In Theosophy, Each
Thought Counts
And Small Moments
Prepare the Great Ones
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
The distance
between one’s ideal and one’s practice is natural: it means that our Ideal is
high.
There has to be a long way between the place we are
and the place we want to get to. Otherwise, we would have no ideal in life.
However, one must carefully observe the quality of the
efforts he makes to reduce the contrast between precept and practice. The
danger of hypocrisy has to be made visible. Transparency is an effective tool
to reduce the levels of untruthfulness.
Even in “advanced” levels of learning, everyone must examine
the various possibilities of self-deceit and collective delusion.
A leadership that avoids mentioning the danger of
becoming whited sepulchres is working under the delusion that the path is not
really probationary. It is letting people think that belief is more important
than testing every bit of knowledge in practical life.
Avoiding reference to the possibility of failures is
the shortest way to pious frauds and every other form of defeat. Hence the need
for humbleness and for the courage to be sincere along the way. Being honest to
oneself implies being honest to others, and it requires courage because the
practice of sincerity irritates many. A sense of justice that is absolutely
impartial in ethical questions constitutes a central tenet in esoteric
philosophy. To be impartial is to look and to judge with no distortions.
A Master of the Wisdom wrote that in the sight of the
Raja-Yogis “an honest boot-black [is]
as good as an honest king, and an immoral sweeper far higher and more excusable
than an immoral Emperor”.[1]
A simultaneous attention needs to be developed by each
pilgrim regarding various and contradictory levels of reality. The Path does
not constitute a one-line or monotonous progression. It is multidimensional and
alchemically complex. Each step one takes changes all the aspects of the road.
Every effective effort transforms the place you are and gives you another point
of view, with a number of potential insights.
The experience of progress is therefore not merely
accumulative. In order to obtain wisdom, you must give up unwisdom, and a Master wrote to a disciple:
“You have much to unlearn.” [2]
As we see new facts, false impressions are abandoned.
One does not go ahead half a meter without leaving behind the corresponding set
of illusions. However, one does not transcend material routines by abandoning
his duties. One must perform his tasks, however “boring”, in a way that is
consistent with the chosen ideal.
Actions That Are Consistent With One’s Goal
The main tool of the student is his own lower self. Knowing
such an instrument and learning to use it with efficiency takes more than one
lifetime. The pilgrim has to exchange once and again his old tool for a new
one, before fully learning how to work with it. Yet the immediate time is most important
in the building of a long-term trajectory to eternal wisdom. There is a lot
that can be done in each incarnation which will open his horizons.
Every cycle of 24 hours is complete in itself, with
its own meaning, its lessons and lasting beneficial effects. The Eternal is in
the Now: the blessing of plenitude must be found behind the apparent Void.
As Helena Blavatsky clarified, the New Testament Jesus
is the symbolical voice of everyone’s spiritual soul; and it says:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For
what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
(Matthew 16: 24-26)
It is by “dying” to material things or “accepting the
void” that one can live indeed and do so in a lasting way. When one’s lower
self faces “the absolute nothingness of its life”, the higher self flourishes. And
for that to occur a multitude of
tasks must be daily carried out in a perspective that is entirely different from
any previous one.
Humbleness Regarding Small Duties
While the pilgrim must classify his tasks and actions by order of
importance, it should be done with care. Once a task is acknowledged as being
part of my duty, it must not be neglected: the way I perform an action is as
important as the action in itself.
In theosophy, small
moments prepare the great ones. Everything in life contains seeds of connection
to the divine self. Right action includes buying bread, driving a car and reading
a book. By observing his own emotions or thoughts, the pilgrim preserves the cleanliness
of the temple within. As he helps with
“boring” duties at home or performs each task at work, he practices patience; develops
his sense of impersonality, and strengthens his concentration in accordance
with the teachings of Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Jnana Yoga.
A humble task, if well done, opens the karmic door to better
opportunities. Sleeping well,
eating well, taking good care of the health and having the right kind of
meditative walks - among many other examples -, are all opportunities to expand
antahkarana, the bridge to the higher
self. Each thought counts, and small decisions make the difference: there are
no neutral factors. Every gesture made and word said is significant.
NOTES:
[1] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, CA, Letter
XXIX, p. 223.
[2] “Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom”, transcribed
by C. Jinarajadasa, first series, TPH-Adyar, India, sixth printing, 1973,
Letter 20, p. 53.
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The above article
combines notes and fragments anonymously published in “The Aquarian Theosophist”: “The Precept and the Practice” (February
2016 edition); “Giving Up in Order to Obtain” (February 2016 edition); and a
few items from “Thoughts Along the Road”, in the January 2016 edition.
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On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by
Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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