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Note 5 Signs of Manifested Human Consciousness Eleventh Lecture held by the Master in front of the Youth Esoteric Course, 27 December 1922, Sofia Fir-fur-fen Tao Bi Aumen Secret Prayer A summary of the topic “Elements of human speech" has been read. The works on the topic “Signs of manifested human consciousness in its highest form” have been read. For next time, write on the topic: “Distinguishing marks of the physical body ". Imagine a certain point signifies the consciousness of man or the manifested Universe. Out of this point is the Universe which has not yet been manifested. Furthermore, suppose the matter of the outer, manifested Universe, has different densities and thence different states. After that, assume that different kinds of beams go out of that particular point, i.e. we say this centre, this point starts to radiate. Every beam represents a separate being. When these beings get in touch with the external environment which has different densities and different states, they will change their character. This change in the character of these beings is the reason for the difference existing between them. There is distinction not only amongst people but amongst the spirits, amongst the Angels, as well as amongst all Advanced Beings. What is this difference due to? It is due to a number of outer reasons. Therefore, every beam is influenced by the environment to a certain point. The infinite determines the relations as well as the forms of the finite. So, when a certain peculiarity shows in you, you should know it is owing to the primary environment you have fallen into. One day, when you return to the given point, your nature will change. Then, you will finish your evolution the way it has been initially fixed. Therefore, you should know that whatever deviations you make in your life they will not alter your way at all. Many people think that by zigzagging to one side or another they could change their way. No, the esoteric disciple must know that there is no way to change the initial course of his Life. Not only the disciple, but no being is capable of changing the initial course of its way until it gains its purpose. When the snake zigzags, coils its body, does it change its course or its nature? No, it does not. Why does it coil? In order to move. Why does the lightning twist? Because it meets a medium of different density compared to the one it moves in. Therefore, each deviation in the human character is due to the fact that he meets on his way a denser medium than the one he moves in. The denser medium shows him big resistance; therefore he cannot withstand and turns off to one side or another. He lives with this deviation until he meets another obstacle to make him return to the right track. Finally, when you draw a straight line between these deviations, this line determines the direction towards which consciousness moves. As long as he is young, one moves by zigzagging here and there, and thinks he is changing the course of his way; when he grows old, one thinks he is smarter, and has already solved his tasks. The old man has solved his tasks as much as the young one has. Both the old and the young man are far from the Truth. Such difference exists not only among people of different ages but also inside one and the same person. For example, the eyes of man represent two circles: the left eye expresses the physical world, and the right one, the spiritual world. That is why the beam that goes out of the left eye of man is always directed towards the Earth; the beam that goes out of the right eye of man is always directed upwards. In its evolution, one moves from the physical to the Spiritual and from the Spiritual to the Divine world. If someone moves with the speed of lightning from the Spiritual to the Divine world and moves several billion kilometers away from the Spiritual world, you might think this man is close to God. However, if he is observed by telescope from the Angels` world, they will say this man moves very slowly, like a star in the sky observed from the physical world. For the Angels, this man is far away from God and for the people, he is close to God. You should know one thing: whatever speed he moves with, a man should have the striving to go upwards, to the Divine world. For that purpose, he must develop everything that is put in his consciousness. Go up and forward, do not be afraid of the deviations you make. Deviations are not falls. Think philosophically on that issue. When the beam of light passes from a thin to a dense medium it will inevitably refract and deviate from its course. The consciousness of man experiences such deviation when it passes from a thin to a dense medium. Therefore, at the present development of man /in his individual and social development/, a number of deviations take place in his consciousness. When he knows that, one must be careful and be aware of these deviations. Present-day people, societies and nations are organized the same way as material worlds are. They all move in circles concentrically situated around a center. For example, ten – fifteen people make one link and influence each other the way planets influence each other. Usually, the ones closer to the centre move faster than those that are further. Knowing this, you will notice that no one can escape the influence of those individuals who enter the same system as his own. In this sense, no one can be self-autonomous. People represent big groups of individuals, concentrated in a centre, who influence each other. When the Divine consciousness in man awakes, he can already define his attitude towards those who enter his system. In his conscious attitude towards them he will not counteract but assist them in a Divine way. Usually, to every system of higher Beings corresponds such a system of lower Beings; consequently one should be careful, to know how to influence the beings from his system. Beings from one and the same system not only influence each other but systems also influence each other. In this interaction of the systems, the Cosmos grows and develops. In the centre of all systems lies the Divine consciousness, the Divine spirit that regulates all things in Nature and Life. Everyone should determine his own status and realize to which system he belongs, how many people enter this system; with what speed they move in physical, cordial and mental respect; of what material their system is made and how many million years ago it was formed. Therefore, the mental level of man will depend on the state of the whole system – this is a fixed law. So, in order to change the mental state of man, the mental state of all the beings with which he enters in one and the same system should be changed. There is a certain connection between all the beings in one and the same system: if one of you is in America among unknown people and he is being attacked by somebody, a person from your system will immediately appear to protect him and defend his right. Why will he protect you? For the sake of the whole system. The larger the system is that you enter; the larger will be the number of sympathizers you may have. If you enter among a small group of people, you will have a few sympathizers. It does not restrict human will at all, but shows that the direction of the human Spirit is strictly fixed and he must walk in this direction because here are given the opportunities and conditions for the development of his activities. If someone opposes this order of things, he must turn back and be swallowed by the common centre. When it is said that the Earth will fall to the Sun, it should not be understood literally. It means that the Earth should enter new conditions of development and fall under the influence of some other Sun. Now let us do a mental exercise: imagine you are moving at a great speed and entering the Sun. Watch yourselves how far each of you could reach. This exercise requires a huge amount of concentration. How many of you managed to reach the Sun? With their thought, some of you reached the middle of the road. It is hot on the Sun; not everyone is able to go there. Some other people remained in the so-called icy, cold area. Others rose up to a magnetic zone made of thick and porous matter. One of the zones between the Earth and the Sun is called Death River by which all souls pass going to the other world. Everyone could try to pass by this zone. It is enough for a man to concentrate deeply in his thought and detach himself from the environment; he will immediately enter a completely dark area, with not a single sunbeam. He can check by his watch how much time it took him to pass by this area. Whoever makes this experiment, must be very careful, and should not be afraid of the big darkness. When he goes out of this zone, he will enter the next one, the so-called astral zone where the light is mild and pleasant like the break of dawn. On his way back to the Earth, man passes by the same zones. As you see, there are different areas, different fields between the Earth and the Sun, and each of them contains specific forces, energies. Between the Astral and the Mental world exists the so-called icy or electric area. It contains a huge reserve of electricity that could completely replace coal that we use nowadays for heating. The race to come will dispose of methods by which it could get this electricity to work for lighting and heating of the entire Earth. While doing this mental exercise you must be concentrated so that not only your thought will travel but also the whole consciousness. Then, you will feel two currents: one coming from the Earth to the Sun, and the other going back. Thus, a correct exchange between the solar energy and your energy takes place. It is good to do this exercise when you are spiritually indisposed. Second exercise: direct your mind, heart, Spirit and soul to the Divine Spirit that encompasses everything in the world and ask for its assistance in the realization of all that is elevated and noble in you. This Spirit encompasses all consciousnesses, and acts inside and outside of them. Because of that it is said in the Scripture: “The Spirit of God floats all over the Earth." Fir-fur-fen Tao Bi Aumen Source

Note 7 Purpose Of The Respiratory System Seventh Lecture by The Master, Held before the Youth Esoteric Class on November 22nd, Sofia Fir-für-fen Tau-bi-aumen Secret prayer Now read the positive words you have written. Next time you will read the negative words. For the next time, write on the topic: “The Purpose of the Respiratory System”. I will now give you a psychic exercise, which you will do in the morning after getting up and in the evening before going to bed. You will raise your hands upward and pronounce the word light, while observing the change in your condition. Do the exercise for ten to twenty-five seconds. The hands are placed one next to the other in front of your forehead, with palms turned towards the face. After that you will lower your hands and place them on the upper part of the nose, as you pronounce the word fragrance. After you pronounce that word, you will observe what change is taking place in your condition. Finally, you will place your hands under your nose – on the upper lip, and you will pronounce the word sweetness. Again you will observe the changes in your condition. The first word you will pronounce is light, then – fragrance, and finally – sweetness. The words go from an ascending to a descending stage: the substance of the word light is the thinnest, then it is the one of fragrance, and the thickest substance is that of the word sweetness. It feels strange to you why I am giving you the topic “The Purpose of the Respiratory System”. What knowledge do you have of breathing, why does man breathe? Man breathes to maintain life, the burning inside his organism. What is burning and what is breathing? According to some, breathing is a process of cleaning. There are more than six hundred million cells in the lungs, locked in miniature chambers, miniature laboratories. When air enters the lungs, each one of these cells for a short moment serves a twofold purpose – physiological and psychic. In that sense breathing is a double process of nutrition. In a single minute man inhales twenty times, twenty lunches, and in an hour – 20 x 60 = 1200 inhalations, 1200 lunches. If each of those lunches cost a hundred leva1, then each hour for every human 120 000 leva would be spent on breathing. For twenty-four hours he would then cost Nature 2 880 000 leva. At each inhalation Nature lays the table for man, and at each exhalation she clears the table. At each laying and clearing of the table workers perform their duties. Complicated is the work of those workers who have the utmost task of cleansing the blood. Despite all of their complex functions, you deem that those cells are not wise. Wise are the cells of the human organism. The cells of each organ, of each limb of the human organism have a special position and purpose. And so, breathing is a twofold process – physiological and psychic. The ultimate purpose of breathing as a psychic process is cleansing the mind. Hence, breathing is connected with thinking, with thought. Which kind of breathing is the best? There are three types of breathing: upper, medium and lower (depending on which part of the lungs does the most breathing). The lung resembles a complex laboratory in which a lot of energies intersect. The prana2 of the air penetrates into the lungs and helps ozonizing the blood even where air could hardly penetrate. Into such sublime blood the elements of Life are placed. Full breathing is the best. Mainly Love helps full breathing. So Love is first and foremost necessary condition for full breathing. When man breathes, he must value the air as an irreplaceable welfare. When you look upon air as an invaluable welfare, it penetrates into the furthest cells of your lungs, sends them its prana, its vital power, which they extract and dispatch over the whole organism. So Love first affects the lungs. He who loves, he expands, and so do his lungs. When man adopts a benefit consciously, and with gratitude, Love begins to operate inside him and elevates him. This Love is positive, ascending, and it broadens man. Every Divine energy, which descends from above, must pass initially through the respiratory system, from there ascend to the mind, and after that go down to the heart. When speaking about Love, many say that Love is blind. This expression is a remnant from the time when humanity existed under influence of the Moon – the period of constant changes. Actually Love reveals itself in rational Life, because, by itself, Love is the most elevated thing in the world. Where Love permeates, there is Life, and culture. The Divine day begins with Love. It is said in the Holy Writ: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light”. Everybody can say something, but first, man is required to perceive air along with prana, and with the Divine energy which is infused in it. When it penetrates into the mind and heart, then that energy will give an impulse for man to express himself, to say that which he is thinking of. Therefore, he who wants to speak reasonably must learn to breathe properly and to think properly. Have you ever tried to breathe silently, so that nobody can hear you? When you breathe deeply, you breathe loud, and everybody around can hear you. It is an art to be able to breathe deeply, but silently, so that nobody can hear you. When you breathe deeply, put your hands on your stomach, so that every time you inhale and exhale air your hands lift. You must study the process of breathing properly, so that you could describe it in both the physiological and psychic relation. Study the various methods of breathing, in order to see which method will be the most efficient to apply. Try with every inhalation to think about the light, in order for you to be able to connect with its energies. Those energies are found in the air, from where you have to obtain them. When thinking about fragrance, you will obtain from the air a different sort of energies; when thinking about sweetness, you will obtain a third sort of energies. When you are thinking about these words, while breathing simultaneously, you will see that each word reflects differently on the pulse of your heart. The smallest, slightest changes in the pulse speak of delicate experiences of man. The abrupt changes in the pulse speak of grand experiences of man. When man is inspired by elevated thoughts and feelings, his heartbeat is rhythmic; his pulse is regular, and harmonious. When man lives in the field of rude, base feelings, his pulse is disharmonious and irregular – he loses the natural rhythm of his pulse. In such cases it appears to you that the heart of man stops. Thus beats the heart of men who suffer from palpitations. There is one thing you have to learn: to breathe correctly. Why? Because by breathing correctly you will cleanse your thoughts, you will cleanse your blood, and you will also cleanse your brains. Speaking of breathing, you have to know the composition of air. What elements are included in air? Air is a mixture of one fifth of oxygen and four fifths of nitrogen. So the Intellectual world deals with elements of the physical world. What is released during breathing? In the process of breathing oxygen is absorbed from the air, and carbon dioxide is exhaled. In what state are the elements oxygen and nitrogen found in the air? - In a molecular state. In general, when a particular element has already been obtained from some compound body, it is in a molecular state; when it is being obtained from the compound body, while its atoms have still not managed to combine into molecules, it is in an atomic state; and finally, when some compound body is dissolved in water, its elements are found in an ionic state. When are elements most active? - When they are in an ionic state. They are less active when in an atomic state and least active when in a molecular state. Man has to observe himself, to see what his condition is when he is moody, excited, and angry; and what his condition is when he is calm, and in a good mood. Good and bad moods reflect on the breathing, and on the pulse. He who understands this will be able to detect a man’s physical and spiritual mood by his pulse. As disciples, you must study all of the conditions; to distinguish their substance by thickness, and by composition. For instance, what is the substance of anger – thick or thin? - Thick. What compounds is it made of? - Explosive substances. Anger is dangerous because of the explosions that accompany it. When one has been furious, he feels like he has been burning, as if there had been a fire inside him. A lot of time has to pass until he repairs all the damage from that fire. The damage happens in his organism. What is anger due to? - Superfluous energies in the organism. When man has a lot of desires that he cannot fulfill, part of the energy which has been allotted for their attainment is left unused – that energy is the cause of anger in man. Unprocessed material in the brain causes a slight process of rotting, of fermentation, and as a result anger is provoked. Unfulfilled desires produce anger. When one is angry, this shows that he has many unrealized, unfulfilled desires. What is the cure for anger? - Implementation of those desires. Superfluous energy accumulates behind man’s ears. Among very angry people these areas have evolved significantly. Phrenologists call these centers destructive. These centers are connected with the motor muscles of the mouth and therefore, when man becomes angry, he starts moving his mouth. He who understands the law of transforming energy will know in what way to channel surplus energy from his ears to his brains and put it into work. He who does not understand this law, when he gets angry, will put his tongue to work – back and forth, until he casts that energy out and relieves himself. The tongue is a machine-gun, and the words – the gunfire that pours out here and there until it is all over. When you want to know which words are negative, go to an angry man, take a pen and a sheet of paper and start writing. He will speak such negative words, that you will not be able to find them in any dictionary. If you want to know which words are positive, go to a grateful, content man, and listen to him. As a method of influence upon anger, occult knowledge recommends that the disciple should forgo his numerous desires. The disciple is not allowed to have many desires simultaneously. Why? - Because they could not evolve regularly. It has been determined how many square meters of land are needed for a fruit-tree to grow well. If you had a quarter of an acre3 of land you wanted to plant with vine-stocks, you would be able to plant ten vine-stocks at the most. Should you plant any more, they would grow weak, and they would give puny fruit. Therefore, in order not to obtain puny fruit, do not rush to realize all of your desires at once. Desires of man are in embryo, and therefore he must gradually hatch them one by one, so that he can feed them in order for them to give good fruit. Every desire of man is a capital that can be transformed into kinetic energy, but it must wait for its time to come. Every desire is a power that will give its results, but this power must be awakened at its allotted time. The desire must not be awakened neither earlier, nor later than the allotted time – for every desire there is a determined time and space, when it can be realized. Should not you abide by that time, you would stumble upon a number of negative states, among which in the first place would be anger. When man cannot achieve one of his desires, he becomes envious. When he begins to envy, anger will come as well. Should you want to liberate yourself from anger, you have to attain your desires. In order to attain them, they have to be few in quantity. How many desires can you realize annually? - One desire. How many classes can a disciple finish annually? - One class. The most capable of students can finish two classes, and a disciple of genius – three classes. The genius studies too, and passes grades, but for him there is a special school. The genius is also prone to mistakes; he has the circumstances to make mistakes more than the ordinary man. The genius wins a lot, loses a lot, and suffers a lot; the ordinary man wins a little, loses a little, and suffers less. To regulate the energies of your organism, you have to breathe correctly, deeply. Thus, the numerous desires divert man’s attention. You meet someone – thoughtful, head bent down, looking towards the earth. That man has many desires, and as a result his breathing is poor. This has also been noticed in the life of eminent actors. When a capable actor becomes too ambitious, blood circulation inside him becomes irregular, his breathing – incomplete, and as a result he becomes nervous and gets angry. The remedy for anger is finding a friend of yours who is negative, passive; ask him to put his left hand on the right side of your head and you will see that after a short time all of the surplus energy in you will pass over to his hand and you will be relieved. You have been positive, active, and he – negative, passive, as a result of which between yourselves a right exchange has occurred. So the wrathful person must find a quiet, peaceful person to pass a part of his superfluous energy to. It is not bad that man gets angry, but he should know the law, and put that energy to work. It is preferable that man gets angry, instead of not getting angry at all. There are people who are passive and when they get angry they cannot express their anger externally. They act as quiet people – in reality they are not quiet. Passive anger generates fear, and active anger generates vengeance. Vengeance is particularly strong when someone tries to oppose anger. When a man gets angry, give him an opportunity to display his anger; should you stop his anger, he would start taking revenge. Why are some people incapable of getting angry? - Because they do not have a surplus of that energy. They resemble those drunkards that want to drink, but either they have no money, or there are no taverns open. So they do not have the circumstances to get drunk and so by necessity act as sober; they are ready to go to the nearest open tavern and get drunk. The truly sober, virtuous man is the one that despite having all conditions to drink or get angry, is still unable to get off his balance. Such a person has a will, has self-control. He who has a weak will succumbs even to the slightest temptation. Now, as disciples of an occult School, you must study the contradictions that you stumble upon. You have to study the various states that you go through. Sometimes you sit, you feel somehow oddly uneasy, and you do not know where to put your hands: you put them in front – you are not comfortable, you put them along your body or behind you – again you do not feel comfortable. If you understood the deep meaning of your condition, you would describe it easily. Hands represent the human will. When you do not know where to put your hands, this means that you do not know with what kind of movement you have to display your will. When you put your hands behind your back, in front of you or alongside your body, by doing this you are looking for the most suitable method of displaying your will. As soon as you find a suitable place for your hands, you will have already solved the question as to what way you should display your will. As a first method of displaying will, there is the application of the law of transforming energies in your organism via the lungs. Eastern nations pay great attention to breathing as a method of work in many directions. Western nations also wanted to use this method, but as utter materialists, it gave them bad results. They wanted in a quick way to achieve a lot of things, but paid dearly for that haste. Love is required from people, so that they could use properly the knowledge of breathing. Without Love there can be no breathing. The first condition is that Love participates in breathing. If Love does not participate in breathing, you can have no success. In that situation the organism cannot handle its superfluous energy, as a result a number of negative states are born in a man. When breathing is not done properly, semi-organic materials start to build layers of sediments in the organism, which are the cause of all illnesses. Thanks to these sediments, these semi-organic materials, the blood of man cannot be properly cleansed and causes the growth of many microbes. Now you have an idea of how complex the breathing process is. It is enough to imagine those six-hundred million workers, who work selflessly day and night, so that you can comprehend what a great process is preformed inside your organism. Besides, each cell has its own strictly defined specialty. If you do not consider this process consciously, you will say that living is not worthwhile. No, living is worthwhile. Each inhalation and exhalation is the result of the work, the effort of millions of workers. Therefore, breathe consciously, with Love, if you want always to have a good inner disposition. Should you get a bit angry, all harmony in the organism is disrupted, and along with that, breathing becomes irregular. To understand how expensive each human is to Nature, make a calculation on how much is spent on him in a year. As you know how much is paid for twenty-four hours, you will easily calculate the expense for a year. And that is an expense only for breathing. Calculate after that how much is spent on workers in the stomach, in the brains, and in all other organs and limbs. After all this, somebody will come and say that Life was not worth anything, and that everything had been given to us for free. Such is for those who do not understand. One, who understands, knows how expensive Life is, even for the smallest creature, and even more for man. You are fed by Nature, without realizing how many resources it spends on you. Indeed do children realize how much their parents spend on them? However, when they grow up, when they start supporting themselves, then they see how much they have cost their parents. It is not an easy job raising a man. When you render an exact account of all the resources Nature spends on you, you will see what a thing man is. Then in your soul will awaken a great feeling of gratitude to Life, which has been given to you. Only at this consciousness will you understand the deep meaning of the words “On blessing we live”. Secret Prayer Fir-für-fen Tau-bi-aumen 1 1 lv. = 0.5 euro today, although in the days the lecture was written, a lev was worth far less than that. 2 This is an ancient Sanskrit word that describes favourable energies in the air. There is no equivalent neither in English, nor in Bulgarian. 3 In the text a unit equal to a fourth of the acre is used. I could not find an equivalent in English and I decided to leave it as it is. Source

Note 3 A Law Of Interrelations Ninth Lection of the Teacher, held to the Youth Occult class on the13th December 1922, Sofia Fir-für-fen Tau-bi-aumen Secret prayer The writings on the topic "The Function of the respiratory system" were read. For the next time write about the topic: "Elements of the human speech". Figure 1 Now, let's take the first straight line АВ. It is not formed randomly, but has come from some rational source, from some rational being. In that case its formation is due to a known cause. How is defined in geometry the straight line? (- The shortest distance between two points is called a straight line.) Or the straight line represents a process, done with the smallest expenses. From the line AВ down we draw a perpendicular ОС. After that we draw the curving МИ, as we suppose, that it comes out from the same centre, from which the straight line ОС goes. What is the length of the line МИ compared to the perpendicular ОС1. The line МИ is longer than ОС, because it is curving. Let's assume that the line ОС represents a propeller of an airplane. What happens to the airplane, if the propeller amplifies, accelerates its motion? The airplane begins to go up. What happens to the airplane, if the propeller slows down its motion? The airplane begins to go down. What is the relation between the energies in the two cases? When going up the airplane passes through gravity; when going down, this gravity already does not resist. Figure 2 Assume now, that the curves А and В (Figure 2) are conditions, in which Life can evince. We assume that the curve А presents a mountain place, exposed to strong winds. One friend of yours planted plums at that place and says that as the plums begin to grow and ripen, will give you some. The curved line В represents a valley, in which some other friend of yours planted plums and promises that when they ripen, he will give you some. Which of the two friends of yours has a bigger possibility of fulfilling his promise? - The one living in the valley. What are the chances from one to a hundred of fulfilling his promise? If you thus have one sick, where must he live, to be cured sooner – on the hill or in the valley? On the hill, he will recover sooner, than in the valley. Therefore the unfavourable conditions in that relationship are favourable in other relationships; and the favourable conditions in one situation are unfavourable in other relationships. Hence, there can be issued the law that: after bad luck good luck comes. In explanation of that law, I will give you an example: you are sick, and expect plums from your friend, which he promised you. Your friend lives in a mountain place А. You wait a day, two days, a week, two, a month, he sends you nothing. One day, you decide to go to him by yourself to check why he does not send what he promised. You go to him and fall in explanations (not clear meaning!). He guides you around his estates, shows you his gardens, and retells you under what conditions the trees are cultivated and in these explanations and walks you stay with him the whole month. Meanwhile, under the influence of the pure mountain air your illness disappears, you totally recover. I ask which costs more in that case – plums or health. Here, one misfortune of yours is followed by one fortune. The law of interrelations works everywhere in Nature and can mathematically be defined as an interrelation of one quantity to the other. Assume that somebody promises to do you a favour with something. The phrase do a favour is positive. In that sense, can you define what are the chances from one to a hundred of someone doing you a favour? Sometimes, out of a hundred promises only one or two can be carried out; this proves that the individual, who promises, finds himself under conditions of the physical world. Sometimes, out of a hundred promises, ninety-nine can be carried out; this proves that the individual finds himself under conditions of the world of Angles, where the possibilities for realization of the given promises is greater. At last, out of a hundred promises a hundred and one can be carried out; this means that the individual finds himself under conditions of the Godly world. Hence, you see what the possibilities for the realization of ideas in the physical, Spiritual and the Godly world are. There is a certain interrelation between these possibilities. This can be easily defined if a person knows beforehand from where this certain energy flows out, where it will be harnessed into work. The source of the energy defines the chances. This means that between the energy and the possibilities, which this energy contains, there's a certain interrelation. Therefore, the possibilities of the physical world for the analysis of one promise can be one or two to one hundred. For example, you want to meet one rabbit in the wood; the possibility of meeting is only one to one hundred. Thus, meaning although there is a small possibility of meeting it, many conditions can prevent this meeting. You want to meet somebody, who promised you this meeting; the possibility is only two to one hundred of meeting him, all of the rest of the cases to one hundred are exceptions. And this is why we say, a man who promises a lot, carries out less. If you come to the world of Angles, there of a hundred promises, ninety-nine are carried out. In this world even the most sublime Creatures are under conditions, the chances of carrying it out successfully are ninety-nine to one hundred, and with an exception of one to one hundred. But in the Godly world, there is not even one exception of unsuccessfulness, there out of a hundred promises, one is carried out. The angles deal with the life of the plants. If somebody starts out to dig a field and to plough it and sows ninety-nine years ahead, the field will yield crops just as many times as he has sowed it; at the hundredth time, this man refuses to plough and he does not sow the field. Do you think that this field will yield crops? It will yield nothing. That namely is one exception in the world of Angles. In the Godly world, if somebody refuses at the hundredth time to sow the field, a hundred men will make him sow it. Want or not – this man will sow the field and not only a hundred times but even a hundred and one times. In the Godly world no exception are permitted. Whether a man or spirit, if you deal with the laws of the Godly world, no exception is allowed. And, so, after every happy occasion in Life comes one unhappy. To every mountain, corresponds a certain valley – this is the law of Nature. So it is when somebody descends, that means, that he is standing on a high place; when he climbs, he is in a low place. The climbing up of a mountain demands an upsurge in the human Spirit; the going down in the valley demands a man’s attention. In the two cases there are obstacles, but these, which make man climb up are bulging out and protruding; and these, which make the man go down, are concave. The obstacles will make man find a spring. - "What if I lean to the left or to the right?" –Nothing can happen. One is possible: either to climb up or to go down. In that relation, there is a law in Nature, and namely: after every happy occasion comes unhappy, after happiness follows sorrow. Sorrow and Happiness are two different states, through which the human soul must inevitably pass. Can Sorrow and the Happiness be provoked by one and the same cause or to be experienced by one person? Happiness is a mountain peak, and sorrow – a valley. Therefore it is said, that the one who suffers, goes down into the valley. As he reaches the valley, a man begins to plough, to hoe down, to sow, as a result of which his hands are covered in blisters. The difference between the mountain peak and the valley is the same as is between Happiness and Sorrow. The mountain air is diluted, pure and cold; the air in the valley is dense, impure and warm. Planting in the valley is more luxurious, exuberant, and on the top - weaker, rarer. Can a man always be happy? He cannot. If you look at the notes, you will see, that they are whole, half, quarter, octant and etc. Each of them lasts for a strictly defined time. Among each note and the time, there is a certain interrelation. On the basis of that law, happiness and sorrows have a set time duration. Some happiness and sorrow lasts only a moment, equal to the duration of 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8 note. Sometimes, their duration is longer, equal to quarter, half and a whole note. Some happiness and sorrow have an echo, due to which they last more than the defined time for them and we say they are long lasting. Happiness and sorrow in Life are only fleeting, and we say when they last long this is because of their echo. For example, somebody hits you; the pain you feel is a result of the first strike. If the pain is still there, it is a reflex of the first strike. So, between the intensity of the energy and the continuance of the time there is an interrelation. As we are aware of that, you can estimate mathematically how much time - hours, minutes or seconds – a certain pain will last. This is necessary to know the strength, with which the strike hits. It is noticed in this case, that the pain gradually lessens – in the first moment it was strongest, but this moment does not repeat itself. The law of interrelations is applied everywhere in Nature and Life, but you have to study it, so that you can sensibly make use of it. You know for instance that suffering lasts a moment only and after that comes its echo, which is goes on for hours, weeks and months. Right here you will apply your will! When a tooth aches, you will know that the pain lasts for moments only; that’s why with the strength of the will, will take away the reflexes of this pain. What do people do nowadays? When a tooth aches or when they get diseased, they say: „I know that I will be ill a least a whole week." And this is happens - they consciously wield to the mirror of the disease. No, a man must be aware, how long the reflexes of the illness lasts only few moments, and it depends on the mental state of the man how long will be present the reflexes of the illness. It can be determined mathematically what part of the second will continue a given suffering or a certain pain. Thus, when you are overcome by a kind of a suffering, you remember that that it lasts for a short time, not to let it be forgotten for hours and days. As you say so, the pain will go away. The same happens also with Happiness – it is a short-term one. Even if you want to keep it for a short time, it leaves, because in your mind the thought is already well formed that it will leave soon. And indeed it becomes so. As you watch, there is an interrelation between thoughts and wishes: after each strong thought there comes an instance of personality of man, after every noble feeling some weakness is expressed. As you know, you must be ready to face these things in a calm way everywhere. As you climb up the top, you know, you must get down at any cost. It’s for sure that some of you want to be careful, to be on the alert. And then, if you have taken care you will get down slowly, calmly; otherwise you take the risk of falling. Every bad feeling and after every bad thought you will show some strong, lofty thought and a noble feeling. In this manner, Nature is bringing in balance in all missions of Life. The cause of these abrupt changes is due to the fact, we are interconnected with worlds, higher or lower than ours, who influence us in one or other way. When we are sorrowful or we break the balance in Nature, from the world of Angles comes help, so long that this balance is regained. As lifted up our distribution place is lifted up, from the Lower world come beings to rob us and we lose all the gains. Therefore, with every breaking of the Godly arrangement and order on behalf of you Sensible beings come to recover that balance. If you are dignified or not for that help, they will not ask to pay. The purpose is to put order in Nature, to restore its first condition. Then to what is success owed to and the bad luck of people? Before answering that question, you must ask yourself what success you expect - material, spiritual or mental? Have you questioned yourself exactly what you would like to be or what you want to obtain? Often come to you thoughts, wishes and feelings, which are not yours, and as you do not know that you want to make them come true at all costs. For example, you read some author and when you finish his book, you feel a strong wish to be a poet or writer like him. This is not your thought, but this was a former wish of the author of that book to become a poet or writer. He wished that so strongly and achieved it, but you cannot become a poet. Why? You are not assigned for these sufferings, for this road, through which this author passed. Be sure that this wish will disappear soon – so this was a wish of another person. Until this author became a poet, only he knows what pains and sorrows and hardships he overcame. How many times he discouraged and again encouraged, how many times he despaired and was so near to suicide, how many times he was catcalled and mocked! This nobody knows – we are in front of a result. We read a book, admire and we dream to be poets like him - how, in what way can we achieve if we are not interested. The poet must go through much suffering, there's not a poet in the world, who has not suffered. And here the law of interrelations has been adhered to, and namely between the suffering and the achievements. Therefore between the physical, hearty, mental and will-powered life of a man there exists a certain interrelation. With regard to this interrelation, it can be precisely evaluated, after how long the extreme materialist can turn into an extreme materialist. Years ago, a lawyer came to me from Varna, a socialist by conviction, and we discussed different questions, I told him, that after four years there won't be a trace of his present convictions. - „No, this is not possible, I am a convicted socialist!" - „Write that, which I say, and you will check whether I speak the truth.“ After two years, he got married, he had a girl. He lived with his wife well, loved her. One evening, he went to a meeting and got home a little later than usual. His wife was home, working on something; as she felt sleepy, she went to bed and left the light on. By accident, the light fell over in a way, so that the gas spilled on her bed and she was burned. The sorrow and suffering for his wife changed him totally and he became strongly religious, forgot all his socialist ideas. Soon after that, he got expelled from the socialist course. As he met me one day in Varna, he said to me: „Imagine, what you predicted to me, this happened! Nothing was left from my first convictions.” I say, as you know the law of interrelations, all of you must be very careful, not to break the great laws, because you will fall under other laws, which won't spare you. In the Script it is said: „The one, who stands up high, must know that he will fall. The one who falls, must know he will stand up." Now you are required to reflect correctly, maturely, to know that, with regard to the occult science nothing happens by accident, arbitrarily. The occult science is positive, it considers all elements, and Nature works with it. If it complies with the laws of this science, a man can avoid many troubles in his life. To what are these troubles owed in Life and in Nature? They are owed to a certain violating of one of the great laws. Now I will present to you the four graphical regions of the manifested Life (Figure 3). The straight line А is showing the physical life, the straight line В- the hearty, the straight line С- the mental and the straight line О – the will-powered life of man. The Energy, which is developed in the first cycle of man's life when he grows physically, is exactly distributed in quality and time of duration. After that, this energy goes in the second cycle of a man's life, when he develops emotionally. From there on, the energy goes into the third period when man develops mentally. At last it is entering in the fourth period – in the man's life of will power. When it reaches down, the energy takes a turning movement upright and makes a circle, one turning of the powers. As it is known about this thing, it can be calculated mathematically after how many years, how and where this energy will be seen. Also it can be said to what extent this energy will be visible and what results it will produce. This explains why the wishes, upsurges, strivings of man show up periodically. Some young man wishes to learn, to evolve mentally. He begins to learn and work in this direction two-three years before. After that, his upsurge for studying is gone, and he moves to another desire. After a certain period of years, he is again in front of his first desire to study. This thing depends on the law of interrelations. The time is dependent on the will, the strong thought, the strong feeling. For example, the length of time during which the man will study is dependent on the intensity of the wish to study. If some special obstacles appear for the fulfilment of this will, man suffers, feels unhappy. The obstacles are a reason why some laws are broken. When you are young, you must do research, to estimate how long a thought will last in you and after how long it shows again. So, on account of the law of interrelations that after happiness will follow unhappiness; after every sickness will follow health. Under the meaning of the word illness, I do not understand the normal illnesses, when a man aches physically, but I speak about these conditions, which are provoked by breaking the harmony between feelings and thoughts. Everybody of you must ask himself whether he defined himself by the law of interrelations. You must be self-defined. Who has not self-defined, stays forever in the barn. Who stays in the barn, he wins nothing, but he loses nothing. Do you know what the self-defining is? If you do not know, write next time about the topic „Self-definition in Life". You must define yourself, because soon you will be face to face with occult customs, where they will examine you narrowly. When they find that you wear stuff, for which you did not pay duty, they will take them away and they will fine you. They will examine you with a roentgen device, to find out what you carry in you. So because they will examine you outwardly and inwardly, they will take away even the finest excess, to be found in you. Therefore, throw away all waste, so that you are not fined. In this sense, to define yourself means to throw away all your excess, unworthy stuff, which cause to you suffering and pain and trouble, and to keep only those matters, which cause you Happiness and Joy and with which you can work. The occult science with which you are so interfering, is positive, but at the same time a dangerous science. Once you have enrolled into that School, you have the privilege to be taught that science in the lightest, perceptive form for you. If you were in some other time, in no way would they not take you into the School. In ancient times they did not accept pupils younger than 33 years old. That's why you must be cautious not to play with the laws of Nature. Nature’s laws are alive, conscious, they cannot be overridden. If some of the occult forces come, to occult laws, the pupil must know that he must not play a game with them. This should serve to scare you. The fear is necessary, but not that usual fear. The pupil must have a reverent feeling to the Great, to the Godly in the world. If this feeling is not developed in him, it should be replaced with fear. This fear is namely called Godly, sensible fear. In such fear, all noble feelings in man can grow. Who consciously studies the occult science; develops in himself bravery, decisiveness, initiative, diligence and hard-work. As you make some fault, do not excuse with the conditions, with your mother and father, but always be ready to correct your mistake. Leave aside your mother and father. As you work consciously and with Love, you are in a state to use the conditions and to create out of yourself what you wish. As you make any mistake, right now make it right. As you correct your mistake, walk again straight ahead. As pupils you must study the occult chemistry, to know what elements your blood needs. If iron is not necessary, there is not enough iron in your blood, in some way you must provide it. Otherwise, the lack of iron in your blood will impart more feebleness, variability to your character. If there is little gold in your blood, you will be deprived of nobility in your character. So this means that every new element, imported in your brain, in your heart or the will power of man, gives a new direction in his activities. Study the chemistry well, so that you can convert your forces inside yourself. Then you will know how to temper the iron in you – from soft iron to turn it into steel. Some of you need hardness in your character, others - softness, third - nobility, fourth - consistency, fifth – Love in God, sixth - mercy, prudence, imagination and so on. Everybody can say about himself: „One is enough. " He must find out what he lacks, and then to seek a method of obtaining this element which he lacks. Everybody needs one thing, but this thing is not of big importance for his development. This is the important thing which he learns from the law of interrelations. Secret prayer Fir-fur-fen Tao Bi Aumen Source

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva THE EDUCATIONAL POWER OF SUFFERING Year 4, Lecture 3 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On November 2, 1924, Sunday Sofia Love begets the good! The good brings us Life, Light and Freedom! Contemplation. Essays on the following topics were read: “What is the relationship between psychology, logic and ethics?” Topic No.2: “The first distinguishing characteristic of thought”. I will ask you a few questions related to the topic that you wrote on for today. Did grammar come first, followed by speech? Did logic appear first, followed by the first reasoning? Did morals come first, followed by the relationships of the human soul? Grammar did not exist in itself before the human spirit which created speech. It is the human spirit that created this grammar. Each speech needs to be expressed in one way or another; the words need to follow a certain order, just like all objects in the world need to be in a certain relationship or juxtaposition to each other. There are two types of grammar in the world: one of them is a type of grammar in which speech is free to express itself through whatever words it wants to which are freely arranged. The other type is the grammar of the law where words follow a strict order like soldiers following each other in a specified sequence. However this order is not the same for all people. In the Bulgarian language the verb usually comes first, although there are cases when it comes last in the sentence. In contrast, in the German language, after composing a long sentence you need to place the verb at the very end of it. I am asking you: why has the Bulgarian grammar placed the verb in the beginning, and the German one has placed it in the end? Of course there are exceptions there too. You would say: this is an inherent characteristic of the language. What do you think, why is it an inherent characteristic of one language to place the verb in the beginning, and of another one – to put it in the end? (- Because in one case people act first and then think, and in the other case they think first before they act.) It follows that Bulgarians act first and think second, whereas Germans do the opposite. Do you all agree with this? (- In fact, Germans act more than Bulgarians.) However Germans used to be people of philosophy and only later on, following the lead of the British, took this direction and gave up on philosophy. Maybe in the future their grammar will change again. Make note of something else as well: in the English grammar there is a tendency, a pursuit of abbreviation of words, whereas Germans tend to expand words. I am asking you: why does this difference exist between the English and the Germans given the fact that they belong to the same race? These are all questions we can ask ourselves but we cannot find the answers today. There are other questions too. Do you know which word appeared first in human speech? Has anyone here read anything about this? (- According to science conjunctions or mimetic sounds appeared first.) Yes, and scientific research now shows that when a person starts to become ill, he loses his nouns first. This shows that they are of a more recent origin. Next he loses his adjectives, then the verbs and he is only left with conjunctions. And when the person starts to get well again, the words come back in the same sequence. When a person can’t use nouns, he uses verbs, e.g. instead of using the word ‘axe’ he says: ‘the thing that cuts’, etc. Indeed, man’s first form of speech was monosyllabic; later it became two-syllabic. What was the first syllable that was pronounced? It is similar to the first word; the whole meaning of life was contained in it. You have all studied triangles in geometry. You know that all triangles that exist in geometry as well as those that haven’t been drawn yet contain an idea, a strictly determined original idea. Similarly all existing curves in the world, whatever their nature, have an inherent meaning. Everything has meaning in sacred living geometry. By the deviation of the angles of any line one can judge about the intelligent action that has taken place. Let’s say that one being makes a deviation of 1˚, another one – of 2˚, and a third one makes a deviation of 3˚ - what conclusions can we draw about the movement of these beings? Here is some analogous food for thought: if you throw an object very fast, what will happen to it at this speed if it encounters resistance from the environment it moves in? More than anything it is the degrees that will determine the power with which it moves. The higher the degrees, the higher the strength and the speed; the deviation will depend on the environment the object moves in. When the power weakens, the deviation will disappear too. However, the force that throws the object into space needs to have a certain idea too. If we throw an object in space and it doesn’t encounter any resistance, what will the path be? ( - In physics, the law of inertia defines the cases when a body moves evenly in a straight line.) Yes, they are right, but that is the case in the Divine world only. That is the only place of complete harmony and no resistance. Now, you are young, if I asked you to, would you be able to write on the following topic: “What is one of the main distinguishing characteristics of a young person?” What distinguishes a young person? (- A young person has a lot of enthusiasm for the realization of ideas and everything in life that contains light, whereas an old person says to himself: “These things are unachievable in this lifetime.” Here is another question: What makes a young person young? (- Aspiration.) It is not aspiration. A young person’s aspiration is like that of a grenade. However this grenade contains explosives. Thus a young person has energies in him which make him young whereas an old person has used up these energies and is now called ‘old’. However a young person can grow old within 24 hours too. If we hypnotize a young person and suggest the idea to him that he is old, then he can grow old. In the same way if we subject an old person to deep, level 5 hypnosis, and suggest the idea to him that he is young, he can become younger too. In the new psychology you need to beware of the following: if you don’t understand the laws in nature and go through the deep experiences and moral concussions that you will go through, they can make you age prematurely and deprive you of the energy of your youth. When an old person experiences a certain joy in the right way, he gets rejuvenated and gains new energies. Here is the second situation: both the young and the old person think, but here is where the difference lies. Let’s say that there is an apple tree in front of me, a 10-year-old, well-developed tree with fruit, and I am holding an apple seed in my hand. I am asking, is the seed bigger than the apple tree? No, it isn’t, but the seed contains a certain meaning, an idea. A young person is a seed that needs to develop. He hasn’t expressed himself in his life yet. An old person’s thought has already found expression and realization in life; his energies have been used up and have become kinetic, because, according to the law of reincarnation, if he has used up his energy and this is what has made him old, then I am asking, after he transitions into the other world, how does he get born again, where do these energies come from? However old age is something external to the human soul, it is not something inherent. All young people feel that they are young and it is only their body that has aged. It is not natural for the soul to grow old, these are secondary states. They have been imposed on people through suggestion. For thousands of years people have been suggesting to themselves that they are old and are growing older, that everyone else will grow old too, and after you pass the age of 45, 50, 60, the thoughts of thousands of generations enter your mind and say to you: “You are already old.” You respond: “Ok, whatever you say.” Otherwise you need to be a genius to fight these thoughts successfully. But then you will resemble a certain Turkish imam. They gave him a child for christening the orthodox way because there were no other priests, they had run away. He took the child, submerged it in the water and said: “Let this christening happen as your priest does it.” He took the child out of the water, then submerged it again. He repeated the usual words of the priest: “Let it be so.” He did the same once more and christened the child. The law of suggestion has such a strong power that many prophets in the world and many virtues are supported by suggestion. Their stimulus comes from suggestion. Sometimes a person says to himself: “I will commit a crime” and feels that he carries something inside himself. However this is a suggestion of some lower forces. The opposite is true as well: sometimes a person wants to do good to someone and this is a suggestion too – either from some good people or good beings – higher forces. What does education consist of? Of always suggesting the good, supporting the suggestions of the positive forces and maintaining one’s connection with them. As students in this occult school you will have to fight some inherited thoughts which you can and have to overcome. Of course it is difficult to fight them but everyone can help himself if he understands the law. There is a lot of scientific data on this. In geometry, for example, vice has certain characteristics. However, given your current state, if I show you one of the lines of vice, you will keep thinking about it and it will stick to you like a tick. For example, it has happened to you that while talking to someone he would make a grimace with his mouth, move his upper lip out and to one side and his lower lip in and to the other side and thus a curve would form. However a great danger lies in judging a person’s character by this positive data (to a descending degree). You have no right to make a statement about anyone. You can only define a person’s character geometrically and mathematically. People have data on their faces which is constant. I would determine a person’s character by the size of his eye, his nose, the thickness, length and size of his mouth, the length of his ears, the width and height of his forehead, and then I will take his chin into consideration. These are the main features. Now, if we take a big ear as an example, it embodies both positive and negative traits. It has been noticed that people with big ears are generous whereas people with small ears are stingy, but at the same time people with big ears like living an opulent life. Here a positive and a negative trait are found together. These are probabilities, mathematical variations; however a law can be derived through a number of observations. There is a certain interrelation between the ear and the head. A well-shaped ear needs to be as big as the nose and well-shaped eye-brows need to be almost as long as the nose. Then the forehead needs to measure 1/3 of the face, the nose – 1/3 and the chin another 1/3. These are the measures of a regular-shaped face. This regularity depends not only on your aspirations but also on the mindful connection between your thoughts and your feelings. We are now talking about the right thought. Can anyone tell me what the distinguishing characteristic of a right thought is? Does the right thought have such distinguishing characteristics that define it in any given case as right? And finally, can you express a right thought with just any word you choose to? The original human language was figurative. When you pronounce a word, an image comes to your mind. Let’s take the word ‘river’ – you have a living image in your mind’s eye. Eastern languages used to be figurative, the idea stands out clearly. If we look at modern words we see that there are words that create no image. If you say: “I am hungry”, “I am thirsty”, “I am sick”, these words always create images in our minds. They are strong words. And then the words you find in a language that create images, these are the strong words, whereas the other words are all secondary. In order to understand their inner meaning we interpret them; one day they will acquire images too. They stand a chance. Here is a word without an image – what does the word ‘chance’ mean? There is a possibility of me getting a job - that is a chance; the words that have images are the sensible ones. The word ‘sing’ creates an image, so does the word ‘cry’. We need to strive towards creating a figurative language in which each word has a living image, because when each word has or acquires an image, then the language becomes clear and comprehensible to us. There is an animalistic or objective language which is materialistic and only serves to fulfill needs. That is the language of the wolf. It only needs the sheep in order to eat it. Then there is the language of humans, of people, which is figurative and snappy, it already reveals some idea. It encompasses life, light and man’s freedom. There is a third language, a language of ideas which belongs to angels; it is a figurative language too. It encompasses Love, Wisdom and Truth. Now we often talk about the good life. A good life, but in what way? The concept of good is undefined for you. What is a good person? By a ‘good person’ Bulgarians mean a person who can examine you, i.e. who can help you, feed you and serve you in a given situation. By a ‘bad person’ they mean a person who doesn’t do you a favour when necessary, someone who doesn’t examine you. What makes a right thought? Imagine that I meet you somewhere and ask you: “Tell me a right thought, I need it.” Imagine that someone passes you by and tells you: “Listen, my friend, I need your advice on something. I have taken this stick and I am thinking of beating someone up but I will do as you say – should I beat him up or not?” If you tell him to beat the person up because his self-esteem had been wounded and this would prevent the person from talking like that in the future, you would be expressing a thought which isn’t right. That is because some other time he will beat your friend up. Therefore you would be sharing a thought that has negative consequences. You should tell him the following: “Why do you need to beat him? Let him be, things will figure themselves out, you have more important work to do now.” Thus you would be giving him a sober thought. I will ask you another question: should we cause suffering to people or not? (- You have said that we should neither increase nor decrease people’s suffering.) (- Let those who know how to cause suffering do that, but it shouldn’t be done by everyone.) Now make note of the fact that there is an area on earth that encompasses almost all the people of the white race and where suffering is enhanced because of their nervous system. Suffering is a great privilege. Beings who suffer are looked upon with great benevolence by nature. It isn’t benevolent towards people who don’t suffer. Joy is just a consequence of suffering. Joy is the fruit of suffering and a person who hasn’t suffered cannot have the fruit of joy either. We are now talking about sensible suffering because there is non-sensible suffering as well. Sensible suffering in nature is a privilege. This is a law; you should know it and enjoy this privilege that comes from the invisible world. If you learn to experience joy in this way – not by getting drunk, breaking your head somewhere and suffering from that – this isn’t suffering. When you suffer internally, morally, when you lose your wealth, your social status, and you suffer in the name of an idea – that is a privilege. And according to the law this suffering will bring you joy. You need to put this to the test. When you are suffering in this way consider it a privilege from nature. Nature or God always express their benevolence towards you through suffering. The first act of God, his first manifestation, when he limits himself and suffers internally, he experiences a type of suffering that you are unable to imagine. He knows, however, that the fruit of this suffering will be for the benefit of humanity and he gives humanity this privilege believing in his wisdom that it is necessary. Therefore suffering, and I mean sensible suffering, is at the core of life. There are those of you who after entering the school started undergoing such sensible suffering and you are saying to yourselves: “This is not for me.” Well, what is good for you then? There is no easier work for a human than suffering. You make no expenses when you suffer. You don’t need to rent a separate room for it. It says: “I am a noble person, I will live inside your home and you will make no expenses for me, I am very modest.” In addition, this internal moral suffering brings depth to the human soul and broadens the mind. That is because when a person suffers, he has to think. This suffering doesn’t paralyze him; it gives him an incentive to think. (- Well, should we cause suffering to others?) Do not cause them suffering and do not deprive them of their suffering. If you deprive them of their suffering you will cause them suffering, because you will be removing their natural suffering which is necessary for them, and you will be causing them additional unnatural suffering. I do not accept indifference to other people’s suffering. If you have such suffering and I visit your home, I will not in the least mention your suffering; it is something sacred and I will not touch it. We will talk about something else. In spiritual suffering there is always a connection, some continuity, whereas in physical suffering this connection is missing. For example, when you are sick you say to yourself: “If only I could get well again I would be grateful to God!” However, when the illness passes, you forget about God, thus there I is no spiritual connection. There are so many drunkards who get beaten and who suffer from their own heads and still they forget and continue drinking. They need to be beaten for a long time before they learn a small lesson. This is not suffering; it is an animalistic state, whereas suffering is something sensible which belongs to the Divine world. I will now ask you another question: should we ever abuse the trust of a friend? And if you happen to do so, what would be the right remedy to restore it? (- It is obvious that we shouldn’t.) Not only you shouldn’t but you should consider this trust sacred. The trust I am talking about is when a friend of yours opens his soul to you and believes that in any case you would treat him the same way that he would treat you. Therefore not only you shouldn’t do this but you should consider his trust in you sacred. This is a rule, you should write it down. It applies to all of you. Everyone has both a physical personality and a spiritual one. Each of you contains a Divine person who always says the truth and always strives for the truth. Somebody would say: “There is nothing divine in me”, but he suffers and that which experiences moral suffering in him is Divine; as for the external world - you have nothing to worry about. All of you need to support the Divine essence that is developing inside you. Now, coming back to it again – what is the remedy to restore trust? Let’s say that a friend of yours has placed his full trust in you and you have abused it. In order to restore his trust you will now trust him completely and let him dispose of you the way you dispose of yourself. That is your remedy. Since he gave you his complete trust without asking for yours, now you will go back the same way and in order to restore his trust you will trust him and let him dispose of you, that is the remedy. You should only beware not to get into the situation of a German professor who was doing psychological observations and experiments in taking people’s astral twins out of their bodies. He often used to do such experiments with a student of his. One day the professor decided to do the following experiment: he took out his twin and placed it in the body of the student and let the student’s twin come into his body. After doing this experiment however, the student’s twin got stuck in the professor’s body and couldn’t get out. The professor couldn’t help the student either from inside the young body. Of course he managed to disconnect after a lot of effort but he had to go through a lot of suffering. I am comparing now the new morals and the old ones to the student inside the professor’s body and the professor inside the student’s body. This is one of the dangerous experiments. This is where people are getting confused now. It is more or less ok for the old professor to get into the young student’s body but for the young student to get into the old body of the professor – that is hard. There are certain old ideas in nature and when a person reaches a certain age they appear, stand out in his mind and his face already gets old. When Jews reach a certain age, they all start to resemble their race – their typical nose, the eyes; everything starts to follow a pattern with features that are strictly defined for them. Can anyone of you define the word ‘trust’? When do you trust? Imagine that you are being chased, you are on the shore; there is a person with a boat there – will you stop and examine who he is before placing your trust in him? No, you will get on the boat and say to yourself: “Let it be God’s will!” and you will consider yourself secure in his boat. Therefore you are forced to have trust sometimes. You get on the boat not knowing what might happen; it is up to him – he may hand you over to the person who is chasing you. However in some cases one can fully trust another person. Generally speaking, in cases where someone fully trusts another person right away, with very few exceptions he doesn’t get deceived. The soul has the quality of intuitively understanding that each person has positive traits and if you place your full trust in someone it is very rare that he would abuse you. However, exceptions are rare only when you place your trust in someone fully and right away; if you trust after long contemplations and reasoning, exceptions are more common. Imagine for example that someone is chasing you, you enter a house and you trust these people fully right away because there is no other way out, and so it happens that they help you. In that case it is your trust in them that makes them help. There is trust in animals too and if one believes in them, they too abide by the law of trust. A priest told me once about one of his cats. It was a model of trust. He had full trust in it that it wouldn’t do any mischief in his absence. Whenever he went to work in the morning the cat would come to the door to say goodbye and wouldn’t touch anything before his return, unless he allowed it to. It realized that someone trusts it and it didn’t’ touch anything – it didn’t want to abuse the trust it was given. This is a strong trait. Everyone has such goodness in him. Everyone has a positive trait. You shouldn’t think that goodness is something that you need to acquire now. No, it is inherent in you, what is needed for its manifestation is some time only, i.e. some favourable conditions. It is up to you to create these conditions. Let us do an exercise with the hands. Love begets the good! The good brings us Life, Light and Freedom!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva NATURE AND GEOMETRY Year 4, Lecture 2 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On October 26, 1924, Sunday Sofia Contemplation. What is the most important thing about eating? What is the most important thing in food? Why do people need to eat? ( - In order to gain physical strength.) If that is so then machines gain additional strength when they are filled with oil. Why does a machine need strength? ( - In order to do some work.) Does the machine itself need this work? ( - No, it doesn’t.) A person who gains strength and doesn’t know how to use this strength is similar to a machine. Therefore each thought, act or word of yours, each feeling and each action in which consciousness does not participate is a mechanical process. Can this machine become bigger? Can it become stronger? No, it can’t. It remains as big and strong as it naturally is. Therefore in life a person is strong only when his consciousness is actively involved in manifesting his strength. Being intelligent and sensible is another manifestation of strength. There needs to be a manifestation of strength. Strength is only necessary for the intelligent forms of human self-expression. And this is necessary for your development because if you don’t impose certain maxims and norms on yourself which are true in nature, in a short amount of time you will lose the meaning of life and will go through all the suffering that ordinary people go through. As disciples you will be subjected to a lot of trials. You cannot avoid this law of changes. If you want to lead an ordinary life, it won’t be any different to the life of animals. Do you think this donkey has no consciousness? It does, its consciousness is in the process of awakening too. And if you probe deeply into this donkey’s eyes you will see that great sorrow is hidden inside them. The donkey is sad, however nobody enters his sadness. The donkey notices this and says to itself: “I am finally on my own, I will carry my burden. What is the point of saying anything to these people who don’t understand me?” Now you will develop an understanding of Living Nature and all the beings that live on earth which is different to the understanding that people have today. All these beings are conscious and are suffering but they are at different levels. They are all souls that have fallen behind, souls in stagnation. For example marsupials are souls which have fallen behind in their development, and so are birds. All existing animals are souls which are lagging behind. There will be human souls which are lagging behind too. They will be lagging behind souls from the white race just like similar souls from the black race exist. Someone from the black race who has fallen behind will find it very difficult to enter the white race. It is very difficult to transition from one race to another. Special gaps and border lines have been created in nature for such souls. I would like all of you to develop a more complete understanding of nature. Those of you who are into natural sciences, do you know which elements in the soil make plants grow bigger? Which elements stimulate growth according to modern science? ( - Potassium, sodium, nitrogen.) If there are less of these elements, what will growth be like? ( - It will be lower.) Ok, what is the reason why some soils contain more of these elements while others contain less of them? ( - There are soils of different origin.) If you create an agricultural field where a forest stands now, will the soil be more fertile, what do you think? How is this humus formed? It is formed by the twigs and leaves of this living matter. Therefore all these elements have been taken from the leaves and given to the soil; they have been stored in the soil by the plants themselves. The soil merely plays the role of a cellar or a basement but if taken separately each root, twig or leaf absorbs a certain amount of energy from the Sun through the air and transfers it to the soil. Only the surplus is stored in the soil. Plants develop more normally, they are unable to become overweight the way people do, and always leave their surplus down in the soil. Thus I arrive at the following law: if you don’t work in the right way you will not be able to absorb the elements which are necessary for the spiritual world. As a result in the future your growth, your development will be abnormal. For example, sometimes your thought process doesn’t function properly. Why? If the elements that stimulate your mind aren’t there, how are you supposed to work? Imagine that you want to read. – Well, you don’t have any light. You want to write. – Well, you don’t have any paper or ink. You want to work but your fingers aren’t there, etc. In other words, some elements are missing. You need to know that life is closely connected both with the forces of nature and with your organs. To some extent you are able to prepare half of the elements necessary for your proper development and the other half comes from Mindful Nature itself. Whenever I say that we need to live sensibly I mean that we need to follow the laws that exist in nature and then they will grants us the materials that are necessary for life. Have you noticed sometimes that when you live a natural life then this phosphorous energy gathers inside you and your face gains a different expression? Some other time some of you have too much iron of a negative nature – kinetic rather than potential iron, slag, which you cannot use in life. This iron gives a different colour to your face. That is why this year you will first learn filtration. This is because without filtration, as you are now, you wouldn’t be allowed in the school of Nature. You need purification because the intelligent forces that you need to come into contact with are pure and if you are impure they will trigger a strong reaction in your brain which will lead to discomfort, illness and pessimism. It is the same in the human world, everyone gets ill there – actors and artists alike. Whether you are in the Occult School or not, if you don’t follow the way of nature, the same will happen to you. Visible nature is God revealing himself to us. He is benevolent but very precise – he doesn’t pardon or forgive mistakes that haven’t been corrected. You may fill up a whole barrel with tears, still he will say to you: “You need to correct your mistake.” Some people say a mistake can be washed off by tears. No, it gets washed but it doesn’t go away. Therefore the first thing you need now is filtration, purification, in order to acquire those elements that are necessary to build a powerful character, to manifest a bright mind and to create a noble heart. There is no other way. This is the right way of development. A lot of people are currently experiencing states which are abnormal. Some of you are having psychological fever; some of you have a weak stomach or a cold; others have weak nerves and are unable to withstand things. What are nerves made of? ( - Mainly phosphorus which gives them their sensitivity.) What distinguishes white from gray matter in the brain? ( - Gray matter contains cells whereas white matter is made up of nerve filaments.) Now, the first thing you need to do is to achieve the right mental disposition. What you call mental disposition is sometimes just a mood. Each one of you needs to try and achieve a proper mental disposition. It is created by appropriate thoughts. I am saying that in order to create the right mood or disposition, you need work. In other words, you create disposition through work, and work is something noble, it facilitates the building of disposition. Now, there is something inside man that resists. It is hereditary. Millions of years ago when humans were going through the marsupial phase, all these animals were fruitarian. Nature was very rich back then. Pears and other fruit kept falling from the trees, the animals just sat there eating and became very lazy. This is what man experienced back then and now as human he remembers that and says to himself: “I could still live the way I lived in the past.” Turks have a similar saying now: “If it is my luck, it will come to my feet.” Well, this is an understanding that belongs to the past; it is how it was back then, but now, given the current conditions, humans need to work and to do so intelligently. Therefore they need to overcome those negative habits that they acquired in the past. All of you have such habits. These habits are animalistic. For example, sometimes you flare up, you want to get revenge on someone, or you say to yourself: “I feel like grabbing him and tearing him into pieces.” That is the disposition of a bear, a wolf or a lion and awakens now in you by habit. However you are neither a wolf, nor a bear, nor a tiger; you are now human. Therefore the animalistic impulse is embedded in your organism and given a small nudge will manifest itself. You have both the bear and the tiger inside you in miniature. However, if you give space to this microscopic bear, it can become very big – so big that it can take control over you and just one look at it will make you crouch before it and obey it. Sometime you say: “It is impossible to live without anger.” However, these are animalistic states of a non-intelligent life, a life without continuity. Therefore, you should be able to tell the difference: there is an animalistic state in man and when it pops up, you should try to use its energy. It isn’t harmful but once these energies have piled up, they become the ground on which man lives. These animalistic states, or this animalistic soil, constitute the ground in which all social feelings have been planted. They grow on that ground. Personal feelings have been planted inside social feelings and moral feelings have been planted on top of the personal ones. Thus they help each other. Someone would say: “Why should I carry animalistic traits?” Of course you do. What is so bad about the beautiful plant that has been placed in the soil? People may feel disgusted by the soil but when the beautiful fruit ripens they pick it and use this finer material. Therefore you should first study the law of the plants, these are the social feelings. The law of the animals represents personal feelings and the human himself represents moral feelings. Generally speaking, social feelings are represented by conscious plants which draw and transform the energy of the animal kingdom. There are also plants which are of a higher evolutionary rank than animals but they are in the other world. On earth animals are of a higher evolutionary rank than plants but plants in the spiritual world are of a higher rank than plants on earth. And then the link which exists in this internal law is as follows: one always needs to rely on what has been bestowed upon him, i.e. his nature. When I use the term “human nature” I include the Divine which is in him, God. Here is a question: If you have written 10 volumes on different scientific topics and you make the effort to read these books all over again, will they make you smarter? Let’s say you have written in different scientific fields: physics, astronomy, natural science etc., if you read what you have written will you acquire anything new? What do you think? Or lets’ say a potter who has made thousands of pots and has made 10 different types of them, no matter how flawlessly he makes them, still, will they contain what a pot can hold inside? – No. That is why people on earth complement each other. If we take all these writers, they complement each other. When you read the writings of a certain author, he introduces a new idea to you because he looks into the topic from a different angle. Some other time he will introduce a different thought. That is why people read different authorities – because they gain strength and fill the gaps in their knowledge and because each person who writes brings something new to the same topic. That is why, given this great freedom you have, you should study living nature in ways that are embedded inside you; this will create harmony. Aren’t we trying to achieve harmony and an atmosphere of softness? Sometimes it happens that a person can play an instrument and understand music very well but he can’t sing correctly. He may even correct other people’s mistakes but he can’t produce the right tone with his own larynx. Then we will say that such is the constitution of his larynx and his will cannot force him to produce the right tone with it. The opposite happens too: some people sing very well but can’t play. There are also those who can write very well and express themselves superbly in written form but if you ask them to give a speech they falter. What is the reason for this? They say that because some of the centers are better developed, they draw all the energy in, while the other centers remain less developed and this leads to such defects in self-expression. It is the same in music, it is necessary to have very well developed centers. That is because a musician can be just a performer or could be a musical creator, a composer. However in order for him to create something new he needs to have a lot of qualities: he needs to have imagination and in order to create this imagination the upper part of his forehead needs to be developed. There can be no musical creativity in a head like this one here. This forehead belongs to a Chinese head. The top part of the forehead needs to be developed. Therefore, a broadening of the mind needs to happen in order for imagination to exist. The more the mind broadens, the stronger the imagination becomes. You may imagine anything. There is nothing wrong with that. Imagination can contain no sin. You may think that you are a king ruling over everything. You may think you are an angel abiding in the space above. There is nothing wrong about that. It is a journey. Journeying when you have nothing to do is no crime. What about the actor who gets paid to come to the stage, he wears his crown and thinks he is a king, I am asking you: is he a king? You will at least do this without getting paid and you will play the role to yourself, what about him? He gets paid and he performs for others, not for himself. It will be more shameful for him to think that he is a king. Therefore, imagination is necessary. You are free in it. Of course imagination also has its laws and limits which you are allowed to reach but not exceed. Thus imagination has its sphere of operation, its limits. You may think that you will become very knowledgeable, that you are very powerful, beautiful, rich… and finally imagine that you use all this for the benefit of humanity. Let’s say that you are very poor and you haven’t eaten for three days. You enter your house and you think you have a beautiful home, you are a king who invents rules, releases prisoners and distributes bread to the poor… and all of this happens in your mind. You would say that these are illusions, wouldn’t you? However if these illusions are created with good intentions and are beneficial to your soul, they will be realized one day. And if you are able to think like this and maintain this state of mind after you haven’t eaten for 3 days, this means that you have quite a strong will, something can become of you. Sometimes it is good to test your character like this, to put your endurance under a trial. For example, imagine that you are poor: your shoes are torn, so is your dress; you haven’t eaten for three days. You go out in the street and see a well-dressed lady: her dress has ribbons on it, her hat and shoes are new. At that moment you should feel happy for her, you should enjoy the fact that she has beautiful clothes, not feel a pang in your heart instead. This leads to an expansion of the heart, it shows character. All of you need this quality. That is because there can be no progress where envy exists. Competition is good but envy is a hindrance. You need competition in order to progress. How do you call these shapes in geometry? (- Rhombuses.) They represent movement on the physical plane. These are two physical beings which have a common point D. These beings ascend and descend using the lines. Can these beings have other common points? Yes, the can. If we extend A and A1 upwards and B and B1 downwards, they will have three common points. This figure represents one possible viewing angle of the tesseract. In a broader sense the tesseract is an extended or an expanded cube. It is not necessary for all of you to move in the same direction. Let’s assume that you are starting to develop a certain idea. You are in the centre D, you are in the process of development there and you form a small circle around yourself. However, if you start following the path of your development in the direction of A, A1, B or B1, you will make a circle around the globe, whereas if you stay in D the whole time you will understand the world from one side only. Thus every idea that lives inside a person can survive and develop in many ways only under certain conditions, whereas if it stays within its own circle it can remain as potential only. When saying this, of course, I have your current level of development in mind. I don’t want you to take on more work than you are able to manage because there are certain ideas that not all of you can adopt. Not everyone’s mind is ready and all ideas need to come sequentially. However you need to become at least partially familiar with some of these ideas and apply them. Certain things are necessary for you – for example the feeling of generosity. One needs to be generous both in his mind and in his heart. There are people who are generous in their heart but miserly in their mind; others have a broad mind and a narrow heart. Why do you call this shape a rhombus? What does rhombus mean? It is a Greek word. For next time please look up the meaning of this word in Greek. The elements that mathematicians have put in geometry were taken from living nature. At the same time these are lines and shapes that exist within man as well. This is what living geometry is comprised of. The lines on a human face are drawn geometrically, they represent geometric data and we work on this data. These lines enable us to determine each person’s level of development. What are the lines that make up his face? Are the curves single- or double-centered? There are indeed lines with a dual focus. Such a person looks at things from two points of view. He doesn’t have a single centre and sees things sometimes in one way, sometimes in a different way. That is what the state of his mind is like. He says: “I used to think this way but now I think differently.” And so he keeps changing every day, moving from one extreme to the other and you can never find him in one place; it is as if he is standing on transitory ground. People need a broad understanding of things. You need to learn to listen without criticizing each other. You should first learn how to determine if a thought is correct or not without attaching anything personal to it. What does it mean to attach something personal to a thought? We can assume that the person we are listening to has a certain tendency. This is harmful to us, we are harming ourselves. All we need to do is to determine whether the thought is correct or not. That is all! We need to determine also which aspects of the person’s thought are correct and which aren’t. We can also determine about ourselves in which respects we are right and in which respects we aren’t. Let’s assume something else now – that the lines start to stray from the right path. What conclusion will you make then? Imagine that A is a living being and has a specified path AC. However, with each movement this being makes a certain deviation: AC, Ah, Ah1, Ah2, Ah3… What does this mean? It will change the side of the rhombus. One of the sides will be extended and we will say that there were external reasons which influenced this being and made it change its path. You will notice such lines of deviation on the human face. Furthermore, human eyes are not symmetric. If you look more closely you will notice that one of the eyes is bigger than the other. Each change that occurs on your face has its reasons. For example, if you strengthen your compassion, if it becomes a guiding stimulus in you, the vertices of this rhombus will merge and form a regular curve O. This drawing represents the human face. The two rhombuses are the right and left side of the face. Thus in this case the top part of the face grows into O. The same happens when the imagination is developed. If you develop your sensitivity, your nose will change – its lower part will become wider. If you become very stingy your nose will become narrow. When the feelings are well developed the respiratory system becomes more active and the nose develops. When the feelings aren’t well developed, on the other hand, the respiratory system is less active and the nose flattens. All people with narrow chests have narrow nostrils as well. Some people’s noses are a straight line – English people call it a snub nose. Other people’s noses can be curved (a), hooked downwards (b) or upwards (c). These are all just examples of a deviation of the energies in the human organism. For example, at some point somebody developed an excessive interest in other people’s business and this made his nose turn upwards. This habit comes from the animals. When man was still an animal he used to go around and sniff at everything and all of this energy that gathered in the nose lifted it upwards. This is what has happened to people who are very curious. When you have something to say to such a person he will go around you for days on end and will keep asking you questions. Once you tell him what he wants he will think he has learnt a lot. There is the other extreme too – people who are overly open – and they have a curved nose. Pessimists have a nose which is hooked downwards. You need to know the following: all the energies that express themselves as a certain quality in a person also have an influence on certain parts of the face and always leave their imprint on them. If this energy is harmonious it will generate a harmonious facial feature; if it is disharmonious it will draw a disharmonious line on your face. You cannot avoid this. And once this energy leaves an imprint on your face, this change will be reflected in your brain as well. This line will stimulate certain forces and certain elements will be attracted which are sometime useful for your development but sometimes they are highly disharmonious and bring poison into your life. Thus all lines – both sensible and non-sensible ones – follow certain geometric forms. All harmonious forces of the good follow the most flawless lines in geometry. The lines of evil belong to the disharmonious lines in geometry. That is why you should first of all strive towards having harmonious thoughts, feelings and actions. You will go in and say to yourself: “My thinking needs to be straight!” What does this mean? The straight line is the smallest unit that can be used to measure anything. Then you will say the following: My thinking needs to be straight! My feelings need to be straight! My actions need to be straight! You should always say this to yourself. I need to be straight and all my manifestations need to be straight! Negative traits should remain something foreign to you, something that has simply been inherited, something atavistic. There are a lot of defects of the past which repeat themselves periodically. You are not acquiring them now. You are on earth at the end of your evolutionary process and you need to rectify all the forms in which you have made mistakes. What is ahead of you is a great task of creating your character and learning to think straight. You shouldn’t believe that you can think whatever you want. No, one shouldn’t think in whatever way he wants to. You need to think in ways you don’t want to! That is the right thing for you given your current development: to think in ways you don’t want to think! You say to yourself: “I don’t want to study, I don’t enjoy it.” However, you need to learn your lesson. Then, namely, you will be acting according to what is right – you will be studying without wanting to. Some other time you don’t want to do something good whereas you should do it. Then you will do it without wanting to. Therefore, whenever we do what we don’t want to do, we are on the right path. Now, where is the contradiction in this thought? Doing what you don’t want to – this means that there is a being in you that doesn’t want something and a higher being that wants to impose that something on the lower being. Then you will reject the request of the lower being and will impose on it what it doesn’t want while following all the rules of the art of friendship. Contemplation. You will have a new greeting. I will say to you: “Love begets the Good.” You will respond as follows: “The Good brings us life, light and freedom.” You will use the words “us” in general but when you use this formula for yourself you should say: “The Good brings me life, light and freedom.” We mean the Divine good, the Divine blessing.

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva THE DISCIPLE’S NEW UNDERSTANDING Year 4, Lecture 1 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On October 19, 1924, Sunday Sofia A moment of contemplation. Topic I: “What is the connection between psychology, logic and ethics?” I will ask you the following question: What essential characteristic distinguishes humans from animals? – (“Humans have common sense”, “Humans can express what they think”, “Humans strive towards something”, “Humans are capable of loving God”, “Humans posses ethics, esthetics and logic”, “Humans have free will”, “According to philosophy humans have an innate need to explore, whereas in animals impressions alternate without getting systematically organized”). I will ask you another question: What is the difference between the positive and the negative polarity, between the male and the female principle? – (“Women embody the life of the heart, the principle of love, whereas men express the mental, the principle of wisdom. They differ in their passive and active nature respectively”). In esoteric science when we talk about the female principle we mean that there is passiveness on the outside and activeness on the inside. The male principle, on the other hand, is active on the outside and passive on the inside. They say that the woman is passive. If she is passive then how does she take hold of a man’s mind? How is she able to control him at all? If a child is smart enough to get you all tangled up, then it isn’t passive. I would like you to get a good grasp of some fundamental ideas. Each fundamental idea needs to be well differentiated so that you can apply it properly. If you say that you are passive, this means that you are active on the inside and passive on the outside. This leads to some contradictions. A person who is active on the outside will face disturbances and opposition from outside. Since he is internally passive he will remain intact on the inside. People who embody the passive principle will face internal disturbances. Therefore the mind deals primarily with external obstacles and the heart – with internal ones. The heart is passive externally and the mind is passive internally. The heart is active internally and the mind is active externally. Thus the two principles can be of mutual assistance. When the mind falls into a contradiction in its own activity, the heart, which is active on the inside, will come to its aid. The mind acts as an external support for the heart and the heart – as an internal support for the mind. You need to understand this law very well. When you fall into a disturbance of the mind, you need to look inward to find your serenity. And when you are faced with disturbances of the heart, you will find your serenity in the Divine Principle of the mind. This is because the heart always requires one principle that it can rely on. Once the heart loses its trust in that principle, it starts to become overly active and suspicious. Skepticism does not start in the mind, it starts in the heart. It originated from the woman, not from the man. When I say “woman” I mean that skepticism originated in the heart. Of course you shouldn’t associate the words “man” and “woman” with yourselves, you should only see them as principles that you can work with. The term “virgo” or “virgin” embodies the female principle in its purity. When we talk about the woman as a primordial principle, we use the term “deva” (Bulgarian for “virgo” or “virgin”) which means “divine”. And the word man, human or “manas” mean “son of wisdom”. It is an expression of Divine Light or Divine Wisdom. Therefore these two principles complement each other in people: one principle is active on the inside, the other one – on the outside. One principle is passive on the outside, the other one – on the inside. Now, the difference between humans and animals is based on how dense the matter is which they are made of. The matter which animals are made of is denser. Therefore less light penetrates their world. That is why their understanding of life and the surrounding world is less clear. It is not as clear as in humans. Occultists believe that animals live in the 13th sphere. This means that they will need to wait for a long time before they can ascend. There are no conditions for their ascension yet. I will ask you another question: Why has nature made precious stones grow inside the earth? Do you think that crystals possess any intelligence? How do we determine the level of intelligence of a certain being? We can judge a person’s intelligence by looking at his house, his windows, his room or the surrounding area. We could also determine a person’s level of intelligence by looking at an object or a statue that he or she has created. That is a form of generalization. Crystals that have grown inside the earth also possess a level of intelligence. They understand the laws of light and have learnt how to absorb it. Each crystal has absorbed the exact type of light that is necessary for its development. Occultists claim that crystals are born and ripen inside the earth just like fruit does. Crystals, however, are very selfish. They possess great pride and vanity. Because they are so proud, they have been buried deep inside matter, so that their haughtiness can be softened. And you can see how hard they are. They lack softness. You need to polish them for a long time before you can make them smooth. In that sense crystals embody the original reason for man’s fall. I would like one of you to describe the colours of the more important precious stones. Some of your ideas are related to crystals. You shouldn’t think that crystals can be found inside the earth only. Whatever is inside the earth exists inside you as well. You need to know this: everything that exists in nature can be found inside your body too. All the plants that live on the earth, as well as all the insects exist inside your body too. Sometimes a wolf plants itself in your mind’s way and spoils your mood; it eats some of your sheep and creates a whole catastrophe. You occupy yourself with the wolves in the physical world but you ignore the wolves inside you. Once a wolf eats a sheep in its lifetime, you will feel great pain inside your heart. You think about the other wolves but you don’t want to do anything about your own. Some other time a bear might eat one of the cows inside you, or a spider might grab hold of a fly you carry on the inside – all that needs to be examined. This is a valuable science. You need to start subjugating all the animals you carry inside you. These are symbols, ideas, currents of that Divine World which comes from many different directions. A human being is made up of many different forces that have been pieced together. These are small rivers which have shaped the human being. This is how I see it: the animals and the plants that exist on the earth constitute the human being broken down into its components. All of these components pieced together in a single body, together with a monad that leads them (*a monad – a simple, eternal, indivisible spiritual primordial element of existence; a unit) constitute the human being. Isn’t this Leibnitz’s idea as well? Thus, inside the human being there is a central monad as well as many other monads, which, however, do not all have the same level of development. These are beings which exhibit a great diversity in their levels of development. Savage predatory animals live in a form of matter which is extremely dense. This creates more friction and heat whose laws they haven’t learnt yet, and makes them exhibit their coarseness. I could make any one of you angry without the use of words. Imagine that I promise some good clothes to one of you and tell you that you will have them in two months’ time. You keep waiting, but Christmas comes and I still don’t give you the clothes. Immediately you fly into a rage. How dare I not keep my promise? How come? A promise is not something material. Why does it make you fire up? Therefore when somebody promises something to you, consider it not promised, so you can remain independent. Whether you will receive it or not should be all the same to you. You can express some joy only after you receive the clothes and put them on. Do not harbor the thought that somebody has promised some clothes to you. If you keep thinking about the promise you will cause harm to your soul. Let the person who made the promise think about it - it is his own idea which he needs to realize. Let him work on his idea himself. You can enjoy the fruit that it will bear. Do not keep asking him when the clothes will come. You shouldn’t be interested in the clothes at all. Here is another example of the same idea. Imagine that somebody tells you he loves you. It is the same thing. It means that he has promised something to you. He sends you a dress, a hat, some shoes and tells you: “I love you”. You take them and say to yourself: “Well, he loves me”. No, forget about that! This is his thought. Let it stay with him. If he loves you, it elevates him. That is all. You should be happy that this thought or feeling is working inside him. When somebody loves me I will appreciate him the way I appreciate the playing of a violinist. I will sit next to him, listen to him and appreciate the fact that he is playing for me. Thus while he is playing I can enjoy his music the way he enjoys my presence. The feeling he has for me could generate a new idea in my mind. I may not have the same technical ability in music but I may have a good musical understanding and I can benefit by listening. Now you can add this new understanding to your old outlook on life. Do some experiments with that understanding. The first experiment you should do this year is to control certain thoughts of yours which can irritate you. Let’s say you harbor a thought which can cause you a lot of harm and block your development for the next 10 years. Ok, why don’t you stop that thought? Stop it now so that you don’t have to suffer and cry afterwards. - “What are these thoughts?” I will dedicate some other time to discussing these specific thoughts which are a hindrance to us. Do you understand what I am talking about this evening? It is something very delicate. It is something powerful. It is an art form that you have to master. One of the greatest art forms in the world is the ability to control yourself whenever you need to. You shouldn’t think that it can happen in one go. It is like the violinist who is in the process of learning. He learns first position first, then second, third and then does exercise after exercise after exercise. Only after he goes through all the necessary exercises can he become a virtuoso. And then he will come in front of the audience and play something beautiful, not these ordinary exercises. A person trying to control himself – that is a form of exercise. Many times you won’t be able to complete these exercises successfully. Before playing a beautiful piece of music in front of the audience even the most eminent violinist will have to practice it for two or three hours and repeat the same passage over and over again, and you will still notice that not all the tones he produces are clear enough. Some tones are clear, others aren’t. He will also get tired many times before his tones become clear and audible. Sometimes his fingers get tired and he keeps moving them to and fro. Do you think that whenever you want to exercise self-control you will be able to master this art in one go? If you say to yourself: “I won’t get angry from now on”, will you be able to keep your word? If you say this to yourself, you will get angry four times before noon tomorrow, seven times on Tuesday and ten times on Wednesday. I was once observing a man who wanted to play the violin but tried to pull down the blinds first. He kept trying to pull them down but he still couldn’t. He got angry, pulled the blinds and threw them down on the floor but the window still remained visible. This man is not a simpleton, he is a well-educated man, yet why did he throw the blinds down? He is getting angry: how dare the blinds not obey his will! The blinds are saying: “It is all the same to us whether you get angry or not”. Indeed he sees that there are no reasons to get angry and finally hangs back the blinds. This anger can be avoided. The reason for this anger was the need for secrecy. He wanted to remain hidden in his room while playing and not be seen by anyone. If he hadn’t had the need for secrecy he wouldn’t have needed the blinds and would have avoided a case of getting angry. There is secrecy in nature too. It is a feeling which gives birth to ideas. One needs to remain secretive up to a point and hide certain feelings because the feelings which are necessary to reach perfection need to ripen in secret. Generally people who lack courage are more secretive, whereas brave people are less so. In your current situation you need to realize that all necessary conditions for your growth or happiness are to be found inside you. That is where they exist. Outside of the possibility that is hidden inside you there is also an external pole – that of Living Nature or God. Just like the Sun comes to the aid of some germs inside the earth to make them grow, in the same way Nature or God comes and helps everything inside the human soul grow. Our environment and the other beings around us also help to a certain extent – they could assist us with this or that. In some cases, however, they are unable to help us. For example, how many people in your life are able to help you? Their number is small. Of course in this case you need to beware of a contradiction that may arise in your soul: when you work on your self-development do not exclude people from your life. The law is as follows: all animals, plants, minerals and crystals which are inside you, as well as all the souls that exist in the world, are not only reflected in you but also have their representatives inside you. Each person, wherever he might be, has a living representative inside you. Do not try to meet this person on the outside but look for the small needle on the Vitosha mountain. You are bound to find this small person somewhere inside you and then you can converse with him. Then you will find yourselves in the following situation: one of Voltaire’s stories talks about a French expedition to the North Pole with a steam boat. At the same time an intelligent being decided to explore the Solar system and on its way to the Sun came down to Earth. It stepped inside our oceans and the water reached its knees. When it saw the steam boat it grabbed hold of it with its fingers and picked a Frenchman with a small pair of pincers. It came into contact with the Frenchman and in the course of the conversation became surprised that this small human being was so smart and was able to do such scientific experiments. This is what you should do as well. Pick this little being inside you with your pincers and talk to it. It is very smart. In this story Voltaire imparts an actual truth using humour. The first law is as follows: you should not renounce the existence of any person inside you. Sometimes you say about someone: “I don’t want to have anything to do with him”. No, you shouldn’t say that. Say the following to yourself: “I would like to know something about this person. I will find his friend who lives inside me in miniature and will ask him what he wants to talk about. This small being will tell me the truth as it is while the external person does not have the opportunity to do so”. The person on the outside cannot tell you the truth even if he wants to. At this point, the way people have been created has made it impossible for them to understand each other externally but they are able to understand each other internally. I haven’t met a single person so far who is able to tell the truth. There are very few people who are able to do that. All the rest just beat around the bush. In order to reveal a certain truth people normally keep going around the topic, they do not follow the Divine path of the straight line. One person in history who has conveyed the truth properly in his confession is Tolstoy. Another one is St. Augustine. There are some others too but these two are the major examples. All of you need purity of heart. When this purity comes you will be able to say the truth to yourselves, not to the external world. Tolstoy made a confession not to the world but to himself in order to achieve a piece of mind and restore the connection between God and his soul. Even though this confession became available to the whole world, it is to himself that he made it. Thus when we talk about confession I do not mean a confession in front of the people around us but rather a confession made to ourselves, our own soul, in order to restore our connection with God. In order for this connection to be restored everything needs to be exposed to the Divine light. Tell me, why shouldn’t you expose everything in front of God? If God has opened your eyes, he has endowed you with his trust and shown you Heaven and all the opportunities that he has created for you, all of life’s bounties that await you, all the care he takes of you, isn’t it worth having the same attitude to him that he has towards you? Why not? We should have the same relation to God that he has to us – nothing more, nothing less. He has a certain relation to us as God and we will have a relation to him as humans. My relationship to God will be as straight as my soul is able to define that. This is possible and this is what makes the world beautiful! When a person comes to that state he feels powerful. Before he comes to that point he is faint-hearted and fearful but once he decides to set his relationship to God straight, he becomes a hero, light penetrates his mind, calmness settles in his soul, he becomes elevated in his own eyes and says to himself: “Everything is possible”. This person has already seen through the Divine Light, he is facing it. For example, if you go to Germany, England or the USA where people are materialistic, if you look at someone and he is a German, he will say to you: “Why are you looking at me, mister? Why are you fixating your eyes on me?” If he is an Englishman, you will have to duel. You need to stay away from such people. Nowadays people are so materialistic that they are afraid lest somebody should penetrate their soul. What is there to penetrate into? They are afraid of you penetrating their pettiness and all their pettiness is not worth a pipe of tobacco. Let’s take the law of love. Love has a positive polarity and a negative polarity. The following question comes to mind: Why does a person need to love? – In order to express himself. Existence, life, cannot be expressed without love. There is no life without love. The first act of life is love. In order to show that you are alive you need to love. Thus the first step that love makes is a step towards a given object. You find an apple, you pick it up, you look at it, you love it. There is love in the negative polarity as well. The negative polarity in life always represents the sphere in which life can express itself. Therefore, in order for life to express itself, you need to have someone to love. First and foremost, a person loves himself. He doesn’t start with others but with himself, his body – he eats and drinks. After a time he allows for love to somebody outside of himself. Therefore, he can love one more person. At first he attracts everything to himself, he grows only. When he has reached a certain level of development and wealth, then he allows for the opportunity to love one person outside of himself. This act of allowing has been talked about everywhere in philosophy. This is when a person starts feeling divided. Why does a person start feeling divided? This is a question of philosophy. When you use the word “divide”, what meaning do you give to it? The female principle which was initially inside man, inside the human being, could not be controlled by man because this principle was active on the inside and passive on the outside, whereas the human, man, was passive on the inside and active on the outside. Since humans are double-sided in nature, the second (female) principle saw through the external phenomena. Its external passiveness turned into external activeness and its internal activeness into internal passiveness. As a result this second principle separated itself from man, left him and came out. That is the situation Adam found himself in. This principle that came out of man did not come back anymore. That is why to this day we can see the lack of harmony between men and women. There is never ending competition between them. People are right to say that love cannot exist between them. Love is not something external. First of all this principle needs to come back in, become passive on the outside and active on the inside and take its initial position. Now both men and women are active. That is why, given the current situation, no education or culture of any kind is possible. What I am saying now does not refer to you. You are just an embodiment of the principle whereas we are talking about the principle in general. What I am talking about you will find inside yourself. Then you might say: “I don’t need a man”. No, you will come to a contradiction. You have a heart and a mind, they are two different states and you cannot deny them. If your heart starts loving an external object it becomes active. The heart should never be interested in external things, only in internal affairs. A heart which is interested in external things has been corrupted. Similarly, a mind which is interested in the internal life is a twisted mind. You shouldn’t renounce either your heart or your mind but you need to steer them in the right direction so that each deals with its own affairs. Don’t take what I am saying to be the absolute truth. These are contemplations. You should take them, put them to the test and once you become convinced of their validity, you can work with them. Then we can write the following: we will denote the mind with the number 1 and the heart with the number 2. I would define these as follows: the mind is a plus on the outside and a minus on the inside, whereas the heart is a minus on the outside, i.e. it is passive, and a plus on the inside, i.e. it is active. You should remember the following: if your heart starts loving certain objects on the outside, you will definitely fall into some temptation. Why is that? Because you can’t control this object – that is the first thing. If your heart falls in love with somebody, he will want to be independent too, therefore you won’t be able to control him either. Whenever you fall in love with somebody you want to control him or her and that is impossible. Saying that you can keep somebody under your influence is meaningless. They say that the Sun has tremendous power and influence and is able to attract. Ok, take the following fact into consideration: a certain comet approaches the Sun, it keeps approaching, but then makes a powerful turn, moves away and goes into space. Here is a question: if the Sun has such a strong influence, why doesn’t it stop the comet or keep it close to itself, why does this comet drift away into space? This means that there is something else out there as well which keeps bodies moving. If a comet was moving towards space we might say that there were other reasons for it, the Sun was not the major factor involved. There are other centres that exert an invisible influence. And if in any given case we are approaching another person, this shows that he is having an influence on us, he is attracting us. We will come very close to that person, he might heat us up and share his idea with us but we will simultaneously start tracing a path of our own and get lost in space, i.e. we will not get lost but will continue the path that was predetermined for us by the Divine Powers. You may experience influences from different directions but you will always end up following your own path. Therefore we are free on our path. Each one of you is free. This should not scare you. Somebody says: “I am going to fall”. No, do not have any fear! No matter how close you come to the Sun, it will not keep you. After all, the closer you come to the Sun, the faster you will move. Then you will enter your own path again and you will be free. There are other forces that take care of your path. Therefore the path that was predetermined for you by this Divine law is something that no one can take away from you. When you approach a certain Sun or a planet – Jupiter, Saturn – they may dislocate you slightly but these are small perturbations only. In effect nobody can divert you from your own path. There has been no occasion in the whole cosmos whereby a solar system has diverted another solar system from its path. They may exert a certain influence on each other but that is love – they complement each other. Sometime a given system will exert an influence on another one, some other time the latter will influence the former. That is stability. Therefore the path you are following, the path which makes you grow, is predetermined and nobody can divert you from your orbit. However, in order to grow, you will have to experience different influences. Take the example of a planet that exerts an influence on the Sun just as the Sun does on the planet. That is necessary. Each being that moves has received an impulse from some higher being and follows a strictly defined path. On this path the being may approach or move away from many centres; it may even experience different influences by them but it cannot change direction. It has not received its impulse from the centres it meets on its path which is why it can’t stop there. Let’s come back to the previous thought. You should know that the prototype of everything is inside you, what you see on the outside is just the copy. Therefore you shouldn’t love external objects as your own. What you have is inside you. When you lose it on the outside you should say: I have the original, I will find it inside myself. On the outside you can only enjoy it. We are only assuming all this. These are assumptions, mathematical probabilities, but whether this is indeed so or not has not been proven to you yet. You should know that each thought that has been expressed is not lost but remains written inside the person. Let’s say that you love somebody. He only represents an opportunity for your love to be expressed. You should be thankful for that combination of things in the world which allows for your love to be expressed. For example, if there was no white canvass here, would the cinematographer have been able to imprint his images? Similarly you should be thankful that there is a living being that poses for you. It is passive. You will project your love onto him and it will talk to you about your love. When I love somebody I don’t know to what extent I love him. He will tell me how much I love him. Who do you mean? – The person inside, he will tell me how much I love him. That is because he exists simultaneously on the inside and on the outside. In this case, when you love somebody, you should be so calm and peaceful that it should be all the same to you whether he is with you or leaves for America. These connections stretch. Wherever he goes, be happy about that because he is simultaneously inside and outside of you. I will use the following example to demonstrate to you the difference between physical and spiritual love. If a mother loves her child physically, if it decides to go for a walk, she will keep it with her, she won’t let it go and will say: “You can’t go out, something bad may happen to you”. A mother who loves her child spiritually, on the other hand, will let it go, will prepare its backpack and will be happy all day that it has gone on an excursion. She won’t think that something may happen to it. Therein lies the difference. Physical love always expects some mischief and misfortune and they do occur whereas spiritual love brings good fortune and beauty. If we love someone physically we are able to attribute the worst qualities to him whereas if we love him or her spiritually we would only attribute the most beautiful, the best qualities to them. For example physical love would say: “something may happen to him”, “he may lie”. Yes, but you are only guessing and your guess may or may not come true. If you love physically it will happen but if you love spiritually misfortunes won’t occur; only what is positive will materialize. Spiritual love is the right kind of love because nothing can change it. It is of Divine nature. That is why Paul says: “Love never thinks evil thoughts, Love never falters”. And so it is indeed. I am asking you now to change your canvass, i.e. whatever images you have now, transfer them to another place because the new ideas cannot work on them. Bring new sheets! What I am telling you now should not be imprinted on your old sheets. You will take out new sheets and experiment with these things there. If you keep your old images and superimpose the new ones on them you will create a total mess. Let the images of your past remain but turn a new leaf and imprint your new ideas on it. Do your experiments on it. I am thinking of doing a microscopic experiment. It will be done by two disciples. The experiment is as follows: one disciple will stick a needle in the other one’s hand to a depth of 1cm. He will stick it well enough so that the other one feels the pain and then take it out. The other one will tell him: “Keep going!” The one who is getting stabbed will try to overcome the pain and forget about it. He needs to feel as if no needle is being stuck in his hand. He should allow no thought in his mind that anything has happened to him at all but should maintain his inner peace and calm like a fakir and think of this later as some little game that he had played. Not only should he forget about this experiment but when he remembers the incident he should be happy about the fact that a needle had been stuck in his hand to a depth of 1cm. This is a psychological experiment. Of course it will happen free willingly. We will choose two of you who are willing to do it. Not all of you will do this experiment. When sticking the needle you will be careful. We will try and see how the law works. Some blood will be spilled but the experiment has to be tried out. We will collect this blood on a very clean small piece of cloth; we will make a beautiful little box and put it there. Then we will note down the date of the experiment. This will be the first experiment on the great ideas. The class will preserve this box as something sacred. If the experiment turns out successful, we can use this blood to make other experiments too, and if it is unsuccessful then the blood won’t be as precious either. I will end the topic now and continue with it some other time. I would like to clarify some issues before we start working with the knowledge you have gained in life in greater depth. You know a lot of things in theory but you need deep proper understanding of things. You should now write down the following three rules that you need to apply: 1. When your heart starts cooling and becomes unable to embrace and incorporate other people’s freedom, extend the radius of your heart so that it includes people’s shortcomings. Continue the sacred journey of the heart towards the God of Love even throughout the greatest of misfortunes. 2. When your mind gets clouded so that you become unable to understand and accept certain truths, extend the radius of your mind. Keep the thought in your mind that everything needs to be as it is so that God of Eternity can express himself in the whole existing diversity. Find Him in everything. Continue the great journey of the mind towards Truth even throughout the biggest of contradictions. 3. When your will gets corrupted and turns into waywardness so that it stops doing good deeds, double the radius of your will. Accept free will as a gift of God and dedicate it to His service. Thus continue the powerful journey of the will so that Divine Grace can be revealed even throughout the biggest of evil. Only the bright path of Wisdom leads to Truth! It brings us constant joy!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva SUFFERING, PATIENCE, EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE Year 5, Lecture 16 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On February 28, 1926, Sunday 19.00h, Sofia - Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation A summary on the freely chosen topic was read. An essay on the topic “Method of right thinking” was read. For next time I would like each of you to write a word – a noun, an adjective, a verb, whatever you like, and to put a number in front of it. Then we will order the words according to the numbers in front of them, starting from the number one, and we’ll see what we can make out of these words and numbers. What is the most important question for you now? What time is it? Answer: Eight o’clock. Which planet’s influence can be felt after eight o’clock? What do you make out of the signs you see on the blackboard? What does the angle mean? Answer: Each angle represents the space between two rays which come out from a common point. How many degrees is this angle? Answer: Approximately 30 degrees. Where does this angle come out from? Answer: From the centre of the circle. Each angle should be seen as a central angle which is in the process of self-determination. As it has been placed now, this angle represents the letter “Л”, which the word love (Bulgarian: „любов”) begins with. As a force Love takes up a certain amount of space and affects bodies as heat producing energy. The line above the circle represents the soil in which the Self is planted. The circle itself is the planted Self. The sign “б“ represents the direction in which the seed needs to grow. The last sign represents the cracking of the Self open. Therefore the signs shown in Figure 1 are nothing but the letters comprising the word “love”. The letters of this word represent symbolically the whole process of Love. A person can feel the power of Love only when this process takes place in his soul. When the seeds of Life are planted in the soil of the soul and absorb the heat and light producing energies that come from Love, they start cracking open, sprouting, growing, blossoming and bearing fruit. Seeds can develop properly only through Love’s impulse. Once a person goes through these processes, he starts thinking, contemplating. So, the cross symbolizes suffering, the anchor symbolizes thought, and Love symbolizes the rays of heat and light coming down from the Sun. Until one breaks up the word “Love” and understands the forces that lie hidden in it, he cannot understand its deep meaning and cannot apply it in his life. Love contains light, warmth, thought, conditions for growth, blossoming and bearing fruit. If someone understands Love’s elements and applies them, he understands Life properly as well. If he understands Life properly, he is free from suffering. A person who doesn’t understand Life is inevitably followed by suffering. If you can pronounce the word “Love” properly and feel its meaning, you will be able to apply it too. Each word holds certain power which needs to be used. If you can make use of the powers, the juices that words hold inside them, you have understood their meaning. If a certain word has started lacking salt, replace it with another one. Nowadays the word “love” has lost so much of its salt that instead of elevating people, it makes them feel ashamed. If that is the case, let them replace it with another one which hasn’t lost its salt yet. For example, you could replace the word “love” with the words “kindness” or “affection”. Write down the words “affection, life, knowledge”. Pronounce them a few times and see what influence they will have on you. When someone studies music or a science but it isn’t going well, he should write down the words “patience, mindfulness, thought, rightfulness, work, labour, persistence” and after pronouncing them a few times he can see which of these words will give him an impulse for work and help him overcome his hardships. What kind of powers does the word “persistence” hold? Fig.2 represents the elements that make up the word “persistence”. The glass shows that a person who persists is either hungry or thirsty. The glass symbolizes a mouth. When a child sees fruit in some garden, it enters without the permission of the guard and picks some fruit. If the guard chases him out of the garden, it will go around, look around to make sure no one sees him and will pick some fruit again. The child shows great persistence in this case. Animals are also persistent when they want to satisfy some desire of theirs, especially when they are hungry or thirsty. The circle after the glass symbolizes the throat which the food passes through after having been chewed in the mouth. After the circle comes the plate on which the chewed food is placed. This is the stomach which processes and digests the food. The sign “T” represents a key which opens the way for the food, i.e. it takes it to another closed circle – in the area of the intestines where its final processing takes place. From here nourishing juices spread throughout the body. This has been expressed with the sign “E”, the letter “E”, which is a sign of multiplication. Therefore, only those who persist make gains and reap fruit. So, no matter how devoid of meaning a certain word is, it still contains certain elements which can form a complex body. What does the dot represent? – Nothing. However, if it moves it will form a line. If the line moves it will form a surface. If the surface moves it will form a body – a cube. What conclusion can we draw from this? That the conscious movement of small values in life creates big, conscious values. Each word represents the result of something. Initially words were short, made up of one syllable only. With time, as the human organs and brain centers developed, words became longer and longer – with two syllables, three syllables, etc. Primitive man used only sounds. The more he developed mentally, the richer his speech became. When a person’s brain becomes ill, he loses first his ability to pronounce nouns, then – verbs and adjectives, and finally – conjunctions. When he starts to become well, his abilities are restored in the same order – he starts using conjunctions first, then – adjectives, verbs and finally – nouns. This shows that conjunctions are of oldest origin and nouns are youngest. In order to develop their speech humans have worked on themselves for thousands of years, they have persisted and made a number of efforts. Many people use the word persistence without understanding its deep meaning. Who can be called a persistent person? – A persistent person is someone who goes through obstacles, contradictions and hardships when working to realize a certain idea, yet always goes forward, never goes back. If you scold him 99 times about something that he is convinced he is right about, he will come for a hundredth time to talk to you about the same. Persisting one or two times in order to achieve something and then giving it up – that is no persistence at all. It is just an attempt to develop persistence. Persisting in something means achieving it. When a person develops his persistence, he needs to be able to distinguish it from haughtiness. A persistent person is smart; a haughty person, however, is stupid. Reason is part of persistence but is absent from haughtiness. Persistence makes a person conscientious, it forces him to consider each of his actions well and not be in a hurry. A haughty person isn’t conscientious, he is quick and wants to achieve everything in one go. In order to develop people’s persistence, the Invisible world subjects them to hardships and suffering. When one suffers and struggles, he starts thinking and developing persistence. When one hasn’t yet suffered and experienced struggle, he is impatient and inconsistent. The smallest pain scares him. If he gets a stomachache or a headache, he starts moving around the room, lying down and getting up from bed. If his pain doesn’t go away soon, he calls up doctors and his friends and starts complaining. If you haven’t gotten sick, do not be in a hurry to call up a doctor. Apply some method or another first, concentrate your thought on your pain and say to yourself a few times: “I will get well.” Sometimes you may say to yourself only ten times that you will get well and it will happen, other times you need to say it a thousand times to yourself. No matter how many times you say these words, do not get discouraged. Persist and you will achieve good results. Thus you can heal both yourselves and your friends. As disciples you should keep the following thought in your mind: illnesses play an educational role for humans. They temper the human organism and extend its lifespan. It has been noticed that people who have experienced sickness in childhood have tempered their organisms and made it more resistant to illness and suffering. If someone hasn’t been sick or hasn’t suffered in childhood, he will fall to the ground on the first occasion of illness or suffering – he can’t take it. In that sense suffering is a form of exercise for tempering the organism both physically and mentally. On the one hand suffering physically purifies the organism, on the other hand – it refreshes the person’s thought. Great thoughts are born and ripen only at the experience of suffering. The best and greatest works of scientists, philosophers, poets and writers were created during suffering. They worked during the most unfavourable conditions but overcame everything by persisting, working and thinking. Things of beauty and greatness are created during hardships in life. Such is the law. The bigger your hardships, the more Good they have in store for you. This doesn’t mean that one should create his own hardships. People often create their own hardships and suffering. – No, such suffering is unnecessary and should be avoided. What is patience and how does one acquire it? Patience is born out of suffering. Patience, on the other hand, creates conditions for life experience. Life experience brings knowledge. Therefore suffering, patience, experience and knowledge represent an uninterrupted chain. Someone says: “I am suffering a lot.” – Have you acquired patience?” – I haven’t acquired any.” – If you haven’t acquired patience you haven’t experienced suffering yet. What you call suffering is just temporary states of suffering. When a person faints, he loses consciousness. We call this interruption of consciousness. Each interruption of consciousness puts a person in abnormal states. Temporary suffering is something similar. In order for his consciousness not to get interrupted, one needs to study and work on himself. The experience of fear, of getting scared of something, often becomes a reason for interruption of consciousness. Such an interruption happens every time the twin leaves the body. In order for the twin to return to the body, a number of passes on the person’s spine need to be done. Falling asleep is another form of interruption of consciousness which happens due to a different reason – the pyramidal cells in the brain. When a person is fresh and rested the pyramidal cells in the brain are in a normal state: one next to the other, their tentacles touching. When too much lactic acid gathers in the brain, the pyramidal cells lose their initial state, as a result of which one feels tired and drowsy and falls asleep. In order not to fall into such a state, one needs to keep his consciousness awake and thus control the brain cells. If one cannot control the cells of his whole body, he gets sick and becomes sluggish and headstrong. Many illnesses are due namely to the individualization of some of the cells of the human organism. Therefore, when the cells of the human organism decide to live independently, away from the life of the whole, they group themselves in some areas of the organism where they form a body of their own. These shoots in the human organism are called tumours by scientists. They live at the expense of the whole organism and feed on its juices. If these newly created cells can be convinced through the power of thought that their place isn’t in the human organism, they will gradually start decreasing in number until they disappear completely. Use your thought in healing. Heal yourself, heal your fellow men. Thought is power which needs to be put to work. Whether it will be easier or harder for a person to heal someone depends on his thought. It doesn’t matter if it is easy or hard. What is important is that everyone has the conditions to apply his thought and work with it. Two people of faith and conviction went to a friend who suffered from a strong headache in order to heal him. They wanted to put their thought to work and thus help him. What happened in the end? Both came back sick: one of them had pain in the neck, the other one had back pain. This shows that the sick person’s thought was stronger than theirs and he influenced both of them. They took in his sickness and came back home ill. Therefore, when a person is healing somebody, he needs to keep his consciousness awake, to have a positive thought and not be afraid that he can get ill and take in the sick person’s condition. When a person heals someone he will inevitably feel the condition of the sick person but this is just a reflection of his illness, not a real one. There are organic illnesses in life but many human illnesses have come through suggestion. When one is aware of that, he should check where his illness has come from and when he finds out that it isn’t his own, he should free himself from it using suggestion again. Not only illnesses come through suggestion, but so do gloomy, negative thoughts and feelings, doubts and discouragement as well. The disciple’s consciousness needs to be awake; he should trace his thoughts and feelings in order to know where they come from, then put the foreign ones to the side and work with his own. Now let’s come back to patience, suffering, experience and knowledge. Suffering creates patience. Patience is a transitional state in the process of acquiring experience. Experiences are conditions for acquiring knowledge and knowledge is necessary for life. Suffering represents a disorganized world. Patience, on the other hand, represents the result of the processing of this disorganized matter and its baking in an oven which has been prepared in advance. When you study life’s and Nature’s phenomena, you notice a certain repetition. If a certain phenomenon happened 22 years ago, 22 two years later the same thing will repeat itself – this is the law of periodicity of phenomena. For example, if a person’s life starts well, it becomes gradually better and better until it reaches its peak – it is at its best. Then a descending commences which begins with suffering – bad, worse, the worst. When the deepest point of suffering is reached, an ascending movement starts again – good, better, the best. A mindful person goes through these periods without concussions, in complete harmony. Thus if 22 years ago someone started a friendship with a good person, 22 years later he will meet and become friends with another good person. If 22 years ago he experienced something very unpleasant, 22 years later he will experience something similar. Scientists call this recurrence of phenomena high and low tides in Nature. I will now give you a small task. I would like each of you to promise and write one letter a month to the brothers and sisters from the Special class in the smaller towns. They are going through difficult mental and emotional states and need your support. When they go through gloomy states they are in the position of poor people in need of help. Help the poor so you can receive help as well. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva THE EXPRESSIVE FACE Year 5, Lecture 15 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On February 21, 1926, Sunday 19.00h, Sofia - Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation An essay on the topic: “Ten important questions” was read. The disciples’ essays on the topic: “What am I thinking of now?” and on the freely chosen topic were read. Figure 1 represents two trapeziums – one facing up and one which has been turned upside down. In the organic world each line – be it straight or curvy - has its meaning. The upper trapezium represents the head of a Chinese person. Chinese people’s foreheads have the shape of a trapezium. They have a highly developed objective mind. The upper curve represents the forehead of a European, a person belonging to the white race. When the upper base of a trapezium starts to get enlarged and grow upwards, this shows that the organism’s internal conditions are improving. When conditions improve, one gains more power to counteract hardships. The more the cheekbones in a given face stick out and the cheeks sink in, the weaker that person’s digestive system is. When the digestive system is weak, one falls easily into pessimistic moods. This is due to the fact that digestion doesn’t work properly. If the food doesn’t get digested well, the blood can’t get purified properly either. Then semi-organic deposits gather in the organism in the area of the joints. These anomalies in the organism lead to indisposition and one starts thinking the wrong way. In order not to fall into pessimistic moods, you need to use your willpower to improve your digestive system. Observe yourself in the mirror and work with your thought until you bring the muscles of your face to their proper condition. The facial muscles need to be flexible and to express the smallest changes in one’s internal life. If a person’s face doesn’t express the life of his soul, it is similar to a mask. This is an abnormal expression of the face. An expressive face can be calm externally, but at the same time express the person’s internal life. One needs to keep his consciousness awake each and every moment and to control the muscles of his face so they don’t get loose. All muscles have been created by intelligent powers. If one facial muscle only has atrophied, the person already deprives himself of the activity of one intelligent force in his organism. All muscles, nerves and arteries have been created by intelligent beings. Any disturbance or interruption in the functioning of these muscles, nerves and arteries leads to disharmony in life. Harmony in life is based on the proper functioning of each cell and each organ in the human organism. Now that you know this, don’t try to negate the significance of small things in life. Each thing that Mindful Nature has created is in its proper place and can’t be rejected. There are things we can do without, but there are also those we cannot do without. For example, one shouldn’t have a double chin or a weak stomach and the muscles of his face shouldn’t be sunken. Nature doesn’t like skeletons. It dresses even stones with moss and lichen. Therefore, whatever you are lacking you should try to acquire. Whatever Nature has endowed you with, you should try to keep. One of the tasks of the disciple is to work on his face, to make it expressive. The expressive face has features that never change. However, all muscles around these features are in constant movement. A face that everyone can read represents a well-written book. A gentleman went to a famous phrenologist and asked him to tell him something. The phrenologist touched his head in a few places and said: “I am sorry, sir, but I am unable to tell you anything.” – “Why?” – “The text on your head has very small fonts, it’s unreadable.” The human face and head represent books which Nature has written in with beautiful intelligible handwriting. When a person looks at somebody’s face or head, he should be able to read something that brings him joy, so that after reading it he can say: “I read a page from a great book and I am very pleased.” Rejoice when your face changes and when the muscles express the internal changes that happen in you. Each change in the face is an expression of life. The face is an expression of the human soul. A beautiful, expressive face gives an impulse for work, science, art, poetry, etc. A beautiful face excludes all pessimism. A person’s face can get distorted by suffering but only temporarily. When a person realizes that suffering comes for his own good, he gradually improves his face and brings it to the level of beauty he strives for. The narrower the lower part of the trapezium gets, the more agile the mind becomes. If the trapezium turns into a cone (Fig.2), it loses its balance. It can’t balance on its tip, on one point only. In order to sustain its balance this cone needs to move very fast, i.e. to be in constant movement. As soon as it stops moving, it falls on the ground and turns upside down. When it loses its balance it loses its power as well. So a face with the shape of a cone which is in position A, with its tip pointing down, shows a person with a good, agile mind. When the face comes into position B which is a cone with its tip pointing upwards, this shows an animalistic state. This cone represents nothing other than an animal with horns and hoops. If you want to write a letter to a friend and tell him that you are working and thinking well, you can express this symbolically with a cone whose tip points down. If you want to write to him that you aren’t doing mental work, that your mind is stagnant, you can draw a cone with its tip pointing upwards. Your friend will understand that you have fallen into an animalistic state. Such letters represent the language of Nature which people will use in the future. If contemporary people understood the symbols that Nature uses, they would be able to make detailed predictions based on the earth’s layers, the way they have been folded and layered, and they would be able to understand what kind of forces have worked on these layers – internal or external. The earth’s layers are letters from the earth’s distant past which scientists read and translate. In that sense real scientists are clairvoyants. By concentrating their mind on a given object they get to those absolute truths which an ordinary mind cannot penetrate. Work consciously on your face to make it more beautiful and expressive than what it is today. The smallest achievement in this task will be a reward for your labour, your efforts. This will become a gain that a person will carry with him. Only such gains are real. Any other gain that a person can’t take with him is temporary, unreal. Only what the Spirit and the soul carry with them is real. Can we achieve this? – You can achieve anything you like but not in one go. When you get some free time, work on your face. If temptations come and attack you from the inside or outside, give them some work to do – let them solve the problem with the cones. When you put them to work, they will gradually calm down until they disappear completely. There is a Bulgarian saying which goes like this: “Ask a lazy person to do some work and he will give you a good piece of advice.” I am saying: “Give some work to the devil so he doesn’t tempt you and disturb you.” An Englishman had two goats and a donkey. The goats spent their days in the mountain and came back home in the evenings where the monkey sat waiting to play with them. The moment it saw them, it started cleaning their fur from the thistles that got stuck in it. When it couldn’t find thistles on their fur, it started jumping on their backs, pulling them by their beards and ears in order to play with them. The goats screamed, pulled back but the monkey continued playing. Finally the master had to come and free the goats from the playful monkey. This is what the devil does to humans. When he can’t find thistles on their skin and there is nothing to clean, he jumps on their backs and starts pulling them and tormenting them. The reason devils torment people is that they have no work, nothing to busy themselves with. People have a twisted perception of the devil. He isn’t good but he isn’t as bad as they imagine him to be either. Because he has no work, he comes up with a thousand things to tempt people with and make them commit sins. Now, in order to free yourselves from temptations, from the negative influences in life, alongside your ordinary tasks you need to create special tasks for yourself, to strive towards some high ideal. Whatever conditions you may find yourself in, do not despair. Work on the realization of your internal goals. Each of you should buy a small mirror to look at yourself often, especially when you are indisposed. If you are indisposed, look at yourself once or twice and see how many minutes it will take you to change your face. When you look at yourself, examine the distinguishing characteristics of dissatisfaction, anger, jealousy, etc. Note down the changes that happen to your eyes, the colour of your face and lips, etc. Sometimes the face becomes pale, other times – red; sometimes the eyes grow dim, the look becomes gloomy, the lips get pale. Each change in the face is an expression of something. Sometime the face becomes long and the cheeks sink in. Why? – There are a number of reasons for this which need to be examined. Each living creature is subject to change. One needs to study these changes, to exercise his brain and keep it in constant movement. If you want to change your face and make it more expressive, you need to ask your brain for help. If you want to know what kind of changes have happened and continue happening in your brain, look at your face. You should study your face the way an astronomer studies the skies. I wish that each of you would be able to create a new type out of himself. Bulgarians need to transform their faces and make them beautiful, expressive, so they can become a model for the new human, the new type. An agile mind creates a flexible, agile face on which ideas leave their mark as if it were sensitive glass. The human face should be able to speak. It should be the master of the house. As the master of the house the face will take care of its well being and fix the smallest damages or disturbances in due time. The beauty that a person carries inside him should be expressed in his head, face, arms, legs, his whole body, and finally in his speech, which manifests in his thoughts, feelings and actions. Next come his soul and his Spirit as final expressions of the human beauty and greatness. When I speak of human beauty, I have not only the external but also the internal beauty in mind. Make it your goal to give a specific expression to your face. When you look at each other, you should see in the other person an image of compassion, mindfulness, nobility, erudition. Each of you should start building up some virtue in him which should be expressed in his face. Work hard with your thought in this direction and see what you can achieve. Do this experiment for seven days. Take 10-15 minutes each morning or evening to contemplate on the image you would like to create. Seven days times 15 minutes makes 105 minutes. It is interesting to see what you can achieve in that time. If you want to acquire the expression of a compassionate person, you need to think intensely on compassion. Imagine that you are visiting the home of a poor widow with a few small children. The mother runs around and works all day to earn money for her children’s daily bread. When you imagine the difficult situation that this widow is in, trace the feelings that awaken in you. Then look in the mirror to see the expression of your face. Afterwards imagine that you want to help this widow. You put your hand in your pocket but you find nothing there. You borrow some money and buy bread, cheese, tea, sugar, and you take all this to the poor widow. Observe yourself internally to see what joy and satisfaction you will feel. Look at yourself in the mirror again to see if joy has appeared in your face. After doing this experiment mentally, do it in real life as well. This is the only way to develop compassion. Therefore, as disciples you need to work with your thought, in order to develop all these feelings and abilities which can endow your face with expressiveness and beauty. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva MICROSCOPIC ACTS OF GOOD WILL Year 5, Lecture 14 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On February 14, 1926, Sunday 19.00h, Sofia - Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation The disciples’ essays on the topic: “What am I thinking of now?” were read. For next time please write on a topic of your choice, as well as on the following topic: “A method of right thinking”. Contemporary people are afraid of suffering and try to avoid it. They don’t realize that a life without suffering and joy is the life of the small stones which make up the rock. What would have people learned if they had been gathered in one place just like the small stones in the rocks? – They wouldn’t have learned anything. They would have had only one thing – peace of mind. However a restful state is temporary – it cannot last long. So when people avoid suffering and only look for joy, they free willingly expose themselves to fire. Living in joy only is akin to being burnt alive. It is the same as exposing yourself to constant sunlight without a drop of water in your mouth. What would your situation be if you had to bask in the sun for years on end? You don’t need to bask in the sun for years in order to feel the need for water and shade. If you expose yourself to sunlight for one or two hours only, you will immediately start looking for water to quench your thirst. Therefore, when you are joyful, do not give up the tiny cloud from which a little rain will fall. In that sense, grief and suffering are nothing but a small cloud which brings moisture amidst the joys of life. This moisture brings refreshment in one’s joy. It is namely suffering that gives meaning to joy. With the absence of clouds in the sky the sun would dry out and melt all living things. If there were only clouds and mist, they could destroy life too. Suffering and joy are two extremes in life which alternate appropriately. In the same way that a hot day gets replaced by a cloudy, rainy one, joy also gets replaced by sorrow. A person who is familiar with the law of transformation of states can easily replace a negative state of mind with a positive one. I will now suggest to you one way you could act when you have fallen into a negative state of mind, i.e. when you have become indisposed. Imagine that you haven’t eaten for three days and you are poor, you have no money to buy bread. You look at your clothes, your shoes, and you wonder where you could find money to buy clothes and shoes which are in a good condition, so you could get rid of yours which are all worn-out. Here is what you should do. Sit down somewhere and start imagining that you are a king, with a mantle and a crown on, and you rule over thousands of people. Your wish is their command. Tens of male and female servants run around you, serve you, bring you luscious, tasty meals. Wherever you look you see houses and gardens and everything is at your disposal. Once you distract yourself from the situation in your daily life and you start thinking about something else, you will come out of your negative state of mind. If you don’t succeed in changing your mental state in one go, you will at least start laughing when you see yourself transition from a totally poor person to a king. The gloomy negative states that you go through are not your own and you need to free yourself from them. When a desperate, disheartened person walks in the streets, he leaves his gloomy thoughts and mental states on the road. If a person happens to pass through the same road he will take these gloomy thoughts in as uninvited guests and will think that they are his own. Just like a strong person can attack a weak person and beat him up, in the same way a strong thought can attack a person, impose itself on him and cause perturbation in him. Therefore, when you come upon gloomy thoughts or mental states, start imagining that you are a king and have all royal rights and privileges. Indeed, each person is a king of his own. At least once in the past he must have been a king, but he has forgotten that. If he hasn’t been a king in real life, at least on the stage as an actor he must have played the role of a king. If one can’t transform his state in this way, he should start praying, reading or working on something. When the Invisible world creates special work for someone, it aims to harness his energy, to divert his attention from the negative states he has come upon and thus help him. As disciples, along with your ordinary tasks and obligations, you are being prepared for some special work. For example, one of you is an office worker, he writes and re-writes the same things for days on end; someone else is a teacher and is busy all day applying educational rules. If a person’s life always follows the same pattern, what will he gain at the end of it? - Nothing special. That is why, in order to justify his coming to earth, each person, and especially the disciple, needs to take in the new ideas and apply them in his ordinary business. That is the only way to find meaning in one’s life and to bring real, pure joy to it. The disciple’s task is to bring the extraordinary, the Divine alongside his daily pursuits. Ordinary thoughts and feelings do not leave deep traces in one’s life. However extraordinary thoughts and feelings leave traces in one’s soul. They elevate a person and lead him to a great higher world. They add to the stability of his character. Now that you know this, do not miss any opportunity to do microscopic acts of good will and to bring small, microscopic Divine impulses to realization. Do not justify yourself with lack of time. Doing a small act of good will becomes an art when you are very busy with work, not when you are free. Once it is done in this way, this act of good will becomes a building stone for the base of one’s future building. I meet a desperate tormented person who is thinking of committing suicide. I approach him and quietly whisper in his ear that he should take a walk to the Vitosha mountain. He looks at me, doesn’t say anything but stands up and starts heading towards the mountain. I meet him in the evening again, but now he is joyful, full of encouragement and renewed life force. What has happened to him? On his way he has seen stones, plants, animals, springs which have led him to some unusual thoughts. These thoughts have brought something new in him: they have taught him a lesson which has freed him from desperation. That is why, if the thought of going to Vitosha comes to your mind, do not contemplate much. Turn inwards to find out where this thought comes from and go. This walk will bring you something new by all means. Hardship and suffering in life come with the only purpose of forcing humans to leave the ordinary conditions of life and enter the extraordinary, to get to know the beauty and greatness of Nature, to understand the meaning of Life. One needs to arm himself against the hardships of life in order to manage them in the best possible way. Who is to blame for the hardships that humans come upon? – No one other than themselves. If someone starts walking on the mountain barefoot and hurts his feet on the sharp stones, is Nature to blame for this or he himself? If that is the case, one needs to arm himself against the sharp stones so as not to get hurt by them. It is in the stones’ nature to inevitably hurt people’s bare feet. Since they knew that they were going to face hardships in life, all animals – fish, birds, marsupials took precautions to guard themselves against those hardships. For example, in order not to hurt his feet, the horse has created hoops for himself. According to the same law, humans also need to develop their abilities in order to help themselves. Expressing oneself doesn’t yet mean revealing one’s negative traits. People’s negative traits represent a downward slope, a descending path. When it comes to the negative side of humans, this isn’t anything new. Animals have negative traits too. If you put an animal under limitation, it will get disheartened too. No great talent is needed in order to get disheartened. No great talent is needed in order to become doubtful or angry either. However, manifesting the Good in oneself requires an effort. If a person faces discouragement, doubt or some other negative feeling, he needs to counteract it with the Good and thus stop his descent down the slope. This requires an effort of the human Spirit. Making an effort doesn’t mean tearing the rope of limitation in one go. No, one needs to tear the rope gradually, thread by thread. The important thing is to be persistent and to exercise one’s will. Under the current conditions one cannot achieve everything at once. With the eyes humans have today they cannot see everything. In order to be able to see everything, one needs a special organ. Then he will be able to see not only what happens in front of him, but what happens behind him also. He will see through fences too. However, only truly cultured and noble people can see in this way because they wouldn’t misuse the information they receive. If ordinary people developed clairvoyance, they would make a number of mistakes and commit a number of crimes. Thus Nature knows what kind of abilities should be given to each person. For as long as a person hasn’t yet developed his higher feelings, Nature cannot endow him with extraordinary gifts and abilities. It has given him a lot of work, a lot of preoccupations, in order for him not to get bored. Once a person has come to Earth, he needs to think and study. He needs to dedicate 10-15 minutes each evening or morning to contemplation and finding answers to questions such as why he has come to Earth, what is the purpose of life, etc. One draws energy from Nature through his thought. Thus he paves his way even through the most impenetrable places and connects with the great and powerful in Nature. If you can’t find an answer to a given question immediately, do not get discouraged. You should persist for a day, two, three or more until you connect with the thought of higher beings who will help you right away. There is a law of cooperation and mutual aid in Nature. According to this law, when a thought reaches a person, the more minds it passes through without its impulse, power and purity getting compromised, the greater and the more rightful it is. This thought is Divine. Only pure and noble souls are able to perceive Divine thoughts without diminishing their purity and power. Only such souls are able to bring such thoughts to realization. The greater the number of such souls on the Earth, the higher the level of people’s culture will be. If ordinary, mediocre people do perceive a Divine thought, they distort it and as a result it loses its natural rhythm. Thoughts need to be rhythmical. Without rhythm things remain ordinary, flat. This doesn’t mean that an ordinary person can’t become extraordinary. Everyone can develop his gifts and abilities. One needs to make an effort – that is all. Everyone needs to work on himself in order to develop what Nature has endowed him with. A person can become aware of his own power only when he works consciously on himself. Then he comes upon a number of temptations, a number of internal hardships. That is the only way to test the power of one’s character. It is easy when people carry you with their hands, but it is hard to walk on your own. For as long as one is on Earth, he needs to rely on his legs alone, not on any vehicles such as cars, carriages, trains or steam boats. Sometimes vehicles can come to a person’s aid – that is a different matter. However, internally one needs to rely on his legs only. When he decides to go somewhere, he will get up immediately and make his wish come true. If he decides to rely on a train or a steam boat, he needs to wait for the stipulated hour according to their timetable. If he decides to rely on a car or a carriage, he still needs to wait for some time until they put the horses to the cart. Not only this, but a number of times one has had to deal with surprises or accidents. In some places accidents have happened with trains, in others – with steam boats or somewhere else – with cars. So many people have suffered from cars turning upside down or falling into precipices! Therefore, do not look for the easy way. It is especially necessary for a disciple to lead a Spartan way of life and not to fear the hardships in life. When a person ends up in a forest, he shouldn’t look for any conveniences other than those that the forest offers to him. In this case he needs to follow the example of birds. In the same way that birds make their nests out of moss, leaves and twigs, a person can also gather moss, leaves and bushes and make himself a bed for the night. Contemporary people are dissatisfied with the conditions they live in and if they don’t have a soft comfortable bed they complain that they have slept on bare planks. There is nothing wrong with planks. If a person sleeps on a wooden bed it is preferable to have a bed made of pine wood. Pine trees endow people with spirituality. If a disciple makes some mistake, he should sleep for a few nights on a bed made of pine wood. Once he corrects his mistake, he can change his bed. Even if one hasn’t made a mistake, it is good to sleep on pine wood from time to time. Those who look for conveniences in life make eiderdowns and feather mattresses for themselves in order to feel soft and warm. Others make their bed covers and mattresses out of wool. Eider and wool are for those who like to please themselves. The disciple needs to take life seriously. He needs to always keep his consciousness awake and make no mistakes. When he does make a mistake, he needs to apply some method to correct his mistake. In such a case it is good to sleep for a few nights on pine wood without a pillow, to connect with the pine and acquire some of its qualities. When he connects with the pine he will understand its life and the conditions under which it has lived and developed. Pine trees give an impulse to people for growing upwards. At the same time the pine tree softens a person’s character. The pine tree is a great idealist, whereas the oak tree is a materialist. When you sleep on pine wood you get tempered. It is good to be Spartan in some ways and gentle in others. Too much frailness gets punished by Nature. It distorts the human character. Many people confuse frailness with softness. – No, there is a big difference between frailness and softness. Softness is a quality of the human Spirit. Let us now dwell on some of the ten questions you wrote. Why has man separated himself from God? – Because his head has become thick. Uniformity leads to dissatisfaction. People are dissatisfied when they aren’t honoured. Everybody wants to be respected and honoured. This is a natural desire, but it needs to be justified. Each person can and should be honoured for the Divine in him. Therefore in order to be honoured one needs to give expression to the Divine in him. Generally, in order to develop any feeling or ability you need to be in the right environment, among people who have already developed these feelings and abilities. If you want to become compassionate, you should make friends with compassionate people. If you want to develop your brain centre for mathematics, go to some renowned mathematician who can enlighten your mind, so you can get an impulse for work. By working hard and with love on mathematics, you will gradually develop your respective brain centre. What should be done so that people start loving each other? – The world is full of love, but it has sunk deep into people’s hearts and it needs to be taken out with a drill. There is love not only in people’s hearts but everywhere in Nature too. The air is full of love but you need to know how to take it out from there. What is the organ of love in the human body? Answer: The heart. That is what people think but do people really love with the heart? It has been noticed that when a person starts feeling love, his heart gets agitated, his stomach gets upset and his brain refuses to think. The hotter a person’s love is the more his bodily organs get upset and refuse to function properly. It is known at the same time that love brings no harm to people. Which is the organ of love then? You have no right to burden your heart with unnecessary work, unnecessary desires. The heart’s task is not to love and to wish for this or that. Its work lies in blood circulation. If you overburden it with excessive work you will get it upset, and once it gets upset the same will happen to the stomach and the brain as well. This overall disorder in the organism will force all cells to go on a general strike and give up working. Whatever task a person undertakes, it needs to be in agreement with all the cells of his organism. If all cells give their permission for their master to love somebody, only then is he allowed to express his love. Violence of any kind against the cells is not allowed. They are conscious and are able to make a judgment as to which love should be allowed to express itself and which one shouldn’t. What contemporary people call love is nothing but temporary pleasure not unlike drinking alcohol. Today someone gets drunk, tomorrow you see him sober. Real love entails a manifestation of the whole human being who understands the language and laws of Living Nature and communicates with it. The man of Love is a man of conscious sacrifice. He is brave and determined and never gets discouraged. He expands all the time. If you a see a person getting narrower, more limited in his mind or heart, he has no Love. If you see a stooped person who can barely move and doesn’t like walking, this person has no Love either. A loving person is quick, agile, smart, and considerate in all his actions. Love is the right environment for the soul to live in. If it comes to its natural environment – Love, the soul develops properly which leads to the proper development of the mind, heart and will as well. All of humanity’s efforts and aspiration boil down to this namely – finding its natural living environment and working there. Many people have already found their initial natural conditions for development and have started working; others are about to find them and to start working properly. You should know one thing: sooner or later all people will arrive at their natural conditions for development and will start working consciously. As disciples you need to put your attention on your tiny, microscopic acts of self-expression, you should observe yourself, control yourself, see how you act. Great gentleness is required of all of you in all your actions – from the smallest to the biggest ones. You need to look into each other, help each other, participate in each other’s trials. Some people are completely indifferent to the suffering of their fellow men. They pass them by as if they can’t see them. If you aren’t compassionate towards people, compassion towards animals or plants is completely out of the question. Someone passes by some children and sees that they are playing with a bird and tormenting it. He stops in front of them, looks at them, smiles and moves on. He says to himself: “It’s just a bird!” So, if it’s a bird, it can be tormented. – No, an empathetic, compassionate person will stop in front of the children, give them some money for the bird, put it in his pocket and set it free in a short while. Therefore the hardships and suffering that a person goes through are nothing but a prison, a cell in which naughty children have placed him in order to torment him. There is no person in the world who has never fallen into a trap placed in his path by unconscious beings. After he cries and suffers for a long time, conscious higher beings from the Invisible world come down to set him free. Once the person is free, he forgets to give thanks for the freedom that these beings have given back to him. He thinks that he has freed himself. For as long as he is the trap, the person feels disheartened and desperate, he wants to commit suicide but once he is out of the trap he forgets everything and says that it isn’t worth despairing. He shouldn’t forget that some conscious being has paid a price to set him free. People end up in such traps many times until they finally learn their lesson, and when they see such traps in the future, they run from afar. The world is full of conscious beings who help people and free them from the slavery and the limitations they have come upon. They help those who help their fellow men too. Do Good and do not be afraid. Start with the microscopic acts of good will and move towards bigger ones. Do not be afraid of wasting your time. A microscopic act of good will requires less than a minute. By working in this way you will gradually prepare yourself for taking in the New and for acquiring the New Life. The New penetrates science, religion, art, music, poetry and literature – Life in its entirety. Strive towards the New Life which gives meaning to everything. Exercises 1. Hands up, palms facing forward, thumbs wrapped around each other. The hands separate and the arms make a wide semicircle backwards, arms fully straight. We bring the arms forward, kneel and make a scooping movement with the arms. Next we stand up, bring the hands in front of the chest, palms facing down and fingers of both hands against each other. 2. Everyone stands up, arms down. The right leg and right arm open up to the side (first the leg, then the arm). Our thought and attention concentrate first on the leg and move from there to the arm. The same exercise is done with the left leg and left arm. 3. Strong rhythmic movement of the arms in a circle: we raise the arms first, then bring them back (the body straightens fully), arms come down accompanied by kneeling, then scooping and standing up. The same exercise is repeated many times simultaneously by everyone, at a slower or faster tempo but always rhythmically. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva REAL VALUES Year 5, Lecture 13 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On February 07, 1926, Sunday 19.00h, Sofia - Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation For next time please write on the following topic: “What am I thinking of now?” This “now” is always there: it has no beginning and no end. We are always in the present, it is always “now”. Contemporary people are afraid to share freely their opinion on different topics. Why? – Because they are afraid of making a bad impression. Maybe their thoughts are not in agreement with other people’s opinions or they have rather extreme opinions and ideas. If someone has shared a secret with them, again they are afraid to express an opinion in order not to reveal the secret. The human mind is a station through which letters and telegrams are transmitted from one person to another, from one country to another or even from the Earth to the Heavens and back. Therefore, if the human mind as a station has received some oral or written communication in the form of a letter or a telegram, it has no right to transmit what it has heard, it has no right to reveal other people’s secrets. A person has the right to share only that which relates to himself. Whatever doesn’t relate to him personally is a state secret or a secret of Nature. No one has the right to reveal Nature’s secrets. When somebody breaks this law, Nature hides the keys to its stations for him. What should a person talk about – what he has already done or what he is thinking of doing? There is a point in talking about what he has already done because he has already achieved a result or gained some experience. However there is no point in talking about what he is thinking of doing if he hasn’t done it yet. He doesn’t know if the opportunity will come to actually do what he is thinking of doing. There are three ways to reveal what a person has done: by saying exactly what happened as it happened, by exaggerating or by diminishing things. Each fact needs to be revealed exactly the way it happened. If you want to say something about your friend, you should reveal one of his main traits which distinguishes him from other people. You could talk about one of the main traits of his mind, his heart or his will. What can you say about his mind? If you say that he has a bright mind, this is a common trait. Even if you say that he is a poet, a musician or an artist, this is also general information. You need to reveal the characteristics of his poetry which distinguish him from any other poet. There are many poets, musicians and artists but the art of each of these people has some individual, specific characteristics. In the same way we could ask the question: what is the difference between a human and an animal? Animals have negative characteristics. Because they have lived in unfavourable conditions, animals have developed a number of negative traits: doubt, suspicion, fear, envy, jealousy, etc. These traits are present in all animals – from the smallest ones to humans. Therefore all negative traits in humans are there because of the time they spent in the animal kingdom. They are remnants of the animals. They represent the animal nature in humans. Not all feelings and actions of animals are an expression of weakness. For example fear, which is highly developed in animals, serves even in humans as a protective tool against the dangers in life. Who doesn’t run away when he sees a bear? Who doesn’t hide from Nature’s elements? However brave a person may be, he will surely flinch when faced with an unexpected event, some danger or Nature’s elements. Once upon a time there lived on Earth a man who didn’t know fear. He started a journey in order to discover fear and find out what people are afraid of. He travelled through seas and oceans, he battled the waves but didn’t experience any fear. He climbed mountain peaks and was attacked by wild beasts, but still didn’t experience any fear. He fought against the elements, he fought against illnesses and still didn’t get to know fear. One day he sat in a field to have breakfast. He opened his bag, took out his bread and a mouse jumped out of the bag together with the bread. He shuddered and dropped the bread out of his hand. After that he said: “I realized what fear is.” What does this example show? – That the reason for fear can be very small. A person can become scared of something small. He doesn’t need to encounter some large beast in order to get scared. A small mouse can cause fear in a person. Bulgarians express this idea through the following saying: “The small stone tipped the cart over.” When it comes to human psychological life, the same saying can be translated as follows: “The smallest negative thought is able to change a person’s disposition.” The small stone which tips the cart over could be a negative word, a negative thought or a negative feeling. However in reality the small stone can’t tip the cart over. I will now ask you the following: what is the most important question for today? Why did Mendeleev place gold in the first group of elements in his table? What was the characteristic according to which he placed it in the first group? Answer: According to its valence. What is the valence of gold? Answer: First and third valence. What is the difference between tin and lead? Answer: They belong to the same group but they differ in atomic structure. Tin is lighter than lead. Their difference in atomic weight gives them different physical characteristics. However from a chemical point of view the two metals have something in common which is why they have been placed in the same group of elements. If we compare gold to tin and lead, gold is considered a precious metal, whereas tin and lead are non-precious. Gold has become a precious metal owing to its long period of evolution. Because of the nobility and intelligence of its atoms, it is of a higher evolutionary rank compared to all non-precious metals. However there is a difference between the different atoms of gold as well. For example the gold atoms present in plants differ from those present in animals. The latter, on the other hand, are different from those present in the human organism. Therefore in the same way that different gold atoms have different levels of intelligence, depending on where they are, the atoms of other elements also differ in their levels of intelligence. The higher evolutionary rank a certain form has, the more intelligent are the atoms that it is made of. In order to reach a higher level of development, the atom needs to go through all four kingdoms: the kingdom of minerals, plants, animals and humans. Depending on which atoms of the elements enter the human organism and which kingdom they come from, they induce a number of harmonious or disharmonious states in it. The more stable the atoms of the elements which make up the human organism, the better the qualities that they endow the person’s character with. So each element brings positive and negative traits into the human organism. A conscious person, however, uses the positive traits, the positive influences of elements and closes himself for the negative ones. You will ask yourselves what negative influence gold could possibly have. Gold develops greed in people. If a person strives towards gold simply as a metal of high value, he becomes greedy. The idea enters his mind that one cannot live without money. If he internalizes this idea and makes it his flesh and blood, it will be hard for him to free himself from it. It is better for him to have more organic gold rather than external, material gold. If one doesn’t get addicted to gold, it is good to have at least one gold coin and transfer it from hand to hand in order to absorb some of the gold’s energy. Paper banknotes in whatever amounts cannot have the same effect as that of a gold coin. Paper money is dead. It doesn’t elevate a person, it makes him petty. When analyzing blood chemists have found a certain amount of organically connected metals, but they haven’t found any gold. This doesn’t mean that human blood contains no organic gold. It exists, but they haven’t been able to find it. Why? – Because gold influences the higher manifestations of human character. Therefore it exists in a special etheric, very fine state of matter which is hard to analyze. Gold contains a great amount of stored energy in a condensed form. A person who understands the laws of alchemy can dissolve this energy, thin it out and use the hidden power of the gold in his organism. Therefore it is right for people to love gold but they are unable to use its energies. For now people make use of gold insofar as they need it in their physical, material life. In order to make proper use of the energies of the elements which make up his organism, a person needs to work on himself, on his character. By working consciously on himself, he will change his understanding of things and will start living according to the laws of Living Mindful Nature. In this way he will free himself from the contradictions which the whole of humanity encounters. For as long as you encounter contradictions you cannot solve, you will always have a scraped skin. This shouldn’t frighten you. What is so frightening about somebody getting the skin of his hand scraped? If it gets scraped you will anoint it with some olive oil, bandage it and let it heal. When you let it heal in peace, the wound will get covered with a scab which will fall on its own without you picking at it. New healthy skin will appear under it. Therefore, if you want your wound to heal easily, let Nature work on it. It takes care of all violations of its laws. It is capable of correcting everything itself. For as long as a person keeps picking at his own wounds, i.e. at his shortcomings, he will always complicate matters and create a big ulcer out of his small wound. So if you see a wound in yourself, take a look at it, bandage it and say to yourself: “It will heal.” Don’t fight your shortcomings, but develop your positive qualities instead. Make use of them and set your faith on the powers of Mindful Nature. If you want to correct your shortcomings, give an impulse to the conscious life inside you. Your shortcomings are not only yours. They are shortcomings of the whole of humanity, which it has acquired in the space of thousands and millions of years, since the beginning of life. Since you know this, you shouldn’t be embarrassed about your shortcomings but simply work on correcting them. Now I would like you to draw a small circle and follow its course of movement. Let’s mark this circle with the letter A (fig.1). Without getting larger the circle A can move to the right in order to come to point B. From there it can move up towards point C. So in the physical world the circle can move from one place to another and change its direction. The movement of circle A represents a movement of thought. When changing its place, however, thought gets transformed as well. Which thoughts can be transformed: the good ones or the bad ones? Can a bad thought be transformed into a good one? A bad thought can be replaced by a good one, but it cannot be transformed into a good one. The same can be said about human negative feelings. Positive and negative feelings in humans are defined by the external stimuli in him. For example, if they put heated coal on somebody’s hand, he will experience pain which will invoke an unpleasant, painful feeling in him. If, however, they point a soft light beam to his eye, he will experience a pleasant joyful feeling. As you can see, the external stimulus awakens both pleasant and unpleasant feelings in a person but feelings and thoughts themselves can be neither good nor bad. When you remove the stimulus which provokes the unpleasant feelings, they also disappear with it. If a speck of dust enters someone’s eye it will cause him pain which in its turn will arouse an unpleasant, painful feeling in him. What does this show? – It shows that the speck of dust as a stimulus hasn’t ended up in the right place. It shouldn’t enter the human eye but go into space instead, among the water drops, and bring rain. The rain will be beneficial for the plants. One needs to be aware of the fact that the dust doesn’t enter one’s body by accident, he has attracted it himself. In the same way you attract your thoughts from space. You believe that some thoughts are good and others are bad. However thoughts which are bad for you are good and necessary to Nature. If it didn’t need them, it wouldn’t allow them to exist. It allows them to, therefore it believes that they contain elements which are necessary to life in its entirety. Imagine that one of you has a father who is a chemist; he has his own laboratory with different acids and poisonous substances and he has strictly forbidden you to touch any of the bottles containing the acids. One day you enter your father’s laboratory without his permission and start opening one bottle after another and trying their contents. Shortly after, you start complaining of an upset stomach. You go and ask your father why your tongue and mouth have been burnt and why your stomach is upset. You father realizes immediately that you have been to the laboratory and you have touched the acids. He says: “Since you have broken my rules you will bear the consequences of this violation.” When the son wants to enter his father’s laboratory, or to put it in a broader context – the laboratory of Living Nature, he needs to connect with it and together they can start studying its elements and laws. The same applies to human thoughts and feelings. When you come to a certain thought or a feeling, don’t be in a hurry to internalize them before examining first their qualities and the laws they are subjected to. What are the distinguishing characteristics of a good thought? – A good thought needs to move. Moreover its movement needs to be strictly determined – it needs to move around the Sun. In this case the Sun is a centre which the thought constantly moves around. In the same way that the Earth revolves constantly around its axis as well as around the Sun, a good thought also needs to maintain these two centers in its movement. The two centers are two poles which the thought moves between. For as long as a thought doesn’t move between two poles, it is there as pure potential only. Once it starts moving between two poles, it gets into a kinetic state, i.e. it starts manifesting. It isn’t only thoughts that have two states – a kinetic one and a potential one, but so do humans as well. For as long as he or she is awake, with a conscious mind, a person chronicles everything which is happening around him; once he falls asleep, he can’t chronicle anything. He doesn’t know what is happening around him or on the Earth. There are beings who chronicle everything that happens on Earth. However this requires a continuity of consciousness. A day will come when humans will also remain constantly aware. Then they will know what is being done anywhere anytime. At their current level of development humans are incapable of perceiving everything that happens on the Earth because they wouldn’t be able to handle that. That is why when a person passes through dangerous places, his consciousness darkens; once he crosses over the dangerous zone and comes out in a beautiful place, his consciousness brightens again. There are dark zones for each person’s consciousness which he inevitably has to go through. Everyone goes through a circle of consciousness every day by alternately going down to hell and ascending back to heaven and by alternately scooping something up and filling himself or pouring something out and emptying himself. He scoops up pure water from above and mud and slime from below. That is the only explanation why sometimes a human is as good as an angel, while at other times he is bad, angry, dissatisfied with himself and everybody else. He doesn’t believe anybody, doesn’t believe himself either. A person can be doubtful, he may not believe but only on a given occasion, not throughout his life. Someone doubts that he is able to learn his lesson. However this refers only to a given lesson, not to all lessons. Moreover, if he can’t learn it at a given moment, he will learn it at some other point in time. Everybody talks about real things but if you ask them which human wish is real, they can’t give an answer. Imagine that you are travelling on a hot summer day and you haven’t drunk any water for three days in a row. Your throat is dry, your legs are shaking from the thirst, you can barely move. However you meet someone and ask him if he knows where one can find water. At that moment you aren’t interested in anything but the water. Your thought of water and your need to drink some is the only real thing for you. The person you meet tells you that there is a pure spring half a kilometer away. You get happy immediately, your face lightens up and you start going faster. So only what one needs at a given moment is real from him. Once he gets to the real, a person develops a special opinion about things. There is no special opinion when it comes to real things, however. Once a person achieves the real which he has striven towards, then he starts making choices. If it is a mountain, then he starts choosing between this or that pathway, between sitting on this or that particular place. Therefore a person can have a special opinion only after he has satisfied a major need of his. So what are the most important elements that a person needs? – The most important and necessary elements for humans are water, air, fire and earth. Why do people remain dissatisfied even after having these elements? Remaining satisfied while your wishes haven’t been satisfied is an art. What would be better: to satisfy human wishes or not to satisfy them? How many wishes should be fulfilled out of every one hundred? Have you calculated how many of your wishes have been fulfilled out of every one hundred? For example, a child’s wish to grow up has come true but has it grown as much as it wanted to? Everybody has had the wish to become smart, beautiful, strong, but has their wish been realized the way they dreamed of it? Why can’t a person realize a wish the way he or she wants to? – Because he doesn’t have the appropriate organs for that. How can a person play the violin if he has only one finger on each hand? He can still play something, produce some noise, but not the way he would like to. When a person wants to achieve something great, he needs to have five fingers on each hand, not only one. Can a person who has one finger on each hand compete against somebody who has five? Such a competition is impossible. If a person decides to enter such a competition, he will inevitably fail and then say that he is very unfortunate in life, that Nature hasn’t gifted him the way it should have, etc. It isn’t Nature’s fault but that of the human who hasn’t worked on himself in order to develop all five fingers of the hand. The fingers of the hand represent human conscious powers that have manifested. People have had to work consciously on themselves for thousands and millions of years before their fingers and toes grew. One of the theories of contemporary scientists claims allegorically that the possibilities for development of the human soul are hidden in the different forms of life which have been displayed in show cases in the spiritual world. Before coming down to the Earth the soul walks around these showcases and chooses its own costume, i.e. a piece of clothing for its life according to its preference. There is an endless number of forms there, starting from the smallest and coming to the biggest ones. Once it puts on one of these forms, the soul immediately begins to feel restricted and starts kicking. It keeps kicking until it frees itself from the form it has put on. After it takes off the form, the soul returns to the invisible world, but now it is rich with experience. So the choice of clothing that the soul puts on determines what kind of person it will become. If he was dissatisfied with his clothing, the next time he comes to Earth the person will carefully think about what clothing he should put on. The same law applies to human thoughts and feelings. Whatever thought a person chooses as a basis for his life, that is what he will become. This thought exerts a certain influence on him. You can’t avoid the influence of your thoughts on you, nor their consequences. Therefore, when a person chooses a form, a piece of clothing to put on, it needs to be beautiful, ideological, because it contains the possibilities for the expression of his spirit and his mind, his soul and his heart. The more beautiful and ideological the human form, the more favourable the conditions for its development. As disciples you are required to live without doubts and hesitation. In order not to doubt, your consciousness needs to be awake and your thought needs to be sober. You will only be able to make use of life under these conditions. Now you aim to achieve something big, to become a well-regarded person, without realizing that Nature has in mind for you something better than what you are striving towards. What more could you wish for than to be able to take walks to the Sun, to Jupiter, Venus or some other planet? Nature has in store for each of you a free ticket for such a walk. When a person falls asleep, he receives a free ticket for a trip somewhere close. He travels through forests and mountains, seas and oceans, he meets people, joins schools, takes exams, etc. When he gets up in the morning he is either pleased or displeased with what he has seen in his sleep. How much more beautiful planetary trips are! Now I will recommend to you the law of Love as a method of working, of applying things. Through this law you can come into contact with all your advanced brothers from the invisible world and use their knowledge and experience. If you can’t do that, you should at least get in touch with your classmates from the country. Each of you should write to them at least two or three letters a month and share the main thoughts from the lectures and talks that you listen to here. For next time I would like everyone to write down ten important questions that occupy his mind at the moment. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva SIMPLE PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICS Year 5, Lecture 12 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On January 31, 1926, Sunday 19.00h, Sofia - Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation I will now ask you the following question: is there any correlation between sounds and human ideas? If there is one, what is it exactly? Imagine that the sounds of a violin reach your ears. Can you perceive these sounds without imagining that there is a conscious being behind the violin which produces them? There is no movement in Nature, however small it may be, which doesn’t contain some form of life. The word “живот” (Bulgarian for “life”) starts with the letter “ж”. In this letter the diagonals are the longest lines. The first limitation in life is the circle. It has four important points – the points at which two perpendicular diameters cross the circle. However, when the diameters move, the points move with them too. Therefore all points in a circle become important. The points in a circle are also points of life. Two of them are negative (magnetic), and the other two – positive (electric). This idea can be expressed geometrically with the letter “ж”. If point C in the diagram represents the centre of the Earth, and points A and B are bodies moving towards C, then the movement of these bodies towards C will be most difficult when they are closest to the centre C. It is here that they will be faced with the biggest obstacles, the greatest difficulties. Whatever they do they can’t penetrate the centre of the Earth. One can’t reach the centre of the Earth with his physical body, but it is possible to do it with one’s astral body. The same law applies to human psychological life as well. The closer one gets to the centre of the circle, the bigger the suffering one goes through. When faced with a difficulty, one closes himself in a circle. In order to manage this difficulty, one needs to come to the centre of the circle, to the most difficult conditions, and to start ascending from there. The most difficult part is getting to the centre. Once you reach it, ascending is easy. When going down towards the centre of the Earth, one needs to spread his wings and start descending gently, avoiding any concussions and injuries. You can only achieve this when you are fully conscious, fully self-aware, all the way keeping the connection between God and your soul intact. Only under these conditions can you overcome all difficulties and suffering and come out unharmed in the end. The first Christians knew these laws and maintained their connection with God through constant prayer. Scientists solve their problems in the same way. Instead of a prayer, they keep some higher idea in their minds. Each time they solve a problem, they start with this idea and then come back to it. There are three important principles when solving a problem: you work either with negative values, i.e. under the negative influences of Nature, or with positive values, i.e. under the positive influences of Nature, or by reconciling the positive and negative values, i.e. through equality. Wherever there is equality, intelligent forces work in all directions. When you work with positive and negative values in Mathematics, at some point you have to find a method of putting these values into an equation. Therefore solving a problem doesn’t involve only operating with the positive and negative signs in front of the values, but it requires their transformation also. For example, if you do the following addition: (a+b) + (a-b), the result will be 2a. If you do the subtraction (a+b) - (a-b), the result will be 2b. Imagine that “a” is an apple seed and “b” is the soil where you plant the apple seed. When the seed sprouts and grows into a plant, it absorbs some of the elements in the soil and becomes “a2 + b2”. If you add and subtract (a2 + b2) and (a2 - b2), the results will be again 2 a2 and 2 b2. Whatever explanation you give to these operations from the standpoint of physical mathematics, they can’t actually be explained. However psychological or spiritual mathematics can clarify these operations because it works with living forces which move in more than three dimensions. When the apple tree grows, the soil gradually loses its energetic potential. Once the soil’s energetic potential is depleted, the apple stops developing. It stops growing. When a person comes to Earth he needs physical, material conditions for development. Without such conditions his development ceases. I am giving you these examples in order to make you reflect on all arithmetic and algebraic operations, be it from the point of view of elementary or higher mathematics, to translate them properly in your minds and make use of them. If you don’t understand them, you may be faced in life with a problem of higher mathematics and experience a great contradiction. Coming to a contradiction is the same as entering a marsh, stepping on unstable ground. You could find yourself in such a position in science too. For example in mathematics you could come to a place outside of the physical world, where things become invisible and you still have to assume that they exist, i.e. they exist as something real. You say that there is no world other than the physical world. Why? Because you only know the world of three dimensions. In other words, nothing exists outside of these three dimensions for you. However nowadays in calculus they speak not only of a fourth dimension, but also of a fifth, a sixth, a seventh one. In order to understand these abstract issues, one needs to assume that there are many other possibilities in Nature that one is unaware of. You are only familiar with a few of these and based on that you draw your conclusions. You only know those manifestations in life which originate from the manifestations of the previous day. However there are many possibilities for the manifestations of human life. Today lays the foundations for what will come tomorrow. Is this possible? – Yes, it is. How can this be proven? - It can be proven mathematically. Let’s assume that “a” represents wheat which was first in the silo, then it was planted in the soil “b”. This will lead to a negative standpoint - an empty silo. After some time the wheat will grow, multiply, take some elements from the soil and turn into “b2”. Now we will have a positive process, i.e. something will be gained and added to the wheat. Can the new wheat which has grown in the field be contained in the same silo? - No, it can’t. It has grown significantly in quantity. Here we have processes of ascending. This shows that we work simultaneously with positive and negative values in life and this happens not only in a straight line, but also in other directions which need to be taken into consideration. There are ascending as well as descending positive and negative values. Therefore if positive values are in the process of descending, matter multiplies, but at the same time becomes impossible to organize. Internal rotting starts to take place. In order to stop the process of rotting, matter needs to be dried up. Increasing and decreasing, i.e. thinning and thickening of matter happen everywhere in Nature. When the soil hardens for example, it becomes very thick and unusable. In order for it to soften, rain is definitely needed. How can you express sun rays, rain and drought with mathematical values? When doing these calculations, you also need to take the weather into consideration. When you work with these values you need to make them homogeneous and then do a number of algebraic operations with them. When you work with algebra, you need to come to the point of bringing it inside you. Your body is the soil and your ideas are the seeds you plant in this soil. When you are faced with certain difficulties, this shows that the seeds are more than what the soil can accommodate and offer conditions for growth to. A person wishing to realize more ideas than what his conditions allow him to, doesn’t abide by Nature’s laws. According to the laws of Mindful Nature an idea can only develop at a particular time and place. Two ideas can’t develop at the same time. At any given moment you need to keep only one main idea in your mind. Once you have realized this idea, then you can put your attention on another one, but a certain amount of time needs to pass between the realizations of two different ideas. A person who breaks one of the laws of Mindful Nature will find himself facing great difficulties. Contemporary people are happy when things go well in their life. They need to know what they owe their happiness to and make sure that their success isn’t similar to that of wheat grains that have landed on rocky ground, between thistles or on the road. If their success is grounded in a rocky soil, it will soon collapse. If their success has grown between thistles, it will inevitably be strangled. And finally, if it is on the road, birds will devour it. Each idea which has been placed on the road, between thistles or on rocky ground can’t develop properly and can’t bear any fruit. Therefore, when a person comes to Earth he needs to examine the ways in which ideas fail, as well as the conditions which make ideas flourish. The soil on which thistles grow is good, but these thistles need to be removed first before the wheat is planted. Rocky soil is unfavourable for wheat but one can get good building stones from it. A conscious person who understands life will not plant wheat on rocky soil but will use this soil as a quarry and will thus create good conditions for himself. The road, on the other hand, on which people and cars move, is inappropriate for planting wheat. It is a means of communication. Contemporary people listen to talks on different topics and say in the end: “We aren’t interested in this today. This isn’t important for us”. These people are right. There is something which is important for the person in that case, but it is a question of whether it can contribute to his happiness in some way. Maybe what is important for a person today will bring him the biggest unhappiness tomorrow. Therefore one needs to understand the importance of things and to know what he or she should strive towards. This applies not only to other people, but to you as well. The disciple needs to think properly and understand the importance of both bigger and smaller things. A fisherman took his fishing rod, tied it to a cane on the river bank and threw it in the water. Then he left and went home to do some work. In the meantime, having seen the fishing rod from afar, a curious fish got interested in the swinging object in the water. It approached the rod and saw something unusual. It opened its mouth to try it but felt immediately that its mouth has gotten hooked on that unusual thing and couldn’t be released. It jumped up and down a few times but it couldn’t free itself. At the same time a passer-by saw the fish jumping up and down and asked: “What are you doing here?” – “I am doing a folk dance, but I don’t know how to free myself from it. Please help me!” The passer-by was a famous wise man. He put himself in its shoes and said: “Listen, you have taken up a task which isn’t right for you. You want to examine the length of the radii in a circle, but this is a difficult science, it isn’t appropriate for you yet. Come closer now”. The fish approached the bank, the wise man removed the hook from its mouth and said: “Go on, be free now! Go swim in the water again and tell your friends that it isn’t their time yet to study the length of the radii in a circle”. The fish started swimming lightly in the water and thanked the wise man for setting it free. Indeed the fish needs to thank this passer-by because if the fisherman had come earlier it would have found itself in a world it didn’t belong to. What conclusion can you draw from this example? It shows that there are a number of thoughts and wishes in a person whose time to be realized hasn’t arrived yet. Therefore a person shouldn’t be interested in those thoughts and wishes whose time to be realized hasn’t yet come. If he starts developing an interest in them, they will inevitably bring him pain and suffering. The fisherman will come and get him hooked on his rod. Then he will jump up and down in his mind in order to find a way of freeing himself from suffering. When a person has the right thoughts, at some point he will definitely meet the wise man who will free him from the rod. In this case the wise man is a person’s intuition which is the only thing that can help him free himself from the limitations of his ordinary thought. Until your intuition comes to your aid, you will be in the position of a scientist examining issues which he isn’t yet ready for. His intuition will ask him: “What are you doing here?” – “I am doing a folk dance, I am moving along the side of a circle in order to study its radii.” His intuition will answer: “You can’t examine this issue today. However one day when you reach a higher level of consciousness and become a master of your circumstances, then you will solve this issue.” This means: leave aside all thoughts and wishes which you aren’t ready for yet. When you become your own master, then you can start studying them. Now let’s come back to the formula: “a+b”. The letter “a” signifies the human mind, and “b” – the human heart. How can we express this formula verbally? We can say that the abilities of the mind and those of the heart are equal to the abilities of the will: a2 + b2 = c2. Therefore the powers of the mind and the heart flow into the will like tributaries. In other words, the powers of water (a) and those of the wind (b) create a result ©: a2 + b2 = c2. Water represents human feelings and air – human thought. The will manifests only under the influence of human thoughts and feelings. Will exists only wherever thoughts and feelings exist. Without thoughts and feelings the will doesn’t act. Each act of will is dictated by those thoughts and feelings which are operating at a given moment. That is why there is a saying: “A person is that which he thinks and feels”. If a person’s feelings are positive and ascending, they will have matching results. A person’s willpower depends on the power of his thoughts and wishes. The stronger the images created by a person’s thoughts and wishes are, the more active his will is. Tell someone that a given person is his enemy and step aside. This image will grow in him and give him power and a stimulus to fight his enemy, to oppose him. A strong image of something is enough to make a person always remain on the alert. Some people are afraid of snakes, others – of mice. Just try pronouncing the word snake or mouse in front of such people and you will find out just how active they are. Their will’s hidden activity will come to the surface and they can start running or hiding. Some excellent brave swimmers are afraid of leeches. When it comes to swimming, they are ready to swim in the water for kilometers in a row, but as soon as they see a leech they withdraw and go back. The sight of a leech terrifies them, even if it is in a bottle. A person needs to study himself in order to know which images paralyze his will and counteract them. He needs to use methods for regaining one’s balance. The snake’s image has a negative impact on some people. How can they release this fear? – By applying something positive in their will. In this case Love will save the day. It has been written in the scriptures:”Love excludes fear. Faith excludes superstition”. Therefore Love drives fear away from people and faith brings Light to their minds. In order to reach faith, one needs to study the pathways of Light. Nowadays people talk about everything: love, faith, brotherhood, equality, etc. However they haven’t yet paid enough attention to issues which are close to them and which their well-being depends on. For example, how have they solved the issue of nutrition? Do they know what food it is appropriate to eat on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc.? Do they know what kind of food they should eat in the morning, at lunch and at dinner? You would say that these are simple things which a person shouldn’t bother with. For you it is enough if a person ate something, it doesn’t matter what food he ate and when he did that. Or you would say that the more lavish his food is, the better it is for him. It isn’t so. The issue of nourishment is a mathematical problem which may be simple but it needs to be solved by all means. Until you solve this problem correctly, all your efforts to complete greater and more complicated tasks will remain unsuccessful. Once you solve the problem of nourishment, you will have to solve the problem of sleep. Do you know when you should go to bed and when you should get up? You would say that this depends on the circumstances. – No, external circumstances in life cannot change the laws of Mindful Nature. It has strictly determined for each person when he should go to bed and when he should get up. Therefore each person needs to find the time that was determined for him to do that. The hen, for example, goes to bed before sunset and gets up before sunrise. When a person has solved the problems of nourishment and sleep correctly, this means that he has achieved a certain amount of harmony between his thoughts and his feelings. Once he has achieved this toning, he is ready to solve all other problems correctly as well. He solves them quickly and without making mistakes while other people will need months or years to do that. They will use a lot of energy and achieve only microscopic results. Human thought needs to be fresh and lively. If it isn’t lively and doesn’t have the necessary Light, it cannot manage the contradictions in life. Nature knows no contradictions. It allows no discouragement. “But we are suffering. Doesn’t Nature see our tears, our hardships?” When Nature sees tears in your eyes, Nature says: “My children are clever. They have opened their springs to water their gardens.” When it sees that people’s tears stop flowing, Nature rejoices and says: “My children are clever because they have keys with which they open and close their springs, all according to their needs.” When it sees a person in despair who is planning to jump off a cliff, Nature says: “This child of mine has decided to fly before its time. One day it will learn its lesson.” Therefore you need to study the language of Nature. Come into contact with her and start thinking correctly. – “But we study a lot!” – It is not a question of studying a lot. You need to study little, but consciously. And whatever you learn, you need to apply it in life. Nowadays people study a lot but gain very little. They work a lot but use little. Nowadays people touch things but can’t see them. A person who has developed his clairvoyance works with seeing, not with touching. Thus he will free himself from the unnecessary matter which burdens his nervous system. However, for as long as one lives under unfavourable conditions in life, he needs a lot of things. If he studies a lot but gains little, this shows namely that his living conditions are unfavourable. A person who has toned himself can gain a lot by studying for three hours only, as long as it is done with love. This isn’t the case with everybody. If an ordinary pupil or student studies for three hours a day, he can’t succeed. This applies to conscious students who have come into contact with Living Nature and abide by its laws. Nature gives people time and energy and orders them to save energy and use more time instead. It doesn’t allow for her energy to be wasted. It disposes of energy in abundance, but doesn’t allow anyone to waste it. A person who breaks this law is doomed to suffering. This is the reason why it is recommended that disciples work consciously on themselves in order to harmonize their thoughts and feelings and come to a state of consciously using Nature’s energy. A person who saves energy, gains energy – he doesn’t age prematurely. Today everyone complains of premature ageing. Why? – Because they waste their energy. A conscious person is someone who remains lively and capable of working from youth to old age. A conscious person doesn’t get influenced by external circumstances. There may be storms, winds or rain – he knows that everything is in its place. Storms will come and go. Rains will flow and overflow. These are natural processes which need to fulfill their purpose. The disciple, however, needs to think correctly, feel correctly and act correctly. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva VOWELS AND CONSONANTS Year 5, Lecture 11 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On January 24, 1926, 19.00h, Sofia Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation A summary on the topic “The most useful plant” was read. The disciples’ essays on the topic “The strongest vowel and the softest consonant” were read. When you write your essays you need to be free and not feel disturbed by anything. Each essay is an exercise for the mind. In order to write something, one has to think. The letters that languages use are also used in mathematics to signify numbers. Why do the letters “x, y, z” signify unknown numbers? Answer: Mathematicians have decided to use the first letters of the alphabet to signify known numbers and the last ones – to signify unknown numbers. In my opinion “x” signifies an unknown number because it represents a circle which has been divided by its diameter into two equal parts, which for some unknown reason have turned upside down and have thus formed this letter. What is unknown is how exactly these two parts have turned upside down in order to form the letter “x”. We want to find out which force, which reason has divided the circle into two equal parts and in some unknown way has first turned these parts upside down and then united them into the letter “x”. The same reason, the same force works on the grain of wheat which has been planted in the ground and forces it to break open and sprout. When we come to the letter “y” we see a symbol which Egyptians used to signify a human being which has been turned upside down. We can’t explain to ourselves why the human being has turned upside down. In the future this letter needs to be turned back up to signify a human standing straight, with his head up. Plants are also in the position of the letter “y”. Their head still lies buried in the ground. The letter “z” on the other hand represents a circle transversely divided into two parts. Under the impact of some force these two parts have somehow turned and formed the letter “z” – a symbol of multiplication. Therefore each sign, each letter has a hidden idea behind it. In that sense letters represent ideas which have been expressed figuratively. As disciples you have nothing else to do but to study the ideas hidden in letters. Which letters did you define as the strongest vowels and the softest consonants? The letters “а, о, u” were noted as strong vowels and the letters “h, m, l, s” – as soft consonants. If you combine the letters “a, o” with the letter “h”, you will form the particles “ah, oh” which are common for all people - the English, the Germans, the French, the Bulgarians, the Turks, etc. How do you determine the softness of consonants? – By their way of pronunciation. The less resistance you feel when pronouncing a letter, the softer it is. When you combine the letter “m” with some vowels, you can form the following syllables: “ma, mo, mi, mu, am, om, im, um”. Do the vowels soften the “m” or does the “m” soften the vowels? Do vowels give their qualities to consonants or is it the other way round? When you pronounce consonants try to notice which organs take part in the process – the tongue, the palate or the lips. At the same time make note of the amount of pressure you feel when you pronounce the different consonants. When you pronounce the sound “m” you feel your lips being stopped. When you pronounce the sound “ah” you feel a constriction in the larynx, at the root of the tongue. When you pronounce the sound “l” the tongue stops at the palate. The letter “s” on the other hand represents the sound that snakes and geese use. When you hear this sound you become cautious. It is a sound that warns a person to beware of the gap he might fall into. Some animals use the sound “moo”. The cow moos. The letter “m” symbolizes something. It signifies matter as a substance. At the same time it signifies matter as pure potential. Therefore the word “mama” (Bulgarian for “mum”) which has been formed by combining two “ma” syllables represents the matter that humans have been made of. By the word “mama” we understand that which has given us shape and which is manifest in us. The syllable “ma” is repeated two times. The English like abbreviating words, that is why they often use the syllable “ma”. Now when you study the strength of vowels and the softness of consonants you can use them as a method of transforming your mental and emotional states. You can use different letters to transform different kinds of states. Imagine that you are a student who has failed his exam. How will you influence yourself – with vowels or with consonants? You will pronounce different vowels and consonants until your negative disposition is completely gone. Each negative condition, be it physical or mental, can be cured in one of two ways – either with a method which is similar to the reason that caused it or with a method which is contrary to it. For example you can cure frozen hands and feet with cold, not with heat. Burnt organs can be cured using heat. You anoint them with olive oil because it absorbs the heat and thus frees the organism of the excess heat which it took on with the burn. When the organism experiences a cold, it has absorbed a certain type of energy which isn’t in harmony with it. In order to transform this energy one needs external help. Transforming energies and mental states is easier said than done. What is the position of a student who has failed his PhD exam? He has worked, studied, written and at one point he is faced with a failure. When he comes back home he sits on a chair, lets his head sink and starts thinking: “What did the professor do to me? He buried me in the ground the way they bury plants during planting.” That is what a sinking head means. However he isn’t satisfied with this. He stands up from the chair, starts walking around nervously and converses with the professor in his mind: “Why did you fail me? Why did you bury me in the ground? This is unfair.” Then he sits down on the chair again, starts clenching his fists and threatening the professor. After reflecting for some time, he stands up from the chair again, starts walking around and says to himself: “Why am I imagining things? I can’t do anything to him, but I can start studying hard and working hard to correct my PhD thesis and then I will present it to the commission once again”. When he reaches this decision he lifts his head and starts walking around the room calmly. These are psychological states that every human goes through. When a person suffers, he sits down, stands up, moves. Without these movements he wouldn’t be able to handle such great psychological pressure. He sits down, thinks, wonders, threatens: “Hm, I’ll let him pay for that!” Then some bright idea enters his mind, he jumps up from the chair immediately and cries out joyfully: “Yes, this is how I will act in order to show that I am also noble in character!” When a number of internal processes happen in a person’s soul, he needs to express them through some symbols. If you observe such a person you will be able to see the storm happening inside him: it will alternately calm down and re-emerge until the issue is finally solved. It isn’t easy to handle one’s internal experiences. Knowing this, do not judge the person but try to help him in some way. Let’s come back to vowels and consonants as a method of transforming states. If you are indisposed or sad, start influencing yourselves first by using the vowels, then the consonants. If your state doesn’t change after pronouncing all vowels and consonants, start combining them into syllables. When doing this exercise, try to notice which vowels or consonants will lead to a change in your mental state. Do this exercise on yourselves or on some friend of yours and see what conclusion you will reach. Work with the letters ten evenings in a row for half an hour each evening, between 9.00 and 10.00pm. Observe carefully the influence that letters have on your psychological life. This is a science that can be applied in life. Everybody uses it, consciously or unconsciously. Consonants represent a closing of certain energies in humans, whereas vowels represent an opening of the way for these energies to come out and find an expression. Therefore one uses consonants as breaks in order not to let certain energies manifest. As a whole, letters can be used on different occasions in human life. A student starts writing an essay. He sits down, takes the pen in his hand but nothing comes to his mind. Instead of struggling to think, he should start alternately pronouncing vowels and consonants and combining them into syllables. Shortly after, a small bright thought will enter his mind. Thus he will understand that letters and syllables are tools that a skillful master can work with. People often use the syllable “oh”. What does this syllable show? – It shows that one has deviated from the right path that Nature has placed him into. He has come out of the natural cycle of his movement. At the same time the syllable “oh” shows the way one can return to the right path. In Mathematics the letter “x” represents the movement of a circle to infinity and back. Therefore, when a person gets lost somewhere in infinity, he doesn’t continue moving forward but goes back instead. This means that when a person makes a mistake, he goes back. In order to correct his mistake, one needs to put it twice through his mind: he needs to confess it to himself and to others also. In order to free himself from the anguish of making a mistake or committing a sin, one needs to confess it to his next of kin. This is what the law says. Any given mistake or pain can be healed when it comes out in the open. For example, somebody gets angry and cuts his finger in his rage. Everyone keeps asking him why his hand is bandaged. He can tell the truth or hide it. If he says the truth, his wound will be healed sooner. He will undergo great trials, but a lot of people will come to his aid too. Some will help him, others will moralize him and ask him why he had been so stupid and hadn’t restrained himself, etc. He will have to endure all this but in the end he will be free. If he doesn’t tell the truth few people will know about his mistake, but it will be difficult for his wound to heal, there will be nobody to help him. When correcting his mistakes one needs to be brave and determined. Correcting one’s mistakes shouldn’t be done for the people, but for the Great Principle that you serve. As disciples you are required to possess moral strength. You have to exhibit moral strength not only in some cases but in all cases. There can be at most ten exceptions to every one hundred occasions in life. The more mistakes a person makes, the less favourable his living conditions are. For example a hungry person has the biggest opportunities to make mistakes because he lives in a dense environment. Because of his wish to quench his hunger he makes a lot of mistakes. A person who is hungry for knowledge and is looking for some means to get hold of a book makes less mistakes because his environment is less dense. A moral person on the other hand makes the least amount of mistakes. The environment he lives in is even less dense. Therefore the denser the environment one lives in, the more the resistance and the counteraction that he experiences. Now you may ask the question: What does a person have to do in order to avoid hunger? - In order to avoid hunger one shouldn’t put a brake on one’s natural desires. It has been noticed that after some illnesses of the body a great hunger is experienced. During an illness a person is subjected to a strict diet by his doctors and his family members. When he starts to heal, hunger begins to manifest in him and he starts striving for food. Therefore the brakes that are placed in human life shouldn’t be too large. They need to be placed gradually, inconspicuously. This depends on a person’s level of awareness. The more conscious a person is, the more he abides by Nature’s laws. As long as he abides by its laws, he will be free from its brakes. However an ordinary person, who doesn’t live according to the laws of Mindful Nature, has ordinary experiences with ordinary results. An ordinary person wins as much as he loses. A conscious person always ends up with abundance. If you want to know how you have spent your day – as an ordinary or as a conscious person, each night before going to bed take ten to fifteen minutes to evaluate in your mind what you have done during that day. Remember where you have been, what you have said and done etc. After this evaluation, if you find that you have made a small gain, this shows that you have spent the day well, as a conscious person. However small the gain may be, it is precious. This is the only way to build a character. This is the only way for Nature to reveal its treasures to a person. It will open its treasure chests for him to take as much as he likes. Nature trusts only people who have moral strength. Whoever tries to penetrate its powers and secrets incognito will experience its whip on his back. If you want to gain Nature’s trust, you need to live differently, not the way you have lived in your past. When you enter the New Life, you will have barely noticeable, microscopic results, but that is exactly what you should be happy about. On earth you could be an ordinary person that nobody knows, and yet be known to everyone in the Heavens. That is why it has been said: “What is impossible for man is possible for God.” An exercise: Everyone stands up, arms to the side. The right arm makes a wide semi-circle at the front of the body, then the hand is placed on the left shoulder. The left arm comes forward and the right hand slides over the left arm starting from the shoulder all the way down to the wrist. During this movement the sound “aaa” is pronounced loudly. The right hand slides back up to the left shoulder. Then it moves horizontally in front of the chest and off to the side, then comes down. The same exercise is repeated with the left hand over the right arm while pronouncing the sound “aaa”. Other sounds can be pronounced in the same way: “a, i, m, l”. When doing this exercise observe the effect it will have on you. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Translated by - Nelly Pehlivanova Edited by Maria Braikova and Yasmin Alan ACTION AND COUNTERACTION Year 5, Lecture 9 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On January 10, 1926 – Sunday, 19.30h Sofia – Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Reflection A summary on the topic "The smartest beatle" was read. The disciples' essays on the topic "What do birds think about?" were read. Next time please write on the following topic "The most useful plant". Suppose that two beings are standing at the opposite banks of a big, swift-flowing river, 1 km* wide. How can these two beings meet? They will use the bridge on the river. If the river was very narrow, no bridge would be needed as they could easily jump over it. But because this river is quite wide, the bridge is necessary. Therefore, small difficulties can be easily overcome, while for great difficulties a bridge is required. Coming to a small creek on the road, a person jumps over it right away without looking around for a bridge. But when coming to a large river, that person will look for a bridge. Small and big rivers are like the small and big difficulties in life. People easily handle the small issues but when it comes to the big ones, they begin to seek a bridge. No, no bridge is needed. Encountering a difficult situation, one can assess the whole matter and then go back to explore another way for passing through it. When two people are at the opposite banks of a wide and deep river, it is better for them not to meet. Modern people are masters of committing crimes. To prevent them from turning to crimes too often, Providence has placed them away from one another, so that they cannot meet and cause harm. However, when good people are distanced from one another, they will always find a natural way to meet. They will not look for a bridge to overcome the obstacles, but will climb a mountain peak and will go down from there. When does evil arise in the human being? It is when a person cannot fulfill their desires. When someone cannot achieve their wishes, they become disappointed and this can give birth to bad thoughts and feelings. The eyes of such people begin to sink in and dark circles like valleys appear under their eyes. Bad thoughts and wishes paralyze brain cells and as a result the brain energies of such people do not go up, but only flow down. Brain energies in general, function in three main head areas. The first area is behind the ears, where the lower energies operate. This area can be compared to a hell in the human being. The second area covers the energies functioning in the forehead - this area presents the human life. The third area includes those energies that are flowing in the upper part of the brain where higher moral feelings reside. This area can be compared to a paradise in the human being. Therefore, when a person opposes their own moral feelings, the energy originating from this area [the upper brain] goes down to the area behind the ears or to the hell! In order to avoid this, one should not suppress but give expression to one's good wishes. Keep the following rule: never resist your good thoughts and wishes. Take action against your bad thoughts and wishes, against your bad tendencies. What do evil and Good represent? – These are energies that operate everywhere in nature. While you are working with the Good, you will inevitably come to know evil, too. Modern people are now placed in the polarity of Good in order to apply it. The only human aspiration should be for Good. As far as one does Good, we will always have favorable conditions to grow properly and gradually receive ideas of the new culture and new life. Without manifesting good things one cannot develop properly. The consequence is the mutilation of one‘s mind, heart and willpower. As a result, the energy of such person is stored mainly in the area behind the ears. If you want to meet such types of people, you will find them either as wrestlers at the gambling dens or in the pubs. The beauty of human life lies in the human thought. There is no more beautiful thing in human life than one's thought. There is no more beautiful thing in a bird's life than its sense of music and color. That is why some birds sing beautifully and some have variegated feathers speckled with gorgeous hues. Now, may someone of you say three words with which to make a sentence. The first word begins with the letter* „Д“, the second one - with „О“, and the third one - with „Ч“. The sentence formed is: Духът обича чистотата (Spirit Loves Clarity). Clarity here implies purity of thought. This sentence can be reformed like this: Дух обичен и чист (Spirit beloved and pure). You can then put this into a musical form: Expressed in this way, the melody indicates that Spirit is somewhere far away and can only be idealized. So, you can accompany the above song with the word Spirit only. By this musical approach, Spirit will come closer to the human being. As students, you should apply music for energy transformation. When you notice some sort of stagnancy in your energetic system, begin to sing in order to clear your energetic centres. Let your energy flow freely through them. For example, when someone complains of not having a musical ear, they are actually repressing their potential by speaking thus. When someone has no manifestations in the field of music, it does not mean that this person has no sense of music. The musical capacity of this person is in a potential state, while in some others it may be in a kinetic state. Whether music is in a potential or kinetic state, one should nurture one’s aspiration for it. With the aspiration for music, one can also help those who are actively immersed in music. Many singers and musicians owe their talent to people who bring music within themselves, though they have not become musicians - breaking off with them may lead to losing their talent. This may happen not only to musicians but also to poets and writers. Accordingly, there should always be someone or something to inspire creative people: Nature for example, is a source of inspiration for them, with her mountains, forests, rivers, seas, and flowers. There should be some external urge to motivate the human being. Certainly, there is some distant Reality behind all that is. What stands behind the human being, behind the human spirit – that is God. When a poet gets disappointed with the life on Earth, that poet begins flying to the sky. From there the poet goes down to the human life again in a new search for beautiful forms as they are vessels for beautiful ideas. If a beautiful form is destroyed, any subjective and objective thought related to it seems to be gone. But in fact, nothing in the world disappears, nothing can be destroyed or created, but only changed and transformed. Exercise: all standing in a circle take a string. One of the students holds it at the beginning and it is passed from one to another. The ball of string is winding off while being passed among all students. Every student gets the string with both hands and places it in front of their chest. The right hand raises diagonally forward and the left hand goes down as much as the string allows. Begin rhythmic squatting, in which the right hand goes down.The speed of squatting accelerates gradually. Both hands raise up. Continue with fast rhythmic squatting, in which both hands go down to the ground. Now the right hand goes forward, then both hands go up. Finish with fast rhythmic squatting, in which both hands go down to the ground. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! · 1 km = 0.6214 miles · Д, О, Ч – Cyrillic letters transliterated as [d], [o], [ch]

Беседата на български Translated by Victoria Koleva SUBTRACTION Year 5, Lecture 10 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On January 17, 1926 – Sunday, 19.00h Sofia – Izgrev Always be faithful, true, pure and kind! Contemplation A summary on the topic “What birds think about” was read. The disciples’ essays on the topic “The most useful plant” were read. For next time please write on the following topic: “The strongest vowel and the softest consonant in the Bulgarian alphabet”. In order to write this essay you need to carefully consider each letter of the alphabet – without rationalizing it and philosophizing about it. Pronounce the letters calmly one after the other and observe the impact that the letters will have on you. The important thing for you is the impression that you will get from each letter, not what others will say. Now I would like ten people – five brothers and five sisters to come to the blackboard and write two numbers and a letter each. The first one will write an addition of two numbers, the second one – a subtraction, the third one – a multiplication and the fourth one – a division. The following equations comprised of numbers and letters were written: 5 + 3 = a 9 – 4 = O. 2 x 4 = K. 8 : 2 = Д. 9 + 2 = б. 10 – 2 = ж. 7 x 3 = П. 5 : 2 = Н. 4 + 4 = Л. 7 – 2 = В. This is a problem that you need to solve. Which number can be seen most frequently in this problem? - The number two. Next comes the number four and the remaining numbers can be seen only one or two times each. We notice also that the result of all these four equations is the number eight. What words can you make starting with the letters that were written on the blackboard? “Вода, лодка, кола, плава, кожа, болка, вложа, влакно, etc.” (English: “water, boat, car, sails, skin, pain, invest, fiber”). I would like each of you to try and make a sentence comprising words which start with the letters that were written on the blackboard. Have you observed the influence that different numbers have on humans? Each number has a meaning. For example the number 3 represents the law of multiplication. In the following mathematical operation: “5 + 3”, the number 3 is inside, which means that one has to grow and multiply from the inside, not from the outside, and this needs to happen through the process of addition. In the following subtraction: “9 – 4”, we have the number 4 which is a positive number. Therefore, when someone is faced with a karmic issue, he or she needs to act bravely and smartly and solve it immediately. The number 9 is a result. You will take out your money and start paying. You will do the subtraction of “9 – 4”, i.e. you will pay without delay. When multiplying 2 x 4, you have a passive number and a positive one. Both are Divine numbers. The number 8 is the number of infinity, of Eternity. That is why when you work for the Truth, do not expect immediate results. The results of Truth are in Eternity. Truth doesn’t occupy itself with trifles and material issues. The seeker of Truth needs to have a broad mind, he needs to have a lot of patience. Another way of looking at numbers is from an astrological point of view – seeing which planet is related to each number. For example the number four is connected with Jupiter, nine – with the Moon, five – with Mercury. Next look at the blossoms of fruit trees and observe how many leaves each blossom has. The blossoms of cherry, plum, apple and pear trees have five sepals and five petals each. Why do these blossoms have exactly five petals and not six? It is good to study astrology in order to know which planet relates to each fruit tree. Once you know this you will use fruit consciously. If you want to experience the positive influence of a planet, you should use fruit which is connected with that planet. Have you noticed for example what influence cherries have on you? – Cherries bring joy and happiness in humans. One needs to observe the influence that fruit has not only on his physical well-being but on his character as well in order to use it as a method of educating children. You shouldn’t consume the same fruit all the time but eat it only when you consciously want to experience its positive influence. I could give you a number of rules for this but a danger exists which doesn’t allow this to happen yet. The danger lies in your critical mind. The man of the west has a highly critical mind. If some methods and rules are given to him, he starts philosophizing and thus spoils everything. He works with experiments – he needs to do a large number of experiments and reach his own conclusions. Once he passes through dense matter, then he will start crawling from the bottom up, towards the high peak. Once he reaches the peak he will estimate how much energy he has spent and then make a conclusion as to whether it is worth spending so much energy to climb to the top or it is better to save energy and choose the path of least resistance. The man of the east is a master of descent. When it comes to going up, however, he goes into a dreamy state. For example Indians are at the foot of the Himalayas, yet they make no attempts to reach the peak. The English, however, have undertaken a number of expeditions to the Himalayas and continue doing so. Their attempts are justified. They follow the spirit of occult science which says: never express an opinion about something you haven’t tried yet. Once you have tried something, you have the right to philosophize about it. For as long as he has no results yet, one needs to remain silent the way the chicken remains silent inside the egg. Until the day of its hatching arrives, it remains silently tucked inside the egg. Once it comes out of the egg, the chicken has the right to express an opinion about the world. Therefore, for as long as one lives in unfavourable conditions in life, one needs to go inward and keep silent. Once he comes out of these unfavourable conditions, he can talk about what he has learnt. While it lies under the hen for 21 days the egg is not in unfavourable conditions. However if 21 days have passed and it hasn’t hatched yet, the conditions start to limit it. If an egg isn’t used in time, it starts to spoil. We can draw the following conclusion from all this: a specific time, a certain time period is needed for the realization of human thoughts and wishes. If this time period gets shortened or prolonged, the possibility of their realization is lost. That is why an egg shouldn’t be taken from the hen before it has remained with it for 21 days, nor should it remain there for longer than those 21 days. The same law applies to seeds and to fruit as well. This law applies to human inner psychic life as well. Each human thought or wish which is in harmony with Nature always brings a certain broadening, an inner lightness with it. When it isn’t in harmony with Nature, you feel an inner constriction and limitation. Now when you get some free time make observations on your handwriting and that of those around you in order to study human character. Observe the direction in which the letters end – upwards or downwards, to the left or to the right. At the same time you should study the four mathematical operations and their application in life. For example subtraction can be applied when we look for our faults and the faults of those around us. When it comes to your faults, you need to be completely fair and impartial, to weigh them on perfectly accurate scales and neither exaggerate nor diminish them. That is the only way to build a stable character and balance the forces in your organism. An exercise: Arrange in a circle and come close to each other. Straighten the arms and bring them back. Straighten the right leg and bring it forward. Kneel slowly down bringing the arms first forward to a horizontal position, then to the side and back again. Repeat this movement of the arms a few times rhythmically. Stand up, straighten the left leg and bring it forward. Kneel down bringing the arms first forward to a horizontal position, then to the side and back again. Stand up, bring the arms to the side, then place them in front of the chest. Fingers of the hands are against each other, palms face down. Make wide semi-circles bringing the arms forward, to the side and down. Always be faithful, true, pure and kind!

Беседата на български Note 5 The Distinctive Features of Life Year 2, Lecture 4 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on October 25, 1922 Wednesday, Sofia Fir-fur-fen Tau-bi-aumen Secret prayer The disciples' essays on the topic “The Distinctive Features of Life” were read. Contemporary people say that Life is motion. Do you agree with this? How do you understand Life? The following verse was read: “A kind word on the tongue is the key to people's hearts.” What is the most important phrase in the above verse? – “A kind word”. Where does the kind word originate from, and where does Love originate from? Can we say that Love originates from Life? Can the cause originate from the effect? You might say that Love creates Life. No, Love cannot create Life. Why? Because Life itself cannot be created. The process of creation is a mechanical process. You can create, you can build a house, but you cannot create Life in that sense. Then you might say that Life doesn’t exist. Life is without beginning and without end. Can you say that something that doesn’t have a beginning and an end exists? In its original sense the word exists was in an ascending state, but gradually it started to descend and today in the Bulgarian language we see it in a descending state. The word exists stems from the root “са” (Bulgarian for "are"), which means manifestation, expression. That is, Life manifests itself. I’ll ask you several more questions. Can something that manifests run off? If your answer to me is that each thing that manifests runs off then I’ll ask you, where does Life remain? What do you make out of the word life? When you read your essays, I notice that you strive to write something beautiful, using beautiful phrases for this purpose, however, you aren't concerned as to whether these essays contain the Truth. In this respect you resemble those fashionable ladies who wear beautiful and expensive clothes to present themselves before the world, without paying attention to whether their clothes are warm or comfortable. However what is allowed to a worldly man isn't allowed to an occult disciple. When a worldly man is hungry, when he has travelled for several days without bread and has no relatives whom he can address, he will beg from this or that person. He will appeal to their nobility, to their benevolence that they might give him something to eat. But if an occult disciple finds himself in such a situation, he isn't allowed to speak as words are unnecessary. He should only say, “I am hungry!” – Nothing more. A third word would be irrelevant. Whoever hears him, will say, “The man is hungry; let’s give him something to eat.” Everyone knows what hunger is. If the hungry man starts to explain why he is hungry, how long he has been starving for, everyone who passes him by will say, “Never mind, don’t listen to him, this man isn't hungry.” Hunger is something powerful by itself. Each explanation would make it powerless. Let’s come back to the question of Life. What is your opinion – is it possible to define what Life is? Some people say that Life is consciousness, i.e., that outside consciousness Life doesn’t exist. The word consciousness is composed of a prefix meaning "with" and a word meaning "knowledge" – it means something accompanied by knowledge. Our Life doesn't include the whole of Life in existence, consequently Life cannot originate from consciousness. Consciousness cannot embrace our life even, let alone the entire life in existence. If we assume that Life is motion, the very motion itself is embraced by consciousness. This means that it is even less appropriate to view Life as motion. Now let’s trace out this thought further. What do you think – is consciousness something permanent? No, it isn't permanent. Is it possible then to measure Life by such an impermanent measure? If consciousness is something permanent, let’s subject it to a ten-day fast and see if it preserves its form or changes it. In this situation we will notice that consciousness, which initially was bright, gradually starts to darken. While your consciousness is bright, you are quiet, calm, and content. As soon as it starts to darken, you become nervous, discontented, and not able to control yourself. Consequently, if consciousness is a permanent, constant measure, it can be said that Life is consciousness. But it is impossible to compare Life with such an impermanent, changing value as consciousness. An artist draws a beautiful picture and he is glad at the sight of it; what is his joy due to? Is it due to the picture itself, or to something else? Can someone be delighted with an object in which there isn’t any Life at all? Can he feel delighted at the sight of a precious stone? Man cannot feel delighted with a picture, or some precious stone. The Delight is a result of something else. A young man loves a young lady; if this young man finds a precious stone and gives it to his beloved as a present, he will be glad. Yet his joy wouldn't be due to the precious stone but to the fact that he has given it to his beloved. If she didn’t exist the precious stone wouldn’t have any value to him. So, let everyone answer to himself what his Life consists of. Reflect on this topic. Consider especially the word life and watch closely how you will feel it deep inside you and how this word is connected with you. Don’t look into what philosophers or scientists have said about life. The important thing is what this word means to you. Pronounce the word life in syllables, pronounce it in a drawling voice, as a song, while observing the impression it will make on you. At first sight this word seems simple, but it contains one of the greatest truths of Nature. You haven’t asked yourself the question whether you are alive in order to feel how interesting Life is. Now you pass for disciples from a special class. But suppose that you take all your essays about Life and read them to a seriously ill person. Do you think that your essays would be able to awaken the Life in him? What are your essays like? Let’s say that you go to bed in the evening and in the morning you start telling others that you went somewhere and you met a lot of people. Would this be true? Your body was in bed, your legs and your arms didn't move from their places – how did you walk then? Were you awake, or were you asleep? You were asleep. If you had been awake you would have remembered where you went. Such is your state in your everyday life too – you think that you are awake. No, you aren't awake. You are still sleeping, but it is time to wake up. I am not the only one who says you are sleeping – you say it yourselves too. When some new idea enters your mind, you say, “I woke up! I wonder why I have been sleeping until now?” As soon as you find yourselves in greater light, you say, “Now I can see, I feel like I am awakening from a deep sleep.” That you are in a sleeping state can be seen from the fact that all the objects around you and all your notions are scattered and disconnected in your mind. When I am saying that you are in a dreaming state I don’t mean to criticise you, but I do want to give a new direction to your thoughts. What does the word "sleeping" mean? Imagine that you go to a music teacher and you want him to give you lessons. The teacher shows you the violin, the bow, he opens the sheet music and he watches closely what you do. You see a violin, a bow, some dots, some lines – some of them going up, others going down – and you leave. This is not music yet. You are intelligent and capable, you have the desire to learn music. The next day you still want to study music so you visit your music teacher again. He shows you the same things, but he also gives you a sheet of paper and a pencil and watches closely what you do. You take the pencil and you start describing the function of the violin, the bow and the notes etc. Again this isn't music yet. On the third day you go to your music teacher, you take the violin in your hands and you start practicing. He shows you how to hold the violin and the bow; he shows you how to play. Day after day you continue in this way until one day you are finally able to play on your own. All the notes need to enter your mind, your consciousness and then you can say you know what music is. Life is something similar. While you didn't know how to play you were asleep as far as music is concerned; as soon as you learn how to play, you become awake for music. Have you tasted Life? You say that Life is joy. Have you tasted joy? There is a lot of grief in life. Have you tasted this grief? Human beings haven't tasted real grief yet. Is the grief of the sheep that loses its life and that of the man who loses his hat one and the same? What kind of grief is that of the man who has lost his hat? This isn't grief at all – it is pure illusion. There is one single kind of grief that I know and it is the grief upon the loss of Love. There is no greater suffering for a human being than to taste Love and then lose it. This grief is true; it is real. Consequently, it is possible to grieve only for the Real and not for the illusions in Life. When does a man rejoice? When he finds what he has lost. There are two important things which Life requires: food and water. This means that hunger and thirst are two strong factors which can deprive all beings of Life. When a human being is hungry, the Life in him manifests and demands food. Unless he eats some food, he feels anguish, unrest and suffering; the minute he eats the food, peace and contentment fill him. This is the way simple, uneducated people understand Life. You might ask, “Are only food and water necessary for Life?” Life requires a lot of elements. I’ll give you the following example: imagine that they lock one person in a room and from time to time they bring him bread and water. He stays in this room for a year or two and everybody knows as he himself knows that he is alive and he is living in this room. After a time they take this person out of the room and place him in a beautiful garden. In this garden he is able to walk freely, breathe fresh air and enjoy the light. He says, “Now I am alive.” Shortly after they take this person to a rich library and let him read whatever he likes there according to his preference. He starts feeling satisfied and happy and says, “Now I live much better, I am beginning to understand the meaning of Life.” As you can see, in the first example this person is alive, but he lives as a prisoner. In the second example he is also alive, but he lives like a free man. In the third example he lives with all his inner and outer needs met. Life should be understood in all its most subtle manifestations, in all its most subtle requirements. A person who experiences Life in its most subtle and meaningful manifestations is always satisfied, because the sphere of his activity is widening. He experiences the pleasant feeling of growth, the feeling of life in his mind, heart, and soul. I am using the word "soul", but this is something obscure to you. The soul is outside of time and space. What are time and space in reality? They are two temporary measures which are used to define things in the material world. Life causes a warm and pleasant feeling in man. Once someone has experienced this feeling, he can never forget it. Imagine that you are climbing a slippery cliff; you go slowly, carefully, but accidentally you slip. At that moment a friend of yours grabs your hand and prevents you from falling. This change in your feelings, the horror that you experienced and the support that you received awakens a tender, warm feeling in you – a feeling which is a manifestation of Life. No matter what trials you undergo in life, you will never forget this feeling. The stronger your friend's love was, the stronger this feeling is in you. He supported you at the risk of losing his own life. Analyse this feeling inside you in order to understand at least the external side of Life. What characteristics do people attribute to Life today? Some people say that Life brings joy, grief, and motion. Others say that Life is a state of the soul in which the soul becomes aware of itself, i.e. a state in which the soul is aware that it lives, that it is in harmony with itself and with the great law of Nature. Being in harmony with yourself means that everything inside you should be in complete order. Imagine that you have a nice and well-arranged garden; imagine that all its pathways are covered with sand and you are walking along the pathways, satisfied and happy. Inadvertently, though, you forget all the things you carried with you on the pathway – a jar here, a small chair there, scattered stones somewhere else. In the evening you go home satisfied that everything is organised and in complete order. It happens that the very same evening while you are deep in your philosophical contemplations, you decide to go out to have a walk in the garden and get some fresh air. While walking on the pathways, you stumble over the jar and you wonder who has left this jar in your way. Then you stumble over the small chair or a stone and you wonder who has left these things in your way. You have forgotten that you yourself have left these objects on the pathways of your garden. After stumbling over one object after another you finally say, “It is really strange how the world has turned upside down!” Who has turned the world upside down? You yourself have turned your world upside down, you yourself have put these stumbling blocks in the way of your life and now you wonder who has put them there. You stumble over some object and you start grieving. Do you really have to grieve because some small chair has been overturned? Should you feel sorrow because you stumbled and fell on the ground? You should feel sorrow if you learn that some enemy of yours has put this stumbling block in your way. But if you know that you are the only reason for this, then there is no need for sorrow. And then nothing else remains other than to reach down, pick up the obstacle and put it aside. Therefore, when studying Life, start with its most essential and simplest manifestations. As regards the essence of Life, this is an issue that you will never solve. Understanding the essence of Life means understanding what God is – in His fullness. It is impossible to understand God in His complete fullness. You cannot even understand the brightness of His consciousness. He is constantly alert, His consciousness embraces everything, and He is sovereign - unlimited and powerful in his ability do whatever He wants to. To you this is incomprehensible. Within yourself you become aware that you cannot do whatever you like, and so you feel unhappy. There is no need to suffer because your growth lies namely in your helplessness. Today you are filled with joy, you are jumping, singing, you think you can achieve everything; tomorrow you see that you cannot achieve anything. Today you are ascending, tomorrow you will descend, but you don’t know why you ascend or descend. It is exactly in these contrasting states that you grow. If someone asks you why you have come to this world you will not be able to answer. If someone asks you where you have come from – again you know nothing. Some philosophers, some scientists say that you have come from the outer world, but you don’t remember this. Do you have some memories from the outer world? Not only you don't have such memories, but you don’t even remember anything from the first year of your life. Do you remember anything from the first year of your childhood? You don’t. You don’t remember anything from your second or your third year even. Perhaps only in the fourth year of your childhood did your consciousness gradually start to awaken and as a result of this you have preserved some memories from that time. When you reason and analyse things in this way, you will see that there are some issues which are difficult to solve and which you'd better set aside. For instance, what would you write on the topic: “What is God?” Some would write that God is the Primary great force, which has created the world, which pervades the atoms and the molecules and which sets them into motion – this force has created the whole Cosmos, all the worlds, all the oceans, all the seas, etc. This isn't God. Others would write that God is Love. What does this Love consist of? When God, that is God’s Love, penetrates in man, he feels inside a warm, expanding feeling towards everything that is alive in the world. Such a person isn't narrow-minded, he sees things properly. Nothing is able to disturb his balance. They might rob him of his millions, they might deprive him of his houses – he wouldn’t wince. He knows that the warm and great feeling he has inside is worth more than any wealth in the world. When they rob him, he penetrates those who have robbed him and becomes a master again. When a certain form disintegrates, Life takes on another form, but this feeling remains. There is no form in the world that could limit this feeling. The problem is not that the form might disintegrate, but that the person may lose this feeling, that Love may abandon him. Anyone who has this feeling in him will remain quiet and calm even if he meets a bear on his way. Why? Because he would penetrate the bear with his consciousness, and the bear will surely step back. A person who has Love knows that the One lives within all beings. As long as you look at all people and all living beings as something separate from you, as something separate from your consciousness, you will always suffer. Then bears will attack you and people will cause you harm. You should look at all living beings as consciousness through which one and the same Life flows. There is one Life; one consciousness penetrates all living beings. Now I will give you one task, one experiment to do: to transform one of your sorrowful states into a joyful one. Imagine that you get up early in the morning and deep within yourself you feel a great sorrow. You feel like working – you don’t feel like working, you feel like talking with someone – you don’t feel like talking, you cannot stand anyone, you don’t love anyone. Your grief continues to increase and you reach a state of great despair. What should you do in this situation, how can you help yourself? Here is what you can do: for a moment remain quiet and calm within yourself and go over your sorrowful state in your consciousness. After that, try to transform this state of yours using the laws of harmony. If you succeed in achieving this, you will notice that a small amount of Joy penetrates your consciousness and your grief gradually weakens until it disappears completely. It means that Joy penetrates grief, so it disappears completely. Then you find out that there is no need for sorrow. If the opposite happens, then grief penetrates Joy and drives it away. Everyone has experienced this: today he wins one hundred leva and he is delighted, tomorrow he loses one hundred leva and feels sad. These weals and woes are temporary and transient but with their help people grow and evolve. These are experiences that each of you has passed through and continues to pass through every day. For example, you are a disciple in an occult School and you have thought of something nice and you are glad, you are satisfied with yourself. Then your Master comes to you and tells you that you don’t know a B from a bull’s foot, that you know nothing; immediately you believe him and you become disheartened, your mood changes. I am asking you – should the disciple get discouraged at once? If he has knowledge, can this knowledge disintegrate because of one word coming from his Master? Imagine that on your back you carry a rucksack with forty kilograms of gold; suppose that you meet an acquaintance of yours and he asks you: “What do you carry in your rucksack?” – “I carry forty kilograms of gold.” “You are mistaken, you haven’t got any gold in your rucksack.” – “Don’t I? I’ll prove it to you right now.” So you take your rucksack off your back and you start counting the gold. I say: this is what true Knowledge is. The one that has Knowledge cannot have doubts in it. So when they tell you that you know nothing, you should get your rucksack off your back and start examining your knowledge. The task of the occult School is to free disciples from the outdated views which have deposited in their consciousness from the past. The value of contemporary people’s views is similar to the value of paper money, of the banknotes that they use. For instance, at present gold is hidden and people use primarily paper money whose value decreases every day. So there is some uncertainty in the lives of people – some uncertainty which they should free themselves from. The same holds true about knowledge too. Some thoughts and ideas are stored in human subconsciousness which aren't real and which don't have positive value. For this purpose your consciousness should be stirred into action, so you can free yourself from your unreal knowledge and keep with you only the knowledge that comes from life experience. If you cannot help yourselves, then ask some friend of yours to help you. If he understands the laws, your friend will change your state and you will see that this knowledge which you used to attach great importance to before, is worth nothing today. We call these changes in your states occult massages. Contemporary medicine recommends massages. Occultism also recommends them, but under the condition that the disciple’s mind is focused and concentrated. Whatever experiments you do you should know that not all of them will be successful. If ten experiments out of one hundred are successful, they are enough to add something to your belief in the laws of Intelligent Nature. Let’s come back to our main idea - Life. Many people say that Life is motion. There is motion only where this pleasant inner feeling is at work – the feeling of Love towards all living beings. Wherever this feeling is at work, there is Life. When you get up in the morning you should experience this feeling inside you, so you can be positive, active, and have an impulse for work. This is what it means to feel the impulse of each living being, irrespective of whether it is higher or lower than you. The first law of Life is the law of polarities. This signifies that the circle, which represents the entirety of Life, is geometrically divided into two equal halves. The letter "ж", with which the word “живот” (Bulgarian for "life") begins, is composed of the two halves of this circle, which have been turned with their back sides towards each other and joined by the diameter of the circle. This movement continues to infinity. These curved lines are called parabolas. If a body moves along such a curved line, it will go to infinity. When a body starts from the right thumb and moves upwards along the forefinger, one year, ten years, one hundred, one thousand or more years later, it will come back through the left hand, descend along the forefinger and reach the thumb of the same hand. If you join the tips of both thumbs and both forefingers, they will form the shape of the human being. These two semicircles which form upon the opening of the thumbs and the forefingers of both hands represent the polarization of human life. Consequently, man has originated from the movement of these two circles. The circle itself represents the Divine consciousness in which the human being moves. This consciousness is a common centre for all movements. The second law through which Life unfolds is the law of descending and ascending. During descent a reduction takes place, whereas during ascent widening and increasing take place. At these two points the warm and tender feeling in a person diminishes at one moment and at another moment manifests itself again, i.e. at times it decreases, at other times it increases. This pleasant feeling lasts for one moment only, but when it is lost, a certain gap remains in human consciousness. Even the smallest reason is capable of bringing a person to a position where he loses this pleasant and beautiful feeling. However you can gain this feeling in the same way that you have lost it. Consequently you should conceive Life as a moment – it manifests itself within the realms of time and space, but it is beyond time and space. Therefore Life cannot be embraced - it can only be felt. That is why a person can only note that a certain feeling has appeared, or another one has disappeared, but he cannot define when exactly it happened. The moment in which Life manifests itself is beyond time and space. If you draw a straight line over the middle of a human face, the letter "ж" will be formed. This shows that the human face gets polarized, that it can be divided into two halves. In one of them feelings occupy the first place and thoughts are second. In the other part of the face it is exactly the opposite – thoughts are in the first place and feelings are second. When we talk about the human who is made of flesh, i.e. the human who descends, we mean that his feelings have gained mastery over reason. When we talk about the spiritual human, we mean that intelligent Life has supremacy over his feelings. This can be seen from the very face of a human. When someone's lower feelings take over his thoughts, the lower part of his face gets harder and broadens; if noble thoughts and feelings prevail in him, then the upper part of his face narrows and gets more delicate. This can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine the direction in which somebody's inner life moves. For one week you should make the following observation on yourself: when you wake up in the morning, observe carefully if this pleasant feeling is present inside you. It is a constant feeling and it is present in everyone, but you have to watch yourself, perceive it properly and distinguish it from other feelings. As long as you focus on yourselves, try to feel this pleasant feeling of Life, observe it without criticizing. Some of you will notice that this feeling manifests in your mind, others – that it manifests in your heart, while others still will notice it manifesting in their consciousness. If it is in their consciousness, they will perceive it as a small, tender, pleasant light. It comes out from the centre of their consciousness as an intelligent force. Even the lightest touch of this light, of this intelligence is enough to transform a person and make him perceive things with greater wisdom. This is what awakening of consciousness and wise living mean. When you fall into a gloomy state, this light centre gradually starts to darken and small black dots which are in constant movement begin to form around it. While they are moving, they cast a shadow over the bright beams of this centre. Now I wish for you as disciples of the occult school to live and to make use of your own experiences – not the experiences of other people. As long as you use your own life experience, you will sit on the Eternal cliff where no dangers or surprises are possible. If you don’t have your own experience, then everyone will be able to deceive and fool you. You might say for some things that they are real, and for others that they aren't real. I am asking: are you alive? If you are alive, if you are on the eternal cliff, everything is real there. This can be proven easily. How? Take the candle of your life and see if you can read with its light. – “I can't read.” Since you can't read, then you aren't inside Reality. Come to me now and see if you can read with the candle of my life. – “I can read.” Since you can read then both of us are in Reality. This Reality never changes. Martyrs, who have a well-developed sense of Life, never change. Tortures, persecutions and suffering aren't able to shatter them or make them hesitate – they always preserve their feeling of Joy. Therefore, when it comes to Life, you shouldn't look for it anywhere on the outside – neither in Space, nor in the Sun. Where is Life? It is inside you. If you want to find Life you need to concentrate on yourself. This feeling of Life that occultists call Divine consciousness moves with a very high speed. It moves with such a high speed that in a single moment you can go wherever you want to – the Sun, Sirius, Venus etc. Because this movement is absolute, it seems that it absorbs all remaining movements while its own movement remains unnoticed. Those of you who haven't had such an experience would say, “It might be so, but it might also not be so.” Some day, however, when you find this feeling inside you, then you will see how high the speed of its movement is. Then you will feel that the whole Universe, all living beings – from the smallest to the largest, from the tiny flies to the Angels are within you. This movement manifests everywhere – it is Life itself. I wish that this feeling manifests within you and that all of you recognize the Life inside you. Do the following experiment: watch yourself for a whole week and see if you can discern this feeling within yourself. You will surely find something. All the ancient schools have taught us that man cannot know the lives of other people unless he gets to know his own. You shouldn't think that your present life is bad. No, it is the best life that you can have now. For the time being you cannot be given a better life than your present one. Next time I will subject one of you to a test to see what he has learnt from the lecture. The disciples will use words to offend him, and we will see if he is able to transform these words. It is not easy to pass such a test. Of course, those who will be subjected to this test should have a strong back and be able to endure. Don’t think that you will do without such tests. All of you will pass through a sieve. This test is scary! It is a whole operation which requires great composure. When they want to put somebody to the test they place him in a retort and there the tests begin. Once they see themselves in a retort, or lying on the operating table, many of you will say, "We never thought that these people who are so noble could treat us with such cruelty.” You should know that in the occult School the following morale is applied: they start badly and they finish things well. As long as the end result is positive, then the actions are considered moral. For us it is the end results which are important. You shouldn't think that we want you to give up your life. Not at all - we just want to show you the shortest route; we want to set in motion everything that has been deposited into your souls and remained there as potential for ages; we want all the seeds and forces within you to be developed and cultivated. If this is not achieved, then given the way you are living now, at some point you will stumble and come to a halt in your development. This is the reason why the occult schools have been kept hidden from people. Why? Because without understanding the laws, due to their curiosity people have caused them great mischief. They have done what some people still do to blossoming trees today: some person passes by a tree in bloom and without thinking much reaches out and breaks off a branch. After ten people break off a branch each, the tree becomes crippled. When a person does experiments there is a danger that after several people pass him by, each of them might break off a branch and cause him some harm. That is why Christ was telling His disciples that they should beware of swine. When the trees are blossoming, enjoy their scent from a distance, but don't touch their blossoms. Such is the great law of Nature. Now here is an analogy: when a school or university student is interested in the subject his teacher or professor is teaching, then the latter behaves especially well; if the student is careless about his lessons, then the professor is careless towards him, too. In the same way, as soon as we show an interest in this important psychological moment in Life, the Beings who are superior to us and who have completed their evolution, begin to show interest in us and to help us. An inner connection is established between their consciousness and ours. These Beings are close to you, but in order to feel them your consciousness needs to awaken and the tender feeling of Life to manifest inside you. Then you will feel that there is Life where you haven’t even imagined; you will feel that this Life is intelligent – something you haven’t thought of so far. Intelligent forces will then begin to flow in from places you haven't expected. This will be the result of your first experiment. In that case if you have decided to go, let’s say, to Musala, one of these intelligent Beings will start talking to you and determine the programme of your trip. It will tell you what time you should start, what paths to take, it will even tell you where you will meet a bear, so that you don’t get scared, etc. You start for Musala and everything happens as you were told. After that you will be told that you will meet an old man who will stop you and start a conversation with you; further on you will meet a beautiful young woman who will only smile at you. So you keep walking and indeed everything happens as predicted. When you get back home you remember all this and say, “Does anyone really talk to me?” Yes, of course someone talks to you. This Being makes a second attempt, then a third attempt with you; it says, “You will go to such and such a place, you will dig there and you will find a treasure. After that you will go further into the forest and after walking for ten kilometres you will dig in the soil at this particular place and you will find a valuable manuscript. You will find out the key to this manuscript and read it." I am asking now, is this an illusion or reality? – Whatever it says to you always comes true. When the spirits talk to you, however, nothing happens as they say – nothing comes true. When the intelligent higher Beings talk to you then everything turns out to be absolutely true without any exceptions. Finally, after you have done these experiments, your friend will tell you; “Be careful in your life because we see everything. Be careful in your thoughts, wishes and actions, because we know everything.” Then you will believe in this feeling inside you and will have gained valuable experience. And again you will hear the voice of your friend: “Always be cautious!” Secret prayer Source

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

Беседата на български Note 6 Distinctive Qualities of the Will Year 2, Lecture 2 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno on October 11, 1922, Sofia Without fear! Without darkness! Secret prayer For next time, please write on the following topic: "Distinctive features of Life". What are the distinctive qualities of the will? The first quality of the will is firmness. Firmness is the supporting pillar of the will. So the will has to be as firm and unwavering as a crag. The second quality of the will is bravery and fearlessness. The third quality of the will is the ability to apply things in practice, to bring them to realization, but without procrastination. Often a negative thought would come to a person's mind. Can't the manifestation of will stop the person in his act? When we talk about will, we have its positive manifestations in mind. The negative displays of will are accidents. If a train stops in the middle of the track, this is an accident. Its stops are pre-determined - from one station to another. Every stop which is different from the specified ones isn't part of the timetable of the train. Therefore firmness, bravery, fearlessness, and ability to apply things in practice are necessary qualities for the will to manifest itself in the physical world. In addition to the physical world, the will manifests in the mental world as well. The distinctive qualities of the will in the mental world are understanding, realizing, grasping, and sensing. What you have understood, you will realize; what you have realized, you will grasp, what you have grasped, you will sense. Can you go from the stage of grasping to that of understanding? No, you will walk in a consecutive fashion. One of the distinctive qualities of the will in the Divine world is its nobility - the will must be noble and be motivated a noble impulse, a noble stimulus. When you know the distinctive qualities of the will in three different worlds, you will be able to influence your body, your heart, and your brain. For example, understanding, realizing, grasping and sensing are methods through which you can influence the front part of your brain. The closer a certain brain centre is to the physical world, the bigger the influence it is subjected to from the physical qualities of the will - firmness, bravery, fearlessness without procrastination. The development of the upper part of the brain, i.e. the development of moral feelings can be achieved through noble stimulus, which is brought about by compassion, truthfulness, love of God and love of the fellow men. The human body serves as a tool for exercising the will. In order to come into contact, into direct communication or proper exchange with the powers of Nature, by all means you need to know how to control your body. The organs in the body have to be under the control of the will. People make volitional and non-volitional movements, their bodies have volitional and non-volitional functions which shows that many things don't depend on their will. For example palpitation, thoughts, feelings are outside of the control of human will. The science of the occult offers a number of methods for controlling human thoughts and feelings. As much as people may deny the fact that thoughts and feelings are out of the control of the will, this can be proved easily: it is enough for somebody to pierce you with a needle and you would jump immediately and change your mental state, even reach a point of explosion. Exploding, getting angry are processes which are out of the will's control. They are processes of fermentation. Each fermentation process is due to a special kind of bacteria which causes souring. Many similar bacteria exist in the physical, as well as in other words. In order to free yourselves from the influence of these bacteria, you need to exercise your will and thus affect the brain, especially the power of imagination. The brain must be under the will's control. Imagination represents the opening in the dark room, the camera obscura, which needs to have light-sensitive photography glass in it. It is up to the photographer whether he will open or close this camera obscura. When he is about to take a photograph, he opens the camera. When imagination is not under the will's control, the lense of this camera is continuously open. As a result timely and untimely, conscious and unconscious imprints are made in the brain. If you understand the laws of Nature, you will know when to open and close this camera. There are situations when you don't need any external impressions at all. For example, two people are arguing, you stop, open your camera, and take impressions. These impressions are passed on to the brain and two or three hours later they are still being played out in your mind. Some time needs to pass before these impressions wear off and the brain returns to its normal state. Take another scenario: you are passing by a restaurant at 12pm - it is time for lunch. You want to go in and have a meal. You feel your pockets and it turns out that you don't have any money. You start walking down the streets dissatisfied and indisposed as you keep bringing to mind the image of all these people eating. You pass by a second restaurant, then a third one and you see everybody eating. Your mood keeps deteriorating and you wonder why you have to fast today. Through this fast mindful beings have put you through a test to examine your will. On that specific day you shouldn't walk by restaurants. Of course that is exactly when you have the desire to walk around all the restaurants hoping that you will meet some friend who will invite you for lunch. On that day you should stay home and philosophize about it, "So many years I have been eating and drinking. What have I gained from this? Can't I not eat and fast for at least one day?" That is how an occult disciple should think. Fasting for a day doesn't mean torturing oneself with hunger. Staying hungry for a day is incidental, it is something temporary in life which should be perceived in a positive way. As you can see, Nature's methods are completely different from man's. Things in Nature aren't as systematic as people would have them be. At first sight, everything in Nature seems disorderly. When you climb onto mountain tops, you see valleys, forests and fields where everything is in a big state of disorder - here you see big trees and right next to them - some small ones; there you see big and small flowers all mixed up; somewhere else you see big and small stones next to each other or they are scattered around. You watch and you wonder at this disorder. When a human arranges a garden, in the first rows he puts the smaller flowers, then the bigger ones and arranges everything in this consecutive order. If he arranges stones, he will first place the smaller ones, then the bigger ones, etc. However, someone who understands the laws will be able to see through the external disorder and understand the sensibility, the intelligence of Nature. When moving in Nature it is important to think and to study Nature's methods and laws. Learn about the development of one tree and you will see what harmony exists in its different parts. You see that one tree has bent a little. This is not accidental. The bending of the tree shows that it has met some kind of obstacle on its way. In order to overcome this obstacle the tree has bent a little. It means that some intelligence has supervised the development of this tree. Therefore, when we see warping or some kind of disorder in Nature this hints at the unfavourable conditions which exist on Earth. If these conditions have been overcome, this shows that great intelligence exists in Nature. Similarly, human thoughts and feelings are scattered and disharmonious. Why? Because the conditions you live in aren't optimal. What do you need to do? You need to rebuild your brain and your heart. How will you rebuild them? By putting new content in them - new thoughts and feelings. Rebuilding your brain doesn't mean ruling over it. People often say that they need to take rule over Nature. No, nobody can ever rule over Nature. Nature represents the body of God. God will never let anybody rule over His body and do with it as he pleases. By wanting to impose their rule on Nature, contemporary people get into big misfortunes and evil. Thus Nature gives them a good lesson and shows them that they can't rule over it. They need to obey her and listen to her. Do you think that the father will let his son put a strap on his mouth and play with him as if he were a toy-horse? Ruling over Nature means ruling over our thoughts, feelings, and desires. Another distortion that can be observed in contemporary people is their belief that they need to influence and control each other. This is easy but it isn't allowed. The Dark Brotherhood has a number of methods for that. If you tie the legs and arms of a sleeping person, you have already taken over him. After he wakes up you will tell him: "Now you have to obey my orders." What do you gain by doing that? You can take control over the person's body but never over his mind and his heart. After he frees himself from the rope, he will do the same with you. While someone is sleeping you can tie him up, and once he is tied up, you can exert an influence on him, but after he wakes up the influence will remain only over his body, not his mind, heart, soul or Spirit – these can never be tied up or obey someone else's orders. Thus exercising the will of The White Brotherhood requires every thought to be pure, frank, proper and noble. A strong will expresses itself in conciliatory deeds, not in rough physical action as contemporary people see it. Imagine that one day you are given one hundred opportunities to do evil and one opportunity to do good. Your willpower will show in these hundred cases if you use it in a conciliatory way. However, if you commit a hundred evil deeds, the one good deed won't be able to compensate for all the crimes you have committed. Therefore, everybody needs to exercise self-control and use his will to understand his relation to Nature and to his fellow men. In order to study the manifestations of the will you need to watch the plants. If you go into a pine wood, for example, you will see that pines grow near to each other and take on the shape of a cone. By growing close to each other they save space. Pines transfer this quality to elms, as well as to other trees that grow around them. For example, elms that grow near pines take on a conical shape, but if they are far from them, they grow both upwards sideways. Pines, however, always keep their conical shape. This shows that pines have spiritual discipline, they aren't materialist. Therefore, when it expands sideways, the will has materialistic aspirations; when it keeps its conical shape and its constant desire to grow upwards, its aspirations are spiritual. I will now give you a method for the development of the will. This is the so called conciliatory method. It is only for people who have a strong will. The method is as follows. Imagine that you are a student, you have 25 000 leva in savings for your allowance but somebody accidentally gets into the room and steals your money. This sets off a number of trials: your landlady throws you out of her house, the restaurant owner doesn’t allow you to eat in his place, your friends leave you and you remain on the street alone, without accommodation, wandering through the streets without any help. When you imagine this, watch yourself to see what feelings awaken in you. If you get scared and say to yourself that you hope such a trial never comes to you, you will have failed. Irrespective of how much you pray to be spared such a trial, there is a possibility of it happening to you, and there is a possibility of it not happening to you. Both are possible. Do you think that when you enter a musical school you won't be given difficult exercises? If the student says to his teacher that he only wants easy exercises, the teacher will say, "Go and find another teacher!" Those who want to learn must be ready to do all exercises - both the easy and the difficult ones. If you go to a painter, you will experience the same. If you say that you want easy exercises only, the teacher will say, "Go and find another teacher!" Therefore, once you enter the occult School, you should expect difficult tasks. If you are under the illusion that you will be given easy tasks only, the teacher will say, "Go and find another teacher! This school isn't for you!" Therefore, just as exercises are necessary in science, music and art, methods are necessary in occult science too. If you don't apply in practice the methods that are given to you, you will not reach the intended aim and will not gain the necessary knowledge. There are people in the world with a strong, firm will. When the time comes for an operation, such a person gives his arm for an incision to be made without any anaesthetic. He remains calm, not a single muscle quivers on his face and when the operation ends, he says, "Have you finished already?" How did he develop that will? He did it with the help of exercises, by applying different methods in practice. I would like you to have that kind of will as well. When the knife reaches the bone, to be able to put your hand upon the wound and in twenty minutes for it to be healed. A person with a strong will can do that. Why? Because he can concentrate the prana in the air and aim it at his wound. In order to achieve that kind of willpower, you need to be merciless about your mistakes - not to criticize yourself but to state things the way a seismograph registers earthquakes or the way the light-sensitive slab in photography imprints images. Don't be blind to your mistakes, but correct them! How will you correct your mistakes? Visit any musical school and you will see how the teacher corrects his student. They play together and if the student makes a mistake somewhere, the teacher says, "You don't play correctly, start again". And they both start again. After the disciple corrects his mistake, the teacher says, "Now let's move on, take the next position!" When making a mistake, should the student put the bow down, start crying and say, "Teacher, forgive me, I made a mistake"? There is no reason to cry or to interrupt the process of playing. He needs to move on. And so when you make a mistake, don't put the violin and the bow to the side but go on making one attempt after the other until in the end the tones of your violin blend with the tones of your teacher's violin. After that continue forward.What is the violin for a human? The violin represents the human body. What do music students do? When things don't go well, they sell their violin. Keep the following rule sacred: even in the hardest conditions in life do not sell your violin! A violinist who sells his violin because of difficult circumstances in Life is doomed to great suffering. - "He had debts, which he had to pay for." - If he has debts he should play. In this way he will pay for his debts more easily than if he sells his violin. From an occult point of view, it is not allowed for a disciple to sell his violin. If he sells his violin, he will find himself out of the school. Every disciple must have his own violin; the school doesn't loan violins. Therefore, no matter what your body is like, or what kind of deformities it has, you are able fix it. How? You can fix it through exercises. Just as the sound of a violin gets better and better with playing, in the same way a human body can be improved and developed through exercises and effort. For example, this year I may give you the task of working on your nose - of elongating it or to widening it by 1-2 millimetres. It is easier to widen the nose than to elongate it. In order to make your will steady and positive, you need to change the thumb and the lower part of your chin. The lower part of the chin needs to jut out a little and have a small hollow. This shapes the chin, gives it a nicer form. The thumb has to widen and elongate. If you are unable to achieve that, what kind of will do you have? You say that people influence each other. I am asking, when you were students what influence did you render at university? You have convictions but you are afraid of people getting to know you, and try to pass unnoticed. You want to be like the rich tradesman who tries to pass unnoticed by the robbers, so that they don't rob him. That is the way a cowardly man acts. Whoever has a positive creed, a positive conviction, should be ready to defend his creed not with words but with actions. A man with conviction is like a current that passes through wires - wherever it passes it produces light and warmth. The minds of most secular people function mainly around the ears, near the temples, and as a result of this their thought can't move to the upper part of the brain. The experienced gardener sends the water there in order to moisturize these parts and induce higher thoughts in them. That is the way Nature works. How does it educate the materialist villager? As long as the harvest is rich, he goes around the taverns, drinks, says cheers to friends, doesn't think about anything. In order to make him think, Nature starts educating him. How? It sends drought. The villager sows but the harvest is small and the drought is big. The villager sits and thinks, "What is this about? How have I sinned before God?'' He thinks and raises his eyes upward. If no rain comes in the next two to three years, all that was planted will dry up. The villager becomes more reflective and more humble. Therefore when Nature wants to educate someone, she takes away from him the objects that divert his attention and prevent him from thinking. Another method which Nature uses with materialists is placing wedges. This method doesn’t need too much talking. You pass by any materialist and say to him quietly, "Do you think that matter is something real?" or "Do you think that our present life is permanent?'' You say these words and walk away, they are like wedges in a person's thought process. Then the person starts thinking. Nature aims to compel man to think, not to convince him. After his thought starts operating, he will search for you, he will want to speak with you upon the matter. But in this case too don't talk to him for too long, let him talk. When he expresses his thoughts, ask him: "Do you think that your views are right?" This will offend him and he will go on speaking and trying to prove that his views are right. When he talks you should listen to him carefully. It's enough to awaken his interest once and he will start looking for other opportunities to speak with you. He doesn't succumb, he even fights back consciously, but his thought starts working. Once his thought starts working, the energy of the new thought penetrates him and starts watering the upper centres of the brain. This method is called the method of plugging up. Through this method you will plug up the person in one place, so that he will search for an exit from somewhere else. You should make small experiments of this kind and see what results you will have. Reflection Without fear in boundless Love!

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

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

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

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

Беседата на български Note 5p MANIFESTATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS Year 1, Lecture 18 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 28, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer There was a presentation of the disciples' essays on the topic: “The most powerful virtue of the disciple”. Next time please write on the topic: “The most powerful feature of Light”. When you write on this topic, take into consideration the feature of Light which one notices first. Any other features which come to mind after the first one are weaker. When you go to a vineyard, notice that the first grapes, which are the ripest and the sweetest ones, show the strength of the vine itself. A vine that gives only sour and unripe fruit is weak. It has no inner ability to develop its fruit. Therefore, each thing that is revealed first, and in a complete and well developed form, is the strongest of its kind. If it comes last, in an incomplete form, it is the weakest one. You should observe the same law in respect to virtues. Each thing that appears first in someone’s soul has the greatest power. Each thing that appears last is the weakest one. Therefore, when you write on a topic, first pay attention to its real aspect, which sticks out first, and then to its abstract aspect which is the weakest one. Now, being still young people, you should be cautious not to fall into certain traps in your Life, which may hamper you. There are certain decoys in the world, similar to the ones that inventors create for people. When they want to attract the attention of the audience to their inventions, they say the following, ‘Do you know how useful our inventions are? If applied in life they will generate great reforms. They will contribute to culture and so on.’ The invention might not yet be available, but they already advertise it. I am asking, how can you recommend an invention that has not been created yet? Each invention can be evaluated only after its implementation. This is the reason why you should consider things well. For example, reflect on the most outstanding feature of water, of fire and so on. Which is the strongest feature of fire in your view? – Fire gives warmth. Which is the strongest feature of Love? Often people fall into contradictions which they cannot solve. You have such contradictions as well. If you are asked, for example, about the strongest feature of the tongue, you will come to a contradiction, and you will not know how to respond. Why? – Because the tongue has several functions. The first one is to facilitate the passage of food and water into the stomach, the second one is to taste – with the tongue you taste food, the third function of the tongue is to speak. Which function is given first to the tongue? - The first one. Actually, in order to maintain life, a human being uses the tongue first to send food into the stomach. Therefore, one should be satiated first in order to be able to speak. First you take food, then you taste it and finally you speak, i.e. you voice your opinion about it. These three physical functions of the tongue correspond to other functions in the higher worlds: the first function of the tongue in eating is in the physical world, the second function – tasting - is related to the Spiritual world and the third function – speech – is related to the Divine world. Love also has different manifestations. It is said that Love requires sacrifices. Which world does sacrifice and self-sacrifice relate to? Who is able to sacrifice himself? It is the wise person who can sacrifice himself, not the foolish one. Consequently, sacrifice relates to the Angelic world. When a fool sacrifices himself, he is like a butterfly that flies around a lamp in the evening and gets burnt up. Its sacrifice is unconscious. A reasonable sacrifice may belong only to a wise person. Consequently, only an intelligent and wise person is able to sacrifice himself. If such a person sees someone drowning in the sea, he will jump into the water, thus risking his life, but he will try to save the one in need. Only a clever person, who has been gifted with intuition, will go into the water to save someone. Do you know what the most powerful feature of Love in the physical world is? It is motion. Therefore, if there is great motion somewhere, there is also great Love there. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Astral world? – Feeling. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Mental world? – Thought, the process of thinking. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Causal world? – Causes. The love of someone who lives in the Causal world is solid and never changing. The proverb: “A word spoken is past recalling” is true for such a person. Sacrifice refers to the Causal world. Only such a person lives or at least sometimes penetrates the Causal world - the one who can sacrifice himself. And only such a person who has something to sacrifice is able to sacrifice. Only those who live in the Causal world have something to sacrifice. As long as someone lives in the physical world only, he has nothing at his disposal and can sacrifice nothing. The wealth of a human being lies in the Causal world. That is why there are things there that can be sacrificed. You should all have notebooks to write your essays in. Each topic has a distinctive feature. After you have written the essay, it will introduce a new idea into your mind. Each topic represents a note of a given scale. If you connect all essays into one piece, you will form a whole musical piece. You should note the following: if your limited consciousness prevails over everything in you, it will hamper your progress and your entire development. You could easily verify this. How? If you observe the development of a child, you will see that it grows and develops properly due to the fact that its mind is not busy with the thought of its growth, whether and how it grows, etc. But if you manage to occupy its mind with the thought that it should grow and develop fast, its growth will cease. Therefore, if you begin to live with the thought of your growth, you will be hampered like the little child. One thing is required of you: to have an aspiration towards growing, but then you shouldn't think about it any more. Why? Growth is a Divine process which doesn't depend on you. You cannot make yourself grow. If you want to grow, put aside your temporary limited consciousness and allow your soul to freely develop. Introduce into your sub-consciousness and into your higher consciousness your wish to grow and don't think about it any more. You will see that you will achieve a positive result after some time. Contemporary people are hampered in their development due to certain manifestations that take place too early in their life, before they have come to the relevant stage of development. For example, many have seen visions, dreams or lights before entering the School, so they say to themselves, ‘Let us join the School to attain more knowledge.’ However, until they continue to be guided by such limited consciousness, they will lose even the knowledge they had before. The right thing for them is to preserve the knowledge they acquired from the outside world, because it is not in contradiction with the knowledge they will acquire in the School. Inside or outside, it is the same School. First of all, you should aspire to Freedom – to be free in spirit, soul, mind and heart. If you fail in something, you shouldn't be discouraged. Failure is a good sign. You know how difficult it is to achieve things under the law of evolution. Do you know what trials an ox needs to go through in order to become a human being? If the ox decides to describe its story and calls its path “golden and royal”, it will not tell the truth. How many times it was skinned, how many fields it had to plough, how many times it was goaded! It has gone and will go through great trials and great suffering before it reaches the human status. If you want to move from your present position to a higher one, you will also endure great misfortunes and suffering. It is law. Do not deceive yourself with the idea that you could evolve easily. If someone tells you that you could reach the royal path without trials and suffering, they don't tell the truth. This doesn't mean that you should create suffering yourself, but once you have been put on a trial, you cannot escape it. Be bold and resolute and accept suffering in the way it is given to you. Many of you want to have visions and spiritual experiences. This is an appropriate wish but specific conditions are necessary for it to be fulfilled. If you plant a small flower in a pot, you have to put good soil and water it regularly so that it may grow well. Otherwise it will dry up in a while. The centres needed for contact with the Spiritual world have a similar role. Spiritual experiences require relevant conditions for their manifestation. For example, in order to be a clairvoyant, one needs to have a broad forehead, e.g. well developed imagination skills. If you want to develop clairvoyance, you should communicate with people who have already developed this ability. Thus the energy that emanates from someone's well developed brain centres influence the corresponding underdeveloped centres in someone else. A disciple with an aspiration for music should seek people who have advanced musical abilities. Whoever likes drawing should make friends with artists. Writers should communicate with writers, priests - with priests, disciples - with disciples. As occult disciples, you should seek the company of learned people who know more than you. Before you wish for visions, you should develop inner courage, but not insolence. Some people behave impertinently, they intrude and think that they are courageous. Courage is a quality of a wise person. I will give you now a small exercise for a week: read in the morning and in the evening the third chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, from the first to the thirteenth verse, and reflect on the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. During the reflection, try to remember this talk not only as it was written, but with all those details which are missing but could be read between the lines. Reflecting on these verses will bring new images, new thoughts and ideas into your mind. Nicodemus was with Christ for many hours and they had a long conversation. If you could rebuild even a hundredth part of this discussion, you would attain a lot. If your consciousness is awakened, you will easily link with the past and recollect the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus. If you don't succeed in recollecting this conversation, you will still gain something. If you fail, don't be discouraged. Those who have lived during the time of Christ can easily return to the past and recollect the whole conversation. If you haven't lived in that age, you consciousness will be closed and you won't be able to remember anything. If you reflect on these verses for ten minutes every morning and every evening, you will feel peace and inner calm in your soul. Disciples complain of difficulties and hardships. You will always have difficulties until you create a magnetic atmosphere between you. Such an atmosphere, such an aura has not yet been established among you. You will feel it once it has been created. How? You will feel enthusiasm, enlightenment and an influx of new thoughts and ideas. You will go to bed well-disposed and content in the evening and get up fresh and full of new aspirations, thoughts and wishes for the Great and the High in the morning. And now you go to bed exhausted, you get up worn out with the words: ‘I have lost what I have.’ Why does this happen? - Because you invest all your capital in goods just like traders do, without putting any amount aside. You have goods, but you cannot sell them, you cannot meet your daily needs. This situation darkens your consciousness, so you suffer, doubt and say: ‘Why did I have to enter this enterprise? It would have been better if I had stood aside.’ If things go well, you will be content that you have entered the enterprise. Others prefer not to enter, although they don't gain anything in this way. They are content that at least they don't lose anything either. In my opinion, this is not good philosophy. While you are alive you have to either win or lose. Gains and losses go together in Life. Each gain is followed by a loss and each loss – by a gain. Losses and gains can come accidentally, but they can be conscious too. Next time please write on the topic: “The function of the human thumb”. Find books on this topic and read what has been written about the thumb. You should study your thumb – if it sticks up or down; if it is short or long; if it is well-shaped or not. When you research this question, write no more than twenty lines. Learn to write briefly, clearly, and conceptually. What you write should represent a small sketch. Each idea represents a seed. Collect such seeds in your bags and when the time comes, sow them. Many of you study and work but still think that they haven't achieved anything. As long as they think this way, they have conditions for achievements - this shows that they want to study. When someone comes to school with the idea that he knows nothing, he has possibilities to study and advance. He says: “I am aware now that I know nothing yet. I am glad that I joined the School.” This is the awakening of consciousness. Then the disciple will want to fill his gaps of missing knowledge. Therefore, when someone is aware that he has lost something, he begins to strive for gain. The next homework that I will give you will be on the topic: “Tall and short people and their distinctive features”. You may know nothing about it, but when you think on the topic during the week as well as on the topic of the thumb, some ideas will emerge in your mind and you will write something. Tall people introduce one idea into the human mind, short people – another idea. Turks say that short people are a mischief for God. Short people are troublesome. There is also a saying that tall people are like wasps. But these sayings concern only the extreme types – the very tall and the very short people. If a tall man has narrow shoulders, then his height should correspond to all other parts of his body. The same is true for a short man who has broad shoulders. I will make an analogy to explain why some people are tall and others are short. I often observe the flowers in the garden and I have noticed that some of them, the hollyhock for example, grow higher when planted to the north than those planted to the south. That hollyhock, which is planted to the north, grows higher because it strives to see the Sun. In the same way we could explain why some people are tall and others – short. Tall people live in the north, where there is not so much sunlight. They strive to grow higher, so that they may see the Sun. This is the reason why pine trees grow in height. Thus, tall people develop in unfavourable conditions with a lack of sunlight but an abundance of moisture. Short people have grown in width - with a lot of sunlight but without moisture. This is a material, external, but not a conceptual difference between tall and short people. However there are also other physiological reasons that influence the growth of a human being. As disciples of the Great School do not think that this School comes into contradiction with common universal life. On the contrary, it solves all contradictions in life. Contradictions will vanish, but you should also work, not just wait for their solution without making any effort. Your progress depends on your karma. Whoever has more serious karma will encounter greater difficulties and obstacles and will evolve at a slower rate. Some day you are happy and self-content that you have gained something, but then a creditor of yours comes and robs you of it. Then once again you have to acquire materials and tools in order to work and achieve the same result. Those who have better karma will advance faster. In order to develop well, everyone should know his weakest point, so that he or she can work on it and transform it, because it is like a door through which one’s enemies enter. For example, someone likes boasting. He is given something or told something with the request to keep it secret, but he can't stand being silent and says to a friend: “I am going to tell you something, but don't tell anyone”. His friend tells it to another friend, the latter – to someone else and thus it spreads everywhere. If you are asked to remain silent, you should do so until you are allowed to speak. Someone has many desires, as a result he becomes absent-minded. He wants to be a philosopher, a scientist, a poet, a musician, an artist, a statesman, but he doesn't succeed in any of these fields. If you have many desires, put them aside and start implementing one of them only. When you implement it, then start with the second one, the third one and so on. If you intend to implement all your wishes at once, your thoughts will get scattered, you will exhaust your feelings, waste your time and won't achieve anything. You need to know the following: no matter how much you think about these issues, you will not have the same results as some of you lack well developed imagination skills, others – well developed reasoning, some lack faith, others – hope, observation abilities, reverence, self respect, friendliness and so on. As disciples of this School, it would be good to measure your foreheads in width and height as well as your noses and chins. After you have worked for a year upon your mental abilities or upon your chin as an expression of your will, measure them again and see if there is at least a microscopic change. Even the slightest increase indicates that you have succeeded in your work. Otherwise you will conclude that you have not worked well all year long. It is good for everyone to draw his forehead, nose and chin in exact sizes and to measure them again in a year, so that he can see how much he has achieved. If you worry about it, however, you won't achieve anything. You need to be able to concentrate your thought if you want to attain something and achieve certain results. For this purpose, you need to study the law of concentration in order to transform the occult forces and develop your mental and spiritual centres. That is the only way to achieve any results. If you have failures, don't get discouraged. You are capable of achieving everything – making your foreheads higher, prolonging your noses, re-modelling your chins. There is nothing you can't achieve or improve about yourself. A disciple should work and develop patience. How will he or she develop patience? Here is a method: when you are in low spirits and see a disharmonious feature on your face, take a mirror and look at it for ten minutes until you define the location of this feature on your face. Do not look into your eyes for more than ten minutes because you could fall asleep. While looking at your image in the mirror, you may say to yourself: “You need to be corrected!” Hold your negative feature in your mind and in a while you will see that it has been transformed under your suggestion. This method is not easy, but many of you can use it and achieve good results. If your eyes become watery when you look into the mirror, it is a sign that your nervous system is weak. If your eyes stop getting teary or never did, this indicates that your nervous system begins to strengthen or doesn't need strengthening. To begin with, look into your eyes for a minute or two without winking and forget that you want to influence yourself. Thus you will see that everything comes in its own time, unexpectedly for you, but gradually, not at once. Secret prayer

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

Беседата на български Note 5p REQUIREMENTS TO THE DISCIPLE Year 1, Lecture 16 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 14, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer Next time please write on the following topic: “Gemstones”. Now, I am taking the word “disciple” in its narrow meaning. One is a disciple as long as he studies, as long as he attends school. Discipleship is a specific state of mind. In the occult sense of the word, one can be a disciple as long as he keeps contact or connection with the Master. If one breaks or loses this connection, he or she is not a disciple any more. One needs obedience and attention in order to maintain constant contact. A human being can only be obedient towards the Higher Essence, towards the Divine. Absolute obedience is required here. Lower levels of consciousness need to be obedient and attentive towards higher levels of consciousness. Therefore, the disciple should have absolute obedience towards his Master. This obedience should come out of his or her consciousness. Before the disciple goes to the Master, he or she should know him and be obedient towards Him; if the disciple doesn't know the Master, he or she should make an effort to know Him. The disciple should have the necessary feelings and abilities that will make it possible for him to know his Master. The link between the Master and the disciple is not instantaneous – it did not take shape at a given moment nor is it temporary. It is eternal and has existed for thousands of years. The disciple should not become hesitant because of the failures he may experience at the very beginning of his discipleship. The world in which the Master lives and acts is absolute and does not accept any ignorance. The atmosphere in which the Master lives and acts is alive and whoever tries to enter it unprepared will subject himself to death. When I say that the disciple will be subjected to death, I have in mind the situation that a fish finds itself in when it is taken out of the water. When you take a fish out of the water and leave it on the ground, it will certainly die. The fish goes out of its natural environment and enters another one, which it cannot live in. Therefore, disciples should have obedience and attention towards their Master, so that they may gradually develop new feelings and abilities as a favourable foundation for the perception of the new ideas. So, if you go unprepared into the atmosphere of the Master, you will inevitably die. If you want to know why, look to the fish to see why it dies in the air. It has not adapted itself to the new conditions, as a result of which it suffocates. Observe how electricians work with electricity. They touch the wires very carefully to avoid an electric shock that may throw them on the ground in a second. Knowledge is required from those who work with electricity. Irrespective of who you are, if you don't understand the laws of electricity, it will throw you to the ground. And if you ask why, electricity will answer: “I like to have people around me who know more than me – I like learned people. I will kick out all those who know less than me, who are ignorant.” Furthermore, you should know that human bodies conduct either electricity or magnetism. At the same time human organisms can also conduct the so called black electricity or black magnetism. Black electricity and black magnetism come from darkness. This indicates that there is white electricity and white magnetism too, which come from the white light. Take a magnet and hold it towards a needle: the magnet attracts the needle. Is the magnet itself the reason for this attraction? No, a certain force, a certain current is hidden in the magnet, which attracts metals. If this current or force disappears, the iron itself is worth nothing. You should observe yourself too in order to see what currents flow and what forces act in your soul. If you play some instrument, if you play the piano, for example, you will be satisfied when all the keys give out precise and harmonious tones. But even if only a few keys do not generate the right tones, your playing will be disharmonious. Your first work will be to harmonize these keys in order to sound harmoniously. Therefore, if the slightest disharmony appears in your soul, you should harmonize the strings that sound incorrect. These tones, these strings have deviated from the common harmony, from the harmony of the whole. Your soul plays an instrument, consisting of three main octaves: the octave of the mind, the octave of the heart and the octave of the body. Each of these three octaves is also divided into three. So, your task is to see which of the octaves the deviation has occurred in. I will give you the following exercise for controlling the will: take a pin and pierce some thick part of your body up to a depth of two or three milimetres. Try to do it and see how you feel. Monitor your reactions to see the hesitations of your will. You will be brave in the first moment: you will take the pin, ready to stick it somewhere in your arm. But when the pin touches your skin, you will lift it at once – you have decided not to stick it in. You will try again and again you will take it away. It is interesting to count the number of hesitations you will have until you finally decide to stick it in. With this experiment you will test the strength of your will and your ability to concentrate. The number of your hesitations is a mathematical value which indicates your organism's condition and the time required for its tuning. Children do a similar experiment. When they see a river, they want to jump over it. They look at the river, it seems deep to them, so they make a few steps back. They dash towards the river, then go back, dash again and step back again. Finally they get new courage, dash once more and say to themselves: “I will try a jump, come what may – fall in the river or reach the other bank.” Once they make a dash, they overcome the obstacle. I am saying, there are many obstacles in your minds and in your hearts which you need to remove by all means. Thus you will tone the forces of your organism. This requires will, knowledge and strength. With the help of this new, positive knowledge you will transform and improve your character, so that you may easily overcome the difficulties that come your way. So if you use your knowledge in the right way, your character will improve; if you use it in the wrong way, your character will deteriorate. In that case you will say: “I used to be nobler and better earlier in life.” Nobility is always nobility, diamonds are always diamonds; gold is always gold. Why? Once you have succeeded in the transformation of a low element into a high one, according to the existing laws, there is no force in the world that can alter the results. Only the person who has transformed a low element into gold can reverse the process. Now that you know this, try to introduce into your bodies, brains and hearts those high and sustainable forces, which Nature uses for the development of humans. Only these forces are able to tune and regulate the energies of your solar plexus. Your sympathetic nervous system should be in perfect condition too. It there are unpleasant, bitter feelings in your heart, try to eliminate them. They will have a bad influence on your liver and cause a certain disorder in it. How many of you intend to complete the task that I gave you last time? I will also give you a formula to use while doing the task. The words you will pronounce will substitute the money that you used until now. You should say: “I am beginning to work with the Divine virtues that live inside me.” Use this formula every day, until you finish your task. It will act as a password for you. When you get up in the morning and undertake your task, pronounce this formula in your mind quietly, so that no one can hear you. When you refuse to use money for some time, you leave the weapon which you have used until today. Therefore you need to replace it with a new one. This formula will be your new weapon. Thus when you renounce money, you begin to work with the Divine virtues as keys for unlocking the human heart. You will gain your victories in this way. For the physical person money represents the same type of key: you will pay to this person or that person and you pave your way. You should be clever and witty like the worldly people, so that you may not miss any occasion for the application of the Divine virtues. I will give you an example with a worker, who was an occultist and was following God's orders in a certain way. He was looking for a job, so he knocked at a door, but got rejected; he knocked at a second door – again it was a rejection. The story repeated itself the next day. Two or three days, even a week passed by in the very same way and with the same result – no job for him. Finally this person fell into despair: his wife and children were waiting for him at home, but he had earned nothing for them. However, while he was walking in the streets, he saw a little girl who fell on the ground and broke her leg. He ran to her immediately, took her into his arms and carried her to her home. The child told him her address and the name of her father, who was a famous factory owner. When the child was brought home, her father thanked the poor worker and gave him a job in his factory as a sign of gratitude. What does this indicate? The child of the factory owner was the last lucky chance for the worker to find a job. If he hadn't been cautious, he would have missed this chance. A disciple should be awake, because if he is not careful enough and neglects a small task, the disciple may miss a favourable opportunity. This chance was the last one for the worker to find a job, but the first of the favourable occasions for him. It was only through this incident that he could find a job, i.e. that he could realize his idea. Many of you think that when they join the School, all paths for the implementation of their ideas will be open. They deceive themselves. Sometimes such great difficulties are created for the disciples that they get into a quandary, they don't know what to do. If they don't know the laws they will become discouraged and fall into despair over and over again. Their situation is similar to that of passengers traveling through seas and oceans; when they become sea-sick, they fall into despair and regret that they have taken the ship, but when they recover, their despair also disappears. I am saying to you too: do not regret that you have joined the School! Be brave and resolute, and go ahead! This is meant for those who are ready to follow the School. Those who are not ready may leave whenever they want to. As disciples of an occult school, you should comply with the processes of Nature and not limit them. You may come to the processes of cleansing, growing or awakening of consciousness. You should pay attention to these processes and see what they generate in you. You should be self-possessed to endure anything that Nature might bring to you. For example, when Nature subjects you to the process of cleansing, you have very unpleasant feelings and as a reaction you want to fight with Her. You should know one thing: Nature does not stand any impurity. So She submits everyone who comes into contact with her to a thorough cleansing. When you come to such a process, you start philosophizing: “What does Nature intend to do with this?” Nature intends one thing – to purify you. What does a hungry person intend to do? He intends to find food and help himself. The difference between hungry people consists only in the images they hold in their minds: one wants just bread, another one wants bread and meat, a third one wants fried chicken and so on. The hungry differ among themselves only in their thoughts and wishes. If you watch someone who likes meat, you will notice a peculiar colour on his face. A few years ago, I met a lady in the street who was from high society and exceptionally beautiful. Her face was veiled, but her appearance was very pleasant. As she was walking down the street, she stopped in front of a butcher’s shop. Right away her face took on a specific expression, something unpleasant and disgusting appeared on it as her animal nature was awakened. She went into the butcher’s, bought something, and as she was coming out I saw on her face the previous mask, which produced a good and pleasant impression. However at the sight of the meat she couldn't master her lower nature. Having bought some meat, she had satisfied it and then her face regained its initial beautiful and pleasant look. Therefore, the inner thoughts and feelings hidden in you can influence your image at any moment. And each thought, on its turn, is complex; it contains possibilities for compound processes that are also reflected on one’s face. For example, the thought of food causes a number of processes in the human organism. Especially if one is hungry, he may see different pictures in his mind. He imagines a nice soup made of turkey or chicken with rice, or with pasta. He may also imagine roasted pork, cooked with mustard or horse-radish, together with several glasses of six-year-old wine instead of water. All this exhilarates someone who is hungry. He walks, visualizing this and that and if he passes by an inn where his wishes could be fulfilled, he only sighs and continues his way as he has no money to pay. Some years ago in Varna I met a secondary school teacher who had been fired. He was walking with me and philosophizing on various issues. At some point we passed by a small inn where steaks, spits of meat and grilled rissoles were being prepared for lunch. When the unemployed teacher smelled this, he said: “This is what happiness in life is about – having money in your pocket and being able to enter the inn and taste these things whenever you wish to. Now I am passing by, but I can't enter and take a grilled rissole.” I am saying: the whole philosophy of this teacher came to nothing because of these grilled rissoles. All he had said broke to pieces at the smell of the grilled rissoles. After that I told him: “Your unhappiness now is a stroke of luck for me. If I find myself in this inn, I will feel unhappy.” Why did this teacher lose his philosophy at the sight of a grilled rissole? This indicates that the old habits of a person can emerge again; they are alive, not dead. You meet an occult disciple who is known to have reached a high level of personal development. He speaks about abstention and about achievements, but when he passes by an inn or a coffee-house, at once his wish to eat some meat or to drink a cup of coffee, to smoke a cigarette and to play cards, awakens in him. These are the old habits which re-emerge in one’s mind as a temptation. One should be cautious so that he may get over the old images of the past and clear them off. It is enough to put someone in certain conditions and the old images will reappear in his mind. How is it possible that an occult disciple could encounter such contradictions? I will answer this question with the following example: take a caterpillar that has just been transformed into a butterfly but has forgotten to throw away its old thinking of a caterpillar, so it lives simultaneously in both states. When it is in the state of a caterpillar, it looks for leaves and comes to a contradiction – it cannot eat leaves. Then it comes to its senses, returns to its second state of a butterfly and starts flying from flower to flower, sucking from their sweet nectar. It doesn't need leaves since it has a proboscis. Similarly, an occult disciple could be hampered by his old life. He could wish to return to the past and he may fall into temptation. The past means a return to the old forms. If you come to the past, say to yourself: “I don't need it. I have already passed through these states; now I am looking for the new conditions.” Imagine that being a disciple of the School, you are put through the test not to lie. You carry this weakness of lying from your past. First you used white lies, then black lies. In this way, gradually and imperceptibly to yourself, you got used to lying. You have a very strict master now. When you make a mistake, you hesitate: should you tell him the truth, or should you lie. After an inner struggle about what to do, you decide to lie, to hide your mistake, so that you may keep your job. In this respect you may find yourself in the position of a servant who once told his master the truth, but was punished. In certain circumstances he was forced to tell his master the truth, but the latter got cross and punished him without any understanding. Then the servant told him: “Master, you make me feel confused! I have lied to you several times, but you have never punished me. Today I told you the truth for the first time and you punished me. I am wondering why you punished me – for the truth I told you or for the fact that I had always lied to you previously.” I am saying, the same may happen to you too. If you tell the truth once, you will be punished. This punishment comes from the Invisible world. You don't get punished because you have told the truth, but because you haven't spoken the Truth previously. This doesn't mean that you should expect to be punished each time you tell the Truth. The opposite may also happen: if you have always told the Truth and you told a lie only once, you will be rewarded not for the lie, but for the Truth that you have served by that time. The punishments and the rewards which the Invisible world lays on humans are very specific. For example, material enrichment is a sort of punishment given by the Invisible world. Indeed, when someone becomes rich, he begins to gradually lose his inner peace and calmness. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be rich. One should be rich but at the same time possess a strong and resistant character. A disciple should have a broad outlook on life; he shouldn't think that all things in existence are meant just for him. For example, when you walk by a garden with fruit trees, irrespective of how much you want to take some fruit, you don't have the right to do it if the master is not there. However everything belongs to God, doesn't it? Everything belongs to God, not to us. If you were meant to taste from the fruit, the master would have been there and he himself would have offered you some fruit. Some years ago, we were traveling with a friend from Varna to Burgas. I was walking on foot and he was riding a bicycle slowly. At some point it started to pour down with rain. We reached the Kamchia River somehow, but it overflowed due to the rain over a distance of several kilometres. My friend started carrying the bicycle on his back. But how could we continue further? We had to take our shoes off and walked into the water up to our knees. At that time we saw an inn nearby and stopped there for a while. The inn-keeper told us: “See, a cart driver is coming from over there, his horse is very strong and his cart is solid, but he is a headstrong man, he has not done a favour to anyone up to now, he will not agree to carry you in his cart.” – “We’ll try.” I went to the cart driver and told him: “My friend, will you help us? As you can see, our journey needs to continue across the river, but the water has risen a lot; we can cross the river, but we cannot carry the bicycle. Would you please take the bicycle in your cart and we will walk on foot.” – “I will help you with pleasure. Put the bicycle into the cart. But you may also get in the cart, I will easily carry you across the river.” I am saying, whoever is ready to take the bicycle into his cart will also take people. Whoever is not ready to take the bicycle, will not want to take people either. You should take the following into consideration: when one works with the Divine laws, one will see that there are absolutely no exceptions from them. Act according to these laws and don't worry about anything. We had decided to cross the river at any cost, we couldn't go back. We didn't rely on external help either, we were ready to carry the bicycle by ourselves. The Invisible world saw our readiness to help ourselves and the cart came. Then even the bad man became good and helpful. You should rely on yourselves. If a cart comes, it will be a privilege for you. If a cart doesn't come, you should go ahead. You may walk into deep water, but there is no way back. As disciples of this Great School, you should do many experiments in order to temper your character. However no one should know about them; no one should even suspect what you intend to do. Your experiments and actions should be natural, without any eccentricity. In this respect, Englishmen are free: they walk barefoot in snow early in the morning or in May, and no one pays attention to this. If such things happened in Bulgaria, people would criticize them and label them as eccentric. Therefore, it is better to do each exercise without bothering other people. The important thing is that each exercise has the purpose to temper you, to bring you out of the trivial order of things. For this purpose, the occult school offers to the disciples completely new methods for work which are expressed in beautiful and pleasant forms. Great sincerity is required of the disciple in order for him to succeed in his work. One should be sincere to oneself – never hide one’s mistakes, never exaggerate or diminish them. If one has made a slip, he could forgive himself for it, but should not find an excuse. Self-forgiveness means a conscious attitude to the slip. One forgives oneself but with the awareness that he should not repeat the mistake. Finding excuses for yourself - that the conditions were bad, that your karma was such – is not allowed. An error is an error, it doesn't need any excuses. You should state it as a fact and look for a method for its rectification. In some time, when you grow up and your mind gets visited by brighter and higher thoughts, then you will consider the problems from another point of view. Next time please write on the following topic: “The most powerful virtue of the disciple”. Everyone should reflect on this topic and write about a disciple's virtue that he considers most powerful. Some people compare virtues to gemstones. So, in the same way that you describe the properties of gemstones, you should describe the distinctive characteristics of virtues. We describe the properties and characteristics of all simple and compound chemical substances in the same way. For example, a specific property of water is its mobility or instability. Water is unstable, so that we might be stable. When we say that water is unstable, this means that it adapts to all conditions, good or bad. Another property of water is its dissolving ability – it is a good solvent. It cleans and washes bodies, due to its dissolving ability. At the same time, water has a cooling property. Everyone has experienced its cooling action in warm and hot days. Even uneducated people know these several properties of water. Ask a shepherd what water is – he will tell you immediately. Then come the other characteristics of water, known by scientists only, i.e. water is a compound substance, consisting of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen. Water has other properties also, but understanding these properties requires more in-depth knowledge. In the same way we can describe the properties of light, for example. Light has the ability to illuminate adjacent objects. It lightens the Path of humans. Water makes life easier. There is no life without water. When people want to establish a settlement, they look for a place rich in water. Sometimes there are torrents that may carry off houses, animals and people, but nevertheless water is a valuable asset, a carrier of Life. As disciples you should think properly, so you can write good essays about gemstones. You should bring to mind several gemstones that you know better and describe their characteristics. Write in general terms, but underline the reason why they are called gemstones. Then write the reason why some precious stones have a higher price than others. Precious stones educate us, that is why everyone wants to have them. They contain fine energy in a condensed, i.e. compressed state. Sometimes they may lose their brightness and strength, but then they recover them again. People are often the cause for such a loss. Precious stones lose their brightness because of some people and get it back owing to others. Since you know some of the properties of gemstones, think if it is possible for a person to be a precious stone. What precious stone would you like to be? Someone wants to be a diamond, another one – a ruby, someone else – a sapphire and so on. Think well on the topic and write as briefly as possible. You would say: “What connection do precious stones have with us?” You should know one thing: each thought and each feeling – the object of your reflection - exercises a certain influence on you. Thus you connect with it. This is true from an occult point of view. Each topic or issue you reflect on exercises a certain influence on you and is useful to you to the extent that you have succeeded in making a connection with it. It exercises a certain influence on your development. For example, when you reflect on the most powerful virtue of the disciple, even if you could not attain it, you will benefit a lot. What will be the benefit? Making a connection with virtues. Someone will write that the strongest virtue of a disciple is Love, another one will mention Faith, a third one – Mercy, a fourth one – his learning ability and so on. When you think about a specific virtue, you connect with it, even without suspecting it. This is namely the benefit of doing these writing tasks which are given to you in class. All virtues are equally significant and powerful but for a given period of time a certain virtue exercises the greatest influence over the character of a particular disciple. The main virtue of a soldier going to the battlefield is courage; for those who look after patients it is mercy; for disciples it is obedience; for workers – diligence, for servants – wit and resourcefulness. This trait is especially necessary for a servant who has a bad master. He should be sufficiently witty and resourceful to be able to foresee the wishes of his master early enough. The servant should know his master in order to be able to behave in the most appropriate way. Some days ago I happened to observe the conduct of a little dog. It was very intelligent and witty. Its masters threw a bone for the dog to gnaw at. At that time a big dog came from the neighbouring yard and rushed to the bone. Right away the little dog abandoned the bone to the big dog, walking around quietly, satisfied that it had given up the bone. If the little dog had not reckoned that in this case it would be better to give up the bone, there would have been a great fight between the two dogs and the little one would have suffered. A bad man or a bad master is like the big dog. If you come into a relationship that leads to struggle, you’d better give up your bone, let him gnaw at it. This bone could be a job or an article – give it up, so that you may not suffer. A bad man disposes with physical power. Since he is strong physically, he is ready to do everything. In this case taking a step back is common sense. This is not fear, it’s a saving of time and energy. Those who want to be in class should maintain harmonious relationships with each other. Remember that everyone who disrupts the harmony harms himself and the others too. Whatever harm you cause to others, it will come back and will first be reflected in your consciousness. Each wrong thought, feeling or action represents a bad, ugly image which is imprinted first in the consciousness of the person who has sent it or created it. Therefore, evil is cast out in disharmonious and irregular forms or images. Good is expressed in harmonious and regular images. Humans create both kinds of images. You see two pear trees in a garden: you taste a pear from the first tree – it is sweet, and you taste a pear from the second tree – it is bitter. Why is it bitter? Bitterness shows its egoistic character. That tree gave bitter fruit, so that no one could use it. Thus the tree wants to show that it doesn't give its fruit to anyone. There are bitter cucumbers too. However clever people are able to use bitter fruit towards some purpose too. It is important for disciples to know the following: each of their actions gets chronicled. Each disciple is followed by detectives from the two lodges who note everything: the first chronicles the good thoughts, feelings and actions of the disciple, whereas the second one notes the bad ones. Both will use your deeds at the right time and place. While noting your bad deeds, the dark detectives study your character, in order to attract you to their side in the easiest way which is also most imperceptible to you. Both lodges want to attract you to their side, this is why they try to convince you that the path they offer to you is the right and proper one. The best path for the disciple is the path which releases his soul from those links that have hampered him from the past all the way to the present. In your free time I would like each of you to summarize the main ideas in this lecture and to draw out for yourself those important, basic conclusions, which you have best understood and which you will be able to use. When I say that obedience is required of the disciples, I mean obedience in the smallest extent. I want you to use only one hour out of the twenty four hours of the day for obedience – half an hour during the day, when you are awake, and half an hour at night, when you are in the Astral world during your sleep. However in these 30 minutes you should be absolutely obedient. This would be the basic measure for your obedience. So you will be obedient for half an hour or thirty minutes during the day, all the while reflecting on obedience. These thirty minutes could be divided into parts: ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes at lunch time and ten minutes in the evening. After that – ten minutes before you go to bed, ten minutes when you wake up during the night and ten minutes before getting up – one hour in total. If you wake up in a cheerful and happy mood, this shows that you were obedient. If you wake up tired and depressed, this shows that you were not obedient, you were not at school but somewhere outside. Such instants should not discourage you. One goes through all the phases of the flour until it becomes bread. Flour is light. If you leave it outside, even the slightest wind could blow it away. You take some warm water, put the flour in it and make a mess. You put more flour until the mess becomes denser and denser, ready for processing. You collect the flour from here and there and begin to knead this mess. It becomes elastic, easily worked up and you say that the dough is already well done. Then you shape it into bread and put it in the oven. Therefore, the human being is flour in the beginning, later it turns into mess, after that – into dough and finally it becomes bread. So you should know that if you are flour, you have just come from the mill; if you are mess, you are still in the kneading-troughs; if you are dough, you are still being worked up; once you become bread, you are taken to the oven and you are joyful that you can serve humanity. These are situations or states that a human goes through in his life. They will lead you to new images, new ideas and thoughts, which will bring you an impulse and an incentive for work. You will replace the old solutions, the old ideas with new ones which will make you young. It has been written in the Scriptures: “Those who wait for God will recover their strength. Those who seek the Path of Wisdom, will improve their way.” Bringing out something good out of good people doesn't require great skill, but bringing something good out of bad people is an art. Now that you know this, do not be discouraged, but work upon yourself bravely and resolutely. You should complete the tasks given to you without doubt or hesitation. Even the slightest doubt is an obstacle. It is enough to just think that you can do without this task and you will hamper yourselves. If you are given a task, it should be accomplished without any contemplation. When you fulfill the task and observe the result you get from it, then you can contemplate as much as you want. Whoever wants to be a disciple should first of all apply their mindful will. Why? Such is the law of the Divine world. In that world first you act, then you think. In the human world it is just the opposite – first you should think, then act. According to intuition, which is a law of the Divine world, when you feel, when you perceive something from the High world, you should act right away and then think of the consequences. Therefore, if you are in the Divine world, you will first act and then think; if you are in the human world, you will first think and then act. As you can see, these two methods are diametrically opposed to each other. This is why when I say that disciples should not think, I have the Divine world in mind. If you are in the Divine world, you will first act and then think; when you come down into the human world, you will first think and then act. Why? When we act, God thinks; when we think, God acts. What does an engineer do? First he thinks over the design of the house, taking a number of things into consideration – finances, materials, location – then he makes a plan and after that he will already apply it in practice and act in accordance with it. So if you say that you think first, you are in the human world. When you say that you act first, you are in the Divine world. You can guess which world you are in by the method you apply. If you interchange the methods, you will make a mistake. If you enter into the Divine world and think before acting, you will make a mistake. If you enter into the human world and act before thinking, you will make a mistake again. The methods of these two worlds are completely different. They are strictly determined, therefore interchanging them is impossible. So you should think and act, and you should act and think. Secret prayer

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