Altruistic
Actions Provoke an Immediate
Invisible Blessing,
Which Makes no Noise
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
* Ignorance uses to disguise itself under the garb of divine
knowledge. For this reason the key to attain wisdom is beyond adopting wise
words in thinking or talking. One needs to constantly compare the truth present
in wise words with the actual falsehood of any daily actions of ours that are based
on ignorance. Courage, confidence and
humbleness are necessary in the process.
* The path changes people. As the spiritual pilgrim
walks up the mountain, his horizon widens, the air becomes purer, and he has to
live with an increasing amount of detachment regarding particular issues and
specific objects. If he does not take the initiative to look for detachment,
then detachment will look for him, and it will find him, often in the form of
loss.
* The magnetism of the Sun transmits life and vision
to all. It permeates things. It inspires each being according to its specific
degree of evolution. It demands nothing. The Earth and every celestial body in
the solar system are parts of the aura of our Star as it proceeds in its
anonymous pilgrimage across the Milky Way - and around the centre of the
galaxy.
* More intelligent than fighting our circumstances is
to learn from them and build better ones. To purify oneself is more useful than
criticizing others. Instead of indulging in ambition, one should renounce
unwise ideas. The way to happiness is not quite in having our desires
fulfilled, but in leaving personal desires aside. A strong will must be built
that is altruistic.
* There is no joy like the joy of having fulfilled
one’s duty. No pleasure can ever be comparable to the pleasure of knowing that
one deserves inner peace. Doing good in undetectable ways is among the supreme
forms of happiness. When the Law and the higher self are the sole and secret
witnesses of good actions, the pilgrim has his reward already.
* Effort and rest are equally important in life. Both
should be complete. There must be moderation in the two. A supreme effort can
be made daily that does not deny the principle of moderation. A complete rest
has nothing to do with laziness. Detachment, which results from a broad
horizon, grants us the ability to combine intensity and moderation in work.
* What is the criterion to evaluate the process of learning? The contents and meaning of knowledge are indicated by the amount of ethics in the way it is used. True knowledge is employed in morally responsible ways, to achieve decent goals. Real knowledge provokes inner well-being: false knowledge leads to a disharmony in one’s soul.
* However imperfect, human beings are living ladders
between the earth and the sky. In order to improve themselves, they must
understand and regulate Life in each step of their own consciousness, and
establish little by little a harmony between celestial and earthly forms of
life in themselves. It’s a long term task, and every minute counts.
* Naive people take life for granted. They are still
sleeping inside. Those who know better conquer life each new day with due
effort. They are awakening already. The attitude of misinformed people regarding
the future is based on the principle and the philosophy of “wait and see”.
People with common sense actively work for a better tomorrow. Everyone can examine
to what group of individuals he belongs by now.
* Music, noise and silence make life, just as right
action, mistake and repose do. Pleasure, pain and wisdom are part of existence,
just as renewal, preservation and a balance between the two.
* A secret dialogue bridges the different sides of
existence. Some children seem too old already: they will get younger as time
passes. And many are those who at seventy start to live the joy of life.
* The student of universal wisdom must learn how to
receive in proper ways in his psychological world the ceaseless events that
Life brings to him. New facts and realities harmonize themselves as soon as one
puts them in their right context. Thus the student develops an ability to deal
with trends of events, rather than
mere isolated facts. Once he identifies the patterns, the cycles and trends, he
can foresee what the possibilities are. As a result, right understanding
succeeds “surprise”, and right action replaces impulsive behaviour.
* Through our sense of inner equilibrium we can understand the rules guiding Life. The Law
of Karma expresses itself in a dynamic, spiraled movement, constantly
re-establishing equilibrium and balance. It does so through the law of cycles
and the law of symmetry. A mathematical symmetry can be seen in every cycle
which allows us to infer and calculate in advance the change and renewal of general
trends that are yet to come in History and Karma.
* It all depends on the point of view from which we
look at life. In order to find the spiritual Path, one must see each thing and
every event from a noble viewpoint. Besides, isolated insights have limited
results. Before being able to sustain a noble perspective, a stable structure
of habits, actions and practice must be built. This is no poetical speculation.
Only the grandeur and beauty of the path can inspire one to make the inevitably
hard and apparently “inglorious” effort.
* The soul has its own ecology. A stable silence
within allows one to contemplate the emotional and mental landscape of his
individuality, with its higher places and lower places, its climate and
atmosphere. Passing “winds” and “rains” can change the short term aspect of
one’s nature and its temperature. These factors alternate with sunlight,
moonlight, and the influence of clouds of various kinds. In order to sow in
effective ways, one needs patient labor done under changing weather conditions.
The agriculture of the soul is an Occult science: it requires hard, intelligent
work.
* Sentences have an occult life. At each sentence or
paragraph studied in reading theosophical literature, the pilgrim must ask
himself: “what is the actual meaning of
these words to my own inner life and daily existence?” The best answers to such constant question
will probably be wordless. Yet the ever-renewed query remains decisive. The
secret dialogue between philosophical thoughts and one’s conscience and actions
cannot be artificially provoked, just as the germination of a seed cannot the
forced from the outside. One must create the proper conditions for it to occur
of its own, and give it the time it needs to flourish.
* Theosophy is the perception both practical and
contemplative of the unity of all beings and things. It inevitably cancels the
illusion of being a separate self. Theosophy is therefore one with altruism.
* While there are many different individualities, no
separation exists. Diversity and unity live together. As a result, there can be
no personal acquisition of a knowledge regarding theosophy. All that one’s personal self can do is learn concepts
and get acquainted with the wording, paving the way for the understanding of
one’s soul. Real knowledge does not belong to one’s outer vehicle. For the
lower self, loving truth is to love something located beyond and above itself:
thus true devotion is born.
* Socratic questions are useful in the search for
truth. If we have an interest in the path to divine wisdom, it will be useful
to ask ourselves some questions. For instance:
What is it that inspires us? Does
it invite us to perform better actions? Does it teach us to become wiser and
look at life from a higher point of view?
Do we defend such a source of
inspiration from the inevitable pressures coming from lower forms of
consciousness? Do we feel grateful to
the sources of our learning? Do we share a knowledge of such a source with
others who may deserve contact with it?
* The law of karma operates on every level of reality
and so does the ripening of karma.
* Some levels of action take a long time to return to
their originator, and sometimes this takes place in a future incarnation. In
other situations, fruits are immediate. Examples are many of mistakes whose
karmic consequences occur in the fraction of a second.
* If someone is humbly performing an altruistic duty,
the consciousness of his action and duty enlightens him as an immediate
blessing which makes no noise. Bliss may even avoid his self-conscious
awareness and flow undetected by the physical personality - unless the pilgrim
develops a deeper attention regarding life. And this should come in time.
* Progress along the path to wisdom allows students of
philosophy to learn little by little an important lesson. They become able to
anticipate the karmic development of situations and to know the effects of an
action before it takes place. By practising the science of right living, they
avoid unnecessary pain and enjoy inner bliss.
* In the age of anxiety, speaking at high speed is
considered a sign of cleverness, while slow thinking constitutes a proof of
mental retardation. And this is one of the delusions of the century.
Superficial and meaningless minds feel proud to be quick and believe others to
be less than clever. In fact, intelligence ignores hurry, and is ignored by it.
* Starting a real dialogue with another person
requires a multiple focus on various levels of consciousness at the same time,
while listening to one’s own soul. The calm presence of silence is necessary
for that to take place. The deep mind is slow in changing subject: the soulless
mind is not. The real self is a friend of silence and can learn from a turtle
or from a tree; the outward mask is not, and cannot.
* You may want to be quiet and silent and modest in
order to live universal wisdom. And this is only the first step on the
probationary path. The very fact that you search for wisdom is enough to
challenge, reveal and confront un-wisdom, or ignorance. You will try to avoid
the fight, but the fight will come after you, and this is why the Masters of
the Wisdom often use in their Letters the metaphor of the Warrior to refer to
true theosophists.
* The act of living in wisdom and existing in the
strict territory of universal ethics invites all kinds of tests, which will
check and verify the pilgrim’s resolve. In the process of facing obstacles and learning
uncomfortable lessons, the main refuge of lucidity is an impersonal point of view.
The pilgrim gradually realizes he is no one. He is not a personality or mask.
“He” is but a nameless, timeless soul, present here and now and in other places
and occasions as well.
* It is not enough to preserve physical cleanliness by
brushing one’s teeth, washing hands from time to time and taking a bath each
day. Actually, impurities of mind and emotion are worse than physical
impurities, and the fact is stated in the Mahatma Letters (see Letter IV, pp. 15-16).
* Better than the washing of one’s teeth, is the
purification of one’s feelings and thoughts. A few rites of daily purification
are necessary on the psychic and spiritual level, like contemplating abstract
universal ideas which refer to sacredness; practicing concentration on a
feeling of love for the Highest Truth; or examining the substance of a sincere gratitude
for all beings.
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The above article was published as an
independent text on 15 March 2019. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the name of the author,
is included in “The Aquarian Theosophist”, October 2016 edition, pp. 13-15.
Various short notes written by the same author and published in that edition of
“The Aquarian” were added to form “Thoughts
Along the Road - 27”.
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