Voluntary Austerity Helps
Us Adopt a Wise View of Life
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
* All things are surrounded by peace,
space and silence. It is helpful to
remember that. To each existing being there is a corresponding atmosphere
which both contains and transcends it. The spatial term “Emptiness” corresponds
to the acoustical concept of Silence. In voidness, loss and detachment one
finds wisdom, the meaning of things, and the purpose and harmony of every
effort.
* The Jesus of the New Testament, as Helena Blavatsky
clarified, is the symbolical voice of everyone’s spiritual soul. And such a
voice 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. The lower self
has to “face the absolute nothingness of its life” for the higher self to
flourish in anyone’s existence.
* Mental and emotional
silence liberates us from automatic chains of thought. By noiseless and alert, the pilgrim’s mind
is able to contemplate truth from the point of view of that freedom which he
obtains by transcending short-term thought.
* One of the paradoxes in
life is in the fact that you need constant self-preparation, in order to be
able to forget yourself. Thanks to self-respect, self-knowledge and
self-control, one can leave his personal “self” aside and deal with more
important issues.
* Each time one’s
consciousness transcends in waking state the process of perceiving physical and
psychological objects, one discovers the hidden bliss dwelling in the “void”
level of mental Space. Then one attains to wide horizons and elevated levels of
life perception, and every noise of individual consciousness gives way to the
music of silence.
* Altruism needs
efficiency. However noble, a vague or
groundless desire makes it more difficult to attain one’s object.
* Five people who know what they want and who patiently work for the
good of mankind are more influential on an essential plane than five hundred
misinformed individuals, or five thousand confused minds.
* If
the tasks one is supposed to perform each day grow in number and multiply, then
an unconditional calm must be evoked, so as to keep the necessary peace and
order in one’s inner world.
* Good results emerging
from one’s work and efforts may be highly probationary if one’s sense of
mission is attached to outward duties. Detachment protects one from a mechanistic view of his
own task. The priority is always listening to the still, small voice of the
conscience.
* It is no use adopting a
form of spirituality which denies or runs away from the difficulties of life. The original teachings of theosophy agree
with that. Universal wisdom can only be grasped in one’s daily existence, and
an integrated view of the world is necessary.
*
In the cycle of 24 hours, one meets failure, ignorance and fear. True philosophy enlightens and transcends every
feeling and hope in human soul. Learning to be a theosophist means looking at everything
from the point of view of that level of consciousness, in one’s heart, which
does not die, and is not born.
*
The balanced pilgrim who seeks for truth must have the audacity of those who
are personally ambitious, combined with the self-forgetfulness of him who does
not want anything for himself.
* Appearances deceive most people. The firmness and the detachment of a pilgrim
will shine in different moments, and they may be invisible to all around him.
Generous courage is often seen as arrogance, and humbleness, as absence of
value.
* True wisdom has no owners and is not easily detected. Divine knowledge
is like the air one breathes: invisible to the many. And only the wisdom in
oneself can see wisdom in others and remain free from blind faith.
* It is the power of discernment that allows us to transfer the
focus of consciousness from the manifested world to the unmanifested realm of
inner unity. And the other way around: when one wants to make the transition
back from the world of inner unity to the world of outer diversity and
contrast, discernment is again the door, the key, and the decisive tool.
*
Superficiality often expresses itself through a feeling of hurry and a sense
that there is not enough time to do what must be done. A deep standpoint shows the
needlessness and uselessness of anxiety.
* An
attempt to artificially accelerate outward events indicates that the pilgrim
did not grasp the true rhythm of life and is not in harmony with it. A careless
acceleration of events produces loss of time and energy. On the other hand, the wise use of
time avoids both procrastination and haste.
* Concentration is the ability to establish one’s whole
consciousness in the heart, and this can be done while paying attention to
one’s active duty. Thoroughly fulfilling our duty means performing it with no
expectations of personal rewards. Right action can
be as quick as light, and as firm as a rocky mountain facing gentle winds.
* The practice of voluntary
austerity, or “tapas” in Sanskrit, helps those who try to adopt a wise view of
life. As the student of theosophy develops a higher sensibility, he must
consolidate stable and healthy habits on the outer layers of existence. While
his central focus shifts from the outward aspects of life towards subtler rates
of vibration, he has to establish himself in sane patterns of vibration so as
to be protected by the good karma of his present and past actions. The building
of such rhythms in life will combine with the unfolding of his new and finer
perception. The pilgrim is protected from Illusion by Tapas.
* As long as anyone’s contact with
his immortal soul is alive and strong enough, he has the courage to see the
facts of life in a severe way, and at the same time he maintains a positive
attitude towards the future. Others may then consider him an optimistic. If
however one gets negative regarding his future as a soul, or pessimistic as to
the future of mankind (or his country), he should re-examine his relation to
his own higher levels of consciousness. He ought to expand that contact. Our
view of the world is a mirror to the state of our soul.
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The above article was published as an
independent text on 18 May 2018. An initial version
of it, with no indication as to the name of the author, is included in the January
2016 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”.
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