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LIGHT ON THE PATH
CONSIDER with me that the individual existence is a rope which
stretches from the infinite to the infinite and has no end and no
commencement, neither is it capable of being broken. This rope is
formed of innumerable fine threads, which, lying closely together,
form its thickness. These threads are colorless, are perfect in their
qualities of straightness, strength, and levelness. This rope,
passing as it does through all places, suffers strange accidents.
Very often a thread is caught and becomes attached, or perhaps is
only violently pulled away from its even way. Then for a great time
it is disordered, and it disorders the whole. Sometimes one is
stained with dirt or with color, and not only does the stain run on
further than the spot of contact, but it discolors other of the
threads. And remember that the threads are living — are like
electric wires, more, are like quivering nerves. How far, then, must
the stain, the drag awry, be communicated! But eventually the long
strands, the living threads which in their unbroken continuity form
the individual, pass out of the shadow into the shine. Then the
threads are no longer colorless, but golden; once more they lie
together, level. Once more harmony is established between them; and
from that harmony within the greater harmony is perceived.
This illustration presents but a small portion — a single side of
the truth: it is less than a fragment. Yet, dwell on it; by its aid
you may be led to perceive more. What it is necessary first to
understand is, not that the future is arbitrarily formed by any
separate acts of the present, but that the whole of the future is in
unbroken continuity with the present as the present is with the past.
On one plane, from one point of view, the illustration of the rope is
correct.
It is said that a little attention to occultism produces great
Karmic results. That is because it is impossible to give any
attention to occultism without making a definite choice between what
are familiarly called good and evil. The first step in occultism
brings the student to the tree of knowledge. He must pluck and eat;
he must choose. No longer is he capable of the indecision of
ignorance. He goes on, either on the good or on the evil path. And to
step definitely and knowingly even but one step on either path
produces great Karmic results. The mass of men walk waveringly,
uncertain as to the goal they aim at; their standard of life is
indefinite; consequently their Karma operates in a confused manner.
But when once the threshold of knowledge is reached, the confusion
begins to lessen, and consequently the Karmic results increase
enormously, because all are acting in the same direction on all the
different planes: for the occultist cannot be half-hearted, nor can
he return when he has passed the threshold. These things are as
impossible as that the man should become the child again. The
individuality has approached the state of responsibility by reason of
growth; it cannot recede from it.
He who would escape from the bondage of Karma must raise his
individuality out of the shadow into the shine; must so elevate his
existence that these threads do not come in contact with soiling
substances, do not become so attached as to be pulled awry. He simply
lifts himself out of the region in which Karma operates. He does not
leave the existence which he is experiencing because of that. The
ground may be rough and dirty, or full of rich flowers whose pollen
stains, and of sweet substances that cling and become attachments —
but overhead there is always the free sky. He who desires to be
Karmaless must look to the air for a home; and after that to the
ether. He who desires to form good Karma will meet with many
confusions, and in the effort to sow rich seed for his own harvesting
may plant a thousand weeds, and among them the giant. Desire to sow
no seed for your own harvesting; desire only to sow that seed the
fruit of which shall feed the world. You are a part of the world; in
giving it food you feed yourself. Yet in even this thought there
lurks a great danger which starts forward and faces the disciple, who
has for long thought himself working for good, while in his inmost
soul he has perceived only evil; that is, he has thought himself to
be intending great benefit to the world while all the time he has
unconsciously embraced the thought of Karma, and the great benefit he
works for is for himself. A man may refuse to allow himself to think
of reward. But in that very refusal is seen the fact that reward is
desired. And it is useless for the disciple to strive to learn by
means of checking himself. The soul must be unfettered, the desires
free. But until they are fixed only on that state wherein there is
neither reward nor punishment, good nor evil, it is in vain that he
endeavors. He may seem to make great progress, but some day he will
come face to face with his own soul, and will recognize that when he
came to the tree of knowledge he chose the bitter fruit and not the
sweet; and then the veil will fall utterly, and he will give up his
freedom and become a slave of desire. Therefore be warned, you who
are but turning toward the life of occultism. Learn now that there is
no cure for desire, no cure for the love of reward, no cure for the
misery of longing, save in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon
that which is invisible and soundless. Begin even now to practice it,
and so a thousand serpents will be kept from your path. Live in the
eternal.
The operations of the actual laws of Karma are not to be studied
until the disciple has reached the point at which they no longer
affect himself. The initiate has a right to demand the secrets of
nature and to know the rules which govern human life. He obtains this
right by having escaped from the limits of nature and by having freed
himself from the rules which govern human life. He has become a
recognized portion of the divine element, and is no longer affected
by that which is temporary. He then obtains a knowledge of the laws
which govern temporary conditions. Therefore you who desire to
understand the laws of Karma, attempt first to free yourself from
these laws; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on
that which is unaffected by those laws.
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