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Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 3.4.8:
The least particle of personal property of bygone days is like a millstone around one's neck. Agni Yoga (1929) - 249:
249. Material objects may be valued, but there is danger in overproducing them. The most harmful thinking can originate when one is surrounded by unneeded objects. Stretching out like snares are the threadbare ideas about the use for and distribution of objects. The old ways of a bygone age bring prolonged suffering. Whereas new ways of production can generate unexpected currents of thought. Agni Yoga (1929) - 273:
Truly, only a few learn to rejoice at the need to face and conquer obstacles. Many more yearn to return to the bygone half-developed consciousness. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 464:
464. Torpor, as well as repugnance, must be overcome. Many fail to take notice of this pernicious fellow traveler. Yet one can clearly trace how not only some unknown causes but seemingly the most innocuous everyday objects intercept the current of the fiery energy. Not only repulsion but a certain kind of unnoticeable torpor arrests the tension of work. The most common object obscures, as it were, the receptivity of brain and heart. Sometimes the pattern of a fabric, the rhythm of a song, the flash of a knife, the tinkle of metal, or a multitude of similar fragmentary emotions throw us out of the usual trend of aspiration. Whence comes this torpor? When and where were these reverberations and flashes perhaps decisive factors in our existence? Let us not deny the cumulations of the past; this is one more evidence of past existences. One should regard these recollections very soberly, and even record them as an exercise in observation. But one should not be spiritually encumbered by these fragments of the past. One may also encounter objects which can give impetus to one's striving; one may rejoice at such companions of bygone paths, but even they must not engage our attention too long. Forward, forward, ever forward! Each moment of torpor is a loss of progressive motion. How often it has been said that motion is a shield against the hostile arrows! Thus, proceed fierily. Let your fire be a beacon for your companions. One should remember that one must give light through thought. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 541:
541. Earth still harbors the good robber and the cruel devotee. One would suppose that people, as the highest elements of Earth, would evolve far more rapidly than other elements of the planet. But a strange phenomenon is taking place - rejecting the ethics of spirit, people have encased themselves in a spiritual inertia. It seems that even the climate changes more rapidly than the human consciousness. Many inventions have appeared on this planet more than once. Bygone nations knew much, but the quality of thinking has progressed very little. And still people talk a great deal about a new race and a new humanity. But no Golem is to be the prototype of the new race. The quality of thinking will differ from that of past ages. The art of thinking must be completely and consciously regenerated, but without understanding the three worlds it is impossible to raise thinking to a new level. He who does not yearn for self-perfection will not think on a planetary scale. He who considers discussion of the Fiery World as superstition or paganism cannot revere the Image of the Savior. One need not wonder that people become accustomed to honest thinking so slowly, for throughout their many incarnations they have been bereft of the best images of the heroes of mankind. People have continually seen that it was precisely the heroes who were tortured and killed before their very eyes. By such thinking one does not arrive at the concept of the new man. Brotherhood (1937) - 561:
561. It will be asked, Can so-called living corpses wander about on Earth for a long time? For long periods, depending upon their animal attraction to the physical world. Psychic energy will leave them, their radiations will become negligible, and a small apparatus will reveal the signs of death. These walking corpses easily fall under the influence of strangers. They repeat empty words of their bygone days, convincing no one. Physicians may vainly examine their aorta, pointing to a valvular disease of the heart. These corpses are sometimes sensed by certain animals. Often these corpses remain as heads of big enterprises, nevertheless their dead husks permeate everything therein. The walking dead are strongly attached to life, for they do not understand the change of condition. They fear death. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 400:
The Thinker used to show an ancient stone and say, "Let this witness remind us about the bygone life."
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