Light on the Path and Through the Gates of Gold — John Shaqi
Light on the Path and Through the Gates of GoldCollins, Mabel
Religion
Light on the Path and Through the Gates of Gold
Collins, Mabel
New Thought; Theosophy
This is, of course, a faculty which indwells
in that soul, which is inherent. The would-be
disciple has to arouse himself to the consciousness
of it by a fierce and resolute and
indomitable effort of will. I use the word
indomitable for a special reason. Only he who
is untameable, who cannot be dominated, who
knows he has to play the lord over men, over
facts, over all things save his own divinity
can arouse this faculty. "With faith all things,
are possible." The skeptical laugh at faith and
pride themselves on its absence from their own
minds. The truth is that faith is a great
engine, an enormous power, which in fact can
accomplish all things. For it is the convenant
or engagement between man's divine part and
his lesser self.
The use of this engine is quite necessary
in order to obtain intuitive knowledge; for
unless a man believes such knowledge exists
within himself how can he claim and use it?
Without it he is more helpless than any
drift-wood or wreckage on the great tides of
the ocean. They are cast hither and thither
indeed; so may a man be by the chances of
fortune. But such adventures are purely
external and of very small account. A slave
may be dragged through the streets in chains,
and yet retain the quiet soul of a philosopher,
as was well seen in the person of Epictetus. A
man may have every worldly prize in his possession,
and stand absolute master of his
personal fate, to all appearance, and yet he
knows no peace, no certainty, because he is
shaken within himself by every tide of thought
that he touches on. And these changing tides
do not merely sweep the man bodily hither
and thither like drift-wood on the water; that
would be nothing. They enter into the gate-ways
of his soul, and wash over that soul and
make it blind and blank and void of all permanent
intelligence so that passing impressions
affect it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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