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Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 1 - The Call (1924) - 311:
311. You already know that neither kindness nor intellect alone can lead to Us. But spirituality is needed. This quality comes the moment the spirit is ready. Naught can hasten the affirmation of the path. Even calling to people is useless. Therefore, seek not for followers. But attentively welcome those who knock. It is shameful to miss in sleep the knocking of even one heart. Better to meet with failure than to ignore the winged desire. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 1 - The Call (1924) - 391:
391. Remember how necessary it is to keep the Teaching; Especially at this time of world-wide commotion. Count the days until you will pass safely through the conflagration. I offer you My Hand and I will conduct you unscathed. But be sensible and reject not the Hand. After My Indications you yourselves will apprehend the vastness of the fire. It is shameful not to perceive the boundary of the New World. It is shameful to proceed, still tied with a gallows-rope. Let the new sun shine through your window! New Era Community (1926) - 5:
5. The path of life is one of mutual help. Participants in the great task cannot be humanity-haters. This term denoting a shameful hatred is a long one. But perhaps people will the better remember it and be ashamed. New Era Community (1926) - 10:
10. A lofty quality will enter into pure labor through love of a favorite craft. A beautiful quality will be affirmed throughout life. Nothing will remain in darkness. Ignorance will be a shameful offence. Darkness is infectious but Light is attractive. Hence, let us affirm the love of a favorite craft, which uplifts the life. New Era Community (1926) - 198:
198. In the recent past, in accordance with the plan of My Friend, We often visited Western cities. At that time We encountered casual individuals who suspected something about Us. The most persistent inquiries were addressed to Us - about the methods of psycho-mechanics and demands for the most precise biochemical formulas. Besides, with the conceitedness of the West, these people were never concerned about their own consciousness and did not attempt to learn whether they possessed the corresponding physical qualities. It is sad to contemplate that this opportunity was unaccompanied by any aspirations for social welfare. As the caveman with his club hastened to gather colored sea-shells as his exclusive property, so did these dwellers of stone places try to appropriate for themselves qualities foreign to them. Moreover, the caveman adorned himself with the shells, but the contemporary wiseacres degraded knowledge into after-dinner coffee talk - it was a spectacle of shameful lightmindedness. New Era Community (1926) - 213:
213. Say to the hypocritical contemplators that if contemplation is a tension of energy and accumulation for a leap, then from the "Lion" comes ordainment of such action. But if contemplation is an indolence and indifference, then it is impossible to represent this shameful pastime as a great Covenant. New Era Community (1926) - 238:
In legends giants crossed the seas, breaking off monolithic rocks. Let us resemble the giants and our thoughts the monoliths. Let us dispel any timid half-wayness, as otherwise it will take possession of us and deliver us to a shameful execution by beating with accounting books. We know monolithic thinking. Agni Yoga (1929) - 406:
Poor is the consciousness that has no control over passing emotions. Invulnerability is Our Shield. Each speck of fear is a target for an enemy's arrow. After washing away these shameful specks, we become as invulnerable as are the far-off worlds. The development of Agni Yoga becomes a shield of thought. The all-penetrating Fire, when realized, endows one with supremely pure strength and replenishes the source of renewal. Agni Yoga (1929) - 442:
442. Certainly, the wisest course is to partake of food only when the body has need of it. Also, food taken just twice daily is sufficient. But in view of the circumstances of present-day life, this is difficult to follow. Therefore the stomach can be given its work at specified times. The most harmful is consumption of food at any time with no real need. An orderly life is not something shameful, for one must carefully protect the apparatus built through the ages. Heart (1932) - 205:
205. It is laudable to defend the Sign of the Lords. It is practical to train oneself in the realization of the closeness of the Lords. Just as it is impossible for man to dispense with food, so must he cling to Hierarchy. Not like a timber leaning for support, but as a vigilant guard let him be prepared to take the defense each moment and thereby multiply his strength. Likewise, although you know enough about the One Light, I nevertheless repeat that you should multiply your forces. Even the cross itself has no strength without the heart. Even the purest prana will not penetrate a wrathful heart. Even Aum will remain as naught before a deceptive and treacherous heart. Thus let us remember in order that no obsession may penetrate the heart. You have examples of obsession before you and you see what is being lost in the days of shameful weakness. Heart (1932) - 523:
523. It must be understood what a petty thought is. Like an insect it undermines the strongest intentions. The firmest character can be shaken by the pricks of small thoughts. This is seemingly repetitious and has become a bore, but when the time for action comes, people shower themselves with a cloud of chips of small thoughts. The noblest decisions are eradicated under the layer of shameful thoughts. Achievement is impeded primarily not so much by doubt as by inchoate thoughts, generated by old habits. I affirm that it is not difficult to liberate oneself from habits if we can sufficiently project the consciousness into the future. Often people measure the future according to the present and thus clip the new wings. Even birds know about the change of plumage, and accommodate themselves to corresponding conditions. During the molting of their feathers they isolate themselves in the underbrush in order to soar again renewed. Thus, let us take an example from these younger brothers. They can sing to us an excellent song of the heart. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 33:
33. Let those who can hasten in thoughts act without delay. One must become accustomed to the fact that each thought is a communion with Fire. Hence, it is shameful to have an ignorant or insignificant thought. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 389:
389. Good will is not weak will. Quite often people, having deprived themselves of one attribute, have lost many other needed qualities with it. One should not confound shameful obsolete survivals with valuable achievements. Thus, malice is unworthy, but indignation of spirit is that uprising of elements which is found in the highest covenants. Spiritual battle has nothing in common with malice. Thus, Light pierces darkness, but not through malice. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 415:
415. Truly it is difficult to understand why persons serving the same goal disparage each other. Straight-knowledge, even in a small degree, should be developed. But mutual disparagement is one of the most shameful sins. I know of no better definition of it than sin, so destructive is the work of mutual annihilation. This can be explained as a certain aspect of obsession, but shame to those who, after having approached the knowledge of the fundamental principles, stoop to such a base state. Let the belittling and the destroying ones ponder upon their own consciousness. They are far from the fires of the heart. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 652:
652. Self-perfectment is the most difficult achievement. People inject into this process so many inconsistencies that the manifestation of true self-perfectment is obscured. Self-perfectment is simplified primarily when Hierarchy is accepted. Everyone should realize that the perfecting of the consciousness in itself contains all other aspects of improvement, but one cannot accept the mechanical betterment of the details of daily life as perfectment. One may be able to forge the most deadly blade or discover the most fatal poison, but it is impossible to consider such intellectual craftiness as worthy improvement. Nevertheless, to understand the idea of the Higher Worlds, it is necessary to determine what self-perfectment is. We can come to a decision as to what beautiful achievements are when we ourselves realize for what they must be accomplished. There will be not even a thought about achievement if we have no conception of the desirability of improvement of life. Affirmation of the physical world alone cannot advance the true development of consciousness. Take the history of humanity. Observe how brief were the periods of materialism; they invariably ended in bloody convulsions. Indeed, the trend of thought became rebellious, and the correct path having been lost, crimes multiplied. Self-perfectment is possible only through refinement of consciousness by its seeking to surround itself with worthy manifestations. Thus can consciousness protect us from small and shameful thoughts. Consciousness leads to the Fiery World. Fiery World - Book 2 (1934) - 58:
58. Verily miracles do occur, and it is worth while to live in cognizance of miracles. A great many ready combinations are shattered by blunt denials and by shameful blindness of consciousness. Fiery World - Book 2 (1934) - 121:
121. The World is moulded in beautiful Principles. The expression about the renunciation of the World is correct. One cannot renounce the heavenly beauty. The whole world has been given to man. Therefore it would be far truer to speak about the discovery of the meaning of things. When the manifestation of renunciation arises, it concerns the mostperverted concepts, the most harmful actions, but it is inadmissible to misuse a beautiful concept, the World, to describe a generalization of these abominations of ignorance. Worldly matters do not have to be unworthy and shameful. Great consciousnesses have taken great pains over the World. It is unfitting to attribute to them the distortions of ignorance! In studying the foundations of the Fiery World, it is first of all necessary to have an agreement over the understanding of many concepts. Is it at all possible to call gluttony, or depravity, or theft, or betrayal, Worldly matters? They are even beneath the actions of animals. Animals know the measure of need, but if man has forgotten the measure of justice it is only because he has abandoned the World and has fallen into darkness. Whoever does not reflect more worthily about the World, is not able to distinguish right from wrong. How could he comprehend the Blessed Fire? He would shudder at the very thought of the Fiery World. Let us advise friends to gradually differentiate the World from chaos. I advise friends to begin discourses about the fiery element as the subject of forthcoming revelations. Fiery World - Book 3 (1935) - 505:
505. The silver thread is a radiant symbol of the link and of trust. It is possible to bring the concept of the bond into such a state of clarity that the thread will be almost perceptible. The appearance of the Image of the Guide will no more forsake one than will the thread of the bond. But the will is free; it can snap the strings of any harp whatsoever. I already have told you how lamentably sound the strings which are forever broken. Verily, even in the raging of the most frightful obsession are heard the wailings of the broken strings. Amid chaos, most shocking indeed are the moanings from such ruined threads. Diseases are born of such criminal actions. Traitors break the most sacred threads. That is why betrayal is the worst offense against the Fiery World. What, then, can be more shameful? Fiery World - Book 3 (1935) - 600:
600. A hermit wished to progress further in his training in the matter of silence, and, not trusting himself, he patiently and firmly bound his mouth. One day he saw a child on the edge of a cliff, but he didn't succeed in removing his complicated bandage quickly enough to warn of the danger. By the time he unbound his mouth the child had been already carried away by the current. Not in invented bonds lies achievement! Only then do we attain when we cannot but do. He who does not because he cannot, attains nothing. Thus it is in bodily and in spiritual existence. In addition to not doing shameful things, one must also account to oneself why such doings are inadmissible. Thought must be at work. In such creativeness the force of thought is needed. Evolution without thought is impossible. If in the nearby Subtle and in the Fiery World all is moved by thought, then it is not difficult to recognizes the preeminence of thought. In Infinity, spiral rings, whole cycles of thought, are engaged in manifestation. The most insignificant earthly object represents a transformation of thought. Cannot the very same thing take place in space on a large scale? Thought is Fire. Thought is the engendering of the creative vortex and explosion. Thought is Light and radiance. Thus must Fiery Thought be respected. AUM (1936) - 236:
236. The Higher World is incorruptible, but instead of self-purification through thought and labor, people still try to bribe the Higher Grace. In such ignorance is expressed a complete unwillingness to reflect upon the essential nature of the worlds. The history of prayer shows that at first hymns were chanted, then prayers were spoken for all beings, and only later did man dare to importune with demands for himself. Sufficient evidences have been given as to how worthless for evolution is everything engendered by selfishness. One cannot purchase favor and justice. Is it not shameful that such words must be repeated? AUM (1936) - 293:
293. If the precipitates of space upon cities were to be investigated, something similar to imperil would be found among the poisonous substances. Carefully observing this poison, one comes to the conviction that it is imperil exhaled by the breath of evil. Undoubtedly, breathing permeated with evil is a carrier of injurious effects. If poison can be deposited in the organism, due to irritation, if the saliva can be made poisonous, then the breath can also be made a poison-carrier. It is necessary to judge how much evil is being exhaled and how multiform are the aspects of evil compressed into the new combinations of poisons present in enormous crowds of people. This is increased by the varied effluvia of decomposing foods and all manner of refuse which litter the streets even in metropolises. It is time to look after the cleanliness of backyards. Cleanliness is necessary out of doors and in the human breathing. The imperil exhaled by irritated people is identical with filth, or shameful refuse. It is imperative to impress people's consciousness with the fact that each bit of filth infects those around. The filth of moral dissolution is worse than any excretions. AUM (1936) - 336:
It is possible to find periods in the history of humanity when, after particles of the Truth had been already grasped, certain pseudo-teachers, because of extreme ignorance, tried to again conceal from people the immutable position of things; this resulted in what will some time be regarded as shameful pages of history. The usurpers offered no proofs, but commanded that the obvious be denied. It is as if denial of the sun's existence were prescribed, because someone weak of eyesight could not look at the sun! Similarly prohibited was cognizance of the laws of the Subtle World. Some, ignorant of them, through egoism forbade others to know the reality. AUM (1936) - 415:
Poets and singers frequently glorify woman, but governments are unable to recognize simple equality of rights. It will be a shameful page of history which will record that even now equal rights have not yet been established. Woman's upbringing and education are not on a level with man's, and motherhood itself is not protected. Brotherhood (1937) - 604:
604. The assumption of personal superiority is one of the most shameful manifestations of the imperfection of the spirit. It not only corrupts all the surroundings but it also remains as the greatest impediment to improvement. It is essential to counteract such an ailment with a powerful restorative. Thought about cooperation and Brotherhood will be salutary in guarding against such a dangerous ailment, and will call forth new strength. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 115:
In the ancient records one finds many symbolic expressions whose original meaning is now lost. The ancient tradition of oral instruction had a profound purpose because the Teaching could be transmitted directly to the deserving disciple without the need for symbolic veiling. However, conventional written records contain many harmful errors. Dense ignorance can obscure small parts of the given Truth, and deliberately malicious statements distort even the most obvious facts. One can imagine how much effort is needed to direct human thought to the intelligent eradication of such shameful distortions. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 141:
But he who is armed with the power of decision will not regret anything from the past when he knows the path leading into the future. It is not just readiness that is needed, but decisiveness. You understand the difference between these words. We teach how to develop decisiveness so that no earthly circumstances can influence the ability to decide. There were times when attachment to insignificant earthly objects influenced not only the destiny of individuals but that of entire nations. It is shameful when an object made by human hands can interfere with the path of true achievements. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 183:
People assume that they have progressed in so many ways and proudly point to their technical achievements, but they have advanced very little in the cognition of truth. One can search throughout the world and will discover the shameful fact that only a few strive toward the realization of Truth, and these few will only whisper timidly about the Subtle World. If one were to explore the history of human enlightenment, one would discover that there exists an immobility of consciousness. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 222:
One should not easily excuse unworthy deeds on the basis of misunderstandings due to differences in language. Unfortunately, shameful deeds are the result of evil willfulness and envy. If one examines the reasons for the persecution of the best minds of different nations, and compares the reasons for the persecution and banishment of Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, and others, one can observe that in each case the accusations and reasons for banishment were almost identical and unfounded. But in the following centuries full exoneration came, as if there had never been any defamation. It would be correct to conclude that such workers were too exalted for the consciousness of their contemporaries, and the sword of the executioner was ever ready to cut off a head held high. Pericles was recognized in his time only after people had reduced him to a sorry state. Only in that state could his fellow citizens accept him as an equal! Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 264:
People should be taught that it is as shameful to deceive themselves as to deceive each other. Unfortunately, there can be no law that forbids inner lies, but a state of consciousness can be reached in which it becomes shameful to lie. Let people think about the beauty of the world, and let them know that every thought is immediately known to Someone. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 264:
It is strange that some people attach themselves to the Teaching, yet continue to commit shameful deeds and to utter lies. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 286:
To all these insanities will be added the most shameful - the intensified competition between male and female. We insist upon equal and full rights for women, but the servants of darkness will expel them from many fields of activity, even where they bring the most benefit. We have spoken about the many maladies in the world, but the renewed struggle between the male and female principles will be the most tragic. It is hard to imagine how disastrous this will be, for it is a struggle against evolution itself! What a high price humanity pays for every such opposition to evolution! In these convulsions the young generations are corrupted. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 321:
The worldly-wise advise us to ignore the cruelties that surround us, but these "wise" ones are without life. You will be told many stories about the brilliant achievements of culture, yet the fact remains that slavery still exists. Moreover, it exists under a clever mask of sanctimonious hypocrisy; such a masquerade is particularly shameful. Yet instead of general indignation, one hears excuses for this shame. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 321:
The Thinker taught, "Beware of people who attempt to justify shameful deeds, for such people are enemies of humanity." Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 342:
It is astonishing that seemingly enlightened people are not ashamed to soil themselves by opposing benevolent work. Why do they become so savage and utter such shameful things? It often happens that they are obsessed, but it may also be a case of poisoning by chaos. Such circumstances should be studied scientifically. When their feelings are temporarily obscured, people can act in the most shameful manner without even realizing it. Later they may feel regret, but the deed has already been done, and karma determined.
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