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Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 1 - The Call (1924) - 331:
Know that no reward should be expected. Earthly rewards are not for you. You who strive must pursue the path boldly, without thought of danger or of joys to come. Remember what I have said to you. Accept not the best fruit from the table of the Lord, even if He offers it. Partake only of that which is given for the fulfilment of your mission. Reward does come, but expectation never brings reward. Did Christ, crucified, think of the salvation of His Soul? Even in the smallest measure try to be as He. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 1.11.5:
1.11.5. I will bestow on each according to his merit. The greater contributor will receive the more. I will reward every self-sacrifice. I will tame all forgetfulness. I will give joy! Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 2.3.4:
Let us conclude that begun yesterday: the recompensing for bad and good actions must be accelerated. The primary concern of religion should be to provide a practical solution to life. The heavenly reward is too remote; the return should be brought within the earthly span. People can now understand as universally accessible the miracle of the renewal of possibilities. Hence, either the hand of the Invisible Friend or a sharp sword. And, remembering the advantage of immediate remuneration, people will find a new path to the Temple. There is no need to implore Divinity. One should bring to oneself the best deed. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 2.4.13:
Verily He cleft asunder the chains because He bestowed knowledge without accepting reward. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 2.7.2:
The daring of despair is self-abnegation. But the highest daring does not expect any reward. And despair expects no reward. In Our language despair is the designation of a limit. An achievement is near to this limit. To the house where it abides one can screw an iron bolt. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 2.7.18:
I wish to see everyone at his place and with greater understanding of achievement without expectation of personal gains. Is it possible to call a warrior who enters into the battle full of expectation of reward a hero? Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 3.1.5:
I do not like to talk about reward for labor, but the remuneration will not be delayed. I speak of the joy of labor. The cooperative system is the sole salvation. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 3.2.4:
As I send you each shield, so must you make use of each moment. Not for a reward and not because of fear do you go forward, but because of a realization of the Cosmic beauty. New Era Community (1926) - 30:
30. Broadening of consciousness is occasion for congratulation. No laboratory can give this perception of continuity of endless possibilities. Only personally, consciously and freely is it possible to adapt out of space uninterrupted steps. The Teaching may open the door, but one can enter only by oneself. Not reward, nor justice, but the incontestable law carries the incarnate spirit upward, in an ascending spiral, provided that it has realized the necessity of motion. The Teacher can in no wise advance this consciousness for any suggestion would violate the personal attainment. Agni Yoga (1929) - 40:
40. A blind man dreams of material reward. But, if he were to gain sight, he would be astonished to see that he creates his own reward. Ascending in consciousness, a man progresses filled with joy, and the thought of reward would return him into slavery. In fact, there are many slaves, precisely those who try to conceal the servility of their spirit beneath an icy impenetrability and a seeming renunciation of that which they do not even possess. Each one wanting reward is already a slave. Only by a free consciousness, lacking both self-aggrandizement and self-disparagement, can evolution be constructed. Agni Yoga (1929) - 332:
Most harmful is the belief that though one is giving all, there is no reward. One can undermine the most brilliant achievement by such demeaning. Let us not forget that, knowing the goal, one can always proceed. But to count the stones upon which one's precious foot treads impedes one's steps. Let us consider that when birds fly they do not count each flap of their wings. Agni Yoga (1929) - 332:
Not a single Teacher ever thought that His work was completed, or that He deserved reward. This is the quality of the self-sacrifice of the Bodhisattvas: creation by the labor of each sweep of the untiring hand, because the eye knows the distance to the goal. Such will be the labor of the Bodhisattvas - like Fire - omnipresent, self-sacrificing, and inexhaustible in its essence. Agni Yoga (1929) - 353:
353. If they ask about reward, relate this parable: Agni Yoga (1929) - 353:
"A man gave much gold for good works, but then awaited his reward. Once his Teacher sent him a stone with the note, 'Accept this reward, the treasure of the far-off star.' Agni Yoga (1929) - 402:
One may occasionally see how a person who has come close to the Teaching and gained wonderful possibilities still continues to dream about some meager reward. Agni Yoga (1929) - 436:
436. There are many co-workers, but it is necessary to evaluate the extent of their devotion. Striving toward Us is often tainted by a proportionate expectation of reward. But how can one ask for reward when participation in Our work is in itself a reward? Agni Yoga (1929) - 501:
501. In which household will psychic energy grow? Of course in the one that strives toward the future. This is neither simple nor easy. People are too attached to the present. When We speak against the idea of desiring reward, the one who is attached to the present will not be able to understand the vital importance of this advice. But the one who is striving toward the future will not even think about reward, and he will regard any reward that comes as new shoes for the next journey. In this way, the guiding fires are lighted and psychic energy grows. Everything is developed through experience. And gained experience is comprehended by penetrating into the future. It is opposed to purposeless vegetating. Agni Yoga (1929) - 527:
But if he says, "I wish to perfect myself," then ask, "What reward do you expect?" He then should say, "Only to come close to the Teaching." Agni Yoga (1929) - 591:
Those who avoid the labor of the harvest should be made to understand that their groans are less than the rustling of one blade of grass. Also, those who venture into the astral world without an understanding of ascent must know how responsible they are for the polluting of space. Only the consciousness can lead, and permit the discerning of the right direction. Also, those who consider service to evolution as an effort deserving reward may be repaid in coin, but not by expansion of consciousness. Infinity - Book 1 (1930) - 310:
Great has been the discussion among scholars as to whether in Cosmos a return to the lowest state follows the attainment of the highest grade of development. It is wise to apply the understanding of karma to everything that evolves in Cosmos; not in the conception of karma customarily applied by humanity, that of a reward or settling of accounts, but of karma as the highest action which furthers evolution. All creative inceptions are predetermined by the law of this karma. Many inceptions do not apply to these laws, but the inception which takes place in realization of the karma of evolution lives in space and is carried forward by the currents of the Cosmic Magnet. Infinity - Book 1 (1930) - 318:
318. A coming achievement upon the scroll of human attainments is the conquest of the spheres of highest tension. When humanity will accustom itself to the realization of the transmutation from the lowest to the highest, then the spirit-understanding may be sent. The meaning of life is constructed according to the patterns of the cosmic rays. Are not the patterns of life woven by rays? Are not the patterns cumulated through millennia? These cosmic patterns direct all the strivings of life. When the rays are fixed by manifestation of the Cosmic Magnet, the pattern is so powerful and unalterable. Thus, in the records of Space there exists the pattern of each spirit. Only that spirit can record his own achievements who by his pattern has adorned the ladder of life evolutionward. If the spirit considers his achievements as a reward, then, of course, a channel of personal strivings is the result. Hierarchy (1931) - 79:
79. Already you know how tense is the time; and to those who are seized with fear, say that when the Lord lives within the heart, no hair will fall from one's head, and to each one a palace for body and spirit is allotted. But preserve your heart in purity, in order that I may enter there and surround you with armor. Remember that if you give in spirit to the Lord what has been taken from you, He will reward you a hundredfold. Thus, direct your thought to the Lord and let the Lord enter your heart. Without the Lord it will be narrow in the empty heart, and like peas in a dried sheepskin, wrath will jar within the empty heart. Fill your heart with the Lord so fully that no enemy can force his way through. Peace unto you. Fiery World - Book 2 (1934) - 363:
363. The idea of immediate reward is also to be expected of ignorance. Where, then, are the hours and moments of eternity by which may be measured off portions of the flame? There cannot be any spiritual striving where a demand for reward is obvious. Who can impede the movement of Karma? The flow of Karma must be understood as the approach of requital and of possibilities. Fiery World - Book 3 (1935) - 325:
325. The sunlike heart of the Hierarch illumines the existing tension of things as a result of cosmic reconstruction. The beclouded consciousness of humanity does not know the cause of the disintegration which is taking place. People speak about the Wrath of God, they voice their fears when faced with floods of misfortunes, but they speak not about the Hand which retaliates for that which the hands of men have put together. Cosmic Justice brings not reward but merited action. Thus must humanity understand that which is created by Karma. Spatial Fire is raging, saturated with the affirmations of Light and darkness. The Cosmic Scales know the Higher Justice. A Cosmic Ordinance draws near. The sunlike heart of the Hierarch is impelled to creativeness by Fiery Command.
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