Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00286)

                  Harmony, Sacrifice, Devotion

     Can you not live so as to feel the great throbbing heart
around you, so as to express that feeling in even the smallest
detail?  Let there be nothing cold or cynical in your view of life.
Sense the pathos and the pity of it, trusting that some day to your
now darkened eyes the mystery and the pain will be untangled.
Feel, feel, with everything that cries, with everything that
suffers, and in the most broken fragments of a life find some
beauty.  Let your own quivering heartstrings teach you the anguish
in other hearts and live to ease it.  Pain is our best teacher.  Do
not dread nor flee her therefore, she comes in mercy.
     Go forth to meet her, trembling, perhaps, but reverently,
patiently, unflinching; only so can the lesson be learned, and from
the dark hours spent with her, a light shall arise, showing the way
to stumbling feet, giving the power to comfort and console.  And in
the peace of that, your heart shall understand and be satisfied.
     Harmony, sacrifice devotion, take these for keynotes, express
them everywhere and in the highest possible way.  The beauty of a
life like that, the power of it, who can set measure or set bounds
to.
     Those who know and love you can always see it, and it may also
be shining in some other heart which as yet has no light of its
own.
     The Lodge waits and watches ever, ever works -- think you not
we have patience? -- and those who serve us must do the same.
     You are right, no detail is overlooked.  Life is made up of
details, each a step in the ladder, therefore who shall dare say
they are small.  We are closer than you know, and love and thought
brings us still nearer.
     Kill out doubt which rises within; that is not yourself, you
know.  The doubt is a *maya*, cast it aside.  Listen not to its
voice which whispers low, working on your lack of self-confidence.
     Therefore I say, have neither vanity nor self-depreciation.
If you are the Higher Self, you are all that is great, but since
your daily consciousness is far, far below, look at the matter
impartially and frankly.  Vex yourself not with contradictions.
You know that you must stand alone; *stand* therefore.
     If you have patience and devotion you will understand these
things, especially if you think much of them and meditate on them,
for you have no conception of the *power of meditation.*
     Closer insight gives heavier responsibility -- do not forget
that -- and a responsibility which affects others more than it does
yourself.
     See to it, then, that the outer does not obscure the inner,
for your lamp must be carried aloft for others to see, or not
seeing it, to continually feel.
     Do not confuse the outer with the inner, therefore, though the
outer be full and rich, remember it is so because of the inner
*shining through*, and look ever back to that which shines.  No
sorrow, no disappointment lie there, but a fullness of realization
of which you have no conception and a power and strength which
shall lift you above these confusions to a sure place of your own.
You have been too harsh with your lower nature, that leads to
dangerous reactions.  Quiet, steady effort is far better, casting
aside all thoughts of results.
     Treat your mind as a child, lead it firmly but gently and in
all ways and at all times strengthen your faith.


[A fragment attributed to WQ Judge by one who knew him. Quoted in ~William
Quan Judge~, pp. 95-96; compiled by Sven Eek and Boris de Zirkoff.  Title
added by NW.]


--
<> Nicholas Weeks <> am455@lafn.org <> Los Angeles
	"Men must learn to love the truth before they thoroughly believe it."
		Blavatsky