Every superstition is disastrous to the student of occult science. The
possibility of gaining admission, by legitimate means, to the realms of
the spiritual life must depend upon a careful exclusion of all
superstition, phantasy, and dreaming. One who is pleased at having had a
certain experience which cannot be grasped by human reason will not
approach the spiritual world in the right manner. No partiality for the
“inexplicable” will ever make one qualified for discipleship of the
Spirit. Indeed the pupil should utterly discard the notion that a true
mystic is one who is always ready to surmise the presence of what cannot
be explained or explored. The right way is to be prepared to recognize on
all hands hidden forces and hidden beings, yet at the same time to assume
that what is “unexplored” today will be able to be explored when the
requisite ability has been developed.
There is a certain mood of soul which it is important for the pupil to
maintain at every stage of his development. He should not let his urge for
higher knowledge lead him to keep on aiming to get answers to particular
questions. Rather should he continually be asking: How am I to develop the
needed faculties within myself? For when by dint of patient inner work
some faculty develops in him, he will receive the answer to some of his
questions. Genuine pupils of the Spirit will always take pains to
cultivate this attitude of soul. They will thereby be encouraged to work
upon themselves, that they may become ever more and more mature in spirit,
and they will abjure the desire to extort answers to particular questions.
They will _wait_ until such time as the answers come.
Here again, however, there is the possibility of a one-sidedness, which
may prevent the pupil from going forward in the way he should. For at some
moment he may quite rightly feel that _according to the measure of his
powers_ he can answer for himself even questions of the highest order.
Thus at every turn moderation and balance play an essential part in the
life of the soul.
Many more qualities of soul could be cited that may with advantage be
fostered and developed, if the pupil is seriously wanting to work through
a training for Inspiration; and in connection with every one of them we
should find that emphasis is laid on the supreme importance of moderation
and balance. These attributes of soul help the pupil to understand the
exercises that are given for the attainment of Inspiration, and also make
him capable of carrying them out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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