Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00012)

Extracts from LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME
by William Q. Judge


The Letters originally appeared in The Path, December 1888 to
March 1890. and were first published them in book form in 1891,
edited by Jasper Niemand.
SOME EXTRACTS -- selected by DTB


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"Seeking for freedom I go to that God who is the light of his own
thoughts. A man who knows him truly passes over death; there is
no other path to go." -- Upanishads

"We need a literature, not solely for highly intellectual
persons, but of a more simple character, which attempts to appeal
to ordinary common-sense minds who are really fainting for such
moral and mental assistance as is not reached by the more
pretentious works."

The experience of one student is, on the whole, the experience of
all. Details differ, however.
Some are made more instantly rich than others: they are those who
put forth more vigorous and generous effort; or they have a
Karmic store which brings aid.
Karma, or the law of spiritual action and reaction, decided this,
as it works on all the planes, physical, moral, mental,
psychical, and spiritual alike. Our Karma may be worked out on
any one of these planes when our life is chiefly concentrated
upon it,.
The letters, in the hope that they may assist others, are here
published. They are hints given by one who knew that the first
need of a student is to learn how to think.
The true direction is pointed out, and the student is left to
clarify his own perceptions, to draw upon and enlarge his own
intuitions, and to develop, by his own inward exertions.
Such students have passed the point where their external
environment can affect their growth favorably. They may learn
from it, but the time has also come to resist it and turn to the
internal adjustment to higher relations only.
The brevity of these should not mislead. Every statement is a
statement of law. They point to causes of which life is an
effect. That life, arising from the action of Spirit in Nature,
is that which we must understand. It is to be manifested within
us before we can advance on the Path.
There is a scientific meaning within all these devotional or
ethical injunctions, for the Wisdom-Religion never relaxes her
hold upon Science or attempts to dissever an effect from its
cause. Most of these statements have their base in the
constitution of the World-Soul, and the correlation of its
energies; others, still, adhere in the Eternal.
An occultist is never so truly a man of power as when he has
wholly learned and exhibits this truth: "And the power the
disciple shall desire is that which shall make him appear as
nothing in the eyes of men." -- [ LIGHT ON THE PATH, p. 4 ]
The inner eye, the power of seeing, looks deep into the source of
a man's knowledge and takes it at its true value.
Those men who are sharers in the Divine, whose first office is to
give, are often protected from the demands of curiosity. The
availability of aid is always made clear. Such aid is never
volunteered; it follows the Karmic behest, and, when given,
leaves the student free to follow it or not, as his intuitions
may direct. There is not a shadow or vestige of authority in the
matter, as the world understands the word authority.
No hints of magic lore are to be found; no formulas of creed or
occult powers; the questions of an awakening soul are answered,
and the pilgrim is shown where lies the entrance to the Path.
The world at large seeks the facts of occult science, but the
student who has resolved to attain, desires to find the True
Road.
What may seem to others as mere ethics is to him practical
instruction, for as he follows it he soon perceives its relation
to facts and laws which he is enabled to verify, and what seemed
to him the language of devotion, is found to be that of science;
but the science is spiritual, for the Great Cause is pure Spirit.
Many students must at some time stand, at the beginning of the
Way. For all these, they are urged to look within the printed
words for their imperishable meaning.
They may be cheered to find the footprints of comrades upon the
rugged Path, above which the light of Truth ever shines. Yet even
this light is not always a clear splendor. We must question every
external aspect, even that of Faith itself, for the secret and
germ of things lies at their core.
Let us purify our Faith; let us seek Truth herself, and not our
preconceptions of Truth. In her mirror we shall never see our
own familiar face: that which we see there, is still ourselves,
because our Real Self is TRUTH.
We first take this issue to be the acquirement of occult
knowledge. Soon we find that the meaning of all really informed
occult writers eludes us. We find that books may only serve to
remind us of what we knew in the long past, and the echoes
awakened within us are so faint that they are rarely caught.
Whether we study philosophies, metaphysics, physics, ethics,
harmony, astrology, natural sciences, magnetism, or what not, we
meet with endless contradiction and differentiation; we are
forever required to strike the balance of our own intuition.
We discover that the final word has not yet been written down
upon any of the higher subjects (unless it be on mathematics, and
scarcely on that), and that all our learning is but a finger-post
that directs towards supreme knowledge of Truth which is only to
be found closely guarded within each Human Heart.
Thrown back upon our inner perceptions for continual
readjustment, on every side of experience, this warning confronts
us: "Stand ready to abandon all thou hast learned!"
Not knowing the One Center, we cannot thoroughly know any
sub-center. If the cause be unknown, effects mislead us.
Then we turn to that mysterious center whereby the One is
manifest in man, and we begin the study of the "heart," both in
itself and in the life it has instituted about us.
To be put into more direct communication with the world of cause
is now the student's most pressing need. One thing alone prevents
this--himself. In his present personal self, he is of such gross
fibre that he cannot be "porous to thought, bibulous of the sea
of light." To the refinement and dispersal of this lower self --
of the man he presently takes himself to be -- he then directs
his will.
Each man has a different mode of doing this, but each who
advances at all, finds that with every new period of his inner
life a new self rises before him. Looking back over a group of
weeks or months, he is amazed to see what manner of man he was
then.
Yet some there are who seem to ossify in their rut; let them
struggle mightily to break up the mass which has resisted all
change, all conditions of progressive life. They are the rock in
their own path.
What in the East is called "the sheaths of the heart," may be
seen to fall away one by one. When the last bursts open there is
a silence, the silence of the "mystic death." But "the dead shall
arise," and from that death, springs up the first tender growth
of eternal life.
These hints may cause us to realize the real issue so forcibly,
that one's whole strength from the start is directed towards
self-knowledge and the right use of Thought. These phrases and
words are offered to those of his comrades who, single-hearted
and of royal Faith, hold Truth to be dearer than all material
life and seek it on the "hidden way."
There is no tie in the universe equal to that which binds such
comrades together.
It has been forged in the fires of indescribable anguish; it has
been riveted by a dauntless purpose and a Divine Love. The fierce
hatred of seen and unseen worlds cannot tamper with it so long as
a man remains true to himself, for this larger life is Himself,
and as he grows towards it his self-imposed fetters fall away and
he stands, at last, a free soul, in the celestial Light which is
Freedom itself, obedient only to the Law of its own divine Being.
To reach it, let us obey the law of our own Being, for, truly,
Being is One.
[ From J. N. , selected by DTB ]


Letter 1

My Dear Jasper:

Now let me elevate a signal. Do not think much of me, please.
Think kindly of me; but oh, my friend, direct your thoughts to
the Eternal Truth.

I am, like you, struggling on the road. Perhaps a veil might in
an instant fall down from your spirit, and you would be long
ahead of us all. The reason you have had help is that in other
lives you gave it to others. In every effort you made to lighten
another mind and open it to Truth, you were helped yourself.

Those pearls you found for another and gave to him, you really
retained for yourself in the act of benevolence. For when one
lives thus to help others, he is thereby putting in practice the
rule to try and "kill out all sense of separateness," and thus
gets little by little in possession of the true light.

Never lose, then, that attitude of mind. Hold fast in silence to
all that is your own, for you will need it in the fight; but
never, never desire to get knowledge or power for any other
purpose than to give it on the altar, for thus alone can it be
saved to you.

So many are there around me who are ardent desirers and seekers,
devotees; but they are doing it because the possession seems
valuable.

Perhaps I see in you -- I hope I mistake not -- a pure desire to
seek Knowledge for its own sake, and that all others may be
benefited. So I would point out to you the only royal road, the
one vehicle.

Do all those acts, physical, mental, moral, for the reason that
they must be done, instantly resigning all interest in them,
offering them up upon the altar. What altar? Why, the great
spiritual altar, which is, if one desires it, in the heart. Yet
still use earthly discrimination, prudence, and wisdom.

It is not that you must rush madly or boldly out to do, to do. Do
what you find to do. Desire ardently to do it, and even when you
shall not have succeeded in carrying anything out but some small
duties, some words of warning, your strong desire will strike
like Vulcan upon other hearts in the world, and suddenly you will
find that done which you had longed to be the doer of. Then
rejoice that another had been so fortunate as to make such a
meritorious Karma. Thus, like the rivers running into the
unswelling, passive ocean, will your desires enter into your
heart.

I find all your remarks just; and besides, there seems to be a
real spirit behind them. Do not fear nor fail because you feel
dark and heavy. The very rage you feel will break the shrine that
covers the mystery after a while. No one can really help you. No
one can open your doors. You locked them up, and only you can
open them.

When you open any door, beyond it you find others standing there
who had passed you long ago, but now, unable to proceed, they are
there waiting; others are there waiting for you. Then you come,
and, opening a door, those waiting disciples perhaps may pass on;
thus on and on. What a privilege this, to reflect that we may
perhaps be able to help those who seemed greater than ourselves!

O, what a groan Nature gives to see the heavy Karma which man has
piled upon himself and all the creatures of the three worlds!
That deep sigh pierces through my heart. How can the load be
lifted? Am I to stand for myself, while the few strong hands of
Blessed Masters and Their friends hold back the awful cloud? Such
a vow I registered ages ago to help them, and I must. Would to
great Karma I could do more! And you! do what you can.

Place your only faith, reliance, and trust on Karma. .

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