114. EL, Oslo, 6-9-'12
Last
time we gave the inner reasons for why we're in the school.
Today we'll speak more about the outer conditions.
The
first quality that one needs is truthfulness, the will to be true.
Belief in the Master should never be dictated. One who treads the
path conscientiously will certainly be led to him or at least to the
concept, the knowledge that he exists. But if this would be a
condition right from the start it would be a lie. The existence of
the master should be known through inner reason; the truth can be
found from what is communicated exoterically, and so the path from
the exoteric to the esoteric can be found. An esotericism that wanted
to dictate belief in the masters is none.
But a
student isn't just supposed to be given teachings, he's
supposed to discover forces in himself which are there, and
he's supposed to learn how to use them; he just does not know
that he has them.
What is
the school there for? Advice is given for faster and easier progress,
because humanity needs that. An unavoidable result is an appeal to a
man's egoism. The side exercises are there to combat what one
adds to one's egoity. If a pupil doesn't do them, pride
and vanity will unavoidably arise in him. One should not them in
oneself.
When we
come together each one should watch himself, and should ascribe
conscientiousness and honesty to the others. One should begin with
one's own pride and ambition and not ascribe them to people who
are supporting something. Anyone who praises others harms them and
himself. One should always remain factual. One should let the truth
speak in one out of what is given exoterically and experience it from
the latter.
Memory
and the ability to think will disappear from a man if he devotes
himself to meditation with all his might. That's supposed to be
like that. But they should function all the better in everyday
life.
Improperly done exercises can lead to megalomania or one can become
subservient to other's megalomania. Or one's memory or
reason can get worse. One should try to be dutifully truthful to
counteract this. One should observe oneself, should study theosophy,
should not only try to be truthful oneself, but should investigate
the truth in everything that comes to meet one.
Four
rabbis wanted to enter the garden of maturity. The first lost his
mind, the second went berserk, the third got sick — which can
never happen through our exercises — and died, only the fourth
entered the garden when he acquired a love for nature as a good
result of his striving. One can also experience this love in small,
insignificant things, and not just in big mountains and oceans. The
Gods made the former also. They were glad about their environment and
took it down into the physical world to make men glad. Such feelings
continue to work in men. Everything that's in men will someday
become manifest, even t it's only in a later incarnation.
Nothing
ever became known about the previous incarnation of leading
personalities until a hundred years after their last death; when this
did happen here or there it was only confidentially as a
communication in a small circle, but never publicly as A. Besant is
doing now.
When
one comes in contact with occult sects, occult progress is always
possible there also, but the question is: How does one get into the
spiritual world? On the right path one gets ever more humble and
modest.
One
should let everything that was said here work upon one's
feeling. One shouldn't do exercises like one does outer work.
One shouldn't bustle around and look for truth, but should be
able to wait quietly.
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