CHAPTER IX

LIFE

1. The “Life of the Masters” is Life the way they live it. They live life as it is. Their attitude toward life is that it is the action of the One Principle, never divided or separated from its They live life true to that Principle and thus, they show the way for all to live true to that Principle of Life. To them life is not a theory of existence, it is an actual fact, a fact with no beginning and no ending. The individual must come to this one attitude of living which comes through the one attitude of thought toward it. They say that it is God expressing through the human individual, the highest and most select channel through which life manifests. Thus life can manifest in a more select activity or complete form through the human individual.
2. They see the One Life emanating in and through all things. In fact, everything that has being is of the very essence of this one life. The human being only postulates life as beginning when this form came into existence through which life could manifest, when in reality life existed prior to the form and even produced the That was only the beginning of form and not the beginning of life. Life has always existed and it will always exist. If we select life, or measure it in some specific manner, we may manifest it in that select form. It of itself, flows freely and universally without cessation or limitation. Consequently, we may select and use that life force, as we would say, in a degenerate way where we do not allow it to manifest in its greatest degree or potency. The human being can use it in that way but it is only the fault of the individual or the group and is not in any way the fault of life itself. Life, if we will allow it to be so, is the all-knowing, all-seeing and all-being activity of Principle. If we allow it to flow through us in its highest attributes, we cannot help but live by expressing these very conditions which are in its nature.

3. When we accept life as it is, the body becomes a living, breathing unit, expressing life to its fullest degree. The reason that it does not express to its fullest degree is because of the limitation which the human unit puts upon life. We turn it in many ways whereas, in reality there is but one way and that is life in its fullest expression.
4. The Hindoo thought of the three score and ten years of man’s allotted time is that this should be the time of man’s greatest accomplishment. At seventy, man should reach his majority or his greatest realization of life. Then, they say that man should live five times as long as it takes him to reach his majority. The Western world has completely missed this
5. Man should not be limited even to that space of time. They do not limit man at all. If you accomplish three score years and ten, you should accomplish all life and all conditions of life. That is not putting a limitation upon it. Five times is not a limit because you can make it five thousand times if you wish. Man does, usually, after he has reached seventy, begin to think more along Spiritual lines. This tendency begins to develop after forty.
6. When Jesus said, “In the midst of life ye are in death,” he was not warning the people that they are always face to face with death. He expressed astonishment at the condition of death among men when they lived in the midst of life continually. Man only needs to live life as it is, accept it as it is, and not measure it by years and material You are eternal life right here and now if you would only recognize it. But life is not something that is to come; it is here at this very moment in which you live. People separate themselves from the life which IS by tying to live in the past or the future. But the past is dead and the future is only born in the eternal now. All the life of Infinite Space moves at this very moment and whosoever will may drink of that life freely. You do not even need to try to live eternally for, if you are alive at all, you are in eternal life and all you need to do is to so live it. Forget the past, do not try to project yourself into the future for NOW is the only acceptable time. You are in eternity NOW.
7. It is held as a theory that the masters, often receive their enlightenment in the springtime of their thirty-seventh year. But there is no limitation except that put on it by the Thirty-seven in the Sanskrit means Eternity because you can repeat the thirty-seven or the seven as many times as you wish, since it completes the octave. It does not necessarily refer to years at all but to the extension of the individual consciousness into the Life Universal or into its true spiritual expression.
8. Instead of the awakening which comes to man being a matter of years, it simply means that he becomes mature in himself and many of the ideas given him by the race are nullified in this maturity of soul. False ideas are crowded out of consciousness as the swelling bud pushes back the leaves that enfold it and then the inner character stands It is not intended as a second childhood when the old man becomes childish but he becomes the child capable of entering the Kingdom. He loses the sense of importance in respect to the material world and its many problems and begins to live in the realization of life as it is unfolding in him.

9. Our scientists are telling us that there is not a human body in existence over seven years That is, the cells are completely renewed every seven years. That is not putting a limitation on life, because life moves in cycles and not years and you cannot limit a cycle. It has no real beginning and it does not come to an end. It is the eternal process of fulfilling itself and the eternal renewing process going on within the instrument through which it expresses. Life does not end at seven nor does life ever end. Life is eternal. There is not a thing in existence that does not have life. All planets are alive. Everything has life. The rock has life.
10. When we express life in its true and unlimited natural expression, we can and will be our own books and teachers. Also, if you can appreciate the fact that all of the cells of the body are renewed every seven years, you will begin to realize the possibilities of life. If you will keep your mind continually renewed as the processes of life unfold, you will begin to see that life might just as well go on cycle after cycle, or continuously. The buds on a tree are just as young whether that tree be old or young. And the bud has the completed tree within itself. That tree does not grow old except through the limitation of years that man puts upon it. Nothing grows old except through the concept that man places upon The Scriptures teach that he was given dominion over all things. Life can not be measured by years and we should cease to attempt it. Life can be measured only by itself and life is eternal, everpresent, and limitless. It is the vital action of the entire system called the Universe or God. Man places the limitation on time by delineating time for his own convenience and that delineation does not restrict life or time by any means, except so far as his manifest possibilities are concerned.
11. This is, in all probability, the only plane and the only condition where death is Christ said: “Let the dead bury their dead.” The true man places no limitation on time. The mortal man alone does this. We get into the mortal or physical only by the placement of time or the designation of time for man’s convenience. We have gone on and built up a great world of supposition, a great barrier of supposition between ourselves and the true condition. We have been led to see that barrier as insurmountable. Consequently, many of our philosophers have said that life is unknowable and could not be solved. Of course it cannot be solved when you put up barriers against it.
12. The life of the masters is not passed in what the world would call gainful occupations. They have passed that. Their life is of Service always, many of them going about from place to place assisting in what we would look upon as material ways, with material We have never seen them accepting anything from anyone for themselves. We have seen them give out food and clothing and supplies of all descriptions. A Master is a servant. If he is a Master, he is above the world and the world can give him nothing. He must reverse the process and he in turn gives to the world.
13. In this service they do not seem to seek out people nor do people necessarily seek them The Masters come across those in need in their everyday life as they go about among the people. They also assist in a universal attitude as well through thought and the projection of thought. They also project conditions of perfection into the whole world. Of course, where an individual does appeal to them for help there is always the assistance ready. We have seen them not only assisting the individual but great groups of individuals. But, even while they are going on with that work, they are evidently sending out emanations to the whole world which in time will cure the condition they are working on locally. They say it is necessary to work locally to assist people to a better understanding and, in many cases, a better understanding comes through the furnishing of food and clothing or a better condition in which to live.

17. The Masters do go out among the people and the people do appeal to them for help very often and the condition which they are under is corrected almost immediately. The help given is only to show a better way to accomplish than that which they are using at the They do not go out and preach and proselyte at all. They walk among the people and the people who recognize them may ask for assistance in any way they wish—for healing, food, raiment, or shelter and they receive it. But they are shown that they, themselves, do it and not the Masters. It is not what the Masters have that they receive but the people themselves have built up that which is brought to them through their own attitude of thought; not what someone else has but what they have and what belongs to them. It does not necessarily follow, however, that you must appeal in order to get assistance.
18. The statement that the servant is worthy of his hire does not mean that one may commercialize healing. That means that the individual who thus serves is worthy of a higher life, worthy to become a Master and not a servant. Of course the Master is the greatest servant, for his entire life is spent in service, for that is the field in which he works and expresses his
19. In the matter of food, the Masters consume far less than we do. We have known them to eat no more than three grains of rice a day but they take in enough pranic substance to support their bodies for long periods if They masticate their food thoroughly. They can chew these three grains of rice all day and, by the time they have finished, they have taken enough prana to last their bodies at least twenty-four hours.
    They have no set time for eating for they do not work with time as men measure it.
    They eat whenever they feel like it. We have never known them to recognize meal hours as we recognize them. They can go without food completely for hundreds of days.
20. As far as we know they take very little sleep, not in excess of two hours a day, and they are conscious during these two hours. It is a well known fact that you can get along without sleep, if you know how to live without wasting your energies or contracting your consciousness through separating yourself from the Universal energies. The Western world and the way they live causes sleep to become more or less a condition brought about by, as we say it, a toxic state of the body. The toxic condition overcomes to a great extent the rebuilding process of the body and thousands of people are in that toxic state instead of being in a true condition of sleep. When Jesus said, “Awake thou that sleepest,” he meant to arise from that comatose condition and then you are out of the influence to which you have become
21. The Western world consumes at least ten times as much food as the body needs and then consumes energy to digest that food. That energy which is used to handle this nine- tenths of the surplus food that we take unnecessarily could be used much more effectively to build up the body. It is a well known fact that today the Western world eats at least ten times as much food as is healthful. If we would take life direct or energy direct from the ethers, we would be adding energy to our bodies all of the time instead of giving it out to assimilate food. It would go directly to every organ of the body and rebuild and renew it.
22. It is not necessary that one be with a Master or contact a Master in any sense to understand life and its possibilities. Life is perfectly understandable at every corner of the earth. It is Omnipresent and anyone may contact it if he will turn his attention in that direction and get away from the mere forms which life uses and through which life
23. If you will take the simple attitude that all the life that you can live is LIFE and begin to exalt life, you will then be doing what you would do if you were living with There is nothing phenomenal regarding their life at all. Usually people going to them look only for phenomena. If we live life, we cannot help but understand life. Life is a process of inward force working itself out into outward form. It is the vital principle of the Universe animating all space and all form.
24. So many people have the notion that the Masters lay down certain rules for your daily practice, a certain daily regime of mental and physical exercises, but this is not There are many who lead out with this sort of teaching, of course, to the point where the student recognizes that he himself is a Master. Then the way is opened to meet the actual Master. The moment that man gets into his mind that there is any life to live other than the One life, he is out of harmony completely. The difficulty is with his mental application always. Man did not fall and die spiritually, he simply got himself out of harmony with life and this resulted in all his difficulty.  The moment life becomes hard, it is not life. That individual is out of life just to the degree that any inharmony develops and this state should be a warning for him to get back into life as it is.

26. Children are happy because they live life abundantly. They put no limitations upon life The moment we put limitation upon life we cease to live abundantly. There is not a limiting condition in life. Life could not limit itself. It could not be kept away except through your own attitude of thought toward it. No two individuals have the same vision of life. It is quite often illustrated in this way: It is said that only children and sages are happy because the child has not developed a material sense of value and the sage knows that the material has no value. To them form is not the point of consideration but living life.
27. One man may look at life through a very narrow opening in a wall. That person says, “I see all of life.” The view may face a hill where there is nothing but rocks. The next may see trees; the next one sees animated forms moving about. If we look through but one small opening, we soon hypnotize ourselves into believing that there is no other life within the great expanse of the Universe of life. If we would take this attitude alone: see the Universe as embodying and expressing the One Infinite life, then we would expand our vision to take in all of life and there would be no limitation whatever for
28. The Masters never take conscious life. It is not necessary to take conscious life because man can assimilate into his consciousness all of the life elements, bring them into existence in himself, live them, and be always one with them. Consequently it is not necessary to take conscious life at
29. Many people ask the question why it is that the people of India are afraid of the lower forms of life. Not all people in India are masters, even though they have been taught that there is but one life. They do not see all they have been taught any more than Americans see or live all they have been There are only a few of the lower classes who are bound in this way because they have been taught to worship these conditions. It is thus that they fear them.
30. And why do the Masters not raise the people out of that condition? How could they raise you out of a condition if you would not accept that raising? They cannot inject their own minds into They can only show you the path which they have traveled. If you will not see that path you must make your own until you are ready for a better way. All of the higher castes, even the great Maharajas, work for the better condition in India but they cannot do the overcoming for the masses nor transform them into higher beings. That is the work of the individual always.
31. It is a misconception to think that the Masters live an ascetic life. We have never found them so living. You will find them in a loin cloth or in the highest walks of life! You will not find them isolating themselves at all. There are a few, a very few compared to the whole, living in seclusion in order to give out more fully to the whole world certain conditions for betterment. But they are only groups who come together for that specific They do not live an ascetic life at all.
32. You may see a Yogi living an ascetic life for a certain time for a certain purpose only but then, they never allow asceticism to become hypnotic. Yogi means living for a great Many of the so-called “holy men” of India live a complete ascetic life but usually they are beggars and not Masters. A great many of them are as dirty and as filthy as anything you can imagine. They are leeches on humanity and nothing else. But they are not the Masters. Just because a man goes about saying mantrams, or sitting in Samadhi, he is not thereby a Master.
33. We have never known of one of these who has reached a high accomplishment begging of anyone but they are giving all of their time to the betterment of humanity. They do not beg anything to give away even. They have, as they put it, all that they want and to spare always. They do not go around and beg for others to give. They do not organize charitable institutions. They go out and assist all of the time, separating themselves by their accomplishments. There are thousands of people in India who are giving out continually and yet, we have never known any of them to take a penny from anyone. The beggars who call themselves “holy men” are such only by their own designation. They have nothing to do with the
34. Life is always a matter of giving. To draw on the Universal life that flows freely throughout infinite space is the privilege of anyone and his way of living life should be to receive from this source and then give it out to all who are around him, inspiring them to seek life where he has found it. This is not only the work of the Masters, but it is the work all men should be doing. This is living life as it should be lived and is really the only life there is. To merely receive from those about you is not life at all but a constantly contracting existence. To seek life from the material world is to lose

FOR THE TEACHER

Paragraph 1. It should become evident to the mass of humanity that life as revealed by the illumined has always been portrayed in its universal and eternal aspect. That life which is manifest in form is only the outcropping of the vital essence that fills infinite space. Life is not confined to a period of expression through form but is and forever remains the movement of the creative force that produced form in the first place and that form was produced for the sole purpose of affording it expression. No one lives truly until he knows that life is moving in and through him and eternally seeking a fuller, freer, richer expression always.

Paragraphs 2 and 3. Life being universal, it is universally expressed in every form, and when the sense of separateness disappears from the mind of man he may enter more fully into its activity and align himself more completely with its purpose. Only in the human consciousness do complications seem to develop and life and consciousness are so inseparably united that before man can realize life in its fullness he must expand his consciousness to see and live life as it is. Only his mental reactions to the appearance keep him from this fuller life.

Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The text of these paragraphs shows clearly that it is the period during life when man’s outward thought, his thought developed through his material contacts, so greatly interferes not only with his life but with his capabilities generally. It is this period of false estimates of life, his world, and himself that impedes his entire existence and it is only prior to this state and occasionally following it that man seems to enter into the real joy of living. The genius is one who seems to a degree to escape this period of thought oppression; one who has the courage or fortitude to go his own appointed course and not let the world thought of limitation hinder him. The reason man, in his later years, seems to live a more spiritual life is that the false run down like an eight-day clock and then his true nature asserts itself. Had this consciousness been preserved through the years of oppression, his body would not have been sapped of its vital forces and his greatest years of usefulness would have been extended indefinitely.

Paragraph 9. The age of the body is not designated by the span of years which we call life. The body is forever renewing itself and the cells and tissues which form the body are constantly being replaced through a perfectly natural process. It is the pattern under which this building process is forced to operate that gives the body its condition of age. We should be continually renewing our minds in accordance with the truth of life and then the pattern for the renewing processes of the body would be such that a more perfect and vital body would be the result.

Paragraph 10. Man is the book of life, the law of God. The governing principle of life is written in his inward parts, and this period of existence should be a process of self-discovery and self-expression. In the unfoldment of man’s own nature he learns the secrets of his own being. Study yourself at first hand, the deepest longings of your own inner nature, watch them unfold and you will understand.

Paragraph 11. Sin, according to the Scriptures, is the cause of death. Sin is every thought and feeling that is out of harmony with the purposes of life. These thoughts and feelings make up the opposition to life as it would express itself through the flesh. To remove the obstruction would be the remedy, of course. Instead of perpetuating a consciousness that deprives the body of its sustaining power, thereby separating the body from consciousness in death, one should die to the false consciousness. “Forgetting the things which are behind, pressing forward.”

Paragraphs 12, 13, 14 and 15. Life is a matter of progress and not profit as we construe it. Profit is contingent upon our progress and our progress is determined by the kind and quality of our expression. Expression should not be the constant projection of our own limited opinions but living true to the deepest impulses are always true. Only when we descend to the plane of what we call necessity or expediency do we begin to violate our inward sense of what is right.

Paragraphs 16, 17 and 18. “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Only enough food is required to supply material for the natural reconstruction of man’s body. What is more than this is but giving the functions of the body an excess of labor. One should feed more and more upon the substance that moves in the creative principle of his being and then he would find real nourishment. As food is supplying material for body building, sleep is consuming energies that have been wasted during our periods of false living.

Paragraphs 19, 20, 21. We must learn to contact our good at its source. What we are seeking does not come from another and it will do no good to contact Master or teacher unless we thereby are inspired to seek that in ourselves which he represents to us. “Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter in, but He that doeth the will of my Father.”

Paragraph 22. The values of life are to be found in the Soul, the Real Self, the inner Master, and not in the world. The world has only the value imparted to it by the awakening of true consciousness.

Paragraphs 23, 24 and 25. Seek to find life as it is in its great universal movements which are revealed in your nature through your own highest ideals and deepest longings. Only when we measure life in our own limited ideas does it become limited in its manifestation through us. Depend upon the Life Universal for supply.

Paragraph 26. Man’s individual right to expression cannot be violated in the true processes of life. It is by our own effort that we rise and not by the efforts of others. Vicarious living without effort upon our part is destructive to our own character and well-being.

Paragraphs 27 to 30. Life is action, self-expression, giving. It is as necessary to give in order to live as it is necessary to exhale in the processes of breathing. One should receive from his source and then give of that source in his highest expressions. One first receives from any principle by taking it into his consciousness and then he expresses it in outward performance. This is equally true in the processes of life. To receive without giving or to give without receiving is to make life static through surfeit or exhaustion. To receive from your source and express what you have received in manifesting your greater capabilities is the way of life.

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