Agni Yoga (1929) - 136: 136. Often people entrust themselves to a fiery steed, not realizing that even a mere gnat can throw the animal into a rage. Often people try to navigate in a frail canoe when every stone is a peril. Often people sit beneath the beams of a house which the slightest tremor of earth can cause to collapse. All this is of course known; nevertheless people think they can evade danger as though danger were not a constant companion to existence on Earth. People traverse life, blindly happy, unaware of the adjacent precipice. But if the inner sight is sufficiently developed, the voyager of life will see each cosmic irregularity. He will be painfully tormented by the seeming impenetrability of the path. But how will he gain the courage and strength to cross all chasms of what he now sees as a crumbling stronghold? Certainly, only by realizing the relation of the present transitory hour to an inevitable future. Agni Yoga (1929) - 322: 322. He who acquires knowledge only for himself is not Our builder. When the structures are about to collapse, who can sit calmly? When even the most remote cataclysm sets the organism atremble, then all must become masons, laying the new foundations. I say this because the undeferrable work requires all forces. Hierarchy (1931) - 347: 347. Many pillars of salt are spread upon the face of Earth. Not only did Lot's wife turn back to the past but numberless are those who have looked back. What did they expect to see in the burning city? Perhaps they wished to bid farewell to the old temple? Perhaps they looked for their cozy hearth? Perhaps they looked in anticipation of seeing the house of their hated neighbor collapse? Certainly, the past chained them for a long time. Thus, one must strive onward for enlightenment and health and for the strength of the future. Thus it should be always; but there may be cosmic knots when an impetuous onward motion is urgent. One should not be disconcerted and mourn over the past. Even mistakes are obvious, yet the caravan does not wait, and the very events press onward. We hurry, and We summon to hasten. The future is crowded, but there is no darkness ahead! Brotherhood (1937) - 44: Physicians prescribe rest, quiet, all kinds of inaction, and assume that in a moribund state it is possible to restore strength. But these same physicians understand that weakness and collapse result from violation of equilibrium. Thus, rest is nothing but equilibrium. But equilibrium is a proportionate tension of energy. Only thus is it possible to restore and strengthen one's forces. Brotherhood (1937) - 100: 100. The collapse of home and family will be, not in words and actions, but in thoughts. Silently are the foundations undermined. Without noticing it, people themselves foment dissolution. There are not many hearths around which mutual labor is performed in full understanding. But each such home is a step toward Brotherhood. Brotherhood (1937) - 172: 172. Inexperienced physicians try to drive a disease inward in order even temporarily to evade dangerous symptoms - thus are established hotbeds of maladies. But the experienced physician tries to draw out the germ of the disease in order to eradicate it in good time. The same method ought to be applied in all sicknesses. It is better that a crisis be lived through than that a destructive collapse seize the whole organism. It is possible to live through a crisis, and such shock may call new forces into life. Whereas disintegration and rot but infect all the surroundings. Thus, let us understand it in forty ways. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 185: "An arch, properly constructed, can be a beautiful fulfillment. It can stand for a thousand years, but should even one stone be taken away it will collapse." Thus spoke the Thinker.
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