There
Can Be No Firmness in One’s
Steps,
in the Absence of Self-Discipline
Carlos
Cardoso Aveline
A generous self-sacrifice was the natural
thing to do according to George Orwell (1903-1950)
* There is a sharp difference between peace and
stagnation. In community, as in individual life, harmony does not include
indulgence.
* Cooperation is preserved through the combination of self-responsibility,
right action and the shared pursuit of legitimate goals.
* A true understanding of life is beyond words and
cannot be verbally communicated. Being acquainted with an accurate description
of reality is not the same as knowing the facts. Far from it.
* Before finishing the process of observation, the
observer must be one with the facts examined. Happiness is secret, in part, because
there is no way for it to be expressed in words. Purely mental thoughts,
separated from the other levels of consciousness, are obstacles to a correct
view of things.
* There is a time for the pilgrim to perceive little
by little his future duty, and to slowly get ready to it. And then there’s a
time to act accordingly. There is an occasion to prepare to work, and a time to
work indeed. A time to sleep amidst beautiful concepts and ideas, and a time to
wake up and walk along the uphill path.
* He who does not want to listen to his own conscience
has no real interest in wisdom. A constant dialogue with the voice of his soul
is an essential part of the “guiding system” for students of classic philosophy,
Eastern and Western.
* According to your system of values, you build your
own system of ethics. That which one considers right or wrong depends on what
one defines as being of supreme importance.
* True ethics is based on real values, which belong to
the soul, while the love of material possession creates a fake ethics. Every
permanent value relates to the higher self. Eternal wisdom and right action
expand and inspire one another.
* There can be no firmness in one’s steps, in the
absence of self-discipline. Every day one must challenge and defeat laziness,
the search for superficial change, love of comfort, personal hopes and fears.
These and other feelings do not come from the spiritual soul. And even while
strengthening the will and having firm decisions one must also keep the mind
open, and preserve humbleness in the heart, in order to be able to see truth,
little by little.
* Each action we perform in life, each project we
unfold, and each idea we nurture, tend to expand one or two aspects of our
character. Right actions create a correct character, expanding and
strengthening it, while keeping negative tendencies at a distance. Therefore,
the revolutionary question is: “Am I
doing my best right now?”
* True peace results from the right kind of
interaction between mind and heart. An inner silence is necessary for thoughts
to be heard in the emotional world.
An absence of noise makes it possible for the feelings to be understood on the
realm of thought. A detachment from short-term outward situations allows one’s
heart and mind to look at the world from the point of view of the “ladder” to
the sky, antahkarana.
* An abstract will to do something may be enough to
make a decision. Then one must put denser energies into motion so as to create
the desired effects. The distance and contrast between intention and action
should be observed. Within oneself, different levels of consciousness tend to
obey to varied interests. A directness of view is rarely absolute and can be
improved every day.
* Calm concentration results from one-pointedness, which
means leaving secondary issues aside. Slow movements gather magnetism. Anxiety
is the unfortunate mother of modern acceleration. Slow is the growth of a tree
and a forest. Quick is their destruction. Unhurried is the breathing in Yoga;
superficial inhalation denotes nervousness. The right kind of calm can be as
quick as the lightning, while hurry seems to make strong movements, but leads
nowhere.
* The question to be faced by each one is not whether
an ethical improvement - a growth in wisdom - is possible in human community.
For the answer is “yes”, for those who make an honest effort in that direction;
and “no”, for those who don’t. Fear and laziness prefer to think negatively of
human future. One must have real contact with one’s spiritual soul, to see that
the future is bright, and to work for it to take place sooner than later. The
real question before us, then, is whether we are aware of our personal
responsibility for the fate of mankind, and how far we are able to act
accordingly.
* Sweet hypocrisy, well-intentioned falsehood and
pious frauds degrade truth by making it look like rude and unbearable. Thus the
words cease to serve communication and start hiding truth more than they
express it. When this is done, violence and fanaticism can spread in every
department of life, for honest persons will be seen as intolerant, and liars,
as spiritual souls. The power then belongs to whited sepulchres - until that
moment when Karma brings Justice back.
* The various forms of nonsense that one finds in
today’s society are humble expressions of the universal law. For the eternal
Law of Equilibrium states something about decadence that can be expressed in
many ways, and whose main idea remains the same: “Whenever human behaviour gets separated from a sense of honesty and
truth, of moral beauty and ethical goodness, then thoughtless, irresponsible
actions spread in the community, until common sense is once more recovered and
the occult bridge to celestial consciousness is born again.”
* While blind instincts and unguided emotions promote
painful ups and downs in life, energy is necessary to keep one’s focus in that
which is right, to ignore the illusions of short-term pleasure and pain, and to
discharge one’s duty. When pleasure is not a goal in itself, one attains to
common sense. Universal wisdom is similar to pure water in natural conditions:
it is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and has no rigid external form.
* In the 19th century just as in the 21st, many ask to
be accepted in theosophical circles without ever asking themselves how they
would like to help the altruistic project. The phenomenon can be seen in the
“Mahatma Letters”. It is easy to detect today. Many who search for
“initiations” are entirely enthusiastic about themselves, and utterly
indifferent, in their hearts, as to the future of mankind. They are blind.
Someone must tell them there is no theosophy whatsoever in the territory of
selfish and neurotic intentions. Theosophy can only exist in honest minds and
universal hearts.
* Sincerity and good will are widely accepted in
theory. Everyone seems to like them, as long as they do not question one’s
personal opinions, mental routine and emotional comfort. Hypocrisy, on the
other hand, is elegant, superficially beautiful to look at, and above all -
politically correct.
* Although the fruits of hypocrisy are bitter and
bring about disaster, their short-term results are often sweet, especially for
people who are foolish enough to live on appearances, and lazy enough not to
think by themselves. For these and other reasons the way to truth is long,
narrow, uphill, uncertain. It is also the only path available to real life.
* The search for political-correctness forms a living
web of illusions, interconnected by their common support to the absence of
realism. Thus organized ignorance emerges. How can one abandon the blind ways
of life? A degree of indifference to pain and pleasure allows an individual to
listen to his soul and perform right action regardless of applause or boycott.
* One’s spiritual soul is friendly to all beings: at
the same time, it rejects the thousand and one forms of ignorance and
selfishness, regardless of time and place. As each soul awakens, collective
ignorance becomes weaker.
* Due to the law of equilibrium, every step in the
multiplication of selfishness and ignorance across the world is compensated by
an equal amount of growth in wisdom; which, however, may remain “invisible” for
some time.
* Those who seem to see more ignorance than wisdom
today should remember that the universe is governed by Law, and human affairs
are no exception. However, that which is
essential usually remains invisible in the world of passing illusions. It can
be perceived by those who have the necessary degree of discernment.
* The timing of justice is not the timing of error;
yet Justice is powerful and error is not. Justice is symmetry, and it expresses
itself through the law of sowing and harvesting. Life consists of wave motions:
Justice is a dynamic process. The re-establishment of equilibrium takes place
in the right moments of each cycle.
* “The Secret Doctrine”, the masterpiece of Helena
Blavatsky, is described by some as “exceedingly abstract” and “of little
practical use in the 21st century”. In fact, mental superficiality is worse
than useless in our century, and it has been so for ages.
* Active and responsible minds can profoundly benefit
from the study of esoteric philosophy. The study of “The Secret Doctrine” -
alongside with other classic works of philosophy - has a decisive and practical
effect in daily life. It elevates the mind of the student from the narrow
horizons of spiritual ignorance to a direct understanding of the cosmos and of
his own heart. Its beneficial consequences include more than one lifetime. There
is an impersonal universal wisdom flowing around that immortal poem about
Infinite Duration and limitless Space. Its thoughtful reading liberates human minds
from the painful myopia of small personal events and leads them to the wide
nameless field of eternal bliss.
Orwell: Courage and Altruism
* While seeking for abstract truth has supreme
importance, living examples of altruism should be cherished and kept visible.
Practical lessons can be taken from them. The whole life of Eric Blair, or
George Orwell, was an exercise in selflessness and idealism.
* Writing about how George Orwell barely survived the
Second World War, while his wife didn’t, Tom Hopkinson said: “In the last year
of the war, Orwell’s wife died, collapsing after a quite minor operation. To a
friend who visited him, he remarked that this was probably due to lack of
strength: both of them, he said, had consistently gone without their rations,
or part of their rations, ‘so that there should be more for other people’.” [1] That was no isolated fact in
Orwell’s life, or in his century. Even now, millions of people are invisibly
altruistic around the world, a lesson we can learn if we have the eyes to see.
NOTE:
[1] “George Orwell”, a 40-pp. pamphlet by Tom Hopkinson,
published by Longmans, Green & Co. for the National Book League, 1953. See
p. 29.
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“Thoughts Along the Road - 35” was
published as an independent text on 16 July 2019. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the
name of the author, is included in “The Aquarian Theosophist”, June 2017
edition, pp. 13-15. A few short notes written by the same author and anonymously
published in that edition of “The
Aquarian” were added to form the article.
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Read more:
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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