A Correct Preparation Must Occur
During the Easy Hours of Opportunity
John Garrigues
Although
Decisive, the Hour of Need is Usually Not Long
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The following text was first published at
“Theosophy”
magazine, Los Angeles, in its
edition of May 1921, p. 221, with no indication
as to its author. An analysis of its contents and
style indicates it was written by Mr. Garrigues.
(CCA)
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Every disciple passes through periods of submergence when all that he
thought he knew at other times, on other levels, forsakes him or seems of no
avail if recalled to his mind.
Upon his re-emergence he
remembers and feels the force of many a trenchant and familiar phrase of the
philosophy that bore directly on his case and might have lifted him out of the
darkness.
He realizes now that law
rules in every circumstance, that no one is to blame for his conditions but
himself, that he is never alone - for wherever thought can go the Master can
come, that whatever begins in time will also end in time. Yes, he knows all
these things very well. Has he not heard them repeated time and again? Has he
not often been comforted by them and encouraged to go on with the work? Has he
not even quoted them to others in their hour of need? Why did he forget them in
his own?
Yet there are many things we
never forget. During normal waking consciousness we have never experienced such
pain or sorrow or joy that we were incapable of recalling and applying
instantly any number of needed facts. Why, then, did we forget these truths of
the soul, particularly when there were reminders of them a-plenty all about us?
It must be that we have only lisped them - not yet made them play a speaking
part and parcel in our nature.
So it would seem wise and
necessary to prepare for our hour of need by more assiduous study and more
continuous application. We are apt to be negligent in these directions until
the trials come. The time to bulwark ourselves against these is during the
pleasant, more favorable seasons, when
the opportunity is at our door - when the mind is keen, the heart unburdened,
the body in health. If the disciple has used to the full these moments, he will
have accumulated a force whose momentum will carry him over the hour of need
just as the momentum of a car will carry it forward over some temporary
obstacle.
And let no one imagine that
his hour of need will not arrive! The cycles must run their course. Inevitably
the cycle will occur when we seem not to connect with the living power of the
divine soul, and then only the momentum generated by previous work and effort
to apply what we know will carry us safely through.
It should hearten us, too,
to reflect that in comparison with the whole journey the hour of need is very short.
The hard trials of life
never last very long. And all eternity is behind and ahead. So let us cherish
and use to the full the many, many hours of opportunity, knowing that if we do,
during the darkness we may wait with patience and assurance the return of the
light.
000
In September 2016, after
a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students
decided to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in
the different dimensions of life.
000
