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New Era Community (1926) - 219:
219. All compulsion is condemned. Compulsory slavery, compulsory marriage, compulsory labor, incites rebellion and condemnation. But of all the forms of compulsion the most culpable and ugly is the compulsory community. Each compulsion is doomed to a reaction, and the worst form of compulsion is doomed to the worst reaction. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 529:
529. A common error of people is to cease to study after leaving school. The Pythagoreans and similar philosophic schools of Greece, India, and China furnish sufficient examples of continuous study. Truly, limiting education to the prescribed schooling indicates ignorance. Obligatory learning is only the entrance to real knowledge. If we divide humanity into three categories - those who are altogether unschooled, those whose education is confined to compulsory schooling, and those who continue their education - the number of the last will prove astonishingly small. This primarily shows indifference toward future lives. In their decline of spirit, men are indifferent even to their own future. There should remain a record that in the present significant year it is necessary to remind people about that which was useful a thousand years ago. In addition to elementary education one should further the education of adults. Several generations exist simultaneously on Earth, and they are all equally indifferent in striving to the future which they cannot evade. Such negligence is astonishing! Learning has become an empty shell. Yet for a simple holiday people like to dress in their best. Is it possible that they do not think it behooves them to secure an attire of Light for the solemn Abode in the Fiery World? One should rejoice not in bigotry, not in superstition, but with an illumined mind, and not only at the schools for children but also at the uniting of adults for continuous learning. Fiery World - Book 3 (1935) - 155:
155. Of all the subtle energies the most receptive is the energy arising from the heart. The current which is united with the Fire of Space must have radiation from the heart. This concept is deeper and broader than is customarily thought. In speaking about the heart current, it is needful to think about its creative power, for indeed, when a thought has been felt deeply it can create. Actually, when the heart beats in unison with the Cosmos all currents can be united through Fire. Therefore, nothing compulsory can replace the fiery tremor of the heart. On the path to the Fiery World let us strive for this palpitation which opens the Gates to all attainments. Brotherhood (1937) - 211:
211. Essentially, transition into the Subtle World ought to be painless. People having completed the earthly path ought to take up quite naturally the next proceeding. But they themselves complicate the solemn change of existence. They have propagated illnesses, and they pass them on to their near ones. They proceed to infect space, yet only by their own effort can they enter upon the path of purification. Compulsory prophylaxis cannot help fundamentally; a general conscious cooperation is needed. Compulsion can save only a small part out of hundreds of thousands of sick people. Rendering the planet healthful rests in the hands of all humanity. First of all, it must be understood that man makes healthy not only himself but also all his surroundings. In such a realization there will be contained true humaneness. Such a feeling cannot be commanded. It must come independently out of the depths of the heart.
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