consciousness
that the rules which follow them
have any living meaning. Once attain to the
use of the astral senses and it becomes a matter
of course that one commences to use them;
and the later rules are but guidance in their
use. When I speak like this I mean, naturally,
that the first four rules are the ones which are
of importance and interest to those who read
them in print upon a page. When they are
engraved on a man's heart and on his life, unmistakably
then the rules become not merely
interesting, or extraordinary, metaphysical
statements, but actual facts in life which have
to be grasped and experienced.
The four rules stand written in the great
chamber of every actual lodge of a living
Brotherhood. Whether the man is about to
sell his soul to the devil, like Faust; whether
he is to be worsted in the battle, like Hamlet;
or whether he is to pass on within the precincts;
in any case these words are for him.
The man can choose between virtue and vice,
but not until he is a man; a babe or a wild
animal cannot so choose. Thus with the disciple,
he must first become a disciple before
he can even see the paths to choose between.
This effort of creating himself as a disciple,
the re-birth, he must do for himself without
any teacher. Until the four rules are learned
no teacher can be of any use to him; and that
is why "the Masters" are referred to in the
way they are. No real masters, whether adepts
in power, in love, or in blackness, can affect a
man till these four rules are passed.
Tears, as I have said, may be called the
moisture of life. The soul must have laid aside
the emotions of humanity, must have secured
a balance which cannot be shaken by misfortune,
before its eyes can open upon the
super-human world.
The voice of the Masters is always in the
world; but only those hear it whose ears are
no longer receptive of the sounds which affect
the personal life. Laughter no longer lightens
the heart, anger may no longer enrage it, tender
words bring it no balm. For that within,
to which the ears are as an outer gateway, is
an unshaken place of peace in itself which no
person can disturb.
As the eyes are the windows of the soul, so
are the ears its gateways or doors. Through
them comes knowledge of the confusion of the
world. The great ones who have conquered
life, who have become more than disciples,
stand at peace and undisturbed amid the
vibration and kaleidoscopic movement of
humanity.
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