Ancient Advice

[QUOTING]

Saith the pupil:

'O, Teacher, what shall I do to gain Wisdom? O, Wise one, what to gain Perfection?'

Search for the Paths. But, O candidate, be of clean heart before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step, learn to discern the Real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the Ever-Lasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" doctrine.

Yea, ignorance is like unto a closed and airless vessel; the Soul, a bird shut up within. It warbles not, nor can it stir a feather; but the songster mute and torpid sits, and of exhaustion dies

But even ignorance is better than Head-learning with no Soul-Wisdom to illuminate and guide it.

The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it to the Diamond Soul. Seek not those points in the realm of Illusion, but soar beyond illusions, search the Eternal and Changeless Absolute, mistrusting fancy's false suggestions.

For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and they Soul.

Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body -- the shrine of thy sensations -- seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man", and having sought him out, look inward.

Shun praise, O Devotee. Praise leads to self-delusion. Thy body is not self, thy SELF is in itself without a body, and either praise or blame affects it not.

Self-gratulation, O disciple, is like unto a lofty tower, up which a haughty fool has climbed. Thereon he sits in prideful solitude, unperceived by anyone but himself.

False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the winds by the Good Law. Its Wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud.

There is but one road to the Path. At its very end alone "The Voice of the Silence" can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain. These can be silenced only by the voice of Virtue. Woe, then, to thee, O Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left behind. For then the ladder will give way and overthrow thee; its foot rests in the deep mire of thy sins and failings, and ere thou canst attempt to cross this wide abyss of matter thou has to lave thy feet in the Waters of Renunciation.

Beware lest thou should'st set a foot still soiled upon the ladder's lowest rung. Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with miry feet. The foul and viscous mud will dry, become tenacious, then glue his feet unto the spot, and like a bird caught in the wily fowler's lime, he will be stayed from further progress. His vices will take shape and drag him down. His sins will raise their voices like as the jackals laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts become an army, and bear him off, a captive slave.

"The Voice Of The Silence" from The Book of the Golden Precepts - translated by Helena P. Blavatsky

[END QUOTING]

Before setting one's foot on the Path, one must be certain to count the cost, for there is no going back.

~ g
.