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Heart (1932) - 582:
582. The Brothers of Mercy could enter into the worst nests of pestilence without being contaminated, because they had committed their consciousness to Christ irrevocably and undividedly. Such communion of consciousness created flashes of fire for unassailable purification. Such a Western example can call to mind numerous similar undivided actions which awaken the fire of tension of the heart. Of course, you know of the ancient custom of beating one's chest in an hour when the straining of the consciousness was demanded. Not without cause, or only for the purpose of inflicting pain, did the hermits strike their Chalice with a stone. Through such a primitive method they kindled the fire of the heart. All methods of flagellation and irritating the skin with hair shirts belong to the same primitive methods of straining the heart, when the entire being, through pain, is strained toward one direction. But surely, we shall not resort to such primitive means when we know that the highest protection and ascent are comprised in the indivisibility of aspiration. Through the heart one can transport one's consciousness along the Chain of Hierarchy, thus multiplying one's strength and becoming invulnerable. This means that for such essential achievements three elements are necessary heart, Hierarchy, and the realization of non-separateness. Let us accustom ourselves to constantly feel the heart. Then let us not forget to retain the Image of the Teacher in the third eye, and let us understand the meaning of indivisibility of aspiration. The last may often be the most difficult. People are unwilling to drive away the bats of abomination from around them, and thus they split even their incipient aspiration. The result is a shaggy ball of such aspiration without progress. One should not repeat dismal roulades which contaminate space and impede the link with Hierarchy.
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