From Yearning For Salvation To Self-Purification

[QUOTING]

The man in the liver-spleen system, in the solar plexus, is the stone-hard, I-central man who clings to matter and consequently expects everything from it. However, the moment will come, sometimes after many lives in the microcosm, that he reaches a dead-end in the nature-of-death and finds that his existence is a circle without end. However, as long as he lives out of the liver-spleen system and, consequently, in self-maintenance and I-centrality, pupilship in a Spiritual School is useless. Only he who is able to draw the consciousness up into the heart will surmount his natural instincts. Only then does one begin to see the world as it really is.

A new desire, a yearning for true, essential liberation, which in the Holy Language is called yearning for salvation, then emanates from the astral self. Only this desire opens the heart of man for the Gnosis, for the light of the Holy Grail, the consequence being that the Rose is touched. Because of the yearning for salvation, the pupil will stand before the gate of an entirely new state of life.

Many millions of people are standing before this gate; throughout the ages people have been yearning for a true, liberating Life. The result is that these millions have also created an aeon, which the gnostic writings call the Thirteenth Aeon. Between this Thirteenth Aeon and yearning man an interaction came into being because of which the fire of desire became ever greater and the realization of the state of confusion increased.

Mere yearning for salvation is not sufficient; the astral self will continue to reside in the astral sphere of the nature-of-death during the nocturnal hours and will return from it the next morning robbed of its light-force in such a way that the disorder is greater than ever before. This is the reason for the ever-recurring penitential songs of the Pistis Sophia.

So we understand that, next to yearning for salvation, self-purification is also necessary. One who truly desires to be sanctified will try to do everything possible and even everything impossible to approach this sanctification. You will realize the logic of this. A vigorous self-activity should always prove that the fire of yearning for salvation is chastening. This self-activity will always emanate from the heart and will influence the entire state-of-life. That is why in the School of the Rosycross the necessary purification of the heart is always discussed.

You know of the dismal, negative cravings of those who keep crying for help and praying for assistance for anything and everything in the house of dialectics. However, man should understand that to reach true salvation he will have to sacrifice himself and his entire state-of-being. Next to yearning for salvation, the self-sanctification needs to develop.

From "The Awakening Of The Soul (II)" - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. 1 - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Yearning alone is not enough. The Path of the True Way requires actions, one of the first being the purifying work that must be done to enable the Divine astral radiations to take root in the microcosm.

Candidates must never be satisfied just to yearn for Liberation or read about it or dream about it. The pupil must put his or her shoulder to the wheel and do the work that is required to enable this to take place. Yes, help is available to us via the Universal Brotherhood, but the candidate must also undertake to help himself or herself. Self-purification is our job. That's why it's called self-purification.

~ g
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