CHAPTER XIV RESUME
On our present tour, we have endeavored to give the student more of the actual teachings and practices of the Masters, rather than to recite the phenomena performed by them. We have not laid much stress upon our actual contacts in India but enough has been given of our travels and contacts to satisfy the minds of those persons who have wished to know something of the trip itself. Should we relate all the incidents and experiences thus far encountered, there would be no time nor space left in which to give that vital instruction that would help the student to live in his own experiences that which the masters live and prove. The average student is more interested in the philosophy and science which the masters employ. It is only through such knowledge that the individual may know how to proceed in attaining his own mastership. Furthermore, the miraculous feats and the manner in which the masters live has doubtless been sufficiently covered in the three volumes of Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East.
This trip has yielded us much of practical knowledge and it is our purpose at this time to review the main points in order that they may stand out in the mind of the student. Thus he may have a clearly defined working basis from which to proceed in recasting his life in accordance with those motives through which the illumined have attained to mastership. Mastership is everyone’s possibility but this state is not achieved through reading, study, or theorizing, but by actually living the life which the masters live.
It has been clearly stated that life lived by the average individual is hypnotic; that is, the majority of men and women are not living life as it was intended at all. Not one in a million feels the freedom to live what he inwardly feels he would love. He has come under the world opinion of himself and this opinion is what he obeys, rather than the law of his own being. In this respect and to this degree he is living under an hypnotic spell. He lives under the delusion that he is a mere human being, living in a merely material world, and only hopes to escape it when he dies and goes to what he calls Heaven. This is not the determination intended in the plan and purpose of life. Obedience to one’s inner nature, the expression of life as he instinctively feels it ought to be expressed, is the very foundation of the life which the masters reveal as the only true mode of living.
Now, the difference between the teachings and practices of the masters and those of fakirs is that the fakir only intensifies the hypnotic condition of the mind. Further false and material pictures are so impressed upon the sensitive minds of people that they are thrown into further states of hypnosis. The masters say, “That which seems external exists not at all,” by which they mean that it is not what appears that is the reality of life. The reality of life is that which moves out from the very center of one’s being. They seek in every way to clarify their minds of world impressions and sit in long periods of Samadhi—Silence—in order that they may see clearly that innermost trend of their nature. Then their next attempt is to live in thought, word, and act that movement which they have discerned within themselves.
True mastery is living the instruction of the inner teacher, the inner self, and not seeking the opinions of the world.
Nor does the method of the fakirs differ in any large measure from much of the teaching and practice of the metaphysical world of the West. The gathering of thoughts from teachers and books, building them into the conscious nature of one’s being, is to establish a false determination which is largely hypnotic. The mere making of one’s consciousness over according to thoughts evolved by other’s minds is to impose a false condition upon that individual. To manipulate the body, the affairs, or to concentrate within the body to awaken its centers or functions is only to throw the individual further out of the true determination of life and the “last state of that man is worse than the first.” Instruction received from the without must be taken into the mentality and assimilated, analyzed, checked with the deepest facts of one’s own inner nature in order to determine if it be true to the Self. One best consult the Self first and gain his outer knowledge thus at first hand. The first method is slow and retarding to one’s progress, while the latter is swift and freeing. Notice the difference when you act according to someone’s instruction and when you obey what you instinctively feel to be the right thing to do. This of itself should teach us that the way of life is from within out.
The forces of life are silent and that is the main reason for the silent nature of the masters. That is the way they keep in harmony with life itself. Even our Scriptures teach in substance that a multitude of words is not without sin. Only when we speak in harmony with what we inwardly feel do we let ourselves out into complete harmony with the true determination of life. Have you not noticed that when you speak what you feel, just as when you do what you feel is right, that you are free? Also when you speak that which does not meet with the sanction of your innermost feelings, you feel you have limited or bound yourself.
This is the philosophy of non-resistance propounded by Gandhi and which is prevalent in Hindu teachings. Christ emphasized this teaching. When you speak or act in a manner that is out of harmony with yourself you create resistance and that resistance is the influence of hypnotic practices. It contracts the nature of man and keeps him from expressing what he truly is. Not only does this resistance occur in his own nature but, when brought to the notice of others, they further add to this resistance and by this practice the whole world is kept in darkness. “The Father who sees in secret rewards thee openly.” No one resents the radiations of pure joy, even though they may be exceedingly sad, but try to talk them into joy and they resent it. Tell a poor man that he does not need to be poor and he is likely to resent it and will offer all sorts of excuses in defense of his poverty but bring him under the silent influence of abundance and his very soul expands. Try to separate two men who are fighting and they are likely to attack you but radiate a sense of peace from your own inner nature and they are more than likely to catch your sense of peace and cease fighting. The doctrine of non-resistance is not passive but is a dynamic radiation of the inner SELF.
Social reorganization and economic reform must emanate from the awakening consciousness of man. One cannot legislate or lay down rules that will govern man when under a spell of hypnosis. You cannot organize men’s thoughts and motives until they conform to each other. It is in this realm that all differences arise. One man is selfish, another is unselfish. One is successful and another is a failure. One has unusual strength and ability, while another is weak and incapable. One thinks only of his material welfare and another thinks only of his spiritual welfare as entirely divorced from his outer nature. How can such diverging thoughts and feelings be organized into an harmonious mass? Only in man’s innermost nature is he identical with his neighbor in thought and motive and only through bringing out what is within can there be peace and harmony in the earth.
It is that which moves in man’s innermost nature that is identical with the great Universal Mind or God. “The law of God is written in your inward parts.” Mastership is bringing to the surface what is buried within. This is brought about only through deep meditation and consulting with the SELF, which is the only master one can ever find that will lead him to the goal of life.
Overcoming is all a matter of learning to drop all seeming conditions of mind, body, and affairs and to begin life over again at its beginning. Start with the idea that you are that Self which you inwardly long to be and so devote yourself to being that Self that everything else is forgotten. Once you have found your Self and have become that Self, you are a master and a world helper. Many such working together in Silence will spread an influence over the world more powerful than any movements that originate in the machinery of organized industry, war, or social reform. The effectiveness of one’s life is not so much in what he does but in how he does it and how he does it is determined by the degree of himself he has discovered.
Merely speaking words and relying upon the power within them or the vibratory effect of the word never helps man to become a master. Words contain only that degree of power that is limited into them through the consciousness of the individual using them. The power is the depth of realization or the degree of consciousness back of them. It is not “words” that produce consciousness nor is it “words” that heal the body or change the affairs. It is a matter of awakened realization that produces words and impels outer action and the word or act is powerful only to the extent of this inner awakening.
The result of speaking or acting from outer motives not only produces an hypnotic condition of mind but gives rise to the notion that there are two opposing minds and, carried on, seems to divide the mind into many separate actions. Mind is a Unit and moves as a Unit and what seems to be dual-mindedness is only a dual set of ideas, one set evolved from outer impressions and one set originating in the natural state of mind as it originally moves. The mind is completely unified and harmonized by denial or rejection of every thought and impulse that does not spring from one’s innermost nature. This clears up the entire stream of consciousness and leaves the individual free to think and act as he should in perfect harmony with the Universal Mind. This is the very essence of mastery.
Speaking and living in this oneness without sense of division is the greatest gift of man for he was given “a sound mind”, according to the Scriptures. In other words, he was started out into being in perfect oneness with his source; he was sound, whole, and Jesus said he must return to this state of sound-mindedness. “Tarry at Jerusalem until the Holy—whole— Spirit comes upon you” or until you return to that sense of oneness with the Universal Mind.
Spirit is Cause and when man returns to Cause, his Source, he becomes whole and sound. He is not only sound in mind but sound in body and his affairs become sound for his entire being is united into that great Unity which is the essential nature of all things. It is the soundness or oneness of all things in and with Source. Soundness or unity cannot mean anything less than the whole. It cannot refer to any individual or part of the whole. It must refer to the oneness of the whole. Everything is a center of unity or a center where the oneness of all things must be preserved and manifest. To localize or segregate any fact is to take it completely out of its nature and to lose its meaning altogether. When Christ spoke, “These and greater things shall ye do,” or when Emil said, “You can do these things just as easily as I can do them,” they were speaking from this consciousness of the only true unity, the soundness of the individual in his relationship to and with the whole.
This life of oneness is the life of the masters and anyone may live that life if he will drop his alliances with institutions and religions and races and nations and accept his alliance with the Universe. This is the “ark of the covenant” which enabled the Children of Israel to succeed but, when it was lost, they failed to gain their liberty from opposition.
All separation is purely a matter of individual hypothesis. One cannot really be separated from the whole for he is created within it, is a part of it, and is like unto it. Love is the great unifier in the consciousness of man and to keep oneself always in an attitude of love is to progress toward oneness. It is the only preserver of life and health and ability. One need not try to love everybody but he must eternally seek to keep his nature whole through the increase of love. When one’s nature expands in love, he will sooner or later find himself in a loving attitude toward all men and, in this attitude, he not only lifts himself but all those around him into that same oneness. There are no divisions in an awakened sense of love.
One does not gain mastery or illumination by going to India and sitting at the feet of a master. One gains mastery by listening to the deepest facts of his own nature and by obeying what he there learns. There is no help that is needed that is not available instantly if one but turns in this direction and proceeds from this fact. All the power of the Universe is back of every high motive, every true impulse that stirs in man’s inner nature. It is like the germ of life within the seed and all the forces of nature move to bring it forth into its full expression of all its potentialities. This is the manner of the masters and their instruction is always that you must be true to the Self, live the life of the Self, express what is inherently true until you are outwardly what you inwardly long to be.
When man returns to this motive of life, all that there is in the Universe begins to move in upon him, to manifest itself through him. Not only must man have the intelligence to direct him and the power to do that which is to be done, but also the substance that nourishes and supports him in the doing. There is no lack, except in the realm of hypnotic ideas that have clouded his mind from reality. Back in his native oneness, where he consciously receives what the Universe is pouring out upon him, there can be no lack in any phase of his being nor in his affairs.
The Quantum Theory is the approach of Science to this basic fact of life and there can be no true science, religion, social structure, or successful living outside the undefeatable and indissoluble oneness of all things.
This is the road to mastery, the life of the masters, and the only true life there is. It is to be found just where you are in the secret places of your own inner nature. The masters teach that liberation is to be found in this and in no other way. Christ, speaking in the man Jesus, said the same thing when he said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” The same Christ in you speaks the same message to you. Your only contact with a master is through the mastery of yourself.
Source: http://www.horuscentre.org
