Chapter 2

Section 2

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brings in its train much trouble; often their pos-
sessor is misled by deceitful nature-spirits or be-
comes conceited and thinks he cannot make a
mistake; and in any case the time and strength
that it takes to gain them might be spent in
work for others. They will come in the course
of development — they must come; and if the
Master sees that it would be useful for you to
have them sooner, He will tell you how to un-
fold them safely. Until then, you are better
without them.

You must guard, too, against certain small
desires which are common in daily life. Never
wish to shine, or to appear clever; have no desire
to speak. It is well to speak little; better still
to say nothing, unless you are quite sure that
what you wish to say is true, kind and helpful.
Before speaking think carefully whether what
you are going to say has those three qualities;
if it has not, do not say it.

It is well to get used even now to thinking
carefully before speaking; for when you reach
Initiation you must watch every word, lest you
should tell what must not be told. Much common
talk is unnecessary and foolish; when it is gossip,
it is wicked. So be accustomed to listen rather
than to talk; do not offer opinions unless directly
asked for them. One statement of the Qualifica-
tions gives them thus: to know, to dare, to will,

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and to be silent; and the last of the four is the
hardest of them all.

Another common desire which you must sternly
repress is the wish to meddle in other men's
business. What another man does or says or be-
lieves is no affair of yours, and you must learn
to let him absolutely alone. He has full right to
free thought and speech and action, so long as
he does not interfere with any one else. You
yourself claim the freedom to do what you think
proper; you must allow the same freedom to him,
and when he exercises it you have no right to
talk about him.

If you think he is doing wrong, and you can
contrive an opportunity of privately and very
politely telling him why you think so, it is pos-
sible that you may convince him; but there are
many cases in which even that would be an im-
proper interference. On no account must you go
and gossip to some third person about the matter,
for that is an extremely wicked action.

If you see a case of cruelty to a child or an
animal, it is your duty to interfere. If you see
any one breaking the law of the country, you
should inform the authorities. If you are placed
in charge of another person in order to teach
him, it may become your duty gently to tell him
of his faults. Except in such cases, mind your
own business, and learn the virtue of silence.

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III

npHE Six Points of Conduct which are specially
required are given by the Master as:

1. Self-control as to the Mind.

2. Self-control in Action.

3. Tolerance.

4. Cheerfulness.

5. One-pointedness.

6. Confidence.

(I know some of these are often translated
differently, as are the names of the Qualifica-
tions: but in all cases I am using the names
which the Master Himself employed when ex-
plaining them to me).

1. Self-control as to the Mind

The Qualification of Desirelessness shows that
the astral body must be controlled; this shows
the same thing as to the mental body. It means
control of temper, so that you may feel no anger
or impatience; of the mind itself, so that the
thought may always be calm and unrufiled; and
(through the mind) of the nerves, so that they

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may be as little irritable as possible. This last
is difficult because when you try to prepare
yourself for the Path, you cannot help making
your body more sensitive, so that its nerves are
easily disturbed by a sound or a shock, and feel
any pressure acutely; but you must do your best.

The calm mind means also courage, so that
you may face without fear the trials and difficul-
ties of the Path; it means also steadiness, so
that you may make light of the troubles which
come into every one's life, and avoid the inces-
sant worry over little things in which many
people spend most of their time. The Master
teaches that it does not matter in the least what
happens to a man from the outside; sorrows,
troubles, sicknesses, losses — all these must be as
nothing to him, and must not be allowed to
aflFect the calmness of his mind. They are the
result of past actions, and when they come you
must bear them cheerfully, remembering that all
evil is transitory, and that your duty is to re-
main always joyous and serene. They belong to
your previous lives, not to this; you cannot alter
them, so it is useless to trouble about them.
Think rather of what you are doing now, which
will make the events of your next life, for that
you CAN alter.

Never allow yourself to feel sad or depressed.
Depression is wrong, because it infects others
and makes their lives harder, which you have no

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right to do. Therefore if ever it comes to you,
throw it off at once.

In yet another way you must control your
thought; you must not let it wander. Whatever
you are doing fix your thought upon it, that it
may be prefectly done; do not let your mind be
idle, but keep good thoughts always in the back-
ground of it, ready to come forward the moment
it is free.

Use your thought-power every day for good
purposes; be a force in the direction of evolu-
tion. Think each day of some one whom you
know to be in sorrow, or suffering, or in need
of help, and pour out loving thought upon him.

Hold back your mind from pride, for pride
comes only from ignorance. The man who does
not know thinks that he is great, that he has
done this or that great thing; the wise man
knows that only God is great, that all good work
is done by God alone.

2. Self-control in Action

If your thought is what it should be, you will
have little trouble with your action. Yet remem-
ber that, to be useful to mankind, thought must
result in action. There must be no laziness, but
constant activity in good work. But it must be
your OWN duty that you do — not another man's,
unless with his permission, and by way of help-

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ing him. Leave every man to do his own work
in his own way; be always ready to oflFer help
where it is needed, but never interfere. For
many people the most difficult thing in the
world to learn is to mind their own business;
but that is exactly what you must do.

Because you try to take up higher work, you
must not forget your ordinary duties, for until
they are done you are not free for other service.
You should undertake no new worldly duties;
but those which you have already taken upon
you, you must perfectly fulfill — all clear and
reasonable duties which you yourself recognize,
that is, not imaginary duties which others try
to impose upon you. If you are to be His, you
must do ordinary work better than others, not
worse; because you must do that also for His
sake.

3. Tolerance

You must feel perfect tolerance for all, and a
hearty interest in the beliefs of those of another
religion, just as much as in your own. For
their religion is a path to the highest, just as
yours is. And to help all, you must understand
all.

But in order to gain this perfect tolerance,
you must yourself first be free from bigotry and
superstition. You must learn that no ceremonies

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are necessary; else you will think yoxirself some-
how better than those who do not perform them.
Yet you must not condemn others who still
cling to ceremonies. Let them do as they will ;
only they must not interfere with you who know
the truth — they must not try to force upon you
that which you have outgrown. Make allowance
for everything; be kindly towards everything.

Now that your eyes are opened, some of your
old beliefs, your old ceremonies, may seem to you
absurd; perhaps, indeed, they really are so. Yet
though you can no longer take part in them,
respect them for the sake of those good souls to
whom they are still important. They have their
place, they have their use; they are like those
double lines which guided you as a child to
write straight and evenly until you learned to
write far better and more freely without them.
There was a time when you needed them; but
now that time is past.

A great Teacher once wrote: "When I was a
child, I spake as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child; but when I became
a man I put away childish things." Yet he who
has forgotten his childhood and lost sympathy
with the children is not the man who can teach
them or help them. So look kindly, gently,
tolerantly upon all; but upon all alike, Buddhist
or Hindu, Jain or Jew, Christian or Muham-
madan.

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4. Cheerfulness

You must bear your karma cheerfully, what-
ever it may be, taking it as an honor that suflFer-
ing comes to you, because it shows that the
Lords of Karma think you worth helping.
However hard it is, be thankful that it is no
worse. Remember that you are of but little use
to the Master until your evil karma is worked
out, and you are free. By offering yourself to
Him, you have asked that your karma may be
hurried, and so now in one or two lives you
work through what otherwise might have been
spread over a hundred. But in order to make
the best out of it. you must bear it cheerfully,
gladly.

Yet another point. You must give up all feel-
ing of possession. Karma may take from you
the things which you like best — even the people
whom you love most. Even then you must be
cheerful — ready to part with anything and every-
thing. Often the Master needs to pour out His
strength upon others through His servant; He
cannot do that if the ser\'ant yields to depression.
So cheerfulness must be the rule.

5. One-Pointedness

The one thing that you must set before you
is to do the Master's work. Whatever else may
come in your way to do, that at least you must

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never forget. Yet nothing else can come in your
way, for ail helpful, unselfish work is the Mas-
ter's work, and you must do it for His sake.
And you must give all your attention to each
piece as you do it, so that it may be your very
best. The same Teacher also wrote: "Whatso-
ever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord,
and not unto men." Think how you would do
a piece of work if you knew that the Master was
coming at once to look at it; just in that way
you must do all your work. Those who know
most will most know all that that verse means.
And there is another like it, much older: "What-
soever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might."

One-pointedness means, too, that nothing shall
ever turn you, even for a moment, from the
Path upon which you have entered. No tempta-
tions, no worldly pleasures, no worldly affec-
tions even, must ever draw you aside. For you
yourself must become one with the Path; it must
be so much part of your nature that you follow
it without needing to think of it, and cannot
turn aside. You, the Monad, have decided it; to
break away from it would be to break away from
yourself.

6. Confidence
You must trust your Master; you must trust
yourself. If you have seen the Master, you will

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trust Him to the uttermost, through many lives
and deaths. If you have not yet seen Him, you
must still try to realize Him and trust Him,
because if you do not, even He cannot help you.
Unless there is perfect trust, there cannot be the
perfect flow of love and power.

You must trust yourself. You say you know
yourself too well? If you feel so, you do NOT
know yourself; you know only the weak outer
husk, which has fallen often into the mire. But
YOU — the real you — you are a spark of God's
own fire, and God, Who is Almighty, is in you,
and because of that there is nothing that you
cannot do if you will. Say to yourself: "What
man has done, man can do. I am a man, yet
also God in man; I can do this thing, and I
will." For your will must be like tempered steel,
if you would tread the Path.

/^F ALL THE Qualifications, Love is the most
^^ important, for ii it is strong enough in a
man, it forces him to acquire all the rest, and
all the rest without it would never be sufficient.
Often it is translated as an intense desire for
liberation from the round of births and deaths,
and for imion with God. But to put it in that
way sounds selfish, and gives only part of the

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meaning. It is not so much desire as WILL, re-
solve, determination. To produce its result, this
resolve must fill your whole nature, so as to leave
no room for any other feeling. It is indeed the
will to be one with God, not in order that you
may escape from weariness and suffering, but
in order that because of your deep love for Him
you may act with Him and as He does. Because
He is Love, you, if you would become one with
Him, must be filled with perfect unselfishness and
love also.

In daily life this means two things: first, that
you shall be careful to do no hurt to any living
thing; second, that you shall always be watching
for an opportunity to help.

First, to do no hurt. Three sins there are
which work more harm than all else in the
world — ^gossip, cruelty and superstition — because
they are sins against love. Against these thr.-r-
the man who would fill his heart with the love
of God must wr.tch ceaselessly.

See what gossip does. It begins with evil
thought and that in itself is a crime. For in
everyone and in everything there is good; in
everyone and in everything there is evil. Either
of these we can strengthen by thinking of it, and
in this way we can help or hinder evolution ; we
can do the will of the Logos or we can resist
Him. If you think of the evil in another, you
are doing at the same time three wicked things:

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( 1 ) You are filling your neighborhood with
evil thought instead of with good thought, and
so you are adding to the sorrow of the world.

(2) If there is in that man the evil which you
think, you are strengthening it and feeding it;
and so you are making your brother worse in-
stead of better. But generally the evil is not
there, and you have only fancied it; and then
your wicked thought tempts your brother to do
wrong, for if he is not yet perfect you may make
him that which you have thought him.

(3) You fill your own mind with evil thoughts
instead of good; and so you hinder your own
growth, and make yourself, for those who can
see, an ugly and painful object instead of a
beautiful and lovable one.

Not content with having done all this harm to
himself and to his victim, the gossip tries with all
his might to make other men partners in his
crime. Eagerly he tells his wicked tale to them,
hoping that they will believe it; and then they
join with him in pouring evil thought upon the
poor suflFerer. And this goes on day after day,
and is done not by one man but by thousands.
Do you begin to see how base, how terrible a sin
this is.^ You must avoid it altogether. Never
speak ill of any one; refuse to listen when any
one else speaks ill of another, but gently say:
"Perhaps this is not true, and even if it is, it is
kinder not to speak of it."

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Then as to cruelty. This is of two kinds, in-
tentional and unintentional. Intentional cruelty
is purposely to giwe pain to another living being;
and that is the greatest of all sins — the ,work of
a devil rather than a man. You would say that
no man could do such a thing; but men have
done it often, and are daily doing it now. The
inquisitors did it; many religious people did it
in the name of their religion. Vivisectors do it;
many schoolmasters do it habitually. All these
people try to excuse their brutality by saying
that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease
to be a crime because many commit it. Karma
takes no account of custom; and the karma of
cruelty is the most terrible of all. In India at
least there can be no excuse for such customs,
for the duty of harmlessness is well known to all.
The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who
go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and
call it "sport."