It is surprising how fiction bestsellers, political and business management books are being outshined by books of and about man’s inner life, spiritual concepts and various religious thoughts. Marianne Williamson’s Return to Prayer describes this modern phenomenon as a mass movement which is afoot in the world today, spiritual in nature and radical in its implications. After decades of declining influence on the affairs of the world, spiritual principles are being considered as an antidote to the pain of our times.
Like flowers growing up between pieces of broken cement, signs of hope and faith appear everywhere. These signs reflect the light of a transcendent force at the center of things, present in our lives in a corrective and even miraculous manner, a light we can reach personally through internal work of a devotional nature.
We are experiencing now an alteration of collective consciousness centered not in government or science or religion per se; It is centered nowhere because it is present, at least potentially, everywhere. It is the rising up of our true divine nature, a reassertion of God in the consciousness of modern man.
At the feet of the Master
One of the most famous theosophical lecturers, who is considered a philosopher on ancient wisdom, J. Krishnamurti, the author of At the Feet of the Master says that in all the world there are only two kinds of people – those who know, and those who do not know. What religion a man holds or to what race he belongs are not important. The really important thing is the knowledge of God’s plan for men – for God has a plan, and that plan is evolution.
When man realizes this, he cannot help but work for God’s plan. It is so glorious, so beautiful to be on God’s side, standing for good and resisting evil, working for evolution and not for selfishness. It does not matter in the least whether he calls himself a Hindu or a Buddhist, a Christian or a Mohammedan, an Indian or an Englishman, a Chinese or a Russian.
Those who are on His side know why they are here on earth and what they should do, and they are trying to do it. All the others who do not yet know what they should do, act foolishly, and so they try to invent ways for themselves, not understanding that all are one and that therefore only what the One wills can ever be really pleasant for anyone. They are following the unreal instead of the real. Until they learn to distinguish between these two, they have not arranged themselves on God’s side, and so this discrimination is the first step.
Discrimination between right and wrong, important and unimportant
When the choice is made, you must still remember that of the real and the unreal there are many varieties. Distinction must still be made between right and wrong, important and unimportant, useful and useless, true and false, selfish and unselfish.
Between right and wrong, it should not be difficult to choose for those who wish to follow the Master have already decided to take the right at all costs. However, the body and the man are two, and the man’s will is not always what the body wishes. Master Krishnamurti continues, “When your body wishes something, stop and think whether you really wish it.”
When there is work that must be done, the physical body gets distracted by several wants: the want to rest, to go walking, to eat and drink. When man does not realize he has to get things done first, he disregards the unfinished work and does what he wants. But the man who knows says: “This that wants is not I, and it must wait awhile.”
On occasions, when there is an opportunity to help someone, the body feels: “How much trouble it will be for me. Let someone else do it.” But the man replies to his body: “You shall not hinder me in doing good work.”
Your body and your astral body
Master Krishnamurti sets a comparison, “The body is your animal – the horse upon which you ride. Therefore, you must treat it well, and take good care of it. You must feed it properly on pure food and drink only. Keep it strictly clean always, even from the minutest speck of dirt. For without a perfectly clean and healthy body, you can not do the arduous work of preparation, you cannot bear its ceaseless strain. But, it must always be you who controls that body, not the body which controls you.”
He cautions us: “The astral body has its desires – dozens of them – it wants to be angry, to say sharp words, to feel jealous, to be greedy for money, to envy other people and their possessions, as well as to yield to depression. All these things it want, and many more.” This astral body is in conflict with the higher self, which does not like violent vibrations nor like to change them constantly. The higher self wants none of these things, and therefore one must differentiate between his wants and his body’s.
Your mental body
Your mental body or ego wishes to think itself separate – to think only of itself and little of others. Even when you have turned it away from worldly things, it still tries to make you think of your own progress, instead of thinking of the Master’s work and of helping others. Take the example of a scholar who has disciplined himself and so denies his materials wants concentrating on his books and researches. However, his lectures are so cerebral calling attention to his brilliance rather than simplifying it for his inexperienced students.
When you meditate, your body will try to make you think of the many different things which the ego wants instead of the one thing which the higher self wants. You are not this mind, but it is yours to use; so here again discrimination is necessary. You must watch unceasingly, or you will fail.
Arrange your life according to the laws of nature
Between right and wrong, CHARACTER FORMATION knows no compromise. At whatever apparent cost, that which is right you must do, that which is wrong you must not do, no matter what the ignorant may think or say. You must study deeply the hidden laws of Nature, and when you know them arrange your life according to them, using always reason and common sense:
1. WORK PATIENTLY AT YOUR STUDIES, not so men may think you wise, not even that you may have the happiness of being wise, but because only the wise men can be wisely helpful.
2. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD; you must learn to be true in thought and word and deed. In thought first; and that is not easy, for there are in this world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions, and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore, you must not hold a thought just because many other people hold it, not because it has been believed for centuries, nor because it is written in some book, which men think sacred. Remember that though a thousand men agree upon a subject, if they know nothing about that subject their opinion is of no value.
3. YOUR THOUGHT ABOUT OTHERS MUST BE TRUE. If a man does something which you think applies to you, do not think at once: “He meant to injure me.” Most probably he never thought of you at all, for each soul has its own troubles and its thought turn chiefly around itself.
4. BE TRUE IN SPEECH – accurate and without exaggeration. Never attribute motives to another. If you hear a story against anyone, do not repeat it, it may not be true, and even if it is, it is kinder to say nothing.
5. BE TRUE IN ACTION. Never pretend to be other than you are, for all pretense is a hindrance to the pure light of truth. You must discriminate between selfish and unselfish.
6. LEARN TO DISTINGUISH THE GOD IN EVERYONE AND EVERY THING, no matter how evil he or it may appear on the surface. You can help your brother through that which you have in common with him, and that is the Divine Life.
It is your duty to help others to know
Firm as a rock where right and wrong are concerned, yield always to others in things which do not matter. For you must always be gentle and kind, reasonable and accommodating, leaving to others the same full liberty which you need for yourself.
Try to see what is worth doing and remember that you must not judge by the size of the thing. A small thing which is directly useful in the Master’s work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call good. You must distinguish not only the useful from the useless, but the more useful from the less useful.
TO FEED THE POOR IS A GOOD AND NOBLE AND USEFULWORK, YET TO FEED THEIR SOULS IS NOBLER AND MORE USEFUL THAN TO FEED THEIR BODIES. ANY RICH MAN CAN FEED THE BODY, BUT ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW CAN FEED THE SOUL. IT IS YOUR DUTY TO HELP OTHERS TO KNOW.
(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph or pssoliven@yahoo.com)