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To All Who Would Know Themselves:
Self is interwoven with consciousness, and consciousness is the doorway to reality. In an impure state, consciousness puts out the light; in a pure state, it radiates light.
The admonishment "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"1 is both blessing and reproof - a blessing to those who follow it and a reproof to those who do it not. But the purposes of life are not to reprove; they are to cultivate qualities of reality. The appearance world is a world of illusion. Yet it seems real, and to some even the idiosyncrasies of the human personality take on a form of reality.
Our subject, understanding yourself, is a broad one. We would softly yet skillfully pull the thread of man's consciousness through the eye that opens into the world of crystal clarity. From the standpoint of the human, how sad it is that illusions must be shattered. But we deem it far wiser and less painful to shatter them by the skillful use of spiritual discernment than to have them broken by the impact of the higher law as the law brings to the doorstep of each man a return of the energies he has sent out.
Let us journey through the night of human reason. As we pass through the undergrowth of the wilderness, suddenly a light appears! 'Tis a light set upon a hill.2 An old castle is perceived dimly through the mist, yet the feeble beam by contrast is a glowing filament of hope. Someone is there. Someone lives whose consciousness will smile with joy at our approach. The hope the heart holds to hear the word "friend" is very great. We approach with some degree of caution yet with the awareness that all may be well and that a warm reception can be anticipated.
And so we come first to the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"3 and we hold in our hands the chain of affinities that links many embodiments to the present one. Many times the skeins of recognition have been unraveled in a momentary thread of contact. A touch long forgotten sparks a human relationship as souls contact the bitter and the sweet of passing experience. Place this motif against the light in the castle window and realize how men search the past in their longing for a good reception, for friendship, for decency, and for a sense of belonging.
Ask yourself, Can the eternal Creator create without the hopeful thought of spiritual unity? Should unity be only spiritual or should it also enter into human affairs? Wherever the flame of life blazes, whoever is made conscious of the fact that he exists holds awareness of the unusual as well as the natural qualities of life. Sometimes these qualities change - the natural takes on the aspect of the unusual whereas the unusual may swing to the natural.
We would point out that there is never an excuse, regardless of what men may do unto you, for your returning in kind an act of evil. At the same time we point out that this does not preclude the possibility of the individual, in the divine dignity of his being, avoiding subservience to human nonsense. Therefore, out of dignity and Christ awareness men can spread the balm of forgiveness to everyone they meet without becoming a victim of men's vicious energies.
It is our intention to contribute to all who would follow in the footsteps of the masters the wisdom of God that does not mock man's efforts to emulate his Creator. We convey hope and the thread of contact. We convey a sense of unity with the Brotherhood, but we alert everyone to the great need for the construction of nobility of character in imitation of the Divine.
Let all, then, learn the lesson of loving friend and foe equally. Sometimes friends are more dangerous than foes; for enemies are known to be enemies, but friends are known only as friends yet their thoughts may reek with poison. Often, unknown to themselves, threads of selfishness motivate individuals to seek unwarranted and unrighteous control of other lives.
When advice is sought, it can be offered with impunity. When advice is offered without being sought, frequently it becomes karmic responsibility. When it is spurned, the invisible clash between minds creates karma for both parties. Unnecessary tension between individuals creates a sinking feeling in the belly because all discord sets up an interference to the pattern of light energy which flows through the solar plexus.
The removal of tension from one's consciousness is the first step toward wholesome integration with the Divine Presence. As the years pass, so do embodiments. Human affairs often become entangling, but the best way to disentangle oneself and one's energies from karmic patterns which return for redemption is to maintain a sense of unity with the Creator and with all of his created sons.
The fact that you have had problems with individuals does not mean that they should continue. Experience should teach the soul how to relax and find freedom from oppressive states of consciousness. Like a curtain that cloaks the sun, so a feeling of anger or resentment against anyone is most undesirable. Therefore the apostle said, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."4
There is such a thing as righteous anger, but this involves principle not person. When principles are violated because of the misleading activities of the dark spirits, one's feeling of anger - like unto that of the Master Jesus when he drove the moneychangers out of the temple5 - should be against the spirits that defraud men of the wholeness of their seamless garment of light and not against the innocent victims of the plight.
When men wear the garb of greed or egoism, when they cloak themselves in the raiment of senseless idiosyncrasies, when they shape their lives by whimsy rather than by cosmic law, when they imagine God to be wholly impersonal having no personal interest in themselves, they close the door to joy and reality.
In this series we come to flood the soul, the mind, the consciousness, and the being of man with an awareness that will shatter the chains that have created conditions of unhappiness and strain. We wish to restore the boundaries of the temple of God, to reassert the dominion of the individual over his own life, to help him in his search for reality, and to assure him of our living presence in the universe as his brother and his teacher. As we represent God, so may he.
To one who is learning to understand himself, the world is a stella nova. Each day is a freshening dawn. The weary soul sheds its false sense of frustration and at last opens its eyes to behold reality. From the beginning through the ages of instruction, God has sought the gradual and permanent elevation of all of his children into that wholesome vision of the whole divine man - the Real Self.
[The preceding text is taken from the book version, Understanding Yourself.]