Future
Events Can be Perceived as They
Cast
Their Shadow Over the Present Moment
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
* One’s ability to learn depends on both concentration and open-mindedness.
Horizons are wide in theosophy. The center of the
pilgrim’s consciousness is established in the Universal Truth, and
understanding the universe is a form of self-knowledge.
* Just like in martial arts,
decisive moments in every aspect of life need calm and deserve it. Complete
vigilance takes place in the absence of personal anxiety. The center of a
moving wheel does not need to oscillate upwards or downwards. Only the
periphery does so.
* The center of the wheel of life is present in one’s
heart. As the karmic fever in a materialistic civilization seems to get higher
and the events accelerate, inner peace symmetrically expands and deepens in the
consciousness of those who observe the process from the point of view of immortal
wisdom. Silence is bliss: insights are noiseless.
* Detachment from the whole world of lower selves is
desirable. Freedom from undue personal attachments can be attained if one is
not deceived by mere words and appearance. In experiencing the bliss of
silence, we see truth. In order to use words properly, one must be independent
from them and use them as means to express the truth we see in wordlessly
direct perception. Thought may induce one to see the truth; it can confirm and
improve its vision; yet it cannot replace it.
* Helena Blavatsky and the Eastern Masters of the
wisdom made it clear in various writings that getting acquainted with the
rationale of esoteric philosophy is of scarce value in the absence of the
corresponding feeling of responsibility. The purpose of knowing something of
the long-term History of Life in our globe - and other globes as well - is to
perceive and live up to one’s co-responsibility for its present and future
evolution. The point in studying the Law of Karma and Reincarnation is to be
able to act in wise ways and sow what we would like to harvest.
* Both immediate action and long-term life deserve calm
attention. If we concentrate too much of
our efforts in the present circumstances, we become unable to learn from the
past and cannot foresee and prepare the future. Our action here and now must
take into consideration the eternal time.
* Future events can be perceived as they cast their
shadow over the present moment. However, one must have the eyes to see the
trends of Karma. The voice of our conscience speaks from many different lines
of time. The symmetric energies with which we perceive past and future come
together in the present instant so that we can better perform actions that are
as right as possible. One ought to live in the present in a way that is in
harmony with his view of the future.
* Each time a civilization ceases to be useful to the
inner growth of human souls, it gradually dies and disappears, making it
possible for new cycles of social Karma to take place on the basis of the
lessons learned.
* The end of soul-less collective structures is
sometimes an ugly thing to see. Examples are various in History. And yet it
also brings about a blissful liberation from delusion, and produces a deep
sense of relief in human spirit.
Forgetting Oneself
* Vanity and despondency are two symmetrical obstacles
along the path to wisdom.
* The loss of hope or enthusiasm may find a false
compensation in pride and vanity. The idea that one’s personal efforts are of
decisive importance is often a subconscious way to escape from despondency. Vanity,
of course, leads to hopelessness. The two opposites feed one another. Their
root is selfishness, which derives from the absence of self-knowledge.
* Learning the truth liberates the pilgrim. Knowledge
of oneself is the knowledge of one’s own higher, impersonal, immortal self. As
the student of theosophy develops an effective contact with his spiritual soul,
he “forgets” his lower self, in the sense of leaving aside any exaggerated
attachment to it. By “forgetting” the little and narrow world of the lower
self, one “remembers” of more valuable things, and the lower self starts
working in a decisive way for a higher purpose.
The Implosion and the Renewal
* Many a large structure now fails, falls and
invisibly ceases to exist, while still pretending to keep business as usual in
a “normal” world. This is the right time to build internally new and healthy
structures, while paying no excessive attention to external forms. That which
is new can look like old to naive people. Many do not see we are living a
beginning, much more than an end. Having left illusions aside, the builders are
using the best material available from past experience and from a correct view
of the future. Those who obey to appearance are not quite alive; however, they
can still be awakened as the collective Karma deepens its change.
Gabriel Tarde on Sociology
* French thinker Gabriel Tarde wrote: “Sociology will
be a Psychology, or it will be nothing.”[1]
The statement corresponds to an axiom in theosophy, as it expresses the
fact that soulless and materialistic forms of Sociology are condemned to the
dustbin of History. Psychology is the
science of the soul. Helena Blavatsky taught that there is no separation
between individual Karma and collective Karma or Destiny.
* Individual and social thinking interact all the
time. An ethical awareness of life occurs simultaneously in individuals,
interpersonal relationships, small groups and communities - local, national and
global. A country is doomed to irrelevance if people cannot listen to their
souls. Nations are blessed as long as their citizens act and think under the
light of their own spiritual selves.
NOTE:
[1] Mr. Gabriel Tarde was born on 12 March 1843. This
sentence is quoted in the book “Psicologia Grupal”, by Luiz Carlos Osorio,
ArtMed, São Paulo, Brazil, 2007, see p. 8.
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“Thoughts Along the Road - 37” was
published as an independent text on 24 October 2019. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the
name of the author, is included in “The Aquarian Theosophist”, August 2017
edition, pp. 8-9. 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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