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Anger and fear - Lectures on 1923


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ANGER AND FEAR

 

“Only the radiant path of Wisdom leads to the Truth” It constantly makes us happy.

 

REFLECTIONS

 

A resume on the subject “The role of the red and white blood corpuscles” was read and so were several papers on “The distinguishing features of meekness and restraint” and “The seven words with their corresponding colours”.

 

Theme No 6 is for next time: “The distinguishing features of courage and firmness”.

 

What colour is the word “anger”? Under what sort of conditions is anger born? Anger is transferred strength in a decreasing degree. It is excess energy. How was this energy created? Every wish that encounters opposition is refracted. Half of its energy is turned into an abnormal heat which goes to the brain, and it is this heat which creates anger. It is anger which raises the body’s temperature. It means another degree added to the body’s usual temperature, and its effect is destructive. What I mean here is anger in everyday life, where it is an ordinary occurrence; but when one is engaged in exalting oneself, with the Divine, then anger cannot even be considered. The ideal life excludes all forms of anger. Anger is not a quality of the human mind, but it is something grafted onto the feelings, a handicap. When you give way to anger, you can Justify yourself by saying that someone has insulted you. Yes, but you may become angry without anybody having spoken an unpleasant word to you. You are walking along the road when somebody bumps into you and you immediately “boil over”. This is a burst of energy. Man is not always disposed to anger. You can make an experiment. Go and gently push the most irascible man according to the law of Love, and he will smile and say to you: “Push me again!” Hence we arrive at the following law: when two positive forces meet, they always rebound and create anger. For example, if two extremely ambitious men meet, they may easily become angry. Imagine that point “0” represents the centre of the brain. Line CD represents the flow of moral forces in man. Line OD represents the flow of personal forces, man’s personal feelings. When the line OD is longer than the line OC, anger always results. If line OD is very short, then man becomes indifferent. Any kind of energy which the body cannot assimilate correctly creates a surplus. This surplus is anger, which is always indicated by the colour red.

 

There are several symptoms which accompany anger. The face becomes red, the brows draw together, the muscles around the mouth twitch, the hand becomes a fist and a person is ready to manifest his feelings. The dangerous aspect of anger is that a man can stray from the correct path of his development.

 

The subject I set for you this evening was meekness and restraint. A meek and restrained person is a person without anger. It is not that there is no anger in him: it is that he, from the very outset, transforms anger into useful energy. A scholarly Bulgarian was telling me about the results of a method he had applied on himself. He had graduated from two faculties abroad, and upon his return to Bulgaria, before embarking on work of any kind, he had asked himself whether or not he could prove himself as a real person in life. For this purpose he had chosen the following method: he found a labourer and asked him to say to him the worst things he could think of, for which he would be well paid. The labourer began to rant and swear at him; the scholar listened and listened until he understood whether he would be able to withstand the vicissitudes of life, whether or not he would become the right kind of person and said to the man: “That’s enough!” The experiment was indeed very successful. You frequently come across people like the labourer in your lives, people who serve you without being paid, but you are displeased. The example I have just given you is a true one, but only people who possess moral stability can do such things. Not everybody can make such an experiment. And indeed, all the great people in the world have always been subjected to such discipline. Examine the life of any great person, and you will see that he has been subjected to insults and persecution, and that the very worst things have been said about him in order to see whether all this can be borne. He who can withstand it is a person who can be given a mission. Some of you, as students of the occult school, will undergo such discipline, that is why I am raising the matter. You cannot avoid this road. Whether you will undergo such discipline as pupils of the school or outside of it does not matter, but the important thing is that you will all undergo it.

 

Thus, the first important lesson for you is to control your an^er. In this case self-control is necessary. Apart from this, you must develoo your intuition. You will need to understand human character to understand who resembles you and who does not. You will be able to get on well with people who resemble you, but you must keep your distance from those who do not.

 

When you are able to understand which people resemble you you will be able to make the following experiments. When you are very angry ask a friend to come and put his hand on the back of your head. If you resemble one another, if you are in harmony, he will comprehend your mood and your equilibrium will be restored. If, however, you are not in harmony, your bad mood or anger will increase. I have noticed that people from political circles are extremely ambitious, and if one of them happens to say anything at all to one of those leading politicians, whoever he may be, even in a gentle way, he can offend him to such an extent that he will provoke a strong reaction in the former. It frequently happens that personal feelings are so strongly developed in statesmen and politicians who are in power that they are capable of declaring war for the sake of one word, even if it is said tactfully.

 

All of you must have a definite ideal in life; you must know where the essence of life lies. When is a person’s prestige undermined? A person’s prestige is undermined when somebody tells him a lie. When, however, somebody speaks the truth, whatever language he uses, that person enhances your prestige. Most of you are afraid to tell the truth. Now, when you are speaking the truth you must be brave. When you are speaking the truth you do not need much philosophy; do not think of what the consequences will be! Be brave! But when you are going to express your personal opinions, be extremely cautious. If you are speaking the truth, do not be afraid at all. Speak the truth and it will take care of itself. You will learn to distinguish between the truth and your own convictions. This discrimination is necessary at your present stage of development. If you do not take it into consideration, it will not be long before you find yourself in a dead-end street, which the Turks refer to as “cikmaz sokak” — a blind street. If you enter such a street, you will have to retrace your steps. You must lay firm foundations in your life upon which the knowledge you are now acquiring can be developed. What knowledge? Knowledge that will be of use to you not only in this life but also during the centuries of your existence to come. If you acquire knowledge that will only be of use to you during this life, you will be a mediocre person in your life. Such transient knowledge is necessary only for entertainment, but each one of you must have in your lives one positive idea at which to aim constantly.

 

You may come across another handicap in life — fear. Most of us are afraid of anger. Inasmuch as anger is dangerous in a positive sense, fear is also dangerous in a negative sense. Anger can cause one to commit many crimes, to strangle somebody, to commit murder or arson. Under the influence of fear the reverse takes place. You will not commit such crimes, you will be very careful, but lies, deceit, toadying, meanness and other similar features will develop in one’s character. Anger is psychological intoxication, it increases one’s courage, and we think we can do everything; but when we become sober, we will say to ourselves: why did I have to get angry? Why do I have to get worked up about these things? This means that anger is not man’s natural condition.

 

So, you have these two handicaps in yourself, and you must protect yourself from them. These handicaps are not a recent thing: they have accompanied you throughout all of your existences. They are a useful thread running through the latter, but you must understand them. If you know how to make use of fear correctly, it will turn into an element of prudence. If you know how to make use of anger correctly, it will become an element of will-power and courage. This means that anger can be transformed into courage and fear into prudence. Where fear exists, a small “plus” is needed. Translated into the language of chemistry, fear is the alkali which needs a little more acid to be neutralised.

 

An irascible person must be sensible, so must a timid person. An irascible person, when he starts to use his mind, becomes brave, and a timid person prudent. The former will take out his knife and solve his problems that way, and the second will take out his pen and write articles in the newspaper, solving problems by becoming a writer. All writers who write are not brave people. They are only brave sitting in their studies, pen in hand. But outside they are not brave. They are brave when they are writing because they do not know what the consequences will be.

 

What is the colour of fear? What is a man like when he is frightened? He becomes pale, his face turns yellow. In other words, fear makes one think. If a person makes a mistake, his outer self becomes yellow. Consequently, fear is cured only by means of yellow, and what colour is used to cure anger? Pink. This demonstrates that dark red must be turned into pink or blue. Think about these colours. These vibrations will bring about a calming effect, and you will begin to think, to consider. Which colour comes to the fore after pink? With whom does the rose fall in love? When a person falls in love, he begins to think. Thus, after pink comes yellow. Pink and yellow are in harmony. When you wish to cure a certain ailment concentrate on these two colours, and they will produce a small, but favourable result. What do you consider the correlation between yellow and blue to be? Which is the predominant colour on earth now? Green. We are surrounded by green, we pass through it. Green is the colour of human individuality, it makes man independent.

 

As you see, you can cure yourselves with colours. When your nervous system, your mind or your heart starts to become impoverished, doubt arises within you. If you have become impoverished, imagine the following colours — pink, yellow and green. When these three colours are brought together, they form a combination that encourages one to feel like an independent individual. It is then that a man says: “Now I can do everything.”

 

Which word corresponds to pink? Which word causes pink to manifest itself externally. The answer is joy. A person who falls in love first of all rejoices, does he not?

 

Each person or thing that you love arouses in you a feeling of joy. Which word corresponds externally to yellow, or to wisdom? You already know about a person who is in love: he or she rejoices. When a child receives a present from his father, he jumps up and down and is happy. But what quality will a wise person manifest? Seriousness, being deep in thought, satisfaction? No, the external face of a wise person is work. Only a wise person works. If he is a painter, he takes up his brush and paints. If he is a poet, he takes up his pen and writes. In whatever are in harmony, he will comprehend your mood and your equilibrium will be restored. If, however, you are not in harmony, your bad mood or

 

anger will increase. I have noticed that people from political circles are extremely ambitious, and if one of them happens to say anything at all to one of those leading politicians, whoever he may be, even in a gentle way, he can offend him to such an extent that he will provoke a strong reaction in the former. It frequently happens that personal feelings are so strongly developed in statesmen and politicians who are in power that they are capable of declaring war for the sake of one word, even if it is said tactfully.

 

All of you must have a definite ideal in life; you must know where the essence of life lies. When is a person’s prestige undermined? A person’s prestige is undermined when somebody tells him a lie. When, however, somebody speaks the truth, whatever language he uses, that person enhances your prestige. Most of you are afraid to tell the truth. Now, when you are speaking the truth you must be brave. When you are speaking the truth you do not need much philosophy; do not think of what the consequences will be! Be brave! But when you are going to express your personal opinions, be extremely cautious. If you are speaking the truth, do not be afraid at all. Speak the truth and it will take care of itself. You will learn to distinguish between the truth and your own convictions. This discrimination is necessary at your present stage of development. If you do not take it into consideration, it will not be long before you find yourself in a dead-end street, which the Turks refer to as “cikmaz sokak” — a blind street. If you enter such a street, you will have to retrace your steps. You must lay firm foundations in your life upon which the knowledge you are now acquiring can be developed. What knowledge? Knowledge that will be of use to you not only in this life but also during the centuries of your existence to come. If you acquire knowledge that will only be of use to you during this life, you will be a mediocre person in your life. Such transient knowledge is necessary only for entertainment, but each one of you must have in your lives one positive idea at which to aim constantly.

 

You may come across another handicap in life — fear. Most of us are afraid of anger. Inasmuch as anger is dangerous in a positive sense, fear is also dangerous in a negative sense. Anger can cause one to commit many crimes, to strangle somebody, to commit murder or arson. Under the influence of fear the reverse takes place. You will not commit such crimes, you will be very careful, but lies, deceit, toadying, meanness and other similar features will develop in one’s character. An^er is psychological intoxication, it increases one’s courage, and we think we can do everything; but when we become sober, we will say to ourselves: why did I have to get angry? Why do I have to get worked up about these things? This means that anger is not man’s natural condition.

 

So, you have these two handicaps in yourself, and you must protect yourself from them. These handicaps are not a recent thing: they have accompanied you throughout all of your existences. They are a useful thread running through the latter, but you must understand them. If you know how to make use of fear correctly, it will turn into an element of prudence. If you know how to make use of anger correctly, it will become an element of will-power and courage. This means that anger can be transformed into courage and fear into prudence. Where fear exists, a small “plus” is needed. Translated into the language of chemistry, fear is the alkali which needs a little more acid to be neutralised.

 

An irascible person must be sensible, so must a timid person. An irascible person, when he starts to use his mind, becomes brave, and a timid person prudent. The former will take out his knife and solve his problems that way, and the second will take out his pen and write articles in the newspaper, solving problems by becoming a writer. All writers who write are not brave people. They are only brave sitting in their studies, pen in hand. But outside they are not brave. They are brave when they are writing because they do not know what the consequences will be.

 

What is the colour of fear? What is a man like when he is frightened? He becomes pale, his face turns yellow. In other words, fear makes one think. If a person makes a mistake, his outer self becomes yellow. Consequently, fear is cured only by means of yellow, and what colour is used to cure anger? Pink. This demonstrates that dark red must be turned into pink or blue. Think about these colours. These vibrations will bring about a calming effect, and you will begin to think, to consider. Which colour comes to the fore after pink? With whom does the rose fall in love? When a person falls in love, he begins to think. Thus, after pink comes yellow. Pink and yellow are in harmony. When you wish to cure a certain ailment concentrate on these two colours, and they will produce a small, but favourable result. What do you consider the correlation between yellow and blue to be? Which is the predominant colour on earth now? Green. We are surrounded by green, we pass through it. Green is the colour of human individuality, it makes man independent.

 

As you see, you can cure yourselves with colours. When your nervous system, your mind or your heart starts to become impoverished, doubt arises within you. If you have become impoverished, imagine the following colours — pink, yellow and green. When these three colours are brought together, they form a combination that encourages one to feel like an independent individual. It is then that a man says: “Now I can do everything.”

 

Which word corresponds to pink? Which word causes pink to manifest itself externally. The answer is joy. A person who falls in love first of all rejoices, does he not?

 

Each person or thing that you love arouses in you a feeling of joy. Which word corresponds externally to yellow, or to wisdom? You already know about a person who is in love: he or she rejoices. When a child receives a present from his father, he jumps up and down and is happy. But what quality will a wise person manifest? Seriousness, being deep in thought, satisfaction? No, the external face of a wise person is work. Only a wise person works. If he is a painter, he takes up his brush and paints. If he is a poet, he takes up his pen and writes. In whatever direction it may be, he is active, he works. He works, but he does not labour. Labour is not a quality of wise people, but of ordinary ones. Some people ask: “What should I do to become wise? “ Do not labour, but work. Everyone has work to do: to refine his character, to cleanse his mind of bad things. Removing one’s known faults and attaining good qualities is work! You want to become wise, brave, of good judgement — that is a noble task, and you will work on it.

 

The thing which binders modern science from finding the Truth, to point to real methods of education, is the fact that its ideas are scattered. In modern science there are no ideas that are intertwined, as it were. On the contrary, all its ideas are scattered and confused. For example, the idea of “being good” is considered to be a proposition, something like a walnut that can be consumed. No, in order to be good you must mull over your opposing idea two or three times, plant the walnut in it and await the fruit. Goodness is a fruit. The most difficult of all arts is that of being good. One cannot suddenly become good. First of all begin with joy, after that will come virtue. The latter will come about as a result of joy and work. Nature does not like scattered ideas. We are very logical, but the Truth is lacking in this logicality of ours. Nature, on the other hand, is so precise that she will tolerate no lie, no deceit. Do not think that just because she tolerates us we can get away with it like that. One day she will take everything we possess, will scatter it and will leave us nothing. Do not delude yourselves that she will accept lies. The Scriptures say: “Blessed is he who is punished by God.” This means “Blessed is he whose sins are pointed out by God at the very beginning.” If a friend comes to you and points out some mistake of yours, thank him. Nature has sent him to you, he is her emissary. If you refuse to receive him one day, she herself will come and take you away without any ceremony at all and throw you into her retort. All that will remain of you is vapour.

 

The first thing for all of us is that we should learn to love the Truth. I am not talking about absolute truth but about the one that is inherant in life, which is necessary for the creation of your character, for the stability of your science. Your science must be firmly cemented, must become a solid element in life in order to be an incentive to work.

 

My aim now is certainly not to give you any moral precepts. I am merely explaining how a certain law works in nature. And without it being said people will gradually arrive at the same results by way of suffering. However, a sensible person can take advantage of other people’s experiences. A person who has suffered for a long time arrives at the Truth. Then he understands the words of the Apostle Paul, who said: “Be eternally joyful and pray unceasingly.”

 

Now, how are we to interpret the word “joy”? Imagine that joy is a monad. What does the first letter of the word “joy” signify? You are aware that there are no coincidences in nature. Consequently the sign was not chosen at random. It may have been taken from the Roman alphabet, but it also exists in Egyptian hieroglyphs. These signs also exist in nature. The letter “p” in the Cyrillic alphabet is a monad and the letter “a”, the root of that monad, descending. Consequently, as it is a root, it is in itself equivocal, at the same time bitter and sweet.

 

As a root it expresses all those things that appear in matter. Bitterness and sweetness correspond to the two conditions of sorrow and joy. These two opposites are encountered in the present conditions of life. After a great joy comes a great sorrow A friend lets you have 10,000 levs and you are glad. But before much time has passed he is asking for his money back. I ask: what are his reasons for letting you have the money and then to ask for its return? If you do not repay the money, he says: “I used to think you were my friend, but now I am disillusioned. Give me my money back!” He sues you, you are sentenced and put in prison. You ask yourself why on earth you agreed to take the money. The reason for all this can be explained psychologically, but I have come to the following conclusion: a person who acts according to the laws of Love and Wisdom will never go to prison for 10,000 levs. An intelligent person is only put in prison for the Truth. He says: “I can only be in prison for the Truth, but not for anything else.” It is a disgrace to be in prison for 10,000 levs! To stay in prison for the Truth, to be beaten for the Truth is understandable, but to be beaten for some trivial thing is shameful! I could only bare my back for the Truth — let them beat me. You will remain silent. If you betray this law, the Truth itself will punish you. That is why it says: “Stop, do not defend yourself.” Some will say: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” No, that is the teaching of Moses, and it has nothing in common with the Truth. We can apply the rule “an eye for an eye” in other places, but when it comes to the Truth, you will turn your back on it, for the Truth says “Do not defend yourself, I will defend you. When you decide to defend yourself, you have failed, you are already defeated. Leave it to the Truth to defend you. The person who has struck you three times to-day will be your friend in a year’s time. But when? If you are silent for the sake of the Truth, he will come to you and say: ‘Forgive me, I made a big mistake as far as you were concerned, but because of that I am from this moment your friend.’ “

 

I do not want to take up all your time for the study of what we are talking about now. Use only the time that you do not know how to use, only your spare time. According to me, spare time is as follows: sometimes you are unwell, and that is spare time. It is then that you should apply the doctrine of Living Nature, devote time to it. If your mind is occupied, put it aside. When you life seems to have no point, when you are afraid of something, when you are upset, again turn to the doctrine of living nature. This is the only way to restore your equilibrium and the forces in your body. When you are discouraged with life and you think you will not achieve anything, take up the doctrine of living nature. Work on colours, love, wisdom and if you find something which is important for you, hold on to it. I am sure you will be able to find three to four hours’ free time every day to devote to the new Teaching.

 

Sometimes one sees a poet with dishevelled hair. There is nothing worse than that. Try to keep your hair as tidy as possible. Sometimes, though, hair seems to have a will of its own. The way in which each hair falls on your head forms a certain angle. These angles play a very important role in the refraction of light. You may consider these things unimportant, but you know that life is bound together by little things. If you want to build character, you should know that it is created by these little details in your hair. If your hair does not bend to your will, if your thumb does not bend to your will, you must take care. Your every movement must be under the control of your will. You say, for example: “I do not know what is the matter, but I cannot bend my thumb! “ You must bend it, you must not leave it at that. Then you say: “I do not know what is the matter with my hair, it is terribly dishevelled, I cannot keep it tidy.” You will order your hair to stay tidy. If you cannot give orders to your hair, to whom can you give orders? Do you know when a person’s hair stands on end or is dishevelled? When he cannot control himself. Then anger takes over, he becomes impatient and his hair becomes dishevelled and cannot be brought under control. When he becomes calm, composed and patient, his hair lies as it should. Have you noticed how great people are depicted? With smoothly combed hair and a straight parting. Some women wear their hair smooth with a straight parting. This is a good sign. The hair should fall equally from both sides of the parting. Each hair falls according to a certain angle, and it also exerts a corresponding influence on human character. The hairs have their own origin. One day I shall set the following subject for you: “When did hairs first appear in the world?” This is an interesting study but quite difficult. Fish have no hairs, and only a few of them have whiskers.

 

16 XII 1923 Sofia

 

 

 

“All the things I am saying to you are necessary for you because you are still young. Do you realise why I am explaining all these precautionary measures to you? It is because the sea you are crossing now is a stormy one, and some of you will experience crises. The ship will roll and pitch — it will not sink but the passenger might turn a somersault all the same!

 

So, keep in touch with God! Make sure that your eyes are in a normal state, that you do not make unconscious gestures with your hands, for example. What should your movements be like? You will make gestures, of course, ones you find pleasant, which please you. When you make a natural gesture in accordance with the laws of nature, you will experience a very pleasant feeling. When you make an unnatural gesture, you will feel as if something is cutting you with a knife. You must take great care over the expression in your eyes and the way in which you address people. This is not for the sake of other people but for the sake of your own inner development. As students of the occult you must be different from others, you must distinguish yourselves.

 

Sometimes, when a person is frightened, he opens his eyes wide and when he wishes to receive fewer impressions from outside he closes them. Sometimes one inclines one’s head forward, backward, to the left or right. This is not a matter of coincidence: it is the result of something. These are all angles which point to a certain lack of harmony in a person.

 

A disciple of the occult must not be “conte”, as the French say. What does “conte” mean? This is when a person is “dressed up to the nines” and minces along, glancing from side to side. This, though, is a distortion of character. When you walk, your movements should be in harmony with your general thoughts and feelings. When I say “general” I mean the human in you. Your will must also be in harmony with your feelings. That is the language of nature.

 

Now, you will keep your awareness awake and maintain your contact with God. That will be your task for one month. You will think about it for Fifteen minutes every day, when you are walking along the road. If you see one of your sisters, look at her as you raise your eyes towards God, smile at here inwardly, very slightly, unnoticeably, and see how she will feel. When you look at her like that, she will see in your gaze a gentle, tender smile and she will be glad. When you meet a young brother, look at him as if you know him. These glances will have an excellent effect both on yourself and upon those around you. Some day you may make an unsuccessful attempt; instead of sending your ray upwards you send it downwards. Then you will be fined. When one is experimenting one may make some mistakes, but do not let that worry you.”

 

 

 

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