1923_11_04 A Basis of Knowledge

[Ani]

Note 2p

 

A Basis of Knowledge

 

Third lecture of the Youth Occult Class,

given by the Master Beinsa Douno on

9^th November 1923, in Sofia

 

 

 

- Only the bright path of Wisdom leads to Truth.

 

- It rejoices us all the time.

 

Secret prayer

 

Summary of the topics on “The origin of the egg and the hen” was read

 

Also, several topics on “Origin of the wheel” were read

 

For next time – topic № 3: “The distinctive features of the bee”

 

 

You shall think over this topic. Take into consideration the cleanliness of the bee. It keeps a perfect cleanliness, it does not tolerate anything unclean, nothing stunted in its hive. The same is in the moral world as well. As regards cleanliness, Heaven is very strict; it acts in the same way as bees do in their hive. A stunted, unclean person cannot set foot there. There is no flattery in Heaven. “This one is one of us” or “This one is one of you” cannot be heard there. Only the worthy, the pure, the intelligent can live in such a hive.

 

Let us assume that there is an erudite person in front of you, a naturalist, who is engaged especially in investigating the life of bees. I ask: After he has been engaged all his life in investigating the niceties in their lives, what has he won from the bees? – He has become a coarse-grained person, nothing more. And most of the contemporary naturalists who investigate Nature in this way become coarse-grained people, materialists; they are not able to extract that great wisdom which is held in it. A  degeneration is noticed in some of the contemporary naturalists because they look at matters materialistically. For example, take the bee – by its nobility it is not on a level with man. Its nobility is the nobility of a lower life and for this reason it is natural that all people who deal with a lower substance will be influenced by it. It has the property to attract, to bring down human life to itself. As a result, all naturalists, with small exceptions, are more materialists. This is not the way to study animals, insects, plants and even minerals! You study the bee – you should study it as a stage from the great Life of the human soul; you study the ant – you should study it as a stage from the great Life of the human soul; you study plants, crystals – you should study them in the same way – they all are stages through which the human soul has passed. This is the alphabet from which the book called “The past of the human soul” has been arranged. And everyone should read the book of his past. While studying crystals he should know what these crystals have been in the time when he lived in the stage of a crystal. While studying the vegetable kingdom he should look at the course of his past and draw from this course that great lesson which Life has put in him. Only when studied in this way, natural sciences have some sense, only then there is philosophy in them, only in this way they find application.

 

Now if you, too, as pupils at a secondary school or students at a university would have studied natural sciences as well as all other sciences from this point of view – as an unbreakable stage of your life, you would have totally different views on Life and science. While at present I often meet a great obstacle in my work because of your views. As pupils at a secondary school or students at a university, you have a high opinion of yourself; you think that you know much. It is true, but I will ask you: if you were a hundred year old man and you were asked to dance at the horo[1], would these hundred years be of use to you in this case? Do you think that while advancing in years the force of that old man advances as well? He is told: “Old man, dance for a while at the horo!” – “I cannot, I do not know.”

 

You shall reason along with me in order to comprehend my thought. We will take two quantities the first of which I am marking as +A (A with one plus) – it represents a ten year old child. The second quantity I am marking as ++A (A with two plusses) – it represents a hundred year old man whose years thus are ten times more than the years of the child. Then you have: +A – 10 years and ++A – 100 years. Both quantities are two living beings moving to one and the same direction n. If we add twenty years to +A as well as twenty years to ++A, which one of the two will benefit? - The first. Why? It is assumed that the old man would benefit more because the number 20 is added to a number bigger than 10, i.e. to 100? But the old man does not benefit because he is positive. In what does this positiveness lie? He lives with the idea that he is rich, he is provided for, and he has accumulated a great wealth on which he relies. Yet he lives with the idea that he is an erudite person, he has much experience in life, he is sure of himself, etc. But to live with such ideas in the Life which brings something new in itself any moment means to lose your power, to gain nothing. These are the reasons why when adding twenty years to the life of the old man he becomes weaker whereas when adding these years to the life of the ten years old child, it becomes a strong person. From what does this difference result? What is the law that determines the forces? Why is the old man the one who when increasing in mind does not at the same time increase in force? You will say that old men acquire their force later. This is fifty percent true but there are exclusions in this percentage as well. Sometimes the old man loses not only his force but his bright thoughts too. What is the reason for this? Hence positive forces do not always benefit in the world.

 

I want you to comprehend things well, to reason rightly. Someone says: “One should have a positive will and a positive mind.” It is true but here the law of probability can be applied. Not always the positive will benefits and not always the positive mind benefits. Why? The old man who has two plusses, who has reached one hundred and twenty and lives with positive thoughts, moves in а thicker substance because he meets greater resistances in his life than the young one who lives in a thinner environment with smaller resistances. Hence if the plusses increase, the resistances increase but the force decreases – this is how it is in the life of the old man; and if the plusses decrease, the resistances decrease but the force increases. The law that we can draw from this is the following: the force in our life will be inversely proportional to the resistances that we meet, i.e. big force - small resistances, small force - big resistances. And all this depends on the thickness of the environment.

 

That is why in our life we should go the way with the least resistances. This is quite natural. Why? How do you go to an eating-house, you first check how much money you have in your purse and then you spend according to your funds, don’t you? When you enter a shop you check your purse in the same way and according to it you buy better or plainer cloth, don’t you? When you are going to build a house or to start a long journey you will in the same way check the state of your purse and the opportunities it contains. You should know that when you enter the material world all these things should be taken into consideration, but you often forget them. In this respect the young are like the old. But you should know that with these omissions in Life you sink more in the substance and as a result the thickness of the environment increases, the resistance too and your force decreases.

 

I will ask you from where do you come, how many years have past since you left your home? – “We do not know.” Do you have letters from your departed relatives, from your father, from your mother? – “We do not have any.” And you will tell me now like the old: “We believe in the Only God…” This belief is not of use to you. Why? If I stay in my room and believe that there is a Sun but do not go out to warm myself in that Sun, what do I benefit from it? If I stay in a cellar and from there I calculate the intensity of sun light, how many vibrations the longest sun beams make, and even if I know about all the worlds, what do I benefit from it? Nothing. This knowledge may be of use to my mind to a certain extent, but the calculations regarding sun beams are not in the least bit useful to my soul. Therefore, when we talk about the great Truths in Life we should be in a direct connection not indirect with the beams of the sun, to be at least under the salutary influence of these beams.

 

What is noticed however in the life of the young? – They become old prematurely. Why? A desire to grow up quickly is conceived in you, the young. You are in a hurry and say to yourself: “When will I grow up to be twenty one?” You are in a hurry to become electors, to vote. And some are in a hurry to get to thirty so that they might hope to take a certain ministry post. You all hurry. What will you win with your hurry? The matter[A1]  is not in the hurry to grow up sooner. You should not even think about growing; when you will grow up does not depend on you. Many disciples from the Esoteric school stumble in that very question. As soon as you enter the School you hurry to become very erudite, very good. The aim of the School is not to make you good nor to make you clever and to acquire much knowledge. Do you know why this is not a task of the School? What will be the difference in such a case between a rich person who lays up his money in a safe and every day labours after more and more wealth and you wanting to amass more and more knowledge in your mind like a banker? This knowledge will increase your troubles even more. The rich looks at his money everyday, worries and frets. And you, too, when you acquire more knowledge, you will become more sensitive, more ambitious, will start to think yourself to be something great and will not be able to stand all this. And how will you be able to stand it? How absurd we, the people on the Earth are! We have a brain weighing 1.5 kilograms, placed into a skull. Having such a small substance, such a limited mind you want to range over the entire universe, to put everything under your feet and to say: “Do you know who I am?” I say: you are the young man with a weight of 1.5 kilograms in your head. Do you know what the brain of an Angel is? By the intensity of its vibrations and by its quality the brain of an Angel is an aggregate of the brains of the whole mankind. Do you know what is written in the brain of an Angel? How will you feel if you appear before an Angel?

 

Listening to me now, some of you may lose heart but we are talking of encouragement and not of discouragement. You should comprehend Life fundamentally. If you do not comprehend it like that you will depart in the same way as all other young and old people. You will grow like that hundred year old man. Hence when you become one hundred you will start reiterating all your past foolish things, because old people do nothing but to reiterate the wheel of their life like that horse which turns the wheel in the garden. The old man will always keep saying: “Once, when I was young everything was this, was that.” No, there is no sense to repeat life over and over again. You will grow up without thinking, without wanting to grow up sooner. The pleasant in Life is to grow without thinking about it; to become good without thinking that you have become good but to take advantage of the favourable conditions every moment. I have heard some young people say: “I am not so good.” But when have you been good? Another time you say: “I am good.” What is this logic of yours, this philosophy? You shall reason rightly! I ask you: How do you define the Good? Is it possible for a gem to be a diamond today and a coal tomorrow? It is not. If you are good today, you will always be good; if you are bad at a moment, you are always bad. There is one exception to this rule: a coal can be turned into a diamond. How? By subjecting it to a high temperature and a high pressure. So, when a rational force acts on the coal it will change to a diamond. A rational force is able to change a diamond to a coal as well. This may happen but it refers to the diamonds in the physical world. As far as the human soul is concerned, take into consideration the following: there is no force in the world capable to change the soul into a coal. It remains a gem of the Kingdom of God for ever. It has come out of the Divine breath – you should consider this as a law. A pure soul cannot be vitiated, it is always pure! Do remember this; keep this thought in yourselves in order not to lose heart! Once you come to a contradiction, do say: “My soul is pure. If I have stained my record, it is externally; it does not concern the soul.” Therefore, you should consider that your mistake is in the action and not because your soul has become better or worse. I can tell you that sometimes you have acted wisely and sometimes not wisely but this does not concern your soul.

 

When we come to your reasoning I ask: in what does your philosophy lie? It represents the development of the high human thoughts, their contemplation. I ask: what philosophers are most right in their reasoning? I do not criticize them but I say: take whatever philosopher for whom you say has an excellent philosophy and build your life in accordance with his theories to see what result you will have. I want you to reason in substance, in sense. If you ask me: “Then why do we need philosophy?” This question is equivalent to the question: “Why do we need light?” A traveler needs light to light the way he is going. Why do we need Knowledge? It is a light for mind – it shows the way which one is going. Why do we need Love? To make our Life worth living. Why do we need Wisdom? To decorate this Life, to give it sense, intensity. Why do we need Truth? To give us Freedom to transform our Life.

 

And so, you should place the Knowledge that you are acquiring now as a basis of the science on the Earth. These are materials needed to create the right views on things in you. Saying this I do not mind in the least that you, as disciples of the Esoteric school, should travel round the world and explain everywhere your views on things. No, on these matters you will talk with the most erudite people while with the stupid ones you will talk about ordinary things – about onions, garlic, etc. If you keep this rule you will have less sufferings, i.e. you will say as Christ used to say: “Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” This means: there are so many sufferings in the world; there is no need for us to add more. For example, sometime you may be asked what you think about Life, if there is a future life. And you get confused at once and start proving in a philosophical way what one philosopher has said in this way, some other philosopher – in that way. The one who listens to you says: “You are an utter fool!” You shrink up and say: “They did not comprehend me.” It is a question who did not comprehend whom – whether he did not comprehend you or you did not comprehend him. I think that you, who speak, did not comprehend the other.

 

Many of you say: “We became stupid since we entered the School as esoteric disciples.” It is natural that one will become stupid. When? When he does not read, does not learn anything. There are erudite people who after finishing a university do not read anything. They know what has been said twenty years earlier but are not acquainted with the new theories. These scientists who keep abreast with the new theories will say about them: “You are far behind.” Life is motion that is why one who does not want to be behind should not stop but should always move. At that you will have to fight with a number of difficulties in the world. You are considered to be esoteric disciples but you are not real idealists yet. I ask you: “Do you have any idea and what is it?” I do not mind discouraging you, but I ask you in order you clarify to yourselves the situation in which you are at present. I will ask you the same question in another form: how much money do you have in your pocket? You say: “A thousand levs[2].” Let us count it! You take it out and count it; it comes out one hundred levs. “How is that, I thought there was one thousand.” The check shows however that there is a hundred levs. Which is the Truth? Do you think that you will not go bankrupt with such ideas? You will. You will ascertain the fact as it is. You have a hundred levs, not a penny more – you will fix the amount exactly without having any illusions. These are not my objections; this is a sum of laws that exist in Nature. Nature would brook absolutely no falseness. Note how wisely Nature has created the entire universe with all the frictions and collisions that take place in the world! It has foreseen all possibilities that may happen between two solar systems. Between Alpha-Centauri[3], for example, there is a distance of twenty five milliard miles of empty space in which three thousand solar systems could be drawn up without any of the smallest collisions between them. Why is this space there? Nature has foreseen all possible frictions that might appear and has left empty spaces to avoid these accidents. Not only between the greatest bodies has it placed certain barriers but between you too. Why? – On the basis of the same law – in order to avoid frictions that could create accidents. Do you think that there is no barrier between the two sexes – men and women? Do you know what barriers are there? But if you remove these sacred barriers that Nature has placed, accidents and misfortunes will await for you. There are barriers between friends as well. When you want to meet a friend of yours more intimately you should not remove the barrier, the fence that Nature has placed but you should climb that fence and say: “My friend, come to have a heart-to-heart talk!” If you destroy these sacred fences you will lose your happiness. You cannot be wiser than God, you cannot be wiser than Nature!

 

Now, these misunderstandings that are notable between you are due to your different opinions, to the difference in your development. Often your good mood is replaced by an unpleasant one. For example, you are invited to dinner somewhere, a hen has been roasted especially for you and you are told: “We have prepared an excellent dinner for you.” You do not know what the dinner is but you make ready for a copious dinner. You sit down at the table, make ready to eat but just in this moment a friend of yours comes, takes the hen from the table, puts a dish with nice apples instead and says: “My friend, I took the hen for me and left a dish of apples for you.” Your good mood changes for an unpleasant one at once. As you have prepared yourself for a copious dinner your expectation remains unappeased because a bitter feeling arises in you. I ask: is there any injustice that your friend took the hen leaving you the apples? Accept this and say: “You did very well to take the hen for yourself and to leave the apples for me.” This is what is understood to be rational, to be able to reconcile all discrepancies in Life and to remain satisfied when it deprives you of something. It takes the hen from you and gives you apples. What does the irrational one do? He is angry, he is dissatisfied, he says: “I do not want to eat any apples, I want a hen, that hen has been roasted for me.” And then he starts to speak ill of his friend. I ask: did he win the hen after he got angry, after he spoke so many insulting words to his friend? – No. Your friend tells you: “I beg your pardon; I brought apples instead of the hen.” Finally you soften and say: “All right, I excuse you.” You excused him, but when? After you have spent so much energy in vain! Also, some other thing is possible: after you have forgiven him, to go to your long home [A2] with the thought: “I have forgiven him, but he did eat the entire hen.” That means that you go to your long home [A3] with ingratitude that you have not eaten the hen. I ask: what did you win then? These are the greatest misfortunes that contemporary disciples suffer at the School. No, an important quality is required from the esoteric disciple – resignation but a rational resignation. Resignation with the conditions, resignation with the privations, in general – resignation grounded on a deep understanding of Life is needed.

 

I will give you an example to see how easy American students resign to the conditions of life. Many of them who have no funds to study at a university but have a strong will can be seen to serve in various eating-houses with aprons tied on. After finishing the lunch they wash the plates, have their meals and go out to meet friends and play cricket, football with them – there is no difference between rich and poor students. These students do not feel ashamed to work, do not murmur against the conditions, they wisely resign to them. And you will see them after several years to have graduated, some - as doctors, others as philosophers, others – as professors and so on. In Bulgaria, however, this will be interpreted in a different way. Every student in America wants to be free to a certain extent, they have grasped the importance of independence, of freedom and they say: “I can make an honest livelihood.” These students do not serve in eating-houses only but also visit rich people to light their stoves, to go shopping, etc., but after four-five years they will already be disengaged from these duties.

 

What conclusion can we deduce from this example? Some of you are in an impasse and ask: “When are we going to finish this school, what help will it be in our life?” What, you come to the Esoteric school for a profit, is that so? No, you should know that you come to the Esoteric school to learn how to live wisely. Once you learn to live wisely you will know how to utilize science in all its branches, in all its positive and negative phases, will know how to eliminate every bad side of it and to take every good side. Each science has both a positive and a negative side and the esoteric disciple should learn to live wisely and to use wisely the knowledge that mankind has acquired so far. The Great Masters of mankind do not allow scientists to acquire too much knowledge at a time because if too much unnecessary knowledge would be given in the present circumstances of their lives this knowledge would not bring such brilliant results as they would expect. Why? The brain of contemporary mankind, its nervous system is not adapted in a way to stand the quick vibrations of this supreme knowledge.

 

There are certain ideas which if pronounced the legs of many of you won’t hold them and they will fall forward on their faces. This happens to many people from the ordinary life that are considered strong, courageous people, they speak a lot but as soon as they appear before some erudite person or before a high-born person such as king or some other, fear seizes them, they start shaking, become tongue-tied and are not able to speak. Why? – Their brains cannot vibrate in accordance with the vibrations of those erudite or high-born people and cannot stand them. No right exchange can take place between them. That is why at the present development of mankind all great erudite people hide themselves, they do not manifest themselves to the world and when they have to, they take most simple form in order to avoid any shock. You may find such facts somewhere in the Old Testimony, for example in Isaiah, in chapter 6, verses 5, 6, and 7: “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

 

Therefore, this sacred fire of Love in which there is no treason, no lie and in which the sacred Truth lives should be laid upon you as well. And your souls being of young people, disciples of the Great School should be kneaded by the new leaven of Love. You should have Love between one another. All these doubts, suspicions, misunderstandings which exist in contemporary mankind are remains of a great destruction and because of that they should be thrown out. Do have in mind that there are conditions for everyone to develop, nobody can take them from him, but the important issue is that these conditions will not always last. I ask you: if you are near or under a big tree, will it be of use to you, will it not overshadow you? It is good for a traveler who wants to have a rest, but this shadow of the tree will stop a plant growing. If you are a plant and this tree throws you half a kilometer away from itself, does it do you any harm? – No, it does you good. This tree says to you: “Look here, sonny, you cannot grow under my shadow but I threw you out of me, in the sun beams to grow and to do good.” We do not want to overshadow you; we want all of you to be free. You should not falter from how much others know, do not look at that big tree. The power of man is not in his size. Do not say: “I want to be big!” How big do you want to be, as big as an elephant? What a big head, what a big trunk it has! The human mind stands much higher than the mind of the elephant. The sense of things is not in the external shape. Remember one thing: every pot when made should pass through a fire until it is baked well. And how many times it should pass through the oven! If 250-300 °C is needed for a pot to be baked, do you know how many degrees are needed for your feelings to be baked? – At least fifty thousand degrees of heat are needed. Do you know how many degrees are needed for a wish of your soul to be baked? – At least one hundred millions degrees. This heat of one hundred millions degrees is not the heat that burns, that destroys; it is a heat which imports that great Divine life. Those supreme vibrations in man which stimulate the most elevated and noble are generated at this heat.

 

So, I say: if some of you are submitted to an examination in Life, you should know that these things are strictly determined. We know the laws which determine the examinations in Life. Knowing the laws, in accordance with them I know what will happen to me every day but I never make any attempts to decline or avoid it. I have never made an attempt to change my fate so far. Why? If I change my fate, things a hundred times worse will befall me. When they sent man to the Earth, Nature along with all Elevated beings that work in accordance with its laws have estimated all opportunities, foreseen all conditions at which his mind, his heart and his will can develop normally. Hence the conditions of your life in which you live are the best for you. You cannot be given a life better than you have at present. In the future it can be possible, but under the present circumstances, with the views you have at present, this life of yours is the best. The mistake that you make in your life is that you do not live up to the ideas of your soul.

 

Do you know what the sacred tremor of your soul is? Do you know how tender the human soul is? There is absolutely no rudeness in the soul. It is ready to share its last morsel with a friend, with the poorest person. It does not distinguish between an ant and itself. When the soul directs a tender tremor to a small being, it flutters and says: “Here is a soul that understands me.” The tenderness, the kind-heartedness that the soul has – these are qualities of God. A single look of God is able to change your conditions, to uplift you to grow. His look always brings Knowledge, Wisdom, Freedom, and Life. And so, when you are filled with enthusiasm, being disciples of the Great School, you will not crave to grow up sooner and to become old, but you will study, will apply Love, will accept the Light and will use the Divine freedom.

 

I wish that an internal harmony will be created among all of you so that your class could develop normally, otherwise you will have meager results. This is the right way on which, if you keep, you will acquire a Rational life by which both you and your fellow-men and friends will be satisfied. It is said in the Scriptures, as well: “The Kingdom of God is of the little children.” It is not said that the Kingdom of God is of the old, but of the children, of the young, of those who grow.

 

Only on such a basis the true Knowledge can be acquired. Only in this way you can develop rightly. Out of this principle you will look like old people and you will lose everything after a hundred years, your life will be made senseless. You, the Special, the Youth class, are a class that should always grow and be young and never get old. In a hidden form I call the Youth class “A class of the eternal youth, of the Divine tenderness.”

 

I would like you to remain children forever – not by mind but your souls to be children’s or I will use a term of mine: your souls to be tender!

 

Secret prayer

 

 

- Only the bright path of Wisdom leads to Truth.

 

- It makes us rejoice all the time.

 

 

[1] Horo – a Bulgarian round chain folk-dance

[2] Lev – Bulgarian currency

[3] Alpha-Centauri – the closest to our Sun star which is at a distance of 4.3 light years away from it

 [A1]problem

 [A2]Unclear. [distant home] or [to go on your long journey home]

 [A3]Same as above.