It is in the silence that we shall find the key, if we choose to search for it, that will open books of revelation in our natures. We shall find there a strength that has never been ours before and never could be until we sought this path. We shall find there the peace that passeth understanding. It may not come in a moment, nor in accord with puny wishes and desires, but if the motive is unselfish, it will come. It steals into the life, into the heart and mind, like the grandest symphonies in music. It carries you above and out of and beyond your difficulties and your trails, and prepares you for the real life. The silence! The one touch of silent prayer!
When a man in silence becomes conscious of his own divine nature, he realizes if only for a moment that he is different from what he seems; he begins to feel that he is a god; he begins to let the imagination pulse through his heart, telling him of mighty things beyond comprehension, to feel something of his few words to humanity.
Discipline comes in many ways, and without the help of books, many may yet find his own inner power, being no longer a mere potentiality. He will dig into the depths of his being that he may find wisdom. He will discover within himself a new quality if intuition and, at last, when touched by the 'feel' of this diviner life, the one of power of self-discipline will come to him, and he can stand and say: I know. The more we are united in the silence, in the attempt at self-purification, the nearer we are to the light.
Never can we lose sight of the light, never of our obligations or our divinity, if we are to realize the sacredness of our calling. There is so much in these few words: the sacredness of one's calling! There is something growing in our hearts and in our daily lives that cannot be described, that can only be felt. But once felt, deeply, profoundly, we are then moving along the true path. We are rarefying the air; we are sanctifying life.
Let us not forget that we are working together for the purpose of severing humanity and bringing to it the knowledge that it needs; that this is not a commercial effort, nor simply an ordinary educational effort, but that it is a spiritual effort in the highest sense; and for that reason we must be spiritually endowed with those qualities that make for true nobility.
"There is no idleness for the Mystic. He finds his daily life among the roughest and hardest of the labors and trails of the world perhaps, but goes his way with smiling face and joyful heart, nor grows too sensitive for association with his fellows, nor so extremely spiritual as to forget that an other body is perhaps hungering for food."
For we are one in essence; there is the interblending of forces so delicate, so subtle, that they cannot be perceived on this plane, yet they are ever at work, making or marring the destiny of a soul.
There is self-destruction, even on physical lines, in carrying an atmosphere of wrong thought. We have it in our power not only to build our bodies into health, but to retain that very much longer than, the allotted threescore years and ten. I hold it a duty to work towards this end, by right thinking and thoughtful living. Moreover, in such an effort, if it is made unselfishly, we can positively temper our bodies, much as metal can be tempered, so that they are unaffected by things that would put a strain upon them ordinarily.
You must take time for self-analysis. There must be time for calm, reflective attitude of mind. Study the conditions surrounding you, the motives that actuate you in this effort or work, and determine with absolute honesty whether they are selfish, unselfish, or mixed. This will be an up lifting, a clarifying process, for the conscience is at work. It is a confession, really, to the higher self, the divinity within you.
You invoke in such an effort the magic power latent in the silences of live. False ideas are gradually eliminated under a process, and true ones find their way in. Things once deemed necessary to the personal life becomes no loner so; and in thus moving out into a larger field of thought and aspiration you move towards self-adjustment.
In such thought you eliminate your weaknesses, and you learn also one great truth, a truth accentuated by the Nazarene: that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot move in opposite direction at one and the same time; you cannot ride two horses at the same time; and those who try it are certain to find themselves, sooner or later, arriving no where and more than likely trampled under the feet of both.
Think on these things in the silence; and remember that when a selfish or personal thought creeps in during silence, the door is shut and the light cannot find its place; the soul is barred, and the day will bring little to you that will satisfy the bitter side of your nature.
In the true condition of mind and heart there arises a sweet peace, which does not descends upon us from above, for we are in the midst of it, it is not like the sunshine, for no transitory clouds obscure its rays, but it is permanent and ever-abiding through all the days and years. Nothing can move us when this condition is reached.
We have but to take the first step in the true spirit of brotherliness, and all other steps will follow in natural sequence. We have to be warriors and fight the old fight unceasingly. but leagued, with us in this ancient are all the hosts behind man, back of all things old fight unceasingly, but leagued with us in this ancient fight are all the hosts of light. Behind man, back of all things, broods the eternal spirit of compassion.
Humanity has long wandered though the dark valley of bitter experiences; but the mountains heights are again seen, suffused with the glow of dawn and shown to that realm where the gods abide.
See the gates of life and peace standing open before you, if you have but faith and trust to enter in. But none can enter alone; each must bring with him the sad and sorrowing. None can cross the threshold alone, but must help to bear the burdened of the overburdened, must aid the feeble steps of those who are discourage, must support those who are bowed down with sin and despair; and as he sends out the radiation of the of that joy and strength which he receives from his own aspirations and devotion to the higher self, joy and strength and power shall enter into the lives of these others, and together they shall pass through into Life.
Think you Katherine Tingley "One path, many ways." Be good, do good.
"Oh thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illuminate our hearts and fill our minds, so that we, recognize our oneness with the Divinity which is the heart of the Universe, may we see the pathway before our feet, and spread it to those distant, goals of perfection, stimulated by thy radiant light."
Louis DiVirgilio
