; if your head hurts, you have violated the Truth, there is no Truth within you. With all of these organs you are supposed to do good for the Lord, but you do exactly the opposite. When the Lord grants health to these organs, they feel too lazy to serve you; as soon as they are not employed for the sake of good, they fall ill and you send for the doctor. And there you are, the doctor prescribes exercises for them. To a mother, who feels too lazy to do good for the Lord, the Lord will send a lazy daughter, so that she will do the work for her and obey her commands. To a maid who is idle for the Lord, the Lord sends such a man so that she should cater to all his needs and please all his wishes. When the Lord sees that the father is idle and does no good, the Lord sends to him a dissipating son, to squander his father’s wealth by gambling and womanising. This is the Lord’s understanding for sick and idle people and this is how He cures them with exercises. A man cannot get along with his wife, they cannot stand each other. People should not torment each other in such a way; people should live together and help each other. If you work jointly together, you will help a lot of people; you will take them out of many troubles. The same goes on in the Spiritual world. You should help one another. If you help the people close to you, you will be better off along the Path. Personality should be disposed of, and people should live in faith together. How did people manage to live collectively in old times? When someone had a field to reap, they all went together to the field to reap it. The same goes for grape picking, similarly with corn – they sit together and shell the corn. Whatever the work, they will get together and do it. You should do the same! If someone is in trouble – get two or three sisters together, help each other out and the Lord will help you. If two or three of you are not enough, four or five of you should get together and thus you will relieve one another no matter what standing each one of you has. You all have to stick together! And now James says, "Blessed is the one who endures a temptation to the very end; such a person will be saved and will receive the crown of life." And you should desire not the crown of vanity, but the crown of immortality, where there is no suffering, no temptations, no illness, where there is life full of good deeds. This Life is a plant and when it starts growing, it changes, it changes the soil too. Each plant has a different soil. You are one and same instrument, one and the same string. You will tune yourselves so that you can work in unity and produce a wonderful harmony. And when you start playing, whoever listens to you should be pleased. And when you start playing, you will learn this law; your hearts, your minds, your wills will tune themselves and you will be excellent players. When Heaven speaks within you, you cannot receive it. Why so? At the same time, having a mouth you can receive good food, and good food is given to you, while the rotten food shall be thrown away as it is no good for people. What actually goes on within you? The Lord says, "You have placed bad thoughts in your mind, bad desires in your hearts and bad words come out of your mouths; and your mouth should refrain from bad words." If you take swill and sprinkle your brother with it, what will happen? Is this good, will your mother praise you for this? This is not Christianity - to sprinkle your brother with swill is not a good thing. Well, you may say that a human being can judge. I say, "Go, make it up with your brother; go to him and tell him, "Forgive me, my brother!" If he does not forgive you, take somebody with you and go again and tell him, "Forgive me, my sister!" If he still does not want to, go with the church and if he is still not willing, let him be like a pagan and a tax-collector. Go and tell him the Truth and if he had gone wrong, correct him. If his wound has gangrened, go, show it to him and cure him; if he is sick, tell him how to cure himself. I can see that the world is sick. Sick women shout and scold their husbands and want to get divorced. Sick men are after certain pleasures incompatible with God’s law; they want impossible things and leave their wives. I can see sick minds, sick hearts, and sick souls. It’s easy to know what life will be with such people… I was once travelling by train and I saw a gentleman with a cloak on. Another gentleman was humming walking freely, arms dangling at his sides, not willing to harm anybody. Suddenly the man in the cloak shouted, "Are you blind, why did you bump into me? Can’t you see that my arm hurts!" Indeed his right arm was bandaged. Obviously his arm hurt but the other gentleman did not know that his arm hurt. In spite of this, the other one continued shouting; he shouts because his arm is sick… You should keep fifteen centimetres distance from any person, because there are sick people, but you do not observe this rule. The wife wants to be close to her husband and would not let him part with her, while he is bored with all this and starts frequenting the pub and takes to drinking, because his soul hurts. And because you do not keep fifteen centimetres distance from your husband and you want to constantly be in touch with his sick soul, he starts running away from you. The Scripture says that God made the woman from a rib; do you know what a rib is? The letter ‘r’ stands for work, which initially was supposed to bring good to the world, but then she disturbed the world and the Lord punished her. So, God made the woman from the man’s rib, from the Wisdom’s rib, in order for her to be prudent, to bind the world, to implant a sort of sweetness into it, so that everybody could find comfort in her. And now the woman gives birth to unwise children. Mothers bring children up and they start speaking ill of their fathers, while fathers say that their sons are bad, that their sons are drunkards or steal and that the sons have not taken after the fathers. Foolish parents have foolish children, imprudent mothers have vagabonds for sons; this is a law. If your son dies, he dies because you are not pure; because you have stained yourselves, you have offended God’s law and you pay for this. Today I speak the Truth and it will be good if you listen to me, but if you do not listen to me, you will see for yourselves that you will learn your lesson. At last your master will make you bring water to him with the wheel, and when you learn your lesson he will skin you. I would not like this to happen. Therefore God appeals to His daughters. Whoever is in suffering, that person is in the cauldron. You are now good, because anyone boiling in the cauldron is good. A soul having undergone huge sufferings is purified. You have all suffered and Purity is needed for the happiness in life. When one is pure, things are going for the better. You get up in the morning and everything starts turning upside down. Why so? Because there is no Purity. Take your lesson from this maid. God grants health to a person, but this person feels too lazy to work. Then God sends suffering to such a person. When one does not want to suffer, then torment is given to such a person. When one accepts torment, when one learns what suffering is and one puts up with these, then God says, "This one learnt to suffer. Relieve this person from suffering; give work to such a person!" You who are now at work, what do you do for the Lord? Or you will reply to me that the Lord is good. The Lord is good, but He will give you marks. You have a poor mark, a satisfactory mark, a good mark, a top mark, you have positive marks in everything: excellent in hypocrisy, very good for lying, a seven for anger, five point five for lack of self-restraint2. You cannot go without trials. In this life, the way it is heading, you will have poor marks. I want you to study this task, to develop yourselves. You have to pray and to ask yourselves what you have to pray for. You should be patient. And persisting in your prayers, everything will progress. When a child puts something into one’s mind, the child goes to the mother and wants apples from her. So the child has set a task to itself – apples, nuts etc., goes and starts asking the mother. The mother gives apples to the child; then the child wants nuts too. She gives the child nuts; then the child wants something sweet. But the mother tells the child, "Not everything at once, my child, tomorrow you will get something else." And the child remembers the promise that he or she will get something else on the following day. You should also have a similar task and set your mind on something, you should go and ask, and the Lord will give you everything you need. You should be good. However, being good is different from being like sheep. The Lord does not want sheep; the Lord wants good and reasoning people. Good are those people who do not sulk. If you go sulking, you are not good. You have to have a good soil, to cleanse these substances that make a person sulk. Your soil is rotten, this is why the Lord says that the seed happened to fall among thorns, was choked and did not grow. Another seed fell onto a stone, the sun scorched it and it withered. As it cannot root into the stone, it did not grow. Do not fool yourselves! If you do not create your soil now, you will never create it. There is no postponing of things! Do not postpone the Good! One good thought will attract all the good thoughts which will help to accomplish a good deed. You sometimes feel that you become cold to someone and you do not feel like going somewhere. Do you know why this happens? Because there the place stinks, there is an abominable smell, this is why you do not feel like going to this place; their soil is rotten, a sheep was slain and it went rotten. It will certainly start rotting after it was slain. Get rid of the sheep, cleanse your soil or house and the stinking smell will go away! This is the law of Truth. When dirt gathers in water, the water tank is isolated, water is purified by sieving and churning it, and then it is allowed to run again. Otherwise, if these impurities that have gathered are not cleaned, you will drink it and you will fall ill… Similarly, when people sin, they enclose it, hide it and it starts stinking. No, you have to open the room and say, "I slew a sheep or a cow, I sinned, there look at me I threw them out!" Pay the one you took them from, and thus the sin will be thrown out and shall not stink. There are heaps of rubbish in our lives as well. It’s all right that evil comes our way, let it come, but you should not accept it, should not become one with it, should not enter the sin like the prodigal son. I am not saying that there will be no crows or eagles circling around you trying to soil your nest. They may soil it from the outside, but it has to be clean from the inside, it has to be sacred. You clean your house physically everyday – is it not sufficient to do it once a year? Similarly you will clean yourself spiritually everyday, the way you do the physical cleaning. You have to clean yourself everyday! Friends will come to visit you; do not let them annoy you! The Lord does not want such people. Some say, "But I cannot sway myself do it." You will sway yourself, believe me! If you are a girder or a stone you won’t sway, but if you are human being you will sway. What does swaying mean? To be equally caring for yourself and for the people close to you. If you have anger burning within yourself, do not go anywhere, stay at home! You are loaded with a burden; do not go anywhere to unload your burden, as this does not comply with God’s law. Such a life is not good. Some may say that even religious people leave their burden, men, women, poets, writers and teachers, they all relieve one another. Prophets went to the woods to relieve themselves of their burden. If a field is not reaped, it will never reap itself; this year it will yield a poor crop, next year the crop will be even poorer and thus it will stop bearing wheat. It’s better to have a small, reaped field rather than a big field that is not reaped. Because the small good, when taken care of, multiplies. The same is true for the soul. The Lord brings fruit into your soul; you take the fruit out through a hole to feed the mice. Holes should be filled! A needle will not do. Some sew patches to their hearts, to their minds; this is no good. You should understand accordingly when the Lord gives you something. You have to listen to Him and you have to understand Him well when He talks to you, and what He wants from you. You have to also listen to Him when you want from Him the most substantial things for your lives. Look, if you are split-minded, this is not God’s thought; neither is it God’s desire. Will the Lord listen to you if you pray without it being needed or required by you? He won’t listen to you, because you did not go to Him having prepared the lesson for today! But the Lord will forgive us. He will forgive you, but students have to study. Teachers have a set schedule: the first class in history, the second class in reading, the third class in maths, the fifth in music and the sixth in physical education. But we are taught differently back at home. Then stay at home, do not come to school. Children want to suck from their mothers all the time, but as soon as the mothers see that the children have teeth, they wean them off. Some children want their food mashed; food can be mashed for the child one, two, three, four, five years, but to have one’s food mashed until the age of twenty – this is not allowed. Hens too, when chickens grow up, start pecking them in order for the chickens to start looking for food on their own. Similarly with the Lord, He also wants us to learn how to feed ourselves, and to select good food for ourselves. This is what the Lord wants us to do: anger is no good, it is madness! God’s Justice should always be manifested towards people! Hands are not given for evil, hands are meant to do good. If you do not do Justice, your hands will ache. If your deeds lack Virtue, your legs will hurt, you will not be healthy. If you have no Love, your mouth and teeth will ache; if you have no Truth, your head will ache; if you do not entertain good thoughts, you will become feeble-minded; if you are not wise, your ears will ache. As you are not in harmony with the God’s law, you will always be sick and indisposed. And now you will go to the Lord and you will say, "Lord, I want patience! Grant me Your Strength, to go through all trials ahead of me; to endure it willingly! I want humility!" Say for example you have a bad habit; when you feel this bad habit of yours is coming to the fore, you should start counting: one, two, three, four to thirty, forty, fifty; until you count to the end, this bad mood will fade away. While counting keep saying to yourself, "See, today I could endure a little, I did not fly into fury that much; tomorrow I shall refrain from lying twice; the following day I managed three times not to slander." And this is how the manifestations of each vice will be reduced little by little, until you get rid of the vice itself. If I cannot speak well of people, I shall make it my task for today to try and speak well of people. Tomorrow you will do someone good, on the following day you will save somebody from an evil and thus the good will be continually growing within you. A woman, who has a thousand good words, will be a good woman for the country, will be a good mother, will have good sons, clever daughters, and such a country will prosper. And I want you to have good thoughts, to do good deeds, to have an eye for the good in life! Do not worry; the child is not afraid of falling down while learning how to walk. You will fall down; will stand up on your feet, but fear not – you will learn! You all experience a strong desire to do good! The Apostle says that righteous people fall down seven times. You will encounter great obstacles in your lives, but you will also gain new experience and a new lifestyle. Amen! Master’s lecture, delivered on the 15 February 1917. 1 In the original Bulgarian text, instead of “Dawning Light”, stands the untranslatable Bulgarian word “Videlina”. Externally, this word means “the thin light which spreads out at the first break of dawn”, but not the dawn itself. From esoteric point of view, according to Master Peter Deunov, “Videlina” is one of the Divine, reasonable elements; it creates the human thought and the desires; it comes from within, not from outside; external light is just reflection of this “Videlina”. 2 In Bulgarian educational system of marking, 5.5 is almost excellent mark

Note 1 Hygiene of the Human Soul ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.’ James 3: 2 I shall talk to you today in a special language – the way a teacher talks to his pupils when they start learning the alphabet, the way women start washing, carding and spinning the wool into fibres in order to make cloth. Today I shall call my lecture Hygiene of the Human Soul. You have listened to many preachers. James says, ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.’ The body is your capital; it is the substantial [thing]. Therefore I shall start with what you see. You pay very little attention to your soul; however, the body is a large garden where the Divine Spirit works. Movement provides the blood watering the Divine garden. You can tell a housekeeper by the way the house is kept. You haven’t come to build houses, but to put them in order. This teaching you will apply to yourselves too. You seek happiness and cannot find it, but if I deprive you of food, water and air, you will then understand what it is. Your happiness is built upon food, water and air. Food has to do with eating and with the body; water has to do with drinking and the heart; air – with breathing and the mind. You need suffering in order to work. To those who dishonour work God grants [them] labour; if they turn down labour too, there comes suffering; if they reject suffering, there comes torture. To be able to work, talent [and] skills are required – only the great artists can work. Work is for the educated [scientists]. Washing and gossiping is labour. You have abandoned the work God granted to you and now are labouring. There is no happiness in labour, suffering and torture. Suffering is a hard nut to crack; it takes skilfulness to learn how to break it and use it. I shall now talk to you about the word can. You are not aware of your situation, and you have to wake up for the sake of your happiness. It is around you, but you have to start working properly. You have to relax the strings of your violin. Your heart is very dry, it needs a little moisture. You know you cannot clean without water, [as] it becomes dusty. First of all you are to have faith. You have to examine [test, try] everything that was given to you in order for you to benefit. Why do you pray, why do you eat, why do you drink? Praying is a breathing process. If you are hesitating [thinking] whether God will hear your prayer, then you are praying having doubts in God. In spite of not seeing where He is, you can sense [feel] Him. Each desire and thought has three aspects – breadth, depth and height. Those having depth make no noise. You have to grow out of your habit to command the others, but to command yourselves. You, with faith, have to start getting rid of these thoughts that are now disturbing you. Faith is a principle. Faith has to be positive – a place where the Divine life can enter. You have to start working upon yourselves with a plan, the way gardeners work. As soon as you fulfil your duty at home, start working upon yourselves. The first point is to be healthy in body and spirit. A person having lost any faith whatsoever is a sick person. Just like children often cut with scissors and destroy [things], similarly there are such writers and preachers who destroy with their scissors. They are notorious destroyers; therefore you have to abandon these teachers who destroy. If a bad thought comes up within you, which wants to cut with its blade and to destroy, throw it away [get rid of it]. Or somebody wants to beat the big drum [cry from the housetop]– tell him that he may not. Your thoughts are alive, they play within and around you, like children do. A thought enters your mind and bothers you, for instance something was said about you. [such] thoughts can upset you and can rule you. No, you have to teach [coach, drill] them. The false teacher is the devil – it leads you and teaches [coaches, drills] you until you are left in tattered clothes. Then it leaves you and you go to God in your tattered clothes; however He won’t admit you but will turn you out. Nonetheless, if there is a wheat grain [of faith] left, there is hope for you to improve after twelve years. One noble thought, if you cultivate it, will make you the noblest woman in twelve years. You keep demagnetising yourself all the time, you lose your temper, you worry. Thus your nervous system is muddled [upset] from the bottom [resulting in] cracks and leaks. As long as you are indifferent, your magnetic power [strength] is reduced. When you are healthy, you can feel the condition [situation] in which the others are. The heart can lose its magnetic power [strength]. Do not carry your husband, your children and the others the way the wolf carries the fox. You often carry healthy people on your back. When you do a favour to healthy people, you teach them to be idle. God sent all the women to work, while you are crashing stones. If the woman had to be a servant, God would have made her from the man’s leg, if she had to be the master – from the man’s head. While he made her from the man’s rib – which is to say she was intended as a companion in his work. However, what do women do now? They stand in front of the mirror and keep thinking of marriage. Under marriage I mean that a man passes from the animal condition into the human condition and from the human condition – into the Divine. This marriage is once [and for all] – for you to become citizens of Heaven. Therefore you have to have a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy heart. How do you feed your soul, mind and heart? Your body you feed all right to a certain extent; but how you feed your heart and mind? Your thoughts and desires need food, clothes; you do not give them [food and clothes] and they perish [die]. You have enormous [huge] desires. Strive for [aspire after] having substantial thoughts that are not in clash with [those of] the people around you. The one who works loses a lot of energy, hence you have to save your energy. You are to have an unshakable [firm] faith in God that He has thought about everything. God takes care even of the smallest worms. Not a hair of your head can be touched without His will. Each thought and desire, everything you may want, will be given to you, but you are to have an unshakable [firm] faith. Do not regret that something has not happened [to you] in your life; it was not [meant] for you. A fiancé leaves his fiancée – this happens because he was not [meant] for her. Sometimes you want big trousers or a big dress, the way a little child wants clothes like his elder brother’s, but the time for the little child has not come yet. You all have useless thoughts and desires, and this shows that your faith is feeble. God is a great spring [of water] – go to Him for fresh water in the morning, at noon and in the evening. He won’t come to you, but you will go to Him. However, you will carry a vessel with you. The good thoughts are a vessel where God will pour His blessing. As long as you have good thoughts and desires God will bless you. If you feel that He does not bless you, borrow a vessel – read a good book, take the nobleness of the people out in the open. There should not be any gossiping around – those who want to succeed should not go gossiping [slandering] around. Now, for the remaining five minutes, without making any movement, send your thought to God. You will feel some pinching [tweaking], but as soon as you make a move, you will spoil the exercise. For example, some day you say that you won’t gossip, but there comes somebody, he says something bad about you, you start gossiping and you spoil the exercise. You light candles, you consecrate oil and still you have no blessing – this is because you gossip [slander]. Now, start [doing] the exercise for one, two, three, four or five minutes – try not to make a single move, to be able to control yourself. Then do a five minute exercise thinking only about one thing: a five minute exercise for your body, a five minute exercise for your mind, a five minute exercise for your heart. Whatever you gain from these exercises, do not share it with anybody. It takes twelve months for a desire, for a thought to come true [materialise]. One year is necessary for a thought to be born; other thoughts take ten years and so on. The good thoughts and desires form the clothes of the Angels. The thoughts and desires are the clothes that Divine spirits are dressed in [put on]. If you can join this dance, do it; if you can’t, think it over well and do not join. The result of these exercises is slow to come, perhaps after one year, but tell nobody what you are doing. Do not cut the cloth by the meter to sell it before you have woven it. Start with the smallest [step] – the word can. A great grief afflicts you – tell yourself I can, you suffer - I can, you labour - I can. Tell yourself, ‘I can [do] everything through Christ!’ If you do not understand the word can, you won’t be able to understand Christ either. The word can is always present in Christ’s teaching. And when Peter told Christ, ‘Be it far from thee, Lord…’, Christ responded with the word can. Conjugate the verb can. If you cannot resolve any issue, say I can. The Lord goes and says, ‘Fill his/ her pot’; while the pot of the one not saying I can is not being filled. The bad which is within you is a fuel. The bad thoughts that come to you are an impulse for your development, provided you win over [overcome] them. If a bad thought comes to you, ask God to place it. Do not say anything, do not slander, keep silence – in the beginning you will feel [some] unpleasantness, but it will burn afterwards and you will receive energy. If a disease comes to you, do not fear – this is a little bit of massage, this is a blessing. To be intelligent means to be perfect in the Word. People weep, people are unhappy, but I say that this is a blessing, because people work and I rejoice and thank God. One hundred and one Angels work on the Earth and help. A cleaning [process] is in progress now and in such times you have to cheer up and rejoice – there have not been more glorious times. People are now watering their gardens. Today’s religion should not be like the old one. Once a poor pious man was passing along an open window of a rich man’s house, he saw a purse of money left on the window sill and took it believing that it was a gift from God. During the following days, however, when he was praying, the purse kept appearing before him and he could not pray. At last he returned it. You, likewise, have pinched a rich man’s purse, therefore you feel sick at heart. Similarly when you are gossiping, this is a theft of a purse. Return the purse for your prayer to be heard. Do not think ill of anybody; as soon as such a thought comes to you, throw it out. Keep silence externally, but work internally. Each desire has a period for it to materialise; you are to wait. One, two, ten years may pass – do not hasten. When you want your desire to materialize quickly the Lord will send you to the roots of the tree – He will give you a bad husband or wife. Also, all of your present unhappiness is from your previous life – you had bad thoughts and desires [in your previous life]. You are to have a healthy body. As soon as you gain some weight, you rejoice, but this is no health. You are to have strong muscles, [you are] to be meek, to be humble. I can’t understand [how] you can be limp and active [at the same time]. For example a sister of yours is burdened – pass faith on to her, encourage her, but do not cry with her, because both of you will lose your faith. Or, somebody dies; no, he hasn’t died, only his house is destroyed and it will be built up again in years. The essence of man lies in the good traits of one’s soul. Death is sieving the water, passing of Life from one layer into another and coming up to the surface as a good spout. You have to pass through this world, through matter, in order to be sieved through. Now, you are listening to all this here, but the world will make you hesitate. However, you say, ‘I can!’ You will take psalm 119 and you will learn part of it by heart everyday with the word can. You have to learn it in twenty-two days. Every day before starting learning it, you will wash your hands and feet and you will say, ‘We shall be good, patient and obedient like the feet.’ If the human heart was as good as the feet, people would be saints. And while washing our hands we shall say, ‘We shall be obedient, good and fair like the hands.’ Your mind should be ready to work like your hands. How good [kind] the Lord is to have given us hands and feet, which teach us how to work! Become one with the Lord and with all the people and everything will be doable [realizable] for you. You are to be patient and obliging like the feet and fair like the hands. You have to be in command of your body and harmony has to reign over you. It will be fine if you can adjust within one year. You have to be free like birds, patient like the mammals, valiant like lions and intelligent like man. Start applying the word can. If it is for the better, it will be like a key, but if you apply it for the worse, it won’t be of any use to you. Apply it to elevate the humankind; to enlighten the mind and the heart, but not for the worse. Within one year you have to learn to understand the word can. The ‘not’ particle, the last part of the I cannot expression you have to place at the end of the queue. When you worry, you should say, ‘I can!’, in order for your mood to change. And let the particle aside, leave it alone. When you learn the psalm, some of you will have scored one or two as a result, others will have scored a result of three to ten – it varies. Even if you have scored ‘one’, it is a blessing all the same. 8 February 1917, Sofia Source

All things which are written “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Luke 21: 22 The word vengeance in this verse sounds strange, which shows that it is not used appropriately. Neither in Bulgarian, nor in the other languages can a more appropriate word be found, a word that can convey the meaning of Jesus’ words. To some extent, it can be replaced with the words account, countdown, annihilation, or balance. Jesus, Who has always been considered to be a role model in terms of feelings, thoughts, deeds and aspirations, uttered some bitter words. Unpleasant though these words are, they have the same beneficial effect on the human soul as bitter pills on a sick body. Would anybody be capable of correcting his distorted thought, unless he encountered the counteraction of the right thought? Many Christians keep thinking that they can do as they wish and make mistakes without being aware of them or of bearing the consequences. They believe that as soon as they repent and turn to God, their sins will be erased. Errors, though, can be deleted only after they have been corrected. A truly ideal Life excludes the possibility of making mistakes and committing crimes. Sins and fallacies are accidental interceptions in Life. They can be done voluntarily or involuntarily, or to put it in the terms of modern jurisdiction – with malice afterthought or unintentionally. Therefore, it is not people’s assignment to perpetrate crimes. They have come to earth as a necessary part of their development. They have a grand mission – to conquer the earth and become masters of all animals. What does mastering mean? What can man master and rule over? To be the master of the earth means to cultivate it properly and establish order all over. Being the master of animals means taking care of them in a way that makes them happy and content. Only a sensible, good-natured and free person can be the master of the earth and of the weaker creatures living there. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” This verse can be discussed in its broader sense – in relation to humanity as a whole. It can also be analysed in narrower outlines – in view of man’s personal life and body. The human body is one’s earth, with all kinds of species on it – fish, birds, and mammals. All this has to be conquered, but as it belongs to another Master, man is responsible for the subordinate creatures to which he is temporarily a master. Jesus said, “ Lord, the sheep you gave me are Yours, so I sacrifice my life to them.” That’s why, everyone should bear in mind that any power given to them makes them responsible. Everybody wants to be strong, but acquiring certain strength makes sense only if it is exploited for something Good or great. Otherwise, strength becomes pointless. Strength, just like gifts and abilities, is acquired step by step, in the course of one’s growth, and not at once. Have you ever considered how many thousands of years it took the caterpillar to develop the skill of weaving and forming a cocoon until it finally breaks the chrysalis and turns into a butterfly? Those who are not acquainted with biology would say that God created everything. God gave all creatures the conditions to develop, but it is entirely up to them to strive to improve their lives, i.e. to get on a higher rung. Anyone willing to trace the stages of development can take a cocoon for close observation, pore over a microscope, then take a magnifying glass to trace the stages of growth and the differentiation of cells, until, finally, one can see the tiny worm, the chrysalis and the butterfly. You will say that this is an unconscious process. The maggot lives unconsciously here on earth, but in a higher world, the maggot is a conscious creature. That is why the Scripture reads that you are where your heart lives. Or, in other words, you live where your consciousness lives. If the consciousness of the maggot does not exist here, we look upon it as an unconscious creature. The cocoon lives unconsciously here, but what about man, who undergoes the experience of the prodigal son? He separated from God, severed the bonds with his supreme consciousness and set off wandering round the world. Is one given the right to part from God? If the bonds between the Divine and the human consciousness are severed, one has the right to part from God. One is free to wander, to dissipate his father’s wealth with light-minded friends; one can become a swineherd, living in misery, and finally, when his consciousness is awakened, to come back to his father and say, “Please, accept me as one of your servants. I do not deserve to be called your son. Forgive me, for I offended both against you and God.” Then the father can rightfully give his son a joyous welcoming and kill the fatted calf. The elder brother can be angry with his father for killing the fatted calf for his younger son, who wasted all the money and now comes back down and out. Such is the lot of any man, family or society that have gone astray from God. This is what happens nowadays throughout the world. According to the Scripture Jesus will make a Second Advent. What will herald it? – The wakening of human consciousness. When one becomes destitute, with all his wealth lost and now down and out, he will realise that he has gone astray and will start awaiting Jesus’ Advent. This is what awakening the consciousness means. This is a process that is already becoming a necessity. Everybody must come back to their father and repent. Only then will one be able to see the consequences of his Life both in the past and in the present. You will be just like the Prodigal son, who became aware of his past experience, realised what he lost and gained and then decided to come back to his father. He realised that nothing can be achieved by being a swineherd. Eventually, it was hunger that made him come back and become his father’s servant. You will say that it is awful for one to wander down and out. If you have ended up living in misery, if you have repented and came back to your father, you should only rejoice, for your shabby, tattered clothes, i.e. your inherent shortcomings have been revealed, you are already aware of them and ready to remedy them. You should be only too glad that you have become wiser. When you get wiser, you feel content, inwardly satisfied with having the necessary food, clothes and shoes, though outwardly you can still remain hungry, shabby and bare-footed. You should be grateful that you have found enough common sense to come back to your father and say, “Father, forgive me, for I committed a sin, but I learnt the great law that everybody gets what they deserve.” “That all things which are written may be fulfilled.” These words refer to all modern societies, countries and nations. The European nations will get impoverished, they will lose their strength, and famine will come to the Earth: hens, turkeys, lambs and swine will lower in number and become almost extinct. What’s more, bread will become scarce – a ratio of 200 to 300g will be given per person. You may happen to starve for two or three days on end. Everyone will ask, “ Why did all this happen? Who caused all these disasters?” – Not just one person is to blame. Everybody is responsible for the unfortunate consequences. Are the friends you drank and ate with guilty for your failure? It was you who invited them to eat and drink with you, because you wanted to have more fun. Whose fault is it now? Once you had fun, without thinking of the long-term implications; you should be brave enough now to bear the consequences. You should be even grateful that you are now given the chance to correct your mistakes. Religious people are getting ready to leave this world and move to another one, better organised and perfect. If the fruit falls unripe from the tree, where will it go? Will there be fruit good enough for the market? Will it be served at the table of a rich man? Can you see it in a child’s pocket? The fruit that has fallen unripe will be found rotten by the trunk of the tree. The other world is closed to it. The unripe fruit will remain on the tree – this world here - until it gets ripe. Therefore, both worlds – this one and the other one - are the same for people who are unprepared. One needs a long time to spend here, on earth, to study and to grow until the process of development is over. Here is the place for them to go to a primary, secondary and high school, and finally to university. Then they will enroll for the great school of life and enter the organised world called Heaven. Only fully mature, learned people are accepted to heaven. Anyone who goes there will be given a gob that has to be accomplished. Lazy people are not admitted there. Anyone who goes there unprepared will be left to wait for a day or two before being assigned some task. Anyone who proves to be inefficient will be sent back to earth. An old woman dreamt of going to the other world. The first thing she saw there was a big table laid with a white tablecloth, and round the table a few white bearded old men were sitting, reading a book. She saw that they were busy reading something. Not knowing what to say and how to address these people, she felt embarrassed. One of them asked her, “Why have you come, old lady? Do you know to read or write?” – “I don’t know, son. I never learnt these.” – “If you can’t read or write, your job will be to fetch water.” – “Well, son, this is what I had been doing all my life. I am sick and tired of fetching water. Don’t make me do the same here.” – “If you don’t want to fetch water, then you will come back to earth to learn to read and write.” While we are on earth, we pass through three areas in Life. The first one is the stomach. While we are still living in the stomach, we have to observe its laws and regulations. The stomach gives feasts and invites guests. Everybody sits at the table waiting for the hostess to serve the food she has prepared. The table is laden with plenty of food – soup, roast chicken, turkey or steaks, and a glass or two of vintage wine to cheer up the guests. All are eating, praising God for the goods He has bestowed on them. This is how Life is seen from the perspective of the stomach. If you ask someone why they indulge in eating pork, poultry or lamb, they will answer that they are destined by God to be the master of animals. Such people let all animals in the stomach and feel satisfied. When they are inside they start asking, “Master, what are we doing here?” Each animal starts revealing its true nature: the swine is rooting about, the bull is butting, the hen is scratching and the turkey is strutting. Shortly after, the stomach is heavy with indigestion. The master is moaning with aches and calls for the doctor to see what is wrong with him. It is simple: the animals that have entered the stomach cannot get along well. They cause indigestion. The doctor prescribes some purgative, the master vomits everything and the stomach is relieved. What does vomit mean? In my opinion, the words vomit and gossip are synonymous in Bulgarian. Just as overeating causes indigestion, so bad and impure thoughts upset the heart. Knowing this, you should never let them enter your heart or let them out as negative emotions. Why should people talk behind each other’s back? If a negative emotion enters your heart, you should try to suppress it. If someone happens to have eaten rotten food, they usually start talking about it, until finally, they throw it up. If they do not talk about what has happened to them, they will talk about others who have taken bad food. Do not eat impure food so that you should not talk about what you have eaten. You should talk neither about yourselves, nor about others. The function of the mouth is to accept pure, healthy food and not to throw up the impure, unhealthy food. The human body has two doors: an inlet and an outlet. If one accepts and throws food from one and the same door, the harmony in the body will be shattered. This law applies both to physical and spiritual food. If you let something go out from your mouth, it should be the best. The human tongue is not allowed to use negative or bitter words. That is why the Scripture says that you should be held responsible for any empty word. The same refers to one’s thoughts, feelings and deeds. Man is related to the sensible world, with creatures from a high culture – saints, Angels, Archangels, who hold man responsible for every deed, thought or feeling, coming out from the heart or the mind. One day he will be held responsible for everything he has admitted into himself. Man comes to live on the earth; he comes into existence, eats, gets dressed, studies, etc., for which a lot of energy is needed – Light and warmth, various elements – oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, silver, gold, etc. All this costs millions. We can see one grow and develop, but we cannot know how much this costs Nature. Nor do we know how much energy the sensible creatures working on him have wasted. You should try to estimate the expenses of someone who has lived here for a hundred years to find out whether one is entitled to abuse what he has been given. One who abuses the rights he is given is deprived of the favourable conditions of Life – to be born and reincarnated. Being unable to reincarnate means being locked forever. Evil cannot exist freely any longer. Jesus came to earth mainly to free man from evil – both people and animals. In other words, all human ideals will disappear, replaced by other eternal ones. Any thought or desire not based on a grand ideal will vanish beyond recall. There can be just one desire or thought for you to cherish, but it should be immortal. What’s the point of giving birth to ten children unless you do not follow God’s will? What child is it that does not love his father? Neither Love, nor hope can find its expression. Love is the strongest and foremost human incentive. God’s Love for humanity and every living creature makes Him come among people. Usually God comes to this world at times of hardship and turmoil when humanity goes through big crises. We are having hard times now, so God is closest to people. When speaking of reincarnation, many are reluctant to acknowledge it, though it does not matter. What difference does it make if an important fact is not acknowledged? The fact exists after all. People existed in prehistoric times; they exist now. They were born and reborn, owing to which they acquired something new and improved. One is reborn but with a different name. The same happens to nations. Modern nations, known as Germans, Russians, English, French and Bulgarians used to exist under different names. It is not known when exactly man came to existence – there are various opinions on this issue. According to the Bible man has been existing for 8,000 years. Occultists believe that man has been around for 18 million years. God comes here not to judge people but to purify the world. How will He achieve this? – Through fire. That is why the Scripture reads that each barren tree will be rooted out and thrown in the fire. The tree cannot live on barren land; it needs soil. Therefore, each person who does not give any fruit will be rooted out and thrown in the fire. When does man give fruit? – When one lives in compliance with the laws of Love. There is no Life beyond Love. There cannot be any achievement without Love. Throughout his life, man has to create the soil he is to plough and sow, just like a farmer does. The impure thoughts and desires that have fallen upon it spoil this soil. It has to be purified. How? – By ploughing it a few times, after which you have to let it dry in the Sun until becoming fertile again. Providence brings upon man plenty of suffering so that it can help him get rid of sin. In this respect suffering is the plough necessary to toil with on the patch of land. It has to be ploughed a few times so that it can be purified in the Sun. Then it can become fit for sowing pure thoughts and desires. God’s Love has to work on the human soul for thousands of years so that it can give fruit. It is normal for man to be sulky and displeased while the fruit is ripening. Initially, the fruit is bitter and sour. The longer it basks in the Sun, the sweeter it becomes, until finally, it is fully ripe, sweet and fragrant. The process of ripening is over. So, when one is sulky and displeased, you should know that he is at the beginning of his life – at the embryonic stage. After a few Divine years he will get mature and sweet – the discontent will turn into contentment. Anger and discontent are in their proper place when they lie on the grounds of sound principles. Everything makes sense when it is in its proper place, i.e. when it is reasonable. During the Ottoman Oppression the Bulgarians feared tax collectors very much. A Bulgarian felt quite comfortable and relaxed before the tax collector came. He would go outside the front door with a jack-knife and a stick in his hand and while whittling at the stick, he was setting the world to rights. However, as soon as the arrival of the tax collector was announced, the Bulgarian got startled, whittling more nervously and worrying about paying his taxes. Minutes ago he would think freely, claiming that God does not exist. The moment the tax collector came, he would start believing in God – the stick, i.e. Justice is imposed. So he would point the stick at himself. If you have money, you are the master. Without any money, you lose your title. A young handsome lad enjoyed the freedom he had. He had many friends and was footloose and fancy-free. Girls liked him for the great freedom he had and referred to him as the King of all kings. One day he decided to get engaged. The girls started regarding him only as a king. Then he got married. Now he was regarded only as an ordinary man. When eventually he got divorced, everybody would look upon him as a laughing stock, as one inferior to all the others. God sends people to the earth to feel free and independent as kings. What do they do? They find a husband or a wife to commit to. They lose their freedom and descend from the position of a king. When they get married they become ordinary people. Then they get divorced, thus reducing themselves to a laughing stock. If they have made a mistake, they have to correct it. The husband whittles at the stick, so does the wife, thinking how to pay the tax collector. Do not get involved with people who are expected to pay taxes. For all the things which are written.” In other words: The Day of Judgement is coming! – When will it come? – When the Divine light enters people’s minds and they start seeing clearly what exactly they have done in their present and previous lives. They already have a new task assigned – to correct their Lives and all the mistakes they have made. Be grateful for the Light given to you! Be ready, just like the Prodigal son, to turn to God with due Repentance and humility and say, “ O Lord, I beg for Your mercy! I didn’t fulfil your will, but I am ready to serve You devotedly.” Pray to God to inscribe your names in the Book of Life. Give up the lie you have been serving for years and embrace the Truth. If you are not ready to serve God gratefully, you will find yourselves in the position of the Greek tzar who was ungrateful to his doctor.. The Greek tzar in this story was suffering from leprosy. An eminent doctor came to his kingdom. The doctor, known as Duban, started taking care of the tzar and soon managed to cure him. As a token of his gratitude the tzar appointed him in his Privy Council. Many became envious and started scheming against him. The malicious gossip reached the tzar, who believed it and ordered the doctor’s execution. Before the order was carried out, the doctor appeared before his master, told him the true story and begged for mercy. The tzar reversed his appeal and confirmed his verdict. Then the doctor said, “I’ll give you a book in which you will find the answers to all the problems troubling you. While thumbing the pages, you will hear my voice speaking through your head.” The tzar took the book, pleased that he would be able to make interesting observations. After the execution the book appeared on his desk. The tzar started turning the pages, but the more he read, the worse he felt. The pages were treated with poison. On turning the last page, he heard a voice saying, “This is what everyone who is ungrateful deserves.” This is how the ungrateful tzar ended his life. Who is the doctor curing human leprosy? – Jesus. Instead of being grateful, you are ready to cut His head in order to get rid of Him. Then the devil, whose advice you take, will approach you and give you the book, form which you are going to read his wise advice every day. This book is poisonous. By reading his book, you will gradually get poisoned. When you turn the last page, you will hear the devil saying to you, “This is what any sinner who repays good by evil deserves. Such a person does not deserve to live.” Many keep complaining about injustice in Life, blaming God for it. If they think so, then they bear injustice. If just one Life were given to you, then you would be right to complain. But what would you say if you knew that you would live many lives here on the earth? Don’t you think that it is you that have caused injustice? You live by God’s grace. God is so lenient to you and yet you grumble. A new age is coming, a new culture, and new conditions. The hew age is celebrated with God’s advent to this world in order to establish law and order, to separate the mortal from the immortal, sinners from righteous people. It is up to any of us to choose the category he or she falls into. A sinner with impure thoughts and desires will create a body with the appropriate brain, lungs and stomach. The thoughts and desires take the form that matches them. No wonder then that so many forms exist: bears, wolves, tigers, lions, snakes, etc. The forms are created according to the thoughts and desires. It is only natural then that there should be bad and good people; some are healthy, cheerful and agile, while others are ill, weak and unfit for work. Do not wonder why germs destroying the human body exist. Doctors organise conferences to discuss how to tackle the problems with germs. There are germs capable of destroying the human body within 24 hours. Germs are a real scourge to humanity. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” You would ask whether God takes revenge on people. Should he take revenge on them through germs? I am not answering your question. I would only ask you: What would you think of your neighbour who would let his pigs plough in your well-kept garden? Your garden is not supposed to be intruded by your neighbour’s pigs. You have worked in it to make it your pride and joy. It is meant to give pleasure to your nearest and dearest. Those who love you are welcome to take a walk in it, enjoying the beautiful flowers and ripe fruit. Imagine that the father of a family has lived and worked abroad. On coming back home, he buys nice presents for his four daughters and his wife. As soon as he comes back, his two daughters turn to the presents and jewellery, examining and enjoying them, totally ignoring their father’s presence. They do not care at all that he is tired and needs attention. However, the other two daughters focus all their attention on him – one fetches him some water to wash and clothes to change, the other cooks him dinner. They do not think about the presents. The father is kind and considerate with all his daughters, but, naturally, his attitude to the first two is different from his attitude to the other two. He would never show that his attitude is different, yet it is. From this we could infer the following law: Love breeds Love. Hatred cannot breed Love. Fear can make you pretend to love someone, but as soon as the fear disappears, hatred grows. Love excludes fear, while no love or hatred breed fear. Those who fear are the evil, dark spirits, whereas good and light spirits do not fear. Therefore, when a dark spirit obsesses you, you feel afraid. You ought to drive the evil spirit away. Let it become your servant and not your master. As soon as you drive it away, you will become strong and courageous. You will raise your awareness, entering a new sphere where love and agreement, Light and peace reign. What will happen to the world? – Do not think about that; think of yourselves. The master of the world used to be someone who is bound now. He is trembling with fear now, regretting having lost his power. He will be sent to the lower world where he will be taught to work. He used to eat and drink, but now he has to work – there is no other possible salvation for him. As long as the chief master is bound, it will be easy for you to cope with the less important masters. Each of you is able to bind the small master within the self and set him to work. Do not fear this master, for his reign is over. Put Jesus to the throne of your kingdom and follow His path. Only in this way will you be able to walk in Light and the Angels will befriend you. This is what God wants from us all. Listen to His voice and be ready to submit Him. It is time for you to sever the bonds with your former master and reestablish connection with the One Who has crated you and Who cares about you. Religious people prepare themselves to pass through all the planets and finally settle on the Sun. This will be, but not now. You are not ready for the other planets yet. It is worth going round all the planets and stars, but only if you achieve something or mend your ways. Otherwise, just passing by and seeing new things without getting to the point would be a futile effort. There will come a day when you will be able to travel freely from one planet to another, but not in your present bodies. You need to form a new body, capable of dissembling and assembling so that it would be easy for you to move from one place to another. One day people will be travelling without ships, trains or planes. They will have a new type of body, shaped and structured differently. They will have a new kind of Light and knowledge. They will be acquainted with the laws of the Universe and able to apply them. Then they will not toil the land the way they do now, but sustain themselves in a way unknown to today’s scientists. Jesus tells us, “Go now and do not err any longer.” Not to err means not to violate God’s law. Those who serve God follow His laws. Once you enter the Angels’ society, you will be elevated. It is a great blessing to have the grace of the Angels, the saints and the good people. Everyone will be eager to give you something. However, it is awful to find yourselves among enemies. Then everybody will be eager to take something from you, to rob you and ruin you. God’s Kingdom does not ruin people. People live there in harmony, union and service to Love. They live there one for all, while nowadays everyone lives for the self. By “the self” we mean what is inferior in people, mammals, birds and fish. That’s why Jesus says that anyone unable to deny the self cannot be His true disciple. By giving up the inferior part of the self, one is able to evolve more quickly. The law of evolution applies both to people and animals. The more sinful one is, the slower the process of evolution is. One is subjected to greater suffering so that the consciousness can be awakened. The same law applies to animals. This is the reason why some animals suffer more than others do. The harder the suffering is, the more the creature has to pay back. When studying Natural History, you will see that forms gradually change to improve. Naturally, it is a long-term process, taking thousands of years. What counts is not time, but the results. Therefore, when it comes to animals, you should not look down on them. You should bear in mind that there will come the time when they will change and advance to a higher level. Animals are inferior to people in terms of consciousness and living conditions, but some day they will move a step up. It is possible for a human being to communicate with a horse, an ox, or a dog. If one knows how to do it, it is possible to talk even with more inferior species. The shepherd, inhabiting a hut, lives at physical and spiritual conditions different from those typical of a king, living in a palace. Yet you can communicate with them both. There are people who don not rank higher than animals in terms of consciousness. There are animals that are similar to people in terms of consciousness. That’s why you should not judge things by their appearance, but consider their contents and depth. Truth reveals the provenance of man. Some day when you enter the Spiritual World, your thoughts and emotions will become objective. By seeing their true essence, you will feel ashamed, aware that you are ill equipped for this world. So you will start looking forward to coming back to the earth in order to work towards a better future. This is what makes people reincarnate. One needs to work. Whatever situation you are in, you should know that such is your lot. You have to work on yourselves in order to improve your fate. There is just one way to achieve this: by serving God with all your heart, strength and devotion. Or to put it differently, to serve God with all our thoughts, emotions and deeds. We should serve out brethren with the same commitment as we serve ourselves. Who is your fellow creature? – One who helps you and works for you. It means that the ox, the horse and the cow are your fellow creatures. God speaks the languages of all animals and communicates with them, while you feel ashamed to speak to your ox, working in your field from dawn till sunset. Sometimes God prefers to speak to an ox rather than to a haughty sinner, who has caused his own sufferings but blames God for them. An ox keeps pulling the yoke yet never blames its master for the suffering it bears. God has given man plenty of goods and keeps giving. Who is to blame for man’s suffering? – He himself. Suffering comes as a natural consequence of man’s constant abuse of God’s gifts and blessings. What should one do to get rid of suffering? – To reconsider the way one lives and mend his ways. The only power capable of correcting one’s Life is Love. Apply Love and your Life will correct itself. – Which Love? – The one you are ready for. Love has 350 million forms. What man is required to do is to study these forms and recognise them. The ultimate objective is to be able to identify the kind of Love one has for you when he or she tells you “I love you”. Is it like the love of the worm, the spider, the mosquito, the hen, the dog, the bear, the wolf, the ox, the horse, or is it like the love of the mother, the saint, the Angel, etc.? Man is not allowed to show the love of the spider, sucking blood of its beloved, nor is man allowed to have the love of the predator, tearing its prey. God comes to the earth not to judge people but to teach and guide them. He opens the Book of Life to every human being and forces them to read from there in order to see their own mistakes. Where do people make most mistakes? – In Love. When you spot and identify your mistakes, you will say just like the Prodigal Son: “Forgive me Father! I’m coming to you down and out. I’ve lost everything you gave me. I committed a sin, but now I am ready to serve you.” That is the common fate nowadays. God will welcome the Prodigal Son with Love. He will give orders for him to be washed and dressed in new clothes. He will embrace and kiss him and will kill the fatted calf. However, the devil, i.e. the elder brother will be displeased. He will tell God, “I worked for you so many years yet you gave me nothing.” The devil does not tell the truth. All the wealth is his. The devil is said not to have come to help the Angels but the seed of Abraham. So, when Jesus joins the human world, people will advance to a higher level. On hearing His voice, they will perceive His thought. No matter which part of the world Jesus will speak from, they will be able to catch His voice. Righteous people will be able both to see and hear Him. He will be everywhere. It means that people, having developed the sixth sense, will be clairvoyants. If Jesus comes to the earth in flesh for the second time, he will be crucified again. This time He will descend in such a form that it will need no food, nor will it be crucifiable. He will need the fruit of your tree. When He looks at you, He will see whether your soul bears any fruit, and on seeing the fruit, He will say, “Let this soul be blessed!” I mean that blessed is the soul that bears at least one ripe fruit. When Jesus comes to you, you will offer Him your fruit to nourish Him. This is how He will know that you have worked hard in your garden, that you have taken loving care of the orchard. Many men, women and children water their gardens with tears coming from the bottom of their hearts. Some day these tears will give birth to sweet, juicy fruit. Do not fear your tears. Do not say that you cry; say that you water your gardens. Do not say that your hearts are rent with grief, say that you plough your fields. Plough and water God’s fields so that it should yield plenty of fruit. That is the point in Life. That is why Jesus will come to the human world. What is the present state of humanity? It is like a moving ship. Before it sets sail, it rocks and shakes and then when the movement goes to all its parts, it starts floating smoothly along the water surface. Jesus comes to the earth to stir the stranded ship. He will give it a mighty push, will jolt it vehemently and give it the right course. Therefore, Jesus’ advent will blaze the right trail for humanity. All people will start feeling, thinking and acting correctly, just like the ship will be bound for the right destination. It is hard to imagine how all that will happen, yet when the vapour gives impetus to the steamer, when your thoughts become clear and definite, when you become aware of your ultimate objectives, you will see Jesus as clearly as the stoker, who puts coal in the fire-box seeing that he has to do this to make the steamer move ahead. Many have seen Jesus cheerful and beaming with a smile and a halo around His head on His way to Jerusalem as a holy place. Jesus exists in all other worlds, not just on the Earth. Those who are more sensitive are aware of this. They perceive it through both their hearts and minds. There is not a single human being unable to sense even the slightest stir in the self. Those who are more sensitive are more apprehensive of danger. There is nothing to be afraid of. Your ship is moving ahead, having taken the right course towards the Divine port. I do not mean the grave. Just the opposite, as long as your ship is afloat, you will come out of the grave and resurrect. This is exactly what Paul meant when saying that we will not die, but we will change. What is in store for you? – You will go to bed as a cocoon, and you will wake up as a chrysalis. On the next nigh you will go to bed as a chrysalis, and you will wake up as a butterfly, able to fly from one flower to another, gathering their sweet nectar. What has happened to you? – You have changed. God took your old callous hearts and gave you new soft and delicate ones, on which I will inscribe today the new law. He took your distorted minds and gave you new bright ones, able to perceive His thoughts and apply them. Your souls will become a temple of God, you hearts – His altar, where you will offer your sacrifices. The Spirit will become God’s servant. This means serving God with all your heart, strength and devotion. This means the fate of the world. To judge means to find the right path as a member of society and as a nation that is part of humanity. It means knowing your responsibilities and bearing them. Will you know yourselves then? – Certainly, more than you do now. Will you love each other? – More than you do now. Then you will be glad and light-spirited, radiating happiness. Today people’s faces are dark and sulky. Who is to blame? A child saw the Sun rising hidden in fog and clouds. Its red disc could hardly be seen through. – Why are you giving me such a sulky, angry look?” the child asked. The Sun answered, “It’s not my fault. Clouds and fog veil my rays but as soon as they disappear, I’ll show you my bright, smiling face.” What I would like to tell you now is not to ask why Jesus is a gloomy and displeased. Clouds veil his face, too. When they disperse, you will see His bright and smiling face, radiating Love and Light, Joy and Mirth. Jesus’ Love can be compared to the bright and fair image of the Sun. When you feel His Love, you Life here on the earth will become worthwhile. Then you will understand why you were born and why you will die, why you are male or female, why you give birth to children and raise them. Not only will you understand these things, but also they will be given meaning. “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” This verse sounds fearful. Those who do not understand its profound meaning will go to hell. Those who interpret it properly say: Jesus comes to this world as a bearer of Reason and Love. He tells everybody on the face of the earth, “Peace!” Everybody will get what they deserve through Jesus’ Love and Reason. Everybody will be given what they are ready to do. Is there anything to worry about? Get ready, each when the time comes to welcome Jesus. Put on your best clothes. For some Jesus will come today, for others He will come tomorrow. They will be some who will greet Him in years. You will meet Him the moment you are ready for this. You should be waiting for Him day in day after, and there will come the time when you will be able to see Him. It is entirely up to you. You should be in your right lace, just like the astronomer holds his due position behind the telescope to observe the sky. The astronomer may be observing a planet so far from the Earth that ordinary people do not even suspect it exists, but he can see it. When the planet approaches the Sun, then all people will be able to see it. Try to be such astronomers, able to see Jesus from afar, while ordinary people have not seen Him yet. Therefore, there are people who can see Jesus now, some who will see Him later when He approaches them, and still others who will not see Him even then but will keep sleeping peacefully in bliss. May you stay awake so that you can see Jesus from afar. If you fail to see Him from afar, I believe you will see Him from close by. You are bound to see Him. He will speak to you and you will be able to hear Him as clearly as you can hear me now. A lecture given by the Master on 28th January, 1917, Sofia