Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
Starts and Stones On The Path
By C.A. Bartzokas
Prerequisites For Aspirants
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
— ELIZABETH BISHOP 1
Take back your resignations, then, you sincere ones, who dazzled by the ideal held up to you in the Master’s letter, and stung by your sense of imperfection, have adopted the wrong expedient of retiring. This is the reverse of bravery. Try to realise that progress is made step by step, and each step is gained by heroic effort. Withdrawal means despair or timidity. “No Arhan, O Lanoo, becomes one in that birth when for the first the Soul begins to long for final liberation.” (Voice of the Silence, p. 39) Read those words and remember them. “And if he falls, e’en then he does not fall in vain; the enemies he slew in the last battle will not return to life in the next birth that will be his.” (ibid.,, p. 40) Conquered passions, like slain tigers, can no longer turn and rend you. Be hopeful, then, not despairing. With each morning’s awakening try to live through the day in harmony with the Higher Self. “Try” is the battle-cry taught by the Teachers to each pupil. Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be asked. There is a moment when even a Buddha ceases to be a sinning mortal and takes his first step towards Buddhahood.
So, then, to answer plain questions put to me in several letters by frightened Esotericists, I say that probably through not one of you may attain in this birth to this full ideal (of Buddhahood), yet each of you may attain in this birth to tread the “Aryashtanga-Marga.” Afraid of Paramitas, are you? A man may be patient, kind and conscientious, without becoming at once a King Harischandra. “The sixteen Paramitas are not for priests and yogis alone,” as said, but stand for models for all to strive after; and neither priest nor yogi, chela nor Mahatma, ever attained all, at once. Again, the idea that sinners and saints are expected to enter the Path is emphatically stated in The Voice of the Silence, p. 40, where it is said that “not one recruit can ever be refused the right to enter on the path that leads toward the field of battle.”
Read the “Voice,” I say. It was written for, and dedicated to you, by Master’s special orders. Therein you will find all your inquiries anticipated and answered.2
In what particular, then, have I failed to do my duty? Simply in this, as I am shown: I have begun to give out Eastern teachings to those who were unacquainted with the Eastern discipline; to Westerners, who, had they been thoroughly versed in the laws of that discipline so unfamiliar to cultured Christian-born people, would have thought twice before joining the E.S. Being taught to rely on their Saviour and scapegoat instead of themselves, they have never stopped to think that their salvation and future incarnation depend entirely on themselves, and that every transgression against the Holy Ghost (their Higher Self) will indeed become unpardoned in their present life––or their next incarnation: for Karma is there to watch their actions, and even thoughts. In short, I have begun to instruct them in spelling before I had taught them the letters of the Occult alphabet. Instead of solemnly warning those who signed their pledge that, by breaking it and becoming guilty of that which they had sworn to avoid, they incurred thereby the most dangerous responsibilities, entailing sooner or later the most terrible consequences, and proving this to them by living examples from their own and other people’s lives, I left them to their own devices. Instead of such warning, I have given out to them the preliminary knowledge that leads to the most hidden secrets of nature and the old Wisdom-Religion––and which but very few can appreciate. I have, finally, neglecting to prepare them by first placing each and all on a twelve-month’s or so probation, given them an opportunity of going quite easily, and in most cases, unconsciously to themselves, astray. It is in consequence of this that there has been such a number of members caring for nothing but new instructions to amuse them, and several backsliders who have already done the greatest harm to the Theosophical Society, let alone the E.S. This is the result and consequence of my neglect to conform with and enforce the rules; and I now confess it, in all humility, to all my friends who will read this.
How true are these words in Master’s letter:
“Experience but too clearly proves that any departure from the time-honoured rules for the government and instructions of the disciple to suit Western custom and prejudices, is a fatal policy.”
“Before the pupil can be taught, he must learn how to conduct himself as regards the world, his teacher, the sacred science, and his INNER SELF,” the letter adds, quoting the Eastern aphorism that:
“The ruffled water-surface reflects naught but broken images”:
the Master meaning that so long as the learners have not mastered their worldpassions and remain ignorant of the Truth, their unprepared minds will perceive everything in the light of their worldly, not of their truly spiritual, esoteric judgment.
“How can they be expected, then” it asks, “to see aught but the broken truths, that such judgment is sure to suggest and distort the more? Violation of ancient usages is sure to result in evil.” 1
