Human beings can only hope to realize the Overself which is a ray or intermediary, but not the World-Mind itself. For the latter is too vast and infinite and remote. Hence when mystics talk of knowing God or feeling God, this is only partly true for they can never know or feel God in his fullness.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31648 – 16.25.1.110

BN – Z – DEK

The soul is as close as we can approach to that Mind, but surely it is enough. For it reflects something of the Mind’s nature. This is why the seers who wrote the Hindu bible called it a “Spark of the One Divine Flame” and the prophets who wrote the Christian bible declared it to be “created in the image of God.”

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31649 – 16.25.1.111

BN – Z – DK

We may, however, attain to partial knowledge of the transcendent Absolute by and through its emanation in us, the higher self.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31651 – 16.25.1.113

BN – Z – DK

But although the Absolute in its passive state is unknowable, the Overself as representative of its active aspect, of the World-Mind, is knowable.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31653 – 16.25.1.115

BN – X – D

The Infinite Mind is beyond human perception but its presence and operation are not. The point in human consciousness where these become known is the Overself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31655 – 16.25.1.117

BN – Z – DK

But although the Absolute is imperceptible to human powers, It has not left us utterly bereft of all means of communion. We are linked to It by something that lies hidden in the very deeps of our own being, by Its deputy to man, the divine Overself. Human power can penetrate to those deeps and discover the hidden treasure.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31656 – 16.25.1.118

BN – Z – DK

This higher self is what the successful mystics of all religions have really achieved union with, despite the widely different names from "God" downwards, which they have given it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31657 – 16.25.1.119

BA11 – Z – DK

We cannot ever know the Divine which is Transcendent but we can acknowledge that it IS. We may however know the Divine which is Immanent, recognize, perceive, and feel its presence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31658 – 16.25.1.120

BN – X – D

An important warning is needed here. Wherever the idea of agnostic mysticism has been supported, the idea that there is no possibility of knowing the Absolute and so no communication of such knowledge, the reference is to ordinary human intellect. No positive result can come of its investigation into that which transcends it. But what intellect unaided cannot know, intuition—a higher faculty—can. It can discover its point of contact with the Absolute—its higher individuality, the Overself, even though it can go no farther and penetrate the Absolute. When intuition becomes active in this matter, it may or may not take the shape of a mystical experience. When it is developed by philosophic training, it expands into insight.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31661 – 16.25.1.123

BN – Z – DK

That which he finds deep within himself is, he understands intuitively, a reflected ray from that which exists behind the whole universe but it is still only a ray.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31667 – 16.25.1.129

BN – X – D

The Overself is so close to God, so akin to the World-Mind, that no man need look farther, or aspire higher.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31671 – 16.25.1.133

BN – X – D

In time his relation to the higher self becomes more intimate than any earthly friendship, closer than any human union could ever be. Yet it always remains a relation, never becomes an absorption; always a nearness, never a merger.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31681 – 16.25.1.143

BN – Z – K1

Philosophy rejects decisively all those Vedantic pantheistic notions and Western mystical na\i\rveties which would deify man and identify him with God. It asserts that the phrases in which these beliefs are embodied, such as the Indian "That thou art," the Persian "I am God," and the medieval European "union with God," are exaggerations of the truth, which is that God is immanent in us, that through realization of our higher self we become more like God, but that God never ceases to be the Unattainable, the Incomprehensible.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31688 – 16.25.1.150

BN – X – K1

The mystic's endeavour to unite with God—much more his claim to achieve it—is without meaning if God is the Ultimate and the Unique. No finite limited human intelligence could ever directly communicate with the infinite and illimitable Mystery or give and receive love from it. All this has meaning only when the concept of the Overself is introduced.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31692 – 16.25.1.154

UR_3.2 – Z – K

The teaching of a higher individuality needs to be correctly understood. It is not that a separate one exists for each physical body. The consciousness which normally identifies itself with the body—that is, the ego—when looking upward in highest devotion or inward in deepest meditation, comes to the point of contact with universal being, World-Mind. This point is its own higher self, the divine deputy within its own being. But if devotion or meditation are carried still further, to the very utmost possible stretch of consciousness, the point itself merges into its source. At this moment the man is his source. But—"Man shall not see My face and live!" He returns eventually to earth-consciousness, where he must follow out its requirements. Yet the knowledge of what he is in essence remains. The presence of the deputy is always there meanwhile, always felt. It may fittingly be called his higher individuality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31693 – 16.25.1.155

BN – ZZ – K1

Union with the Overself is not the ultimate end but a penultimate one. What we look up to as the Overself looks up in its own turn to another and higher entity.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31698 – 16.25.1.160

BN – Z – K1

Agnostic Mysticism: Let us not match our petty and limited minds against the infinite and incomprehensible World-Mind, and let us not say with some foolish mystic that we are God. Let us say rather what we can truly say, which is that there is something of God in us.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31700 – 16.25.1.162

BN – Z – DEK

It is humbly truer to admit, with Muhammed, "I am the servant of God, I am but a man like you", than arrogantly to assert with the Advaitin, "I am the infinite Brahman!" It is better to say modestly with Jesus, "The father is greater than I", than to announce with the Sufi Mansur: "I am God".

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Man is not, does not become, God

#31702 – 16.25.1.164

B_11 – Z – K

The belief among Christians and Hindus that God incarnates in human form through Christ or Krishna is not held by Muhammedans or Buddhists. That God may use a human channel at times is more rational. But this God is World-Mind, not the Unapproachable.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Fallacy of "Divine Incarnation''

#31710 – 16.25.1.172

BN – X – D

There is metaphysically no such thing as a human appearance of God, as the Infinite Mind brought down into finite flesh. This error is taught as a sacred truth by the Bahais in their Manifestation doctrine, by the Christians in the Incarnation doctrine, and by the Hindus in their Avatar doctrine. God cannot be born in the flesh, cannot take a human incarnation. If He could so confine Himself, He would cease to be God. For how could the Perfect, the Incomprehensible, and the Inconceivable become the imperfect, the comprehensible, and the conceivable? > >Yet there is some fire behind this smoke. From time to time, someone is born predestined to give a spiritual impulse to a particular people, area, or age. He is charged with a special mission of teaching and redemption and is imbued with special power from the universal intelligence to enable him to carry it out. He must plant seeds which grow slowly into trees to carry fruit that will feed millions of unborn people.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Fallacy of "Divine Incarnation''

#31722 – 16.25.1.184

BN – ZEL1/2 – DEK1

From time to time, someone is born predestined to give a spiritual impulse to a particular people, area, or age. He is charged with a special mission of teaching and redemption and is imbued with special power from the universal intelligence to enable him to carry it out. He must plant seeds which grow slowly into trees to carry fruit that will feed millions of unborn people. In this sense he is different from and, if you like, superior to anyone else who is also inspired by the Overself. But this difference or superiority does not alter his human status, does not make him more than a man still, however divinely used and power-charged he may be. Such a man will claim no essential superiority over other men; on the contrary, he will plainly admit that they, too, may attain the same state of inspiration which he possesses.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Their Meeting and Interchange > Fallacy of "Divine Incarnation''

#31722 – 16.25.1.184

BN – ZEL2/2 – DEK1

Hitherto we have been considering the state of the man who is seeking enlightenment. But what is the state of the man who has attained it? This is also worthwhile for our closest study. For after all, he is the type we are one day destined to become, the type we are being shaped into by life itself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31725 – 16.25.2.1

BN – X – D

'Awareness' is not enough to describe full enlightenment. 'Knowingness' includes it but goes farther and is hence a better term.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31734 – 16.25.2.10

UR_3.2 – Z – K

There is in him now a translucency of mind which gives all things, all persons, all events, a deeper diviner significance. Life henceforth has a wonderful and beautiful meaning.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31735 – 16.25.2.11

BA11 – ZZ – DK

All problems vanish from his mind as though they had never been. He is under no necessity to concern himself about anything or anyone. "God’s in his heaven and all’s well with the world." There is no tormenting situation to be cleared up, no difficult decision to be made, no quest to be followed through drawn-out struggles and personal self-disciplines, and inevitable disappointments. He now has the secret of it all, the blissful state of Enlightenment.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31737 – 16.25.2.13

BSG_4 – P – D

Hitherto he has been only partially himself. Now, with this radiant entry into the eternal, he is completely himself. Now, he can speak to others, move in the world, and work out relationships, solely from his center, straight from his core: no distortions, no hypocrisies, no insincerities.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31738 – 16.25.2.14

BN – X – D

When the knowledge of the soul is not merely intellectual, however convincing, not only a matter of belief, however firm, but an unchangeable awareness of its ever-present existence, it is true knowledge, authentic revelation, and blissful salvation.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment Which Stays

#31741 – 16.25.2.17

BA11 – ZZ – DK

Glimpses have been had more often than most people believe but enlightenment that is continuous and always present is rare.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31744 – 16.25.2.20

BN – X – D

As the human mind develops, it forms higher and higher conceptions of the deity until, finally, it is lifted above itself into a tremendous experience. It loses itself in the deity itself, and when it returns to normal living, it does not need to seek further. I do not refer here to the experience which several mystics have had called “the glimpse,” but something which is of a once-and-for-all nature and which does not, in its essence, ever leave him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31750 – 16.25.2.26

BN – X – D

The awareness of Truth is constant and perennial. It cannot be merely glimpsed; one must be born into it, in Jesus' words, again and again, and perceive it permanently. One must be identified with it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31753 – 16.25.2.29

B_12 – ZZZ – K

It is true that our sins and faults are automatically dispersed by the inrush of Enlightenment, but it is equally true that they will return if we have not prepared ourselves to be able to stay in the Light.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31761 – 16.25.2.37

BN – X – D

The difference between the intermediate and the final state is the difference between feeling the Overself to be a distinct and separate entity and feeling it to be the very essence of oneself, between temporary experience of it and enduring union with it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31766 – 16.25.2.42

BN – ZZZ – DK1

We must learn to differentiate between the partial attainment of the mystic who stops short at passive enjoyment of ecstatic states and the perfect attainment of the sage who does not depend on any particular states but dwells in the unbroken calm of the unconditioned Overself. From his high point of view all such states are necessarily illusory, however personally satisfying at the time, inasmuch as they are transient conditions and do not pertain to the final result.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31768 – 16.25.2.44

BN – Z – K1

We must carefully qualify by such words as "intermittent," "partial," and "temporary," the attainments to which exercises lead. This is because the full and permanent attainment cannot emerge out of meditation alone. It is a fruit of the threefold planting of meditation and reflection and action combined. Hence although the foregoing exercises will bring the student considerably nearer it, it must not be thought that any mystical exercise of itself can confer ultimate enlightenment. The path to this exalted result must traverse all three fields of yoga, metaphysics, and self-abnegating activity.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31773 – 16.25.2.49

BN – Z – DEK

We need to know the truth, the wisdom-knowledge, but it is not enough. We need to have the living mystic experience, the vital feeling of what I am, but it is not enough. For we need to synthesize the two in a full actual intuitive realization, conferred by the Overself. This is Grace. This is to emerge finally—born again!

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Glimpses and permanent realization

#31775 – 16.25.2.51

BA11 – ZZZ – DMK

It is the making the man ready, the preparation of his mind and heart which take so much time, so many years even in many cases; but the enlightenment itself is a single short happening: the effect remains permanently.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31780 – 16.25.2.56

BN – X – D

Enlightenment seldom comes all at once. But in the case of rare geniuses or of those with rare good karma, the possibility is certainly there.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31785 – 16.25.2.61

BN – Z – DK

When enlightenment comes through philosophic preparation for it, the experience is sudden, direct, unexpected, and spontaneous.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31788 – 16.25.2.64

BN – X – D

Enlightenment may come slowly or suddenly but in the second case it has the effect of sunlight bursting through the sky.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31790 – 16.25.2.66

BN – X – D

The calmness which he carries inside himself, and which is apparent in all his bearing, has not arisen out of nothing. It has come to him out of long struggle and after varied suffering.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31793 – 16.25.2.69

BN – Z – D

Not all persons come into this desirable state through formal methods of meditation and regular practice of them. Some attain it through adopting a higher attitude to the happenings, situations, impressions, and emotions which each day’s course presents to them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31794 – 16.25.2.70

BN – X – D

Lao Tzu was a librarian by profession, Janaka a king, and Brother Lawrence a kitchen menial. Yet all had this same wonderful experience of peaceful communion with Overself, proving that one's antecedents, or work, or position are neither helps nor handicaps.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31795 – 16.25.2.71

BN – X – D

The holy joy may visit you but cannot stay in you if both the animal and the ego are staying in you. Purify yourself of the one and empty yourself of the other, if you would convert a passing glimpse into the permanent union.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Sudden or gradual?

#31799 – 16.25.2.75

BN – X – D

When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, you will have no ”astral” experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which has been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not something which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your mental eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment comes quietly

#31801 – 16.25.2.77

BN – ZZ – DK1

The discovery of his true being is not outwardly dramatic, and for a long time no one may know of it, except himself. The world may not honour him for it: he may die as obscure as he lived. But the purpose of his life has been fulfilled; and God's will has been done.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment comes quietly

#31802 – 16.25.2.78

BN – X – D

No one really knows how this enlightenment first dawns on him. One moment it was not there, the next moment he was somehow in it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment comes quietly

#31806 – 16.25.2.82

BN – X – D

No announcements tell the world that he has come into enlightenment. No heralds blow the trumpets proclaiming man's greatest victory—over himself. This is in fact the quietest moment of his whole life.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Enlightenment comes quietly

#31807 – 16.25.2.83

BN – Z – DK1

At this stage there is no struggle for further growth; it comes as softly and as naturally as a flower's. There is no sacrifice of things the ego desires or clutches to itself, for there is such insight as to their worth or worthlessness that they stay or fall away of themselves.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Naturalness of the attainment

#31810 – 16.25.2.86

BN – Z – D

It is better to attain such high status without knowing it. For this absence of pride and presence of humility keeps the ego from threatening it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Naturalness of the attainment

#31811 – 16.25.2.87

BN – X – DK

The actions of a man who has attained this degree are inspired directly by his Overself, and consequently are not dictated by personal wishes, purposes, passions, or desires. They are not initiated by his ego's will but by a will higher than his own…

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Naturalness of the attainment

#31812E – 16.25.2.88

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

Plotinus even made the point that it is better for a man not to be aware that he is acting virtuously, courageously, wisely, or practising contemplation beautifully, free from interfering mental images or thoughts. For then, if he does not know that he—the person—is doing so, no egoism will taint his consciousness. It will be pure being. He will do whatever has to be done by him as a human creature—whether it be a physical act or a mental one, he will respond to all situations that call for a human response, but neither the act nor the response will be accompanied by the personal ego. This does not mean that his worldly life or he himself will suffer loss of identity—only that he will be isolated from the worldly self-centered thought, desire, and motive which prompts the existence of the mass of people.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Naturalness of the attainment

#31813 – 16.25.2.89

BN – ZZ – DEK

It is not only true that there is variety in the types of illumination but also true that there is a scale of degrees in the illumination itself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31819 – 16.25.2.95

BN – X – D

To be the witness is the first stage; to be Witness of the witness is the next; but to BE is the final one. For consciousness lets go of the witness in the end. Consciousness alone is itself the real experience.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31824 – 16.25.2.100

BN – X – DEK1

A rare but complete illumination must not only pass from the first to the final degree of intensity, but must also contain a picture of the cosmic order. That is to say, it must be a revelation. It must explain the profounder nature of the universe, the inner meaning of individual existence, and the hidden relationship between the two.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31829 – 16.25.2.105

BN – Z – K1

There is some confusion on this point in the minds of many students. On attaining enlightenment a man does not attain omniscience. At most, he may receive a revelation of the inner operations of life and Nature, of the higher laws governing life and man. That is, he may also become a seer and find a cosmogony presented to his gaze. But the actuality in a majority of cases is that he attains enlightenment only, not cosmogonical seership.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31832 – 16.25.2.108

BN – X – K1

The deeper one penetrates into the Void the more he is purified of the illusions of personality, time, matter, space, and causality. Between the second and third stages of insight's unfoldment there are really two further subsidiary stages which are wrapped in the greatest mystery and are rarely touched by the average mystic or yogi. For both of them are stages which lead further downwards into the Void. The yogi touches the edge of the Void, as it were, but not its centre. These two stages are purificatory ones and utterly annihilate the last illusions and the last egoisms of the seeker. They are dissolved forever and cannot revive again. Nothing more useful can and may be said about it here. For this is the innermost holy of holies, the most sacred sanctuary accessible to man. He who touches this grade touches what may not be spoken aloud for sneering ears, nor written down for sneering eyes. Consequently none has ever ventured to explain publicly what must not be so explained.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31833 – 16.25.2.109

BN – ZZ – K1

All human beings on this planet are imperfect. Perfection is not fully attainable here. But when a man has striven for it and advanced near to it, he will attain it automatically as soon as he is freed from the body.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31834 – 16.25.2.110

BN – X – D

The liberation from further reincarnations can be attained while still here in the flesh, but the full completion of its consequent inner peace can come only after final exit from the body.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Degrees of enlightenment

#31836 – 16.25.2.112

BN – X – D

The illuminate is conscious of both the ultimate unity and immediate multiplicity of the world. This is a paradox. But his permanent resting place while he is dealing with others is at the junction-point of duality and unity so that he is ready at any moment to absorb his attention in either phase.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31839 – 16.25.2.115

BA11 – ZZ – DK

In this high state his own mind is consciously connected with the divine Mind. The result can scarcely be understood by the uninitiated.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31843 – 16.25.2.119

BN – Z – DEK

When the masculine and feminine temperaments within us are united, completed, and balanced, when masculine power and feminine passivity are brought together inside the person and knowledge and reverence encircle them both, then wisdom begins to dawn in the soul. The ineffable reality and the mentalist universe are then understood to be non-different from one another.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31844 – 16.25.2.120

BN – X – DEK

When his mind moves entirely and wholly into the One Infinite Presence, and when it settles permanently there, the divided existence of glimpse and darkness, of Spirit and matter, of Overself and ego, of heaven and earth, will vanish. The crossing over to a unified existence will happen.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31846 – 16.25.2.122

BN – X – D

When duality is blended with, and within, unity it is the true jivanmukta realization. The One is then experienced as the Two but known to be really the One.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31847 – 16.25.2.123

BN – Z – K1

The constant application of meditation to the activity of knowledge, to behaviour, thought, and feeling, eventually brings about a continuous awareness. This is called ‘Sahaja’.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31861 – 16.25.2.137

UR_3.2 – Z – K

What is the difference between the state of deepest contemplation, which the Hindus call nirvikalpa samadhi, and that which they call sahaja samadhi? The first is only a temporary experience, that is it begins and ends but the man actually experiences an uplift of consciousness, he gains a new and higher outlook. But sahaja is continuous unbroken realization that as Overself he always was, is, and shall be. It is not a feeling that something new and higher has been gained. What is the absolute test which distinguishes one condition from the other, since both are awareness of the Overself? In nirvikalpa the ego vanishes but reappears when the ordinary state is resumed: hence it has only been lulled, even though it has been slightly weakened by the process. In sahaja the ego is rooted out once and for all! It not only vanishes, but it cannot reappear.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31863 – 16.25.2.139

UR_3.2 – Z – K

I am an Advaitin on the fundamental point of nonduality of the Real, but I am unable to limit myself to most Advaitin's practical view of samadhi and sahaja. Here I stand with Chinese Zen (Ch'an), especially as I was taught and as explained by the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng. He warns against turning meditation into a narcotic, resulting in a pleasant passivity. He went so far as to declare: 'It is quite unnecessary to stay in monasteries. Only let your mind . . . function in freedom . . . let it abide nowhere. And in this connection he later explains: 'To be free from attachment to all outer objects is true meditation. To meditate means to realize thus tranquillity of Essence of Mind'.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31865E – 16.25.2.141

BSG_4 – Z – DEK3

I do not claim that 'sahaja' yields ultimate reality: I only claim that it yields the ultimate so far 'known to man'.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31867 – 16.25.2.143

BN – ZZ – K1

The general idea in the popular and religious circles of India is that the highest state of illumination is attained during a trance condition (samadhi). This is not the teaching in the highest philosophic circles of India. There is another condition, "sahaja samadhi," which is described in a few little-known texts and which is regarded as superior. It is esteemed because no trance is necessary and because it is a continuous state. The inferior state is one which is intermittently entered and left: it cannot be retained without returning to trance. The philosophic "fourth state," by contrast, remains unbroken even when active and awake in the busy world.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31871 – 16.25.2.147

BN – ZZ – K1

When the sense of this presence is a continuous one, when the knowledge of the mentalness of this world-experience is an abiding one, and when the calm which comes as a result is an unshakeable one, it may be said that he is established in the Truth and in the Real.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31873 – 16.25.2.149

BN – X – D

He does not have to enter into formal meditation to find his soul. It is an ever-present reality for him, not merely an intellectual conception or emotional belief.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31874 – 16.25.2.150

BA11 – ZZ – DK

In the world you will find only two kinds of people—the unconscious and the conscious. The first kind know only their own little egos and their own large desires. The second kind know continually that they are in the presence of the Overself, and enjoy its great peace.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31876 – 16.25.2.152

BN – X – D

He who has reached this degree will be always poised in the Overself, always aware of his identity with its inimitable nature yet also conscious of his limitations as an ego. This may seem queer and contradictory yet the man will never feel himself pulled in different directions but, on the contrary, will feel a perfect harmony between the human and the divine.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31880 – 16.25.2.156

BN – Z – DK

The Buddhists call lasting enlightenment by the name of Nirvana.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31886 – 16.25.2.162

BA11 – Z – DK*

To attain this advanced stage is to attain the capacity to enter directly and immediately into meditation, not merely at a special time or in a particular place, but always and everywhere.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31888 – 16.25.2.164

BN – X – D

Once this stage is attained, neither the knowledge of reality nor the feeling of serenity will ever leave him again. He has found them not for a few hours but forever.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31889 – 16.25.2.165

BN – X – D

There is but ONE Reality and various forms under which it appears. Therefore the man who perceives this naturally, perceives the ultimate reality everywhere. He does not need to meditate or to go into a trance to find it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31890EM – 16.25.2.166

UR_1 – ZZZ – K

The 'disciple' is aware of the Overself at some times but not at other times. The 'adept', however, always has this awareness in an unbroken flow.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31892 – 16.25.2.168

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Inner strength, divine joy, deep understanding, and unspeakable tranquillity will pervade him always and not be limited to the hours of solitary meditation. This is so because the Overself whence these things come is always with all men. Only, they know it not, whereas he has awakened to its abiding presence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Nonduality, sahaja, insight

#31893 – 16.25.2.169

BN – X – D

When this awareness is so stabilized that it maintains itself at all times awake or asleep, he is at the end of the quest.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31898 – 16.25.2.174

BN – X – D

The divine presence does not leave the enlightened man when he goes to sleep and return to him when he awakes, nor does it leave him when he enters the state of dream and return to him when he leaves it; it is in truth something which is ever present. If he enters the sleeping state, he enters it while in the light of knowledge, and the same applies if he enters the dream state.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31899 – 16.25.2.175

BN – X – DEK

That alone is the final attainment which can remain with him through all the three states—waking, dream and deep sleep—and through all the day’s activities.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31903 – 16.25.2.179

BN – X – D

What is known during deep sleep is the veil of ignorance which covers the Real. That is, the knowing faculty, the awareness, is still present, but caught in the ignorance, the veiling, and knowing nothing else. The sage, however, carries into sleep the awareness he had in wakefulness. He may let it dim down to a glimmer, but it is always there.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31904 – 16.25.2.180

BN – X – DEK

Although the sage withdraws with the onset of sleep from wakeful awareness, he does not withdraw from all awareness. A pleasurable and peaceful sense of impersonal being is left over. In this he rests throughout the night.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31908D – 16.25.2.184

BN – X – D

After this passing-over into the Overself’s rule, does he carry a loss of identity? Is he no more aware that he is the named person of the past? Were this so he could not exist in human society or attend to his duties. No!—outwardly he is more or less the same, although his pattern of behaviour betrays recognizable signs of superiority over the past man which he was. Inwardly, there is total revolution.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31910 – 16.25.2.186

BN – X – D

The differences between human beings still remain after illumination. The variations which make each one a unique specimen and the individual that he is, still continue to exist. But the Oneness behind human beings powerfully counterbalances.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31913 – 16.25.2.189

BN – X – D

When it is said that we lose our individuality on entering Nirvana, words are being used loosely and faultily. So long as a man, whether he be Buddha or Hitler, has to walk, eat, and work, he must use his individuality. What is lost by the sage is his attachment to individuality with its desires, hates, angers, and passions.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31914 – 16.25.2.190

BN – X – D

Freed at last from this ever-whirling wheel of birth and death to which he was tied by his own desire-nature, what happens to him can only be an opening up to a new better and indescribable state, and it is so. He, as he was, vanishes, not into complete annihilation and certainly not into the heaven of a perpetuated ego, but into a higher kind of life shrouded in mystery.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Conscious transcendental sleep

#31918 – 16.25.2.194

BN – X – D

The gap between the finite human mind and the infinite World-Mind is absolute. A union between them is not possible unless the first merges and disappears into the second.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31920 – 16.25.2.196

BN – X – K1

It is a fallacy to think that this displacement of the lower self brings about its complete substitution by the infinite and absolute Deity. This fallacy is an ancient and common one in mystical circles and leads to fantastic declarations of self-deification. If the lower self is displaced, it is not destroyed. It lives on but in strict subordination to the higher one, the Overself, the divine soul of man; and it is this latter, not the divine world-principle, which is the true displacing element.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31922 – 16.25.2.198

BN – X – DEK1

There is some kind of a distinction between his higher individuality and the Universal Infinite out of which it is rayed, whatever the Vedantins may say. And this distinction remains in his highest mystical state, which is not one of total absorption and utter destruction of this individuality but the mergence of its own will in the universal will, the closest intimacy of its own being with the universal being.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31924 – 16.25.2.200

BN – ZZZ – K1

There is no final absorption; the individual continues to exist somehow in the Supreme. The fact that he can pass away into it at will and yet return again, proves this.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31926 – 16.25.2.202

BN – Z – DK

The unit of mind is differentiated out and undergoes its long evolution through numerous changes of state, not to merge so utterly in its source again as to be virtually annihilated, but to be consciously harmonized with that source whilst yet retaining its individuality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31928 – 16.25.2.204

BN – X – DK1

The philosopher cannot set the spirit apart from the body, nor the spiritual life from the worldly life—for him, they penetrate one another. He lives every moment in the awareness of his Higher Self. Yet this does not oppose nor interfere with, the awareness of his lower one.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31932M – 16.25.2.208

B_08 – ZZ – DXK

If the claim of complete merger is valid, if the individual self really disappears in the attainment of Divine Consciousness, of whom then was this same self aware in the experience of attainment? No—it is only the lower personal self that is transcended; the higher spiritual individuality is not.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31934 – 16.25.2.210

BN – X – K1

The higher individuality is preserved, but the lower personality, with its miserable limitations, is not.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31936 – 16.25.2.212

BN – X – D

There is no reason why he should not preserve his individuality even if he should surrender it to God.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31941 – 16.25.2.217

BN – X – D

The goal is achieved when the Higher Self encloses and absorbs the ego.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31942 – 16.25.2.218

BSG_4 – P – D

Though he has been caught up into something immensely greater than himself, he still remains an individual—albeit a loosely held one.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31943 – 16.25.2.219

BN – X – DEK

The enlightened man has the same kind of body and the same five senses as unenlightened men have. His experience of the world must be the same, too. But — and this is a vast difference — he experiences it along with the Overself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > Individuality remains

#31958 – 16.25.2.234

BN – X – D

How does the illuminate react to his own karma? "Even after knowledge of the self has been awakened, 'Prarabdha' (the portion of past karma now being enjoyed) does not leave him but he does not feel 'Prarabdha' after the dawning of the knowledge of the truth because the body and other things are unreal like the things seen in a dream to one on awakening from it," replies 'Nadabindu Upanishad'. That is, he treats his karmic suffering as being but ideas.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > World continues

#31964 – 16.25.2.240

BN – X – K

The man who has this higher consciousness permanently will see and experience the outer world like other men, but he will understand the relation between what he sees and the Real world which is behind it. In the same way, anyone can understand the relation between his body and its shadows; but whereas unenlightened men see the shadow alone, the enlightened one sees both.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > World continues

#31966 – 16.25.2.242

BN – ZZ – DEK

Of little use are explanations which befog truth and bewilder understanding. To inform a Western reader that an enlightened man sees only "Brahman" is to imply that he does not see forms, that is, the world. But the fact is that he does see what unenlightened men see—the physical objects and creatures around him—or he could not attend to the simplest little necessity or duty of which all humans have to take care. But he sees things without being limited to their physical appearance—he knows their inner reality too.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > World continues

#31967 – 16.25.2.243

BN – ZZZ – K1

This is the spiritual climax of one's life, this dramatic moment when consciousness comes to recognize and understand itself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31971 – 16.25.2.247

BN – X – DM

If he has become enlightened, a discerning eye may note the fact by his body and his actions, by his silences and his utterances. But an ignorant eye may note nothing at all.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31978 – 16.25.2.254

BN – X – D

The effects of enlightenment include: an imperturbable detachment from outer possessions, rank, honours, and persons; an overwhelming certainty about truth; a carefree, heavenly peace above all disturbances and vicissitudes; an acceptance of the general rightness of the universal situation, with each entity and each event playing its role; and impeccable sincerity which says what it means, means what it says.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31979 – 16.25.2.255

BA11 – ZZZ – DK1

He understands then what it means to do nothing of himself, for he feels clearly that the higher power is doing through him whatever has to be done, is doing it rightly, while he himself is merely watching what is happening.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31981 – 16.25.2.257

BN – ZZZ – D

Though overshadowed continuously by this divine being that is really his own other self, he remains nevertheless quite human. Just as the Illumined State does not prevent him from receiving physical impressions from the world around him, so it does not prevent him from receiving psychic impressions from the people around him. But he does not cling to any of these impressions, nor does he let his emotions get entwined with them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31984M – 16.25.2.260

BA11 – ZZ – DX

In that universal Mind wherein he now dwells, he can find no man to be called his enemy, no man to be hated or despised. He is friendly to all men, not as a deliberately cultivated attitude but as a natural compulsion he may not resist.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31990 – 16.25.2.266

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

He is no longer able to will for himself for the simple reason that some other entity has begun to will for him. Egoism in the human sense, sensualism in the animal sense, have both been eliminated from his heart.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31994 – 16.25.2.270

BN – X – D

Henceforth he is to work knowingly and lovingly with the power behind his life.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31997 – 16.25.2.273

BA11 – ZZ – K

Henceforth he functions as the human instrument of a trans-human power.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31998 – 16.25.2.274

BA11 – ZZ – K

One result then comes, that what he does by instinct and what he does by choice are henceforth one and the same.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#31999 – 16.25.2.275

BA11 – ZZ – K

These finer qualities will no longer appear only in momentary impulses. They will possess his whole character.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32000 – 16.25.2.276

BA11 – ZZ – K

One of the foremost features of enlightenment is the clarity it gives to the mind, the lucidity of understanding and luminosity which surrounds all problems.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32001 – 16.25.2.277

BA11 – ZZ – K

The realized man does not look back constantly for memories of the past and does not consider them worth recapitulating, for they belong to the ego … The only exception would be where he has to draw upon them to instruct others to help them profit by his experiences.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32009 – 16.25.2.285

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

What happened in all those earlier years is now veiled history to the enlightened man; what happens now, in the Eternal Now, is the important significant matter. Thus his mind is free from old burdens and errors. Yet, if needed, dead events can be resuscitated by intense concentration.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32013 – 16.25.2.289

BN – X – D

When the ego willingly retires from all its worldly concerns or intellectual preoccupations to the sanctuary of the heart to be alone with the Overself, it becomes not only wiser but more powerful. At moments when the divine influx blissfully invades a man, it will not be out of his ordinary self that he will speak or act, but out of his higher self.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32020E – 16.25.2.296

BSG_4 – P – DE

It is natural as well as inevitable that one who has entered into the larger life of the Overself should show forth some of its higher powers. Such an individual's thoughts are informed by a subtler force, invested with a diviner element, pointed by a sharper concentration, and sustained by a superior will than are those of the average person. They are in consequence exceedingly powerful, creative, and effective.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32020E – 16.25.2.296

BSG_4 – P – DE

What was formerly an occasional glimpse will now become a permanent sight. The intermittent intuition of a guardian presence will now become the constantly established experience of it. The divine presence has now become to you an immediate and intimate one. Its reality and vitality are no longer matters for argument or dispute but matters of settled experience.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32020E – 16.25.2.296

BSG_4 – P – DE

That which the sage bears in his heart is for all men alike. If few are willing to receive it, the fault does not lie with him. He rejects none, is prejudiced against none. It is the others who reject him, who are prejudiced against him. He neither inwardly desires nor outwardly requires any public attestation to the sincerity of his services or the integrity of his character. The quiet approval of his own conscience is enough.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32020E – 16.25.2.296

BSG_4 – P – DE

Outwardly he appears to act as intensely or as vigorously as other men. But inwardly he will really be at rest in the Overself, which will lead him like a child into performing necessary actions. His mind is still, even though his body is busy. And because of this leading, his actions will be right and even inspired ones, his personal Will, will be expressive of a higher one.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32021 – 16.25.2.297

BA11 – ZZZ – DMK

At long last, when the union of self with Overself is total and complete, some part of his consciousness will remain unmoving in infinity, unending in eternity. There, in that sacred glory, he will be preoccupied with his divine identity, held to it by irresistible magnetism, gladly, lovingly.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32023 – 16.25.2.299

BA11 – ZZ – DM1

The sage is a man who lives in constant truth-remembrance. He has realized the existence of the Overself, he knows that he partakes of Its life, immortal and infinite. He has made the pilgrimage to essential being and returned again to walk amongst men, to speak their language, and to bear witness, by his life amongst them, to Truth.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32024 – 16.25.2.300

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

His relationship to the Overself is one of direct awareness of its presence—not as a separate being but as his own essence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32025 – 16.25.2.301

BN – ZZ – DK

For the person who has come to this understanding, who continually feels that IT IS, who is ever in remembrance of It, rituals, ceremonies, mantras, and prayers are not only unnecessary but are a waste of time.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32030 – 16.25.2.306

B_01 – ZZZ – K

The owl, which sees clearly at midnight, is an old and good symbol of the sage whose mind is ever at rest in, and lighted by, the Infinite Mind.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32031 – 16.25.2.307

BN – Z – DK

At this level, he is beyond bothering to listen to the discordant sounds of competing sects and cults: he is uninterested in the claims made for different teachings. He has only one concern: direct communion with the God within him as a felt, grace-giving Presence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32033 – 16.25.2.309

BN – ZZ – DK

The liberated person is liberated from all intellectual dogmas, perplexities, and questionings—whether they concern the present past or future, whether they relate to himself personally or to the universe abstractly. For all these can interest only a limited egoistic consciousness.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32040 – 16.25.2.316

BN – ZZ – DK

His life silently becomes a witness to the fact of the Overself's continuous presence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Enlightenment Which Stays > General effects of enlightenment

#32052 – 16.25.2.328

BA11 – ZZ – DK

Philosophy uses the attained man not as a god for grovelling worship and blind obedience, but as an ideal for effectual admiration and reverent analysis.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > The Sage Part 1

#32058 – 16.25.3.6

BN – ZZ – K1

He is an ambassador from the infinite, an envoy to all men from the higher plane of their own being.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > The Sage Part 1

#32064 – 16.25.3.12

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The illuminate is the conscious embodiment of the Overself, whereas the ordinary man is ignorant of that which his heart enshrines. Hence, the Chinese say that the illuminate is the “Complete Man.” He is the rare flower of an age.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > The Sage Part 1

#32066 – 16.25.3.14

BN – ZZ – DK

Such men and women are indeed the spiritual vanguard of the human race.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > The race of sages

#32082 – 16.25.3.30

BN – Z – DK

Such men are so few, their worth to society so great, the darkness around us gathering so thickly, that their presence among us is the greatest blessing.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > The race of sages

#32084 – 16.25.3.32

B_01 – ZZZ – K

We are told that Jesus was a man of sorrows. But was he not also a man of joys? The joy of bearing a divine message, the joy of bringing light into a darkened world, and the joy of helping men find their own soul.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32113 – 16.25.3.61

B_11 – ZZ – DK

If Jesus wept over the folly of cities, he was also glad over the Presence and Providence of God. If he was a man of sorrow at some times, he was also a man of joy at all times. For the sorrow was merely transient, outward, superficial, and for others whereas the joy was everlasting, inward, deep, and his own. No man can come into the Father's kingdom, as he came, without feeling its happiness and enjoying its ecstasy.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32114 – 16.25.3.62

B_11 – Z – K

It is a fact that Jesus wrote nothing and that he never asked his apostles to write anything. Why? What he had to give directly or through them was no message to or argument with the intellect. It was an evocation of the intuition. It had to be transferred to each man psychically.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32118 – 16.25.3.66

B_11 – Z – K

Jesus and Buddha inspired their immediate disciples with something of their own spiritual vitality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32121 – 16.25.3.69

B_12 – Z – K

The sayings of Jesus cannot be authenticated by anyone as being historically true. But every illumined man can authenticate them as being mystically true.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32126 – 16.25.3.74

B_11 – ZZZ – K

Those who can understand the mystery of what is called by theologians (not by philosophers) the Incarnation, will understand also that the crucifixion of Jesus did not last a mere six hours. It lasted for a whole thirty-three years. His sufferings were primarily mental, not physical. They were caused, not by the nails driven into his flesh at the end of his life, but by the evil thoughts and materialistic emotions impinging on his mind from his environment during the whole course of his life.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32127 – 16.25.3.75

B_12 – ZZZ – K

This man who came among them to tell of a deeper kind of life that would give them unearthly peace, who sought to bless them by removing an ancient curse from their history, was rejected, yet Jesus had to do what he did, to say what he said.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32131 – 16.25.3.79

B_11 – ZZZ – K

Jesus opened up the Mysteries to the masses of the Western continent and gave to the many what had hitherto been given only to the chosen few. Buddha did precisely the same for the masses of the Asiatic continent.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32138 – 16.25.3.86

B_11 – Z – DK

This does not mean that Jesus himself ever taught philosophy to his immediate circle; nobody has yet found evidence that he ever did so. Where, for instance, will the reader find in his sayings any explanation of the nature of truth or discussion of the nature of ultimate reality? The period of three years from the beginning of his mission till his death was too short to raise such simple folk as had gathered around him into mastery of both the second and third degrees.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Remarks on specific illuminates

#32139 – 16.25.3.87

B_11 – Z – K

It is a mistake to believe that the mystical adepts all possess the same unvarying supernormal powers. On the contrary, they manifest such power or powers as are in consonance with their previous line of development and aspiration. One who has come along an intellectual line of development, for instance, would most naturally manifest exceptional intellectual powers. The situation has been well put by Saint Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries but the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings but the same God who worketh all in all." When the Overself activates the newly made adept's psyche, the effect shows itself in some part or faculty; in another adept it produces a different effect. Thus the source is always the same but the manifestation is different.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Differences in attainment, expression

#32146 – 16.25.3.94

BN – X – K1

Having reached this stage he is free to continue his personal life as before, to accept the load of new responsibilities on his shoulders, or to retire wholly from the world. To work for humanity in public is one thing, to work for it in secrecy is another, while to enjoy the freedom and privacy of complete retirement is a third and very different thing. Naturally and inevitably any public appearance will soon turn him into a lightning rod, attracting the aspirations and yearnings of many spiritual seekers.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Differences in attainment, expression

#32152 – 16.25.3.100

BN – Z – K

There is no obligation on a sage to sit stationary in one place or to travel, perpetually, from city to city. His inner guidance alone decides the matter, as his personal karma also makes its contribution toward that decision.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Differences in attainment, expression

#32164 – 16.25.3.112

BN – ZZ – K

Not until the light he has received becomes stabilized as a permanent thing can he be regarded as a master, and not until it is also full and complete can he be regarded as a sage.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Differences in attainment, expression

#32177 – 16.25.3.125

BN – ZZ – K1

There is no classification into matter and spirit for the Sage. There is only one life for him. If a man can find reality only in trance, if he says that the objective world is unreal, he is not a Sage, he is a Yogi.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Wisdom beyond bliss

#32182 – 16.25.3.130

BN – Z – K1

His attainments in the mental, ethical, and philosophic spheres must take concrete shape in the disinterested service of humanity, or he is no illuminate.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Wisdom beyond bliss

#32185 – 16.25.3.133

BN – X – D

The inutility of many monks is in striking contrast to the worth and activity of the sages. Thus, the Buddha worked unceasingly for fifty years to remove spiritual ignorance from the minds of men and death caught him trudging unweariedly on foot, an old man over eighty, trying to reach the next place where he was due to teach others and thus serve them in the best way of which he was capable. He was no idler. Jesus, too, moved unweariedly and incessantly trying to awaken the hearts of men to their true goal and giving to those who approached him with faith the benediction of his grace. Death caught him in the midst of so much of this activity that it aroused the hostility of professional religionists whose vested interests were in danger and who to save their own purses put Jesus on the cross.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Wisdom beyond bliss

#32188 – 16.25.3.136

B_12 – Z – K

Where is the man who is free of the ego? To him we must bow in deep reverence, in wondering admiration, in enforced humility. Here is one who has found his true self, his personal independence, his own being. Here at last is a free man, someone who has found his real worth in a world of false values. Here at last is a truly great man and truly sincere man.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32197 – 16.25.3.145

BN – ZZZ – K1

Whosoever enters into this realization becomes a human sun who sheds enlightenment, radiates strength, and emanates love to all beings.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32198 – 16.25.3.146

BN – X – D

It is a matter of complete assurance and scientific observation for the sage that God exists, that man has a soul, that he is here on earth to become united with this soul, and that he can attain true happiness only by following good and avoiding evil.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32207 – 16.25.3.155

BN – X – D

Such a man has no enemies, although he may have those who regard him as their enemy. For hate cannot enter his heart; goodwill towards all is its fragrant atmosphere.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32211 – 16.25.3.159

BN – X – D

The illuminated man's conduct in this world is a guided one. His senses tell him what is happening in the world about him, but his soul guides him to a proper evaluation of those sense reports. In this way he lives in the world, but is not of it. Of him alone is it true to say that his is a spiritual life.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32218 – 16.25.3.166

BN – X – D

When he has fully accomplished this passing-over, all the elements of his lower nature will then have been fully eliminated. The ego will be destroyed. Instead of being enslaved by its own senses and passions, blinded by its own thoughts and ignorance, his mind will be inspired, enlightened, and liberated by the Overself. Yet life in the human self will not be destroyed because he has entered life in the divine Overself. But neither will it continue in the old and lower way. That self will henceforth function as a perfectly obedient instrument of the soul and no longer of the animal body or intellectual nature. No evil thought and no animal passion can ever again take hold of his mind. What remains of his character is therefore the incorruptible part and the immortal part. Death may rob him of lesser things, but not of the thing which he cherishes most. Having already parted in his heart with what is perishable, he can await it without perturbation and with sublime resignation.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32220 – 16.25.3.168

BN – ZZZ – DM1

When we comprehend what it is that must go into the making of a sage, how many and how diverse the experiences through which he has passed in former incarnations, we realize that such a man's wisdom is part of his bloodstream.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32221 – 16.25.3.169

BN – ZZZ – K1

Despite all his psychical knowledge and personal attainment, the sage never loses his deep sense of the mystery which is at the heart of existence, which is God.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32223 – 16.25.3.171

BN – Z – K1

It is a fact that in such a man these three passions—anger, lust, and hatred—are stilled forever. There is no temptation which can now have any power over him, no fear which can overcome him, no frustration which can depress him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32289 – 16.25.3.237

BN – X – D

He is not working for this generation, nor for this country, nor for any millennium, but for an infinite duration of time. Therefore he is, he must be, infinitely patient.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32308 – 16.25.3.256

B_01 – ZZZ – DK

He will bear witness in thought and speech to the joy of this awakened consciousness.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32321 – 16.25.3.269

BN – X – D

If a man deserts blood relations, it is only to take on spiritual ones. If he leaves his earthly house, it is only to enter the monastery, a spiritual one. If he forsakes the society of wife and children, it is only to enjoy that of teacher and students. Thus absolute escape is a mirage and cannot be found. The kind and quality of his bonds can be changed and transformed but not really severed. The only attainable freedom lies deep within. It is invisible and mental. This is what the sage enjoys. He may be weighted with business responsibilities and surrounded by a family, but in his heart nothing holds him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32322 – 16.25.3.270

BN – ZZZ – DEK

When the hour comes to desert the body, he will be ready for the fated event, without that desperate struggle to hold on to a form which has served its purpose seen too often in the ignorant.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32337 – 16.25.3.285

BN – X – D

The sage can condemn nobody, can regard none as outside his range of compassion, and can find a place in his heart for the worst sinner. He knows that duality is but a dream and discovers himself anew in all sentient creatures. He knows that the world's woe arises out of its false and fictitious sense of separateness.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32340 – 16.25.3.288

BA11 – ZZ – DK

He receives too many confidences ever to be surprised by any of them, too many confessions ever to be shocked … For his compassion and insight, his tolerance and realism embrace the whole range of human feeling or human behaviour.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32341 – 16.25.3.289

BN – X – D

In every affair he knows where he stands, but more in the sense that he listens and obeys the higher guidance than in any other.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32349 – 16.25.3.297

BN – X – D

No ugly qualities are left in him, no vicious remnants of the beast that became man.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32364 – 16.25.3.312

BN – X – D

Even if the ego still lives in him, it lives thoroughly purified and utterly checked. His principle trends of thought and conduct proceed from a level beyond it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 1 > Qualities, characteristics of the sage

#32368 – 16.25.3.316

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

Though overshadowed continuously by this divine being that is really his own other self, he remains nevertheless quite human. Just as the Illumined State does not prevent him from receiving physical impressions from the world around him, so it does not prevent him from receiving psychic impressions from the people around him. But he does not cling to any of these impressions, nor does he let his emotions get entwined with them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > God alone is perfect

#32420M – 16.25.4.368

BA11 – ZZ – DX

All speculation upon the motives and the methods of the illuminate will avail little. The light by which he works is denied to ordinary men. We should not try to bind him down to qualities which fit only those who grope in the dark or move in twilight. We should trust where we cannot see and wait patiently for the day of revealment, when we will find all made clear and all riddles solved to our satisfaction. It is an old truism in the East that it takes an adept to understand an adept, but the West will have to learn this truth by bitter experience with pseudo-adepts.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage not easily recognized

#32439 – 16.25.4.387

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

He will certainly be unpretentious and may even be unimpressive, but that will be only to the external eye. To those who can see with the mind, the heart, and the intuition, he will be a rare messenger of divinity.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage not easily recognized

#32444 – 16.25.4.392

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

It is my experience of world-wandering that those who most know truth are themselves the least known among men. This is partly because so few seek that kind of truth which is theirs—the highest—partly because it is their own wish to remain inaccessible to all except these few seekers, and partly because their completely ego-free character is utterly without any ambition to put themselves forward in public under any pretext whatsoever, whether to gain the benefits and advantages of such a position or to practise so-called service.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Isolation, privacy, reticence

#32469 – 16.25.4.417

BN – ZZZ – K

He stands outside all this drama and watches it as a spectator, sometimes with a slight smile of pleasure, sometimes with a mild frown of distress, never with a hard cold attitude but always with a settled resignation to the decree of karma or the will of Allah. If, now and then, he suggests a movement, a change, or a view-expanding idea to one of the actors, it is not to be regarded as an act of interference but as itself part of the person's own karma, or the higher will's grace.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Isolation, privacy, reticence

#32483 – 16.25.4.431

BN – ZZZ – K

Such a man cannot help having his detractors, for people can see only what he permits them to see. And if that small part is misread by them, he has to remain silent. He will not force an affinity where it does not exist. They may have visited him and talked with him, not once but several times; they may think they know him well, yet in reality they have not met him and do not know him at all! Only the real pilgrims, who come with the correct mental attitude, have done so, and only they have been blessed by his grace and prized their good fortune at its correct value.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32530 – 16.25.4.478

BN – ZZZ – K

He must be prepared to find that others, because of their limitations—not necessarily or at all because they are evil—may seriously misunderstand him, misread his actions, and misinterpret his words.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32531 – 16.25.4.479

BN – ZZZ – K

Whoever has attained this blessed state would not be true to himself if he were not ardently happy to share it with others, if he were not ever ready to help them attain it too. And this desire extends universally to all without exception. He excludes none—how could he if the compassion which he feels be the real thing that comes with the realized unity of the Overself, that is, of the Christ-self, and not merely a temporary emotional masquerader! He himself could have written those noble words which Saint Paul wrote more than once in his epistles: "In Him there cannot be Jew or Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, but all are one man in Christ Jesus."

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32532E – 16.25.4.480

B_16 – ZEL1/3 – DEMK

Despite this, he soon finds that iron fetters have been placed on his feet. He finds, first, that only the few who are themselves seekers are at all interested; second, that even among this small number there are those who, because of personal dislikes, racial prejudice, social snobbery, or family antagonism, are unwilling to approach him; and third, that the mischievous agencies from occult spheres, through false reports and stimulated malice, delude a part of those who remain into creating an evil mental picture of him which is utterly unlike the actuality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32532E – 16.25.4.480

B_16 – ZEL2/3 – DEMK

For when such a man really begins to become an effective worker in this sacred cause, the evil forces begin their endeavours to pull him down and thus stop him. They may inspire human instruments with fierce jealousy or personal hatred of him, or they may try other ways. It is their task to destroy the little good that he has done or to prevent whatever good he may yet do. It is an unfortunate but historic fact that many an aspirant is carried away by the false suggestions emanating from such poisoned sources.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32532E – 16.25.4.480

B_16 – ZEL3/3 – DEMK

Those who have malignantly attacked the person or injured the work of such a man through whom the divine forces are working for the enlightenment of mankind, create for themselves a terrible karma which accumulates and strikes them down in time. He himself will endeavour to protect his work by appropriate means, one being temporarily to withdraw his love from them for the rest of his incarnation until their dying moments. Then he will extend it again with full force and appear to them as in a vision, full of forgiveness, blessing, and comfort.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32537 – 16.25.4.485

BN – ZZZ – K1

It is such a man (the Sage) who most serves his fellows yet who least receives the recognition of his service. This is because humanity fails to understand where its true interests lie, what its true goal is, and why it is here at all.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sage is usually misunderstood

#32545 – 16.25.4.493

BA11 – ZZZ – DMK

Light the lamp and it will spread out its rays by itself. We are indeed blessed by the presence of these great souls on this earth and doubly so if we meet in person. They deserve not merely our respect but our veneration. But even if we are never fortunate enough to meet one of these masters, the mere knowledge that such men do exist and live demonstrates the possibility of spiritual achievement and proves that the quest is no chimera. It should comfort and encourage us to know this. Therefore we should regard such a man as one of humanity's precious treasures. We should cherish his name as a personal inspiration. We should venerate his sayings or writings as whispers out of the eternal silence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32576 – 16.25.4.524

BN – ZZZ – K1

Such rare peace stands out in poignant contrast against the burdens and fretfulness of our ordinary lives. Such rare goodness is needed by a generation accustomed to violence, atrocity, bestiality and horror, lunacy and hatred.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32577 – 16.25.4.525

BN – Z – DK1

These great souls who have ascended to another plane of being altogether have sent us signals from that distant sphere. It is for us to heed those signals and to understand their meaning.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32579 – 16.25.4.527

BN – X – D

The knowledge of someone far better than oneself shows human possibilities. The longing to become like him provides one with an ideal for living.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32580 – 16.25.4.528

BN – X – D

A real need of humanity eventually finds its expression in flesh and blood. Just as an oppressive tyranny ultimately produces the rebel who overthrows it, so a growing hunger for spiritual guidance ultimately brings forth those who are to provide it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32583 – 16.25.4.531

BN – X – D

Just as Jesus was in reality greater than the rabbis whose unquestioned authority dominated the people of Israel, so any man today who reflects in all its purity the Overself's light, unshadowed by his personal opinions, is in reality greater than the impressively robed dignitaries of Church and State.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32585 – 16.25.4.533

A241224 – ZZZ – K

Those who inspire us to better ourselves, certainly deserve our gratitude and even deserve our love.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32592 – 16.25.4.540

BN – X – D

It is those who create ways and means for others to follow in the search for spiritual fulfilment, the teachers and awakeners, who deserve our best honours.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32595 – 16.25.4.543

B_01 – ZZZ – DK

Socrates tried to awaken the Greeks, Jesus tried to awaken the Israelites. Their failure was followed by consequences to their people which can be traced in history. If the higher power takes the trouble to send a messenger, it is better to tremble, listen, and obey, than to sneer, reject, and suffer.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32602 – 16.25.4.550

A241129 – ZZZ – K

There is no such act as a one-sided self-giving. Karma brings us back our due. He who spends his life in the dedicated service of philosophic enlightenment may reject the merely material rewards that this service could bring him, but he cannot reject the beneficent thoughts, the loving remembrances, the sincere veneration which those who have benefited sometimes send him. Such invisible rewards help him to atone more peacefully and less painfully for the strategic errors he has made, the tactical shortcomings he has manifested. Life is an arduous struggle for most people, but much more so for such a one who is always a hated target for the unseen powers of darkness. Do not hesitate to send him your silent humble blessing, therefore, and remember that Nature will not waste it. The enemies you are now struggling against within yourself he has already conquered, but the enemies he is now struggling against are beyond your present experience. He has won the right to sit by a hearth of peace. If he has made the greatest renunciation and does not do so, it is for your sake and for the sake of those others like you.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage Part 2 > Sages merit veneration

#32604 – 16.25.4.552

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK1

If he refrains from the final mergence into Nirvana, it is not only because he wants to be available for the enlightenment of his more hapless fellows, but also because he knows that he has really been in Nirvana from the beginning and has never left it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32608 – 16.25.5.3

BN – X – D

The sage makes the highest conceivable sacrifice in willing to return to earthly life for times without end solely for the benefit of all creatures.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32613 – 16.25.5.8

BN – X – D

People sometimes ask why anyone should give up even a part of his time to unpaid service. But the truth is that the sage is always paid by the friendship and gratitude, the trust and affection, which those he has helped return him. And if it be further said that these are mere intangibles which do not pay for the time and energy he gives, the answer is that they often are convertible into the most tangible of things. For if he is in real need of a home, a machine, a piece of domestic furniture, or a form of personal service, he has only to express that need and those whom he has helped will provide it. Nay, there are times when he need not even express it, when the silent magic of thought will prompt someone to offer the provision quite spontaneously and voluntarily. Anyway, the sage does not give his service with any thought about the getting or non-getting of rewards. He gives it because he thinks it right to do so and because he enjoys the satisfaction of giving a helping hand to the spiritually needy. In short, he is doing what he likes.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32614 – 16.25.5.9

BN – Z – K

When a man has attained this stage of perfection he may truly rest, for Nature has achieved her task in him. Yet, if he chooses the path of sagehood he must henceforth work harder than ever before! For he must now work incessantly through repeated rebirths for the enlightenment of others.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32615 – 16.25.5.10

BN – X – D

The question whether he shall share his knowledge with others or withhold it from them, will not be a real one to him. Its answer was settled long before, by destiny, by his character, by his past, by the World-Idea.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32617 – 16.25.5.12

BN – ZZZ – K

Helping others to attain what he has attained, guiding seekers to reach safely the glorious summit where he now stands, is not decided for him by personal temperament or choice but by the overpowering sense of a primary and paramount duty.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32618 – 16.25.5.13

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The sage will not be primarily concerned with his own personal welfare, but then he will also not be primarily concerned with mankind's welfare. Both these duties find a place in his outlook, but they do not find a primary place. This is always filled by a single motive: to do the will, to express the inspiration of that greater self of which he is sublimely aware and to which he has utterly surrendered himself. This is a point whereon many students get confused or go astray. The sage does not stress altruism as the supreme value of life, nor does he reject egoism as the lowest value of life. He will act as the Overself bids him in each case, egotistically if it so wishes or altruistically if it so declares, but he will always act for its sake as the principal aim and by its light as the principal means.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32620 – 16.25.5.15

BN – ZZZ – K1

It is not enough for the illuminate when the veil falls and the inner meaning of Universal Life is read. His efforts do not come to such an abrupt end. For he does not consider his own salvation complete while others remain unsaved. Consequently, he dedicates himself to the task of trying to save them. But in order to do this he has to reincarnate on earth innumerable times. For men can attain the goal here alone and nowhere else. This changes the whole concept of salvation. It is no longer a merely personal matter but a collective one. It also alters the concept of survival. This is no longer a prolonged enjoyment of post-death heavenly spheres but a prolonged labour through countless earthly lives for the service of one's fellow-creatures.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32621E – 16.25.5.16

BN – ZEL1/2 – DEK

It is not enough for the illuminate when the veil falls and the inner meaning of Universal Life is read. His efforts do not come to such an abrupt end. For he does not consider his own salvation complete while others remain unsaved. Consequently, he dedicates himself to the task of trying to save them. But in order to do this he has to reincarnate on earth innumerable times. For men can attain the goal here alone and nowhere else. It is a prolonged labour through countless earthly lives for the service of one's fellow-creatures. And yet, even this sombre path bears its own peculiar rewards. For he shall receive the fraternal love of those who have been healed, the encouraging thoughts of those who are beginning to find a foothold in life, the pledged loyalty of those who want to share, with their lesser strength, the heavy burden through untold incarnations.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32621E – 16.25.5.16

BN – ZEL2/2 – DEK

It is not enough for the illuminate when the veil falls and the inner meaning of universal life is read. His efforts do not come to such an abrupt end. For he does not consider his own salvation complete while others remain unsaved. Consequently, he dedicates himself to the task of trying to save them. But in order to do this he has to reincarnate on earth innumerable times. For men can attain the goal here alone and nowhere else.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32621E – 16.25.5.16

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

The mystic who talks of giving love to all mankind has still not realized Truth. What he really means is that he, the ego, is giving the love. The Gnani, on the contrary, knows all men as himself and therefore the idea of giving them love does not arise; he accepts his identity of interest with them completely.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32624 – 16.25.5.19

BN – ZZ – K1

His goodwill to, and sympathy for all men, rather empathy, enables him to experience their very being in his own being. Yet his loyalty toward his higher self enables him to keep his individuality as the inerasable background for this happening.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32625 – 16.25.5.20

BN – ZZ – K1

The sage does not ask for service from others, but only to be allowed to serve them. He does not seek to attach them to himself, but only to God.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32629 – 16.25.5.24

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

It is impossible for the materialist to perceive that we live and move and have our being in a universal Mind. But the sage, knowing this, knows also that this universal life will take care of his individual life to the degree that he opens himself out to it, to the extent that he takes a large and generous view of his relation to all other individual lives.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32632E – 16.25.5.27

BA11 – ZZ – DEK

So long as there are others acutely conscious of their spiritual need, so long must he go out among them. He does not do this by an external command but only by an internal one—the command of compassion. He no longer feels for himself alone but also for others. Indeed he cannot help doing so, for the same reason that Jesus could not help proclaiming the gospel to the Israelites, even though he foreknew the end would be impalement upon the Cross.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32634 – 16.25.5.29

B_11 – ZZZ – DEMK

Fo Sho hing tsan: "I do not seek for any reward, not even being reborn in a paradise. I seek the welfare of man. I seek to enlighten those who harbour wrong thoughts."

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32637 – 16.25.5.32

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

He has no wish to put his ego forward, makes no pretensions to spiritual superiority, yet he wishes to awaken others to the idea that enlightenment is possible, is worth seeking, and is accompanied by unparalleled felicity.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32642 – 16.25.5.37

BN – X – D

When he has found the truth, he has nothing to decide. He will realize that the ALL, this whole teeming universe, IS himself, that all creatures and all men are one. Therefore their interests and their welfare become his automatically. Therefore he will come back to earth again and again to help all beings attain truth and happiness. The notion of choosing selfish bliss or unselfish service does not occur to those who have realized truth.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32645E – 16.25.5.40

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

When he has found the truth, he has nothing to decide. He will realize that the ALL, this whole teeming universe, is himself, that all creatures and all men are one. Therefore their interests and their welfare become his automatically. Therefore he will come back to earth again and again to help all beings attain truth and happiness. The notion of choosing selfish bliss or unselfish service does not occur to those who have realized truth …

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32646 – 16.25.5.41

BN – X – D

What is the sage's reaction to the cosmos? It is very different from that of the ignorant who have never asked the question "What am I?" and who may regard the calm visage of a Yogi as a "frozen face." The sage has no sense of conflict, no inner division. He has expanded his notion of self until it has embraced the universe and therefore rightly he may say "the universe is my idea." He may make this strange utterance because he has so expanded his understanding of mind. Lesser men may only say "the universe is an idea."

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32648 – 16.25.5.43

BN – Z – K1

If the sage has to reincarnate perpetually because of his sympathy for the suffering world, if he cannot get freedom from this suffering cycle of rebirth, what is the use of the Quest and its labours? Reply: True, he can't get outer freedom, but he does get inner freedom, of mind and heart.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32652 – 16.25.5.47

BN – X – D

No worldly advantage can tempt the sage into desertion of his sacred task of serving humanity, nor can any egoism lead him into betrayal of those who trust him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32653 – 16.25.5.48

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The world play is but an illusion of the mind, but the integral vision of the sage enables him to act his part perfectly in the very heart of the world's tumult. The knowledge that all action is ultimately illusory does not prevent him being dynamically active. Supreme calm and silence reigns in his centre, but his harmony with Nature is such that he joins the world-movement spontaneously.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > A full identity of interest

#32655 – 16.25.5.50

BN – Z – K

His inner state will not be easily discernible to others, unless they happen to be the few who are themselves sufficiently advanced and sufficiently sensitive to appreciate it. Yet it is his duty to announce the glorious news of its discovery, to publish the titanic fact of its existence. But he will do so in his own way, according to his own characteristics and circumstances. He will not need to announce it in a speech, or print it in a book; he will not publish the fact in daily newspapers or shout it from the housetops. His whole life will be the best announcement, the grandest publication.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32663 – 16.25.5.58

BN – ZZZ – K1

That strange and sweet spell flung forever over sensitive, ripe, and ready minds by a sage, when he uses his wisdom and goodness, is like a caduceus to enchant them into becoming seekers after truth.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32665 – 16.25.5.60

BN – Z – K

Can one man transfer spiritual grace to another? If by grace is meant here can he give a glimpse of the Overself to another, the answer is Yes!—if the other is worthy, sensitive, and above all karmically ready. He can if the other man is capable of absorbing the stimulus radiated to him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32669 – 16.25.5.64

BN – X – D

If a master could permanently add his spiritual vitality to that of all those who come as seekers to him, surely he would do so? History in the past times and observation in our own times shows no such desirable consequence of approaching him. But if a master cannot give illumination to a would-be disciple, he can show in his own person what illumination is. This is not less true of such men as Christ as of the minor prophets of the minor sects of contemporary history.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32673 – 16.25.5.68

B_05 – ZZ – K

The awareness that he existed on this planet made its grievous and troubled life more bearable, gave a little meaning to what seemed otherwise quite chaotic. For his own higher development reminded, nay assured, us that there was some sort of an evolution going on, that there was a goal and a purpose behind it all. Thus, merely to know that this man was alive, even though we might never again meet him and could never hope to become intimate with him, sustained our faith in Life itself and helped us to live.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32676 – 16.25.5.71

BN – Z – DEK

Such a prophet is like a bell, calling its hearers to attend the true church within themselves.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32688 – 16.25.5.83

BN – X – D

It is the Master’s business to lead his disciples to make their own discovery of the hidden track to the Overself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32689 – 16.25.5.84

BN – ZZ – DK

He will be content to plant seed-thoughts, and wait and work patiently, knowing and believing in the inherent power of true ideas to grow in their proper time into mature, fruitful existence.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32691 – 16.25.5.86

BN – ZZZ – DK

The last thing he wants to do is to leave a sect behind him. Like the Buddha, he wants men to depend on the Truth rather than on a person.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32697 – 16.25.5.92

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

It is not for him to work for humanity by helping particular persons and by alleviating isolated distresses. His form of service must stretch over wider areas, must affect a multitude of persons. But this is possible only if he works in deeper ground and through secret unobtrusive ways.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32705 – 16.25.5.100

BN – ZZ – K

They tried to influence kings and rulers and leaders of men and culture. They even emerged into public view on rare occasions in order to quicken the pace of evolution by active external work; but when this happened, they did not usually reveal their true spiritual identity. Their efforts were not always successful because they had to deal with frail stubborn human nature and, moreover, they had to work within the karma of their own land.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32712 – 16.25.5.107

BN – ZZ – K

The sage gladly opens to all qualified and eager seekers the mysteries and treasures of his own inner experience, that they may profit by his past struggles and present success.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32719 – 16.25.5.114

B_05 – ZZZ – DMK

It is enough. He has sown the seed. He does not have to wait for roots to form, stems to grow, fruits to appear. His work is done.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32732 – 16.25.5.127

BN – ZZZ – DK

In this momentous period the true sage has special work to do in trying to protect the human race from its own folly. One way is intercessory meditation which may help to mitigate the effects of the world crisis. This requires solitude. It is an impersonal contemplation and must not be disturbed by those who break into it, either to unload their personal problems or to offer personal service which in the end has the same result.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32733 – 16.25.5.128

BN – X – DEK

The mere existence of one who succeeds in identifying himself with the Overself benefits every sensitive person who meets him, even for a minute or two. Further, it inspires spiritual seekers who never get the chance to meet him but who hear favourably about him and respectfully receive what they hear. Finally, posterity benefits from the records left about him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32736 – 16.25.5.131

B_05 – ZZ – K

The Master who leaves a record of his own climb, or a testimony to the goal's existence, or a path pioneered for those who would follow, or an instructed disciple here and there, leaves something of himself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32738 – 16.25.5.133

BN – X – D

Just by being himself he makes the philosophic virtues real to others.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32744 – 16.25.5.139

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

It is his duty to communicate what he feels there, what he finds there, to those who are excluded from it. If at times, and with sympathetic auditors, his duty becomes his joy, at other times and with insensitive auditors it becomes his cross. Jesus exemplified this in his own history.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32746 – 16.25.5.141

B_11 – ZZZ – K

Even if he does no more than open the human mind to its higher possibilities, he does enough.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32754 – 16.25.5.149

BN – X – D

What chance has the individual spiritual educator to continue his work when public and government alike accept the false suggestion that only through large organized groups and recognized traditional institutions can people be correctly led? The end of such a trend can only be as it has been in the past—monopoly, dictatorial religion, centralized tyrannical power, heresy-hunting persecution, and the death of individualism, which means the death of truth. Jesus, Buddha, Spinoza were all individualists.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Help the sage gives

#32762 – 16.25.5.157

B_12 – X – K

He who arrives at this stage becomes so wise and understanding, so strong and dependable, so kind and calm, that those who seek to foster these qualities within their own selves will receive from his word—sometimes from his mere presence—a powerful impetus to their progress. They will catch fire from his torch, as it were, and find a little easier of accomplishment the fulfilment of these aspirations. And those who are able to share in his effort to serve, to collaborate with his selfless work for the world, will receive daily demonstration of and silent tuition in those still loftier and more mysterious qualities which pertain to the quest of the Overself: in the paradox of dynamic stillness, inspired action, and sublime meditation. Yet he accepts worship from nobody as he himself worships none. For he will not degrade himself into such materiality nor permit others so to degrade themselves through their own superstition or someone else's exploitation.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32770 – 16.25.5.165

BN – Z – K

When he penetrates to the still centre of his being, the thoughts of this and that subside, either to a low ebb or into a temporary non-existence. Since thoughts express themselves in language, when they are inactive speech becomes inactive too. What he feels is quite literally too deep for thoughts. He falls into perfect silence. Yet it is not an empty silence. Something is present in it, some power which he can direct toward another man and which that man can feel and absorb temporarily—to whatever extent he is capable—if or when he is in a relaxed and receptive mood. The communication will best take place, if both are physically present, in total silence and bodily stillness, that is, in meditation.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32776 – 16.25.5.171

BN – ZZ – K1

Association with or proximity to such a man not only brings out what is best in them but also, when it ends, invokes the reaction of what is worst.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32778 – 16.25.5.173

BN – ZZ – K1

Constant association with him [the Sage] can only benefit the sensitive after all. It exalts and tutors them. But it leaves the insensitive exactly as they were before. Long ago Jesus pointed out the futility of casting seed on stony ground. Not that this lack of sensitivity is to be deprecated. Nature has set us all on different rungs of her evolutionary ladder. No one is to blame for being what he or she is.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32779 – 16.25.5.174

B_13 – ZZZ – K

Whether there is an actual transference of his power and light, or whether his actual presence and desire to help set up vibrations in the subconscious mind of the seeker, or whether he is merely a medium for higher forces, it is not easy to determine. The truth may well be a combination of all these three factors.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32801 – 16.25.5.196

B_05 – ZZ – K

Without opening his lips he communicates a message to every sensitive seeker who enters his orbit.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32833 – 16.25.5.228

B_05 – ZZ – K

The effect of this meeting, provided the proper conditions exist, is to give the seeker a powerful psychic and spiritual stimulus.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Effects of the sage's presence

#32834 – 16.25.5.229

B_05 – ZZ – K

Let us not ascribe to the ordinary self of man what belongs to the Overself. The mystical phenomena, the “inner” experiences engendered by an adept, are done 'through' him, not 'by' him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32845 – 16.25.5.240

BN – X – DK

Such is the wonderful infinitude of the soul that the man who succeeds in identifying his everyday consciousness with it, succeeds also in making his influence and inspiration felt in any part of the world where there is someone who puts faith in him and gives devotion to him. His bodily presence or visitation is not essential. The soul is his real self and operates on subconscious levels. Whoever recognizes this truth and humbly, harmoniously, places himself in a passive receptive attitude towards the spiritual adept, finds a source of blessed help outside his own limited powers.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32854 – 16.25.5.249

BN – Z – DK1

Those whom he never even meets but who direct their thought and faith towards him, receive inspiration automatically. The impact of his personality helps those whom he does meet, if they are sympathetic, but often without his even being aware of it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32858 – 16.25.5.253

BN – X – D

Just by being himself, without preaching, without trying, the sage may awaken in others whose lives touch his, a longing for the higher life.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32860 – 16.25.5.255

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The illuminate exerts his influence upon others spontaneously and effortlessly rather than deliberately and purposely. He need make no effort but the benign power and light will radiate naturally from him just the same and reach those who come within his immediate orbit. It is sufficient for them to know with faith and devotion that he is and they receive help and healing. The Overself works directly through him and works unhindered upon all who surrender themselves to it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32862 – 16.25.5.257

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

Grace flows from such a man, a Sage, as light flows from the sun; he does not have to give it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32872 – 16.25.5.267

BA11 – ZZ – DEK

It will suffice for him to be what he is and thirsty seekers will draw from him in a mysterious, silent way, what they need of his power and wisdom, his love and serenity. The beautiful statement of Bishop Phillips Brooks is worth quoting here: "It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look, and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage".

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32873 – 16.25.5.268

B_05 – ZZ – K

Where do these phenomena originate? Not always from himself, but more often from outside himself, from the mysterious and unknown mind which is the soul of the universe and the ground in which all individual minds are rooted.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage as catalyst for higher powers

#32875 – 16.25.5.270

BN – X – D

The realized man leaves no lineal descendants to take over his spiritual estate. Spiritual succession is a fiction. The heir to a master's mantle must win it afresh: he cannot inherit it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage works with few directly

#32881 – 16.25.5.276

BN – ZZ – K1

He is the silent background counsellor for a few men who have the opportunity and capacity to serve mankind.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage works with few directly

#32893 – 16.25.5.288

BN – X – D

The illumined man becomes a channel of the Holy Ghost, a chalice of the Prophet's Wine. Yet even he cannot turn the absolute mystical Silence into finite comprehensible speech for more than a sensitive few. With most people he finds himself utterly dumb because they themselves are utterly deaf. This is the tragic pity of it, that just because his words have a value far beyond that of other men's, there is no audience for them, so few ears to receive them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > The Sage's Service > Sage works with few directly

#32896 – 16.25.5.291

BN – ZZ – K

Not everyone who is illumined becomes a spiritual teacher of humanity. Only one whose previous tendency, general character, constant aspiration, allotted destiny, or personal capacity fits him for that function becomes a teacher.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Teaching and non-teaching illuminates

#32899 – 16.25.6.3

BN – ZZ – K

He could not tell others how to struggle out of the depths if he had not himself done so, how to realize the soul if he himself had not realized it. But this is only his first qualification. His second is that he has cultivated the special virtue of compassion for others throughout the whole course of his mystical life. Consequently he becomes its fullest embodiment when that life flowers into bloom. That is why he is a teaching sage rather than a cold self-centered mystic.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Teaching and non-teaching illuminates

#32906 – 16.25.6.10

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

The man of enlightenment who has never been a learner, who suddenly gained his state by the overwhelming good karma of previous lives, is less able to teach others than the one who slowly and laboriously worked his way into the state–who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulties he had to overcome.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Teaching and non-teaching illuminates

#32917 – 16.25.6.21

BN – Z – K

The Master has found his way to the Overself; he daily enjoys the blessing of its presence; he has passed from mere existence into significant living, and he knows there is peace and love at the heart of the universe. He wants now to help others share in the fruits of his discoveries.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Teaching and non-teaching illuminates

#32918 – 16.25.6.22

BN – X – D

He is a true messenger who seeks to keep his ego out of his work, who tries to bring God and man together without himself getting in between them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Advice, warnings to would-be teachers

#32926D – 16.25.6.30

BSG_4 – P – D

Do not pretend to be other than you are. If you are one of the multitude, do not put upon yourself the proud robes of the Teacher and pretend to be able to imitate him; unless you stick to the Truth, you can never find it. To put yourself upon the pedestal of spiritual prestige before the Master or God has first put you there, is to make the first move towards a humiliating and painful fall.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Advice, warnings to would-be teachers

#32929 – 16.25.6.33

BN – Z – K1

A writer, teacher, preacher, or spiritual guide who gives out high ideals ought to be the first man to follow them himself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Advice, warnings to would-be teachers

#32931 – 16.25.6.35

BN – X – D

That Javanese custom whereby a guru does not humiliate a seeker by scolding him for an error in outlook but tells him an anecdote from which the seeker can himself infer that he is wrong, is worth noting. A positive approach gets better result than a negative one.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Advice, warnings to would-be teachers

#32944 – 16.25.6.48

B_05 – ZZ – K

To play the role of spiritual adviser to any person is to accept a grave responsibility.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Advice, warnings to would-be teachers

#32963 – 16.25.6.67

BN – X – D

There are plenty of teachers to cater to the surface-seekers of this world. The true master does not choose to be one of them. He can be of service only to those who comprehend that the object of life is not to stand their bodies on their heads but to put the truth into their heads. But such seekers are few. For the one feat is spectacular and dramatic whereas the other is silent and secret. The real teaching work will be noiseless, without show, and in the background—behind the scene and not before the curtain.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#32970 – 16.25.6.74

B_05 – ZZZ – K

The great teacher leaves his impress and exerts his influence upon his disciples without robbing them of their capacity to grow into their own individual freedom.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#32971 – 16.25.6.75

BN – X – D

The master expounds truth to the disciple, telling him again and again, ”You are THAT reality which you seek: give up the ego and know it.” This holy message echoes itself repeatedly within the disciple's mind and eventually he too realizes its truth in his turn.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#32979 – 16.25.6.83

BN – X – D

It is kinder in the end to tell an aspirant quite candidly the truth about his shortcomings than to keep his illusions alive. For they are the true cause of his misery, the root of his sorrow; why not let him look them in the face? If he is to grow at all, the shock of discovering them is inescapable anyhow. A teacher's duty is not to keep him emotionally comfortable, not to keep silent because it is easier to do so than to reveal what the seeker needs to know. The easy way renders a disservice. The hard way is the right way in the end. The sooner he attributes his troubles to some fault in his own character, the sooner are they likely to come to an end.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#32982 – 16.25.6.86

B_07 – ZZZ – DEMK

He is a messenger come from a far place to tell people that there is a reality, and that truth awaits them; he points out the direction where they are to be found, and how.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#32986 – 16.25.6.90

BN – Z – DK

For the earnest seeker, a master will not only provide all these helps, he will also give assistance in the art of meditation so that it will be more easily and quickly learned than could otherwise have been possible.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#33001 – 16.25.6.105

B_05 – Z – K

By refusing to divide his mental life, by stubbornly holding to this higher level of statement however much it bewilders, repels, puzzles, or dismays undeveloped audiences, by rejecting all compromise of principles, convictions, or doctrines, the teacher of nonduality stirs and shakes the seeker into the beginnings of new experience and forces him to stop and discover his own inadequacy and think out afresh his position, outlook, or beliefs.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Value of a qualified teacher

#33015 – 16.25.6.119

B_05 – ZZZ – K

There is one master to whom the seeker is predestined to come and before whom he is predestined to bow above all others.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Seeking the sage

#33021 – 16.25.6.125

B_05 – ZZ – K

When the first meeting with the destined master takes place, the seeker will experience an emotion such as he has had with no other person before. The inner attraction will be immense, the feeling of fated gravity intense.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Seeking the sage

#33022 – 16.25.6.126

B_05 – ZZ – DK

We must enter their presence as humble heart-open seekers; we must be teachable if we would not return empty-handed.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Approaching the sage

#33034 – 16.25.6.138

B_05 – ZZ – K

If he has to meet someone who is regarded as a sage, he may quickly feel the stillness surrounding the man. If they sit down together and he feels disinclined to break the silence, it would be better not to do it but to take it as a signal to flout convention and let the initiative be taken by the sage himself.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Approaching the sage

#33038 – 16.25.6.142

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The teacher is compelled to restrict his help to those seekers who have already made the necessary elementary efforts in their own behalf.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33051 – 16.25.6.155

B_05 – ZZ – K

The custodians of this teaching judge their responsibilities well when, in view of the power which is released by its secret exercises, they are extremely careful in accepting a candidate and even then admit the accepted neophyte only after a period of probational training and discipline.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33053 – 16.25.6.157

BN – Z – K

No one, not even an adept, can help another when that other lacks the capacity to recognize help when it is brought to him. This is why the wisest men have been so guarded in their contacts with the masses, so reserved in their publication of the truth, so seemingly detached from their fellows.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33054 – 16.25.6.158

BN – ZZZ – K

If they cannot comprehend his quality intuitively by his silent presence alone, words will be useless.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33055 – 16.25.6.159

BN – ZZZ – K

When a spiritual teacher is asked to accept a student, he tries to discourage the seeker, because he knows by personal experience what a long and painful road it is. One has to learn to crush his own personal feelings. This is doubly difficult for a woman because nearly all women are more emotional than men. The essence of this path is the giving up of the "I," the ego, which means that in a crisis the heart must weep tears of blood. Deep wounds are made, which only time can heal. They will be healed some day and when the storm of hurt feelings goes completely, a great peace arises.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33056 – 16.25.6.160

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Whoever wants to seek for Truth will learn more if he sets up as a standard: Nothing but the best—why settle for less?

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33057 – 16.25.6.161

BN – Z – DK

No man can function as a spiritual counsellor for long without sadly noting how few finish the grade, how many slip into a smug complacency.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33058 – 16.25.6.162

BN – ZZ – K

He can leave his wisdom to his disciples only in the form of words, which are merely its shadow. They must work on themselves, gain it afresh if they want it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33061 – 16.25.6.165

BN – ZZ – K

Any more than a parent can pass on all his experience to his children, the sage cannot pass on what he has learned to those who are unready for it.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33062 – 16.25.6.166

BN – ZZ – K

If they are initiated into the secrets of this hidden teaching, it is because they were well equipped to study it. It is not a privilege arbitrarily given to a select few.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Qualifications for discipleship

#33063 – 16.25.6.167

BN – ZZ – K

We know that Plato regarded his birth during his master's lifetime as better than all the good fortune that aristocratic birth had bestowed upon him. And yet Socrates himself declared that he had no regular disciples and that anyone or everyone was free to hear him.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master-disciple relationship, general

#33066 – 16.25.6.170

A241129 – P – D

Their relationship must have a solid foundation on which it can be built. It must have love, affinity, and trust.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master-disciple relationship, general

#33068 – 16.25.6.172

BN – ZZ – K

Every circumstance and environment, every fresh experience and personal contact is an instruction sent by the one unseen Infinite Mind, who should be regarded as the real Master.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master is symbol of Overself

#33081 – 16.25.6.185

BN – X – D

In the end, it is no external person who can save us but only the internal soul itself. The master may point out the way to discover that soul, he may even be useful in other capacities, but he cannot do what it is ultimately the business of the divine in us to do.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master is symbol of Overself

#33084 – 16.25.6.188

BN – X – D

Go back to the hidden Ground of everything, the passive Mind or pure Being, the First, the unconditioned Origin of all. This is utterly inconceivable and unknowable. The very concept of it, this infinite mystery of mysteries, is so awesome that the little mind of man hesitates and trembles when it even approaches it in the deepest meditation. It is beyond the capacity of that mind to penetrate the reality behind the concept. A mediating principle is necessary here. This exists in the Overself, which is nothing more than a germ of that same infinite M I N D, although to the adventurous mystic it seems the unlimited End of all. > >If this were not present in man, not only would mystical experience be impossible for him but all religious intuition would be mythical to him. This is the divinity within him, but it is only a spark. The fullness of the flame is with the Godhead alone.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master is symbol of Overself

#33096E – 16.25.6.200

UR_5 – Z – DEK3

Hence you may correctly say that the Teacher, Prophet, or Guide is a medium for the Overself. While he is still embodied, still using an intellect and body (an ego), he can only be a medium, not more. He 'is' the Overself but working through, and therefore necessarily limited by, a human individuality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Master is symbol of Overself

#33096E – 16.25.6.200

B_07 – ZZ – DEMK

It is a privilege to come into the company of a great soul, but even more so to come into intuitive affinity with him. This is far more necessary than coming into geographical propinquity with him, for when that happens the link will not be severed by death, but his unseen presence will continue to be a vital thing.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33108 – 16.25.6.212

BN – X – D

Either at acceptance or later, the disciple experiences an ecstatic reverie of communion with the teacher's soul. There is a sensation of space filled with light, of self liberated from bondage, of peace being the law of life. The disciple will understand that this is the real initiation from the hands of the teacher rather than the formal one. The disciple will probably be so carried away by the experience as to wish it to happen every day. But this cannot be. It can happen only at long intervals. It is rather to be taken as a sign of the wonderful relation which has sprung up between them and as a token of eventual attainment.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33109 – 16.25.6.213

BN – Z – K1

In the case of initiated disciples, suspicion cuts off the force inside the inner cable at once, while doubt renders it only intermittently effective. In the case of persons who approach him from the public outside, these attitudes yield consequences which depend partly on the master's own attitude toward them and partly on their karma.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33115 – 16.25.6.219

BN – X – K

The mere physical proximity of teacher and disciple does not constitute their association. Unless the lesser man catches by empathy and cultivates by effort something of the greater one's thoughts and feelings, he does not associate with him at all, whatever his body may be doing. It is not the person of a master but his Idea that is important.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33117 – 16.25.6.221

BN – X – D

Where the disciple is attuned and devoted, the master genuine and compassionate, there is, there can be, no failure in communication between them. The master's presence will remain with the disciple, will not desert him, and will remain fresh even when a thousand miles in space and two hundred weeks in time separate them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33119 – 16.25.6.223

B_07 – ZZZ – K

It is not the human thoughts which the teacher sends out, so much as the spiritual power within the disciple which is aroused by those thoughts, that matters.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33137 – 16.25.6.241

BN – Z – K1

Deprived of the physical presence of his master, he is forced to seek and find the mental presence. At first he does this as a substitute for what he cannot get, but later he learns to accept it as the reality.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33143 – 16.25.6.247

BN – X – D

The power of the higher Self is such that he who becomes its channel can affect others—if Grace be granted them by their own higher Self—by the mere thought alone. He will need neither to be near, to touch or to speak to them.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33164 – 16.25.6.268

BN – X – DK

EXCERPT from the essay entitled: DISCIPLESHIP: The relationship between the spiritual counsellor and his disciple must first find an inward harmony as its basis. After that harmony there will emerge a telepathic reception on the part of the disciple. There is often much misunderstanding about this type of communication. Let it be stated categorically that whatever the counsellor communicates it would necessarily deal with the general rather than with the particular, with the higher emotions to be cultivated rather than with the things and happenings of this world, with the spiritual qualities to be unfolded rather than with the material affairs and special situations of the external life. It is common enough, however, for the seeker's ego to mistranslate the character of the help given to him, to turn the impersonal into the personal, the lofty into the lower, and even the pure into the impure.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

BN – Z – DEK3

Those who openly court worship or secretly exult in it cannot possibly have entered into the true Kingdom of Heaven. For the humility it demands is aptly described by Jesus when he describes its entrance as smaller than a needle's eye.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

B_11 – Z – DEK3

Why is it that so many—if not most—seekers feel the need of a personal spiritual teacher? Beyond the obvious need of intellectual instruction, practical guidance, and emotional inspiration, there is a further, a profounder, and sometimes an unconscious need. There are some seekers who can draw from within themselves the guidance they need, the light upon their path, and the intuition to comprehend the Absolute. They can get along quite well without a master. Indeed it is better for them to work in lonely independence for they have the best of all masters, the Higher Self. But such souls are fortunate and blessed, and those others who do not come into their category need and must find a spiritual leader. First, they must find him in the world without. Later, with more understanding and increasing development, they must find him within themselves.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

B_07 – ZZ – DEK3

There are several self-styled spiritual guides who can guide their flocks into all kinds of queer experiences, but they cannot guide them into the Kingdom of Heaven. That territory is barred to them. Consequently it is barred to those who meekly walk behind them. The reason for this is quite simple. Jesus explained it long ago. The lower ego with its baggage of desires is too big, while the door leading into the Kingdom is too small. In all their activities, these teachers fail to achieve a truly spiritual result because they are thinking primarily of themselves rather than of what they are supposed to be thinking. In some cases the process is an unconscious one, but in many it is not.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

B_11 – ZZ – DEK3

The difference between a false teacher and a genuine one is often the difference between a dominating dictator and a quiet guide. The false teacher will seek to emasculate your will or even to enslave your mind, whereas the true teacher will endeavour to exalt you into a sense of your own self- responsibility. The teacher who demands or accepts such servility is dangerous to true growth. In the end, he will require a loyalty which should be given only to the Overself. The true teacher will carry your soul into greater freedom and not less, into stabilizing truth and not emotional moods. The true teacher has no desire to hold anyone in pupillage, but on the contrary gladly welcomes the time when the disciple is able to stand without help from outside.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

B_07 – ZZ – DEK3

Where spiritual help is given telepathically, it is given as a general inspiration to remember the divine laws, to have faith in them, and to follow the higher ideals. It is not given as a particular guidance in the detailed application of those laws, nor in the day to day outworking of those ideals.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

BN – ZZZ – DEK3

Even when whatever is good and true from amongst current notions in different schools of thought is selected and sifted, and a compact doctrine is formed from the results, the tremendous vitalizing power of a master is often needed to make such truths tangible.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > True relationship is internal

#33170E – 16.25.6.274

B_03 – ZZZ – DEK3

In an adept's presence, as in the sun's presence, things begin to happen of their own accord. People feel a spiritual quickening and begin to call him master and themselves disciples. The whole institution of discipleship is nothing but a convenient illusion created by people themselves and tolerantly permitted by the adept for their sakes. He himself, however, is aware of no such thing, has no favouritism, but sends out his light and power to the whole of mankind indiscriminately. Yet this is not to say that the disciples' illusion is a useless or baseless one. It is indeed very real from their standpoint and experience and affords the greatest help to their advancement. Ultimately however, towards the final stages of the path, they discover him entirely within themselves as the infinite reality, not disparate from themselves, and the sense of duality begins to disappear. Later they merge in him and "I and my Father are one" may then be truly uttered.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33171 – 16.25.6.275

BN – ZZ – DEK

When the concept of the ego is put aside, all those other individuals who are associated with it will be put aside with it. This will apply not only to family and friends, as Jesus taught, but even to the spiritual master.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33174 – 16.25.6.278

B_11 – ZZZ – K

Only when he has reached a point where he no longer thinks of the Master as another person but as the core of his inner self, can it be said that the Master's work for him is done. When Jesus said that he who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him and He in him, he meant no theatrical rite of purely ceremonial order such as is performed outwardly through the Eucharist today. He meant this inwardly achieved union here described.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33176 – 16.25.6.280

B_11 – ZZ – K

It is a good master who is ego-free enough to recognize that his work is done, and it is a faithful disciple who will accept the fact and let him go. The master knows that however helpful he himself was in the past, his presence will henceforth be a hindrance. The disciple knows that it will now be better to depend upon his own intuitive self and work out his own salvation.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33179 – 16.25.6.283

BN – X – D

If the life of Jesus be viewed symbolically—as the lives of such divine men often are in part—the same necessity, at a certain time, of physical separation from disciples to bring them into mental nearness, appears. This last stage, where the presence and picture of the Master are displaced by the pictureless presence of the disciple's own spirit, is accurately described in the words of Jesus to his disciples: "I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth". Any other interpretation of them leaves them without reasonable meaning.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33181M – 16.25.6.285

B_11 – ZZ – DEM*

When a man has at last found himself, when he has no longer any need of an outside human Symbol but passes directly to his own inner reality, he may stand shoulder to shoulder with the teacher in the oldest, the longest, and the greatest of struggles.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33182 – 16.25.6.286

B_07 – ZZ – DK1

The adept is happy indeed when a student comes into the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven for whoever finds it, naturally wants to share it with others.

World-Mind in Individual Mind > Teaching Masters, Discipleship > Eventual graduation of disciple

#33183 – 16.25.6.287

BSG_4 – ZZZ – DK

Spiritual feelings are good and necessary but they are not enough; they need to be completed and complemented by spiritual knowledge. We have much to gain by learning the laws and knowing the processes which the World-Mind has imprinted upon the cosmos. Otherwise we are likely to violate those laws or interfere with those processes through ignorance. The result will then be suffering and unhappiness.

World-Idea > World-Idea > World-Idea

#33185 – 16.26.0.1

BN – Z – K

It is Man's true business in this world to discover his real self and to ascertain his relationship to the surrounding world. His mind will then shine with the Secret glory of human nature and his life will come into harmony with the cosmic order and beauty.

World-Idea > World-Idea > World-Idea

#33186 – 16.26.0.2

BSG_4 – Z – DEK

Man’s main business is to become aware of his true purpose in life; all other business is secondary to this concern. It is Man's true business in this world to discover his real self and to ascertain his relationship to the surrounding world.

World-Idea > World-Idea > World-Idea

#33186EM – 16.26.0.2

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

Philosophy offers as a first truth the affirmation that we live in a universe of purpose and not one of caprice.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33188 – 16.26.1.2

B_02 – ZZ – DMK

We live in an orderly universe, not an accidental one. Its movements are measured, its events are plotted, and its creatures develop towards a well-defined objective. All this could not be possible unless the universe were ruled by immutable laws.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33189 – 16.26.1.3

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The universe could not exist as such if there were not some sort of equilibrium holding it together, some sort of balancing arrangement as in the spinning of the earth on its axis and the planets around the sun. A little thought will show the same principle in the just relation of human beings to the World-Mind and among themselves. Here it appears as karma.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33192 – 16.26.1.6

BN – Z – K

The great worlds which move so marvellously and rhythmically through our sky, however, must leave the more reflective minds with a wondering sense of the sublime intelligence which has patterned the universe.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33198 – 16.26.1.12

BN – X – D

There is enough evidence in Nature and in humanity for the existence of a Higher Power. Those who say they cannot find it have looked through the coloured spectacles of preconceived notions or else in too limited an area. There is plenty of it for those who look aright, and who widen their horizon; it will then be conclusive.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33200 – 16.26.1.14

BN – ZZ – DM*

The Cosmos exists in a great harmony for it obeys laws which are divinely perfect.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33202 – 16.26.1.16

BSG_4 – P – D

Can we rightly say it is mere chance that our earth rotates around the sun, and does so in a certain precise measured rhythm? Is there not evidence of intelligence here?

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33206 – 16.26.1.20

BN – Z – D

If the universe were obviously based on mere chance, if it were in a state of complete disorder, if the moon, the sun, and the earth wandered about at their individual will, and if no sign of organization appeared anywhere in it, then we might justly assert that there was no Mind behind it. But because we see the very contrary of these things all around us, because the energy out of which the universe is made is everywhere inseparable from thought, we can definitely assert that a World-Mind 'must' exist.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33214 – 16.26.1.28

BN – ZZ – DEK

Events may seem to happen at random, but it is not really so. They are connected with our own thinking and doing, with the pattern of the World-Idea and with the activity of the World-Mind.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33215 – 16.26.1.29

BN – X – D

There is Infinite Intelligence always at work on this planet. Everything around us and every event that happens to us is an expression of God's will.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Meaning, purpose, intelligent order

#33216EM – 16.26.1.30

BA11 – ZZZ – DXK

Even believers may sometimes ask themselves the question: "Is God blind and unseeing to human suffering—so small an item in the vastness of His universe—or callous and indifferent to it?"

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33219 – 16.26.1.33

B_17 – Z – K

The order which has been established throughout the cosmos is a perfect one. If the human mind fails to see this fact, it is partly because human feelings, prejudices, aversions, and attractions sway it and partly because the World-Idea unveils itself only to those who are ready.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33222 – 16.26.1.36

BN – X – D

The universe is perfect because God is perfect. But it is for each man to find and see this perfection for himself, otherwise the trouble and tragedy in life may obstruct his vision and obscure his path.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33223 – 16.26.1.37

ME_01 – P – DK

The more intellectual they are, the more they feel that God has somehow blundered, that they could have made a better or kindlier job of the universe than he has, and that too much unnecessary suffering falls upon his creatures. The sage, however, with his deeper insight and his serener mentality, finds the contrary to be the case and is set free from such bitter thoughts.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33225 – 16.26.1.39

B_17 – Z – K

The moment we establish a right relation with the Mind behind the Universe, in that moment we begin to see as ultimately good certain experiences which we formerly thought to be evil, and we begin to see as dreamlike many sufferings which we formerly saw as real.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33227 – 16.26.1.41

UR_2.2 – ZZ – K

The answer to those who admit they can understand and accept the existence of suffering when it is the result of karma caused by man's conduct toward man but cannot understand and accept it when caused by Nature's havoc, by earthquakes and floods, by wild beasts and tornados, may not be a palatable one. It is that calamity and suffering, destruction and death, are ordained parts of the divine World-Idea, which needs them to ensure the evolution of entities. It is also that, after all, these things happen only on the surface of their consciousness, for deep down in the Spirit there is perfect harmony and unbroken bliss.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33228 – 16.26.1.42

B_01 – ZZZ – K

Just as we find strife, violence, and evil on the surface of human existence but divinity, harmony, and peace at its core, so we find cruelty, suffering, and malevolence on the surface of the world's existence but intelligent beneficent purpose at its core. It is ultimately an expression of God's wisdom, power, and love.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33229 – 16.26.1.43

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

In glimpses of the World-Idea, human observational and intellectual beings discover an arrangement of things and creatures, of activities and circumstances, whose beauty and wisdom in one place evokes their constant wonder, but whose ugliness and horror in another place draws forth their strong protest. There is no answer to this enigma but simple religious trust for the shallow multitude and movement to another level by mystical experience for the serious seekers. In the first case there is the hope that in a God-governed world all is arranged for the best, while in the second there is the overwhelming feeling that it is so. The philosopher is also possessed of hope and feeling but, venturing into a wider area, adds knowledge.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33233 – 16.26.1.47

B_05 – Z – K

Pain and suffering belong only to this physical world and its shadow-spheres. There is a higher world, where joy and happiness alone are man's experience.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33236 – 16.26.1.50

B_17 – ZZ – DK

Because there is a Divine Mind back of the universe, there are Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the universe.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33238 – 16.26.1.52

BN – X – D

Let evil appearances be what they are, the revelation of insight contradicts them and shows the divine presence throughout the whole universe and behind all happenings.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33241 – 16.26.1.55

BA11 – ZZZ – K

We must accept and submit to the World-Idea with its ascending hierarchy of creatures and pre-established order of things.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Ultimate "rightness'' of events

#33247 – 16.26.1.61

BN – X – K

Whatever we call it, most people feel—whether vaguely or strongly—that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the universe come into existence. This purpose I call the World-Idea, because to me God is the World's Mind. This is a thrilling conception. It was an ancient revelation which came to the first cultures, the first civilizations, of any importance, as it has come to all others which have appeared, and it is still coming today to our own. With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, man comes into harmonious alignment with his Source.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33250 – 16.26.1.64

BA11 – ZZ – DK1

Thought is the product of mind. The unique, perfect, and all-harmonious thought evolving the cosmos is the World-Idea.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33251 – 16.26.1.65

BN – Z – K

The World-Idea is self-existent. It is unfolded in time and by time; it is the basis of the universe and reflected in the human being. It is the fundamental pattern of both and provides the fundamental meaning of human life.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33252 – 16.26.1.66

BN – Z – K1

The World-Idea holds within itself the laws which rule the world, the supreme intention which dominates it, and the invisible pattern which forms it. Not only includes everything existent but also everything which is yet to exist.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33253M – 16.26.1.67

UR_4map – ZZZ – DMXK

There is an infinite number of possibilities in the evolution of man and the universe. If only certain ones out of them are actually realized, this is because both follow a pattern—the World-Idea.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33254 – 16.26.1.68

BN – X – D

Just as the World-Idea is both the expression of the World-Mind and one with it, so the Word (Logos) mentioned in the Bible as being with God is another way of saying the same thing. The world with its form and history is the embodiment of the Word and the Word is the World-Idea.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33257 – 16.26.1.71

BN – X – D

The World-Idea provides secret invisible patterns for all things that have come into existence. These are not necessarily the forms that our limited perceptions present to us but the forms that are ultimate in God's Will.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33259 – 16.26.1.73

BN – X – K1

When the revelation of the World-Idea came to religious mystics they could only call it "God's Will." When it came to the Greeks they called it "Necessity." The Indians called it "Karma." When its echoes were heard by scientific thinkers they called it "the laws of Nature."

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33262 – 16.26.1.76

BN – Z – K

Jung's archetypes, as far as I know his thought (and I am not a student of much of it), apply to the unconscious of the human being. The archetypes of the World-Idea, if you wish to call them that, apply universally and are not concerned with the human species alone.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33266 – 16.26.1.80

BN – X – K1

The Stoics pointed to Reason ('Logos') as the divine spirit which orders the cosmos. Plato pointed to Mind ('Nous') in the same reference.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33267 – 16.26.1.81

BN – X – K

There is a universal order, a way which Nature (God) has of arranging things. This is why what we see around us as the world expresses all-pervading meaning, intelligence, and purpose. But we catch only a mere hint of these veiled qualities—the mystery which recedes from them is immeasurably greater.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33268 – 16.26.1.82

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The intelligence displayed by Nature is an infinite one. This fact, once recognized, forces us to concede that there is a deeper meaning and a wiser purpose in life than our puny intellects can adequately fathom.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33269 – 16.26.1.83

BN – ZZ – DK

Immanuel Kant referred to "the hidden plan of Nature." Thus, without benefit of any mystical revelation but with that of acutely concentrated deep thinking to guide him, he sensed the presence of the World-Idea.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33271 – 16.26.1.85

BN – X – D

The World-Idea contains the pattern, intention, direction, and purpose of the cosmos in a single unified thought of the World-Mind. Human understanding is too cramped and too finite to comprehend how this miraculous simultaneity is possible.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33273 – 16.26.1.87

BN – X – D

The World-Idea holds within itself the laws which rule the world, the supreme intention which dominates it, and the invisible pattern which forms it. Not only includes everything existent but also everything which is yet to exist.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33277M – 16.26.1.91

UR_4map – ZZZ – DXK

There is a mathematical order in the cosmos, a divine intelligence behind life, an Idea for human, animal, plant, and mineral existences.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33290 – 16.26.1.104

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

It is a paradox of the World-Idea that it is at once a rigid pattern and, within that pattern, a latent source of indeterminate possibilities. This seems impossible to human minds, but it would not be the soul of a divine order if it were merely mechanical.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33298 – 16.26.1.112

BN – X – K1

The World-Idea contains within itself, like a seed, all the elements and all the properties of a universe which subsequently appear. In this sense they are predestined to recur eternally even when they dissolve and vanish. The ancient Egyptian text puts it: "I become what I will." The World-Idea is thus the pre-existing Type of all things and all beings.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Nature of the World-Idea

#33300 – 16.26.1.114

BN – X – DEK

The World-Idea is what is ordained for the universe, its divine prescription.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > World-Idea is ultimate determinant

#33310 – 16.26.1.124

BN – Z – DK

The World-Idea is perfect. How could it be otherwise since it is God's Idea? If we fail to become a co-worker with it, nothing of this perfection will be lost. If we do, we add nothing to it.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > World-Idea is ultimate determinant

#33316 – 16.26.1.130

BN – X – K1

The World-Idea will be realized anyhow, whatever human beings do or fail to do.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > World-Idea is ultimate determinant

#33318 – 16.26.1.132

BN – ZZZ – DK

We reject all theories of the Divine Principle having a self-benefiting purpose—such as to know Itself or to get rid of its loneliness—in manifesting the cosmos. It is the Perfect and needs nothing. The cosmos arises of itself under an inherent law of necessity, and the evolution of all entities therein is to enable them to reflect something of the Divine; it is for their sake, not for the Divine's, that they exist.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > On the "why'' of "creation''

#33344 – 16.26.1.158

BN – X – K1

But if the universe has no internal purpose for the World-Mind, it has one for every living entity within it and especially for every self-conscious entity such as man. If there can never be a goal for World-Mind itself, there is a very definite one for its creature man.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > On the "why'' of "creation''

#33345 – 16.26.1.159

BN – Z – DEM1

It is not possible to answer the question "What is the purpose of creation?" But this will not deter the practical person and genuine seeker from continuing his attempt to fulfil the immediate purpose which confronts all human beings—that of awakening to the consciousness of the divine soul.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > On the "why'' of "creation''

#33347 – 16.26.1.161

B_05 – ZZ – DMK

The universe was never created for the first time for it has always and incessantly appeared and disappeared, activated and rested, come forth, evolved, and retreated into latency.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > On the "why'' of "creation''

#33357 – 16.26.1.171

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The universe has never had a beginning, and cannot have an end, but its forms and states may change and therefore must have a beginning and end.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > On the "why'' of "creation''

#33362 – 16.26.1.176

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The cosmos is neither a phantom to be disdained nor an illusion to be dismissed. It is a remote expression in time and space and individuality of that which is timeless spaceless and infinite. If it is not the Reality in its ultimate sense, it is an emanation of the Reality. Hence it shares in some way the life of its source. To find that point of sharing is the true object of incarnation for all creatures within the cosmos.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33365 – 16.26.1.179

BN – X – D

Two points should be clearly understood. First, the world of external Nature, being eternal, is not brought into existence by an act of sudden creation out of nothing. Second, this world is rooted in the divine substance and is consequently not an empty illusion but an indirect manifestation of divine reality.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33366 – 16.26.1.180

BN – Z – DK1

Our world is but a fleeting symbol, yet we may not disdain it. For it is the arched entrance under which we must pass through to the infinite life.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33374 – 16.26.1.188

BN – X – D

What is the universe but a gigantic symbol of God? Its infinite variety hints at the infinite endlessness of the Absolute itself.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33376 – 16.26.1.190

BA11 – ZZ – DM1

When we gaze observantly and reflectively around an object—whether it be a microscope-revealed cell or a telescope-revealed star—it inescapably imposes upon us the comprehension that an infinite intelligence rules this wonderful cosmos. The purposive way in which the universe is organized betrays, if it be anything at all, the working of a Mind which understands.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33393 – 16.26.1.207

BN – Z – K1

To recognize that the order of the cosmos is superbly intelligent beyond human invention, mysterious beyond human understanding, and even divinely holy is not to lapse into being sentimental. It is to accept the transcendence and self-sufficiency of THAT WHICH IS.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33395 – 16.26.1.209

BN – Z – K1

Everything in the universe testifies to a super-intelligent power being behind it.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33397 – 16.26.1.211

BN – X – D

At the centre of each man, each animal, each plant, each cell, and each atom, there is a complete stillness. A seemingly empty stillness, yet it holds the divine energies and the divine Idea for that thing.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33399 – 16.26.1.213

BN – X – DK1

The Void which man finds at the centre—whether of his own being or of the universe’s—is divine. It holds both godlike Mind and godlike Energy. It is still and silent, yet it is the source of all the dynamic energies, human and universal.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33400 – 16.26.1.214

BN – X – DK

The smallest one-celled creature is alive with an energy which comes from the universal energy that is the expression of the World-Mind.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33402 – 16.26.1.216

BN – X – D

There is no moment when the unseen divine activity is not present in the Universe. Everything is being carried on by the divine Power and divine Wisdom. God is not taking care of us or, indeed, of everyone else. God is in every atom of the Universe and consequently in full operation of the Universe.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33404M – 16.26.1.218

BA11 – ZZ – DXK

The cosmic order is divine intelligence expressed, equilibrium sought through contrasts and complementaries, the One Base multiplying itself in countless forms, the Supreme will established according to higher laws. The World-Mind is hidden deep within our individual minds. The World-Idea begets all our knowledge. Whoever seeks aright finds the sacred stillness inside and the sacred activity in the universe.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33406 – 16.26.1.220

BN – Z – DEMK1

It is not only man that is made in the image of God: the whole universe likewise is also an image of God. It is not only by coming to know himself that man discovers the divine life hidden deep in his heart: it is also by listening in the stillness of Nature to what she is forever declaring, that he discovers the presence of an infinite World-Mind.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33407 – 16.26.1.221

BN – Z – K1

He comes to see the whole cosmos as a manifestation of the Supreme Being. It follows that involuntarily, spontaneously, he brings himself—mind and body, heart and will—into harmony with this view.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33408 – 16.26.1.222

BN – Z – DK1

The number of objects and creatures, stars and suns is by a natural necessity infinite. Infinite being can only express itself infinitely. The worlds cannot be counted; the space which contains them cannot be measured.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33416 – 16.26.1.230

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

We live in a universe which is only one amid an infinity of other universes whose patterns, as we find with individual living things, show infinite differences of detail while sharing certain basic general forms.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33417 – 16.26.1.231

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

In the world's life there is every kind of joy and every kind of suffering, because there is every kind of creature. The world could not have been manifested at all if it had not manifested infinite variety as an expression of the infinitude of the divine power behind it. Surely this is what Plato saw when he described time as the moving image of eternity.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33423 – 16.26.1.237

B_17 – ZZ – K

Somewhere in her writings Blavatsky says that the universe, however vast, is finite. But Epicurus, in a sharply termed piece of logic, tries to demonstrate that the universe is infinite. He says, “That which is finite has an end; who would deny that? Again that which has an end is seen from some point outside itself; that too must be granted; but the universe is not seen from without itself; we cannot question that proposition either; therefore since it has no end the universe must be infinite.”

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33425 – 16.26.1.239

BN – X – D

Each universe, however vast, is finite. But the possible number of universes is not. The Infinite Being, by some strange necessity (from the human standpoint, contemplating a fathomless mystery), forever sponsors fresh universes as old ones decay and disappear. In this way It seems (again from the human standpoint), by giving expression to an infinite number of universes, to be expressing Its own infinite nature.

World-Idea > Divine Order of The Universe > Universe as emanation of Reality

#33426 – 16.26.1.240

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

Nothing remains; everything is subject to change. Whether you rebel against this stark fact or resignedly accept it, it stares you in the face unaffected by your personal attitude. Call it Buddhistic if you like, or call it Christian if you prefer, for Jesus said: "This world will pass away".

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Everything changes

#33431 – 16.26.2.5

B_11 – ZZ – K

Not only is everything subject to change but everything also exists in relation to something else. Thus change and relativity dominate the world scene.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Everything changes

#33433 – 16.26.2.7

BN – X – D

Wherever we look or search, probe or analyse in this universe, we find nothing that is permanent. Everything is moving slowly or swiftly to a change of condition, whether this be growth or deterioration, and moves in the end to complete disintegration.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Everything changes

#33436 – 16.26.2.10

BN – Z – K

There is no stability anywhere but only the show of it. Whether it be a man's fortunes or a mountain's surface, everything is evanescent. Only the rate of this evanescence differs but the fact of it does not.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Everything changes

#33437 – 16.26.2.11

BN – Z – K1

Despite the ever-confronting evidence that change is ceaseless throughout the universe and through all human experience, we persistently get the feeling of solidity in the universe and permanency in experience. Is this only an illusion and the world merely a phantasm? The answer is that there IS something unending behind both.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Metaphysical view of universal change

#33447 – 16.26.2.21

BA11 – ZZ – DK

There is no stability anywhere in the universe, given enough time, and there is none in human life. Yet the craving for it exists. There is a metaphysical meaning behind this phenomenon. It exists because 'THAT which is behind the craving person' is the only stable thing there is, or rather no-thing, because IT has no shape, no colour, is soundless and invisible and beyond the grasp of ordinary thoughts. It is this hidden contact, or connection, which keeps man seeking for what he never finds, hoping for what he never attains, refusing to accept the message of ceaseless change which Nature and Life continue to utter in his ears, and opposing the adjustments that experience and events demand periodically from him.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Metaphysical view of universal change

#33448 – 16.26.2.22

BN – Z – DK

There is no permanency anywhere except in ourselves. And even there it is so deep down, and so hard to find, that most people accept the mistaken idea that their ego's ever-changing existence is the only real existence.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Metaphysical view of universal change

#33449 – 16.26.2.23

BN – X – D

The new physics finds creation to be a continuous process, which has never had a dated beginning in the past. Its atoms and universes appear and disappear. What does this indicate? That the unspaced untimed No-Thing out of which all this comes is itself the Reality, and the Universe a showing-forth.

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Metaphysical view of universal change

#33452 – 16.26.2.26

BSG_4 – P – D

Energy radiates whether in the form of continuous waves or disconnected particles—"moment to moment," Buddha called it. It is this cosmic radiation which becomes "matter."

World-Idea > Change As Universal Activity > Metaphysical view of universal change

#33458 – 16.26.2.32

BN – ZZZ – K1

Every individual comes, in time, into possession of that very peace. The answer, so often summed up in one word, is paradox. For this is what sums up the world, life, and man.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33462 – 16.26.3.4

BN – Z – K1

The truth of paradox is possibly too deep for most persons to accept; apparently it is too self-contradictory. This is why the balanced mind is needed to understand that the contradiction is joined with complementary roles.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33465 – 16.26.3.7

BN – Z – K1

Everything comes in pairs as death with life and darkness with light. Whatever seems to be necessary to existence is so only because its opposite is equally necessary. Duality is a governing factor of the world and everything within it including ourselves. That alone is outside the world, is nondual, which is the untouchable Reality. This is the Chinese idea of yin and yang, and the Bhagavad Gita's expression "the pairs of opposites" conveys the same idea. Duality is a fact. It is here. But it is also an illusion and the opposite truth which completes it is the nondual. We may deplore the illusory nature of our existence, but we need not get lost in it for it is fulfilled, completed, and finalized in its complement the Real.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33468 – 16.26.3.10

A240901 – Z – K1

All human thought and experience move through the contrasts between two things or through the difference between them. Otherwise, it would not be possible for us to think or to have experience. In all human consciousness there is two-ness: thought and the object of thought, self and the thing it is aware of. But in the deepest trancelike meditation, this duality vanishes and only pure consciousness, the nondual Reality, exists.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33469 – 16.26.3.11

BA11 – ZZ – DK*

The Infinite Power divides some of its own stillness into the pairs of opposites and sets them in constant vibration and movement.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33471 – 16.26.3.13

BN – Z – K

All through Nature these two opposing principles Yin and Yang reveal themselves. All through human existence these contraries show themselves. Most of the ancient mythologies recognized it and certainly most of the Oriental religions, too, from the Far East in China and Persia to the Near East in Lebanon and Syria.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Paradox, duality, nonduality

#33476 – 16.26.3.18

A240901 – P – K

What I learned from the Hindu texts about Brahma breathing out the universe into physical existence and then back into Himself, not only referred symbolically to the periodic reincarnations of the universe but also and actually to its moment-to-moment rhythm of interchange of contrasts, differences, and even opposites. It is this interchange which not only makes universal existence possible but which also sustains universal equilibrium. Without it there would be no world for man to behold, no experiences in it for him to develop, no conscious awareness in time and space.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33480 – 16.26.3.22

BN – X – K1

Everything in Nature is included within this law of contrasting conditions. Nothing is excepted from it. Even the universe of definite, spherical forms exists in its opposite—formless space. We humans may not like the law; we would prefer light without shadow, joy without pain; but such is the World-Idea, God's thought. It is the product of infinite wisdom and as such we may trust and accept that it could not be otherwise.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33481 – 16.26.3.23

BN – Z – K1

Whatever we look at, we see only in a relationship of contrast to something else. It is a mistake to consider this opposition to be antagonistic. On the contrary, each should be considered a part of the other if our perception is to be true and our judgement correct. This teaches us to synthesize, to look at both sides of a thing, to include both points of view in an argument, and to add the similarities also instead of noting the differences alone.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33495 – 16.26.3.37

BN – Z – K

It would be a mistake to believe that these two forces, although so very different from each other, are fighting each other. This is not so. They are to be regarded as complementary to one another. They are like positive and negative poles in electricity, and they must exist together or die together. They are inseparable, but the need between them is correct balance, or equilbrium.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33515D – 16.26.3.57

BN – X – K

Heraclitus taught that the universe was a conflict of opposites controlled by what he called Eternal Justice and what we call Karma.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33518 – 16.26.3.60

BN – ZZ – K

Experience teaches human beings that life is governed by duality, that like Nature itself, it holds contrasts and oppositions within itself. Just as day and night are positive and negative poles, so are joy and sorrow. But just as there is a point where day meets night, a point which we call the twilight, so in our experience, human experience, the joys and sorrows have a neutral point—and in Nature, an equilibrium. So the mind must find its own equilibrium, and thus it will find its own sense of peace. To see that duality governs everything is to see why human life is one tremendous paradox.

World-Idea > Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > Opposites constitute universe

#33537 – 16.26.3.79

BN – Z – K1