The Gnosis And Your Way Of Life

[QUOTING]

What should we do to ensure that our pupilship will lead to more practical results, to Liberation, to the reality of Renewal? We should take into serious account the fact that our lives are so interwoven with society and the establishment that we cannot just withdraw from it.

The gnostic will have to take his place in social life. That goes without saying. However, it will be with the proviso that he is able to perform his work with complete integrity and honesty. An example may clarify this point. In modern business life we more often than not encounter all kinds of dishonest practices. You could probably tell some tales about this yourself. It is one of the primary causes of the decline of social life. Commerce start from a desire for possession, not so much the desire to possess what is useful and necessary for one's own life, as well as a desire which is exercised as a kind of sport.

So the Great Wound from which mankind is bleeding to death is the spirit of commerce, which is a spirit of evil. For what happens? The intellect is used to find markets, and when they have been found and businesses set up, then the markets must be kept open, whatever the cost. This even goes on at an international level, even if it would cost millions of lives. If anyone investigates the causes of many wars, or the origins of the First and Second World Wars, his heart will stop with terror. Businessmen* control the state, they control religion and philosophy. In short, they make sure that everything serves their own ends.

*This should more accurately read "International Bankers" ~ g

If you become involved in all that, you will not only be engaging in dishonest practices, but you will be corrupting the entire personality. If you have to think about how you can make a profit, and you are willing to employ unscrupulous practices to achieve this, the direction of your thoughts will have an immediate, detrimental effect on your astral vehicle. Your astral vehicle will be brought into harmony with your corrupt thoughts and desires, and this, in turn, will result in the attunement of your entire blood-state.

So you will understand that, if this kind of behavior is practiced, pupilship may well be possible in a philanthropical sense: you may be able to attend meetings and conferences, read a book and talk about the Gnosis, but what good will it do you? You must win Freedom! You must win the Fullness of Eternity! That is what the School is there for!

That is why you really need to consider your way of life. In situations like the one we have described, your pupilship may not be entirely useless, but it will never bring you Liberation. Anyone who, as a businessman, does not conduct himself in an absolutely honest and upright fashion, in keeping with the norms of the School, harms the Living Body and himself. If you are in business, if you have your own business, then see it in the same light as craftsmen saw their trade in former times. Do not conduct your business to become rich quickly, for then your Soul will suffer, particularly in a School like ours. And if you cannot escape this dilemma, choose another job.

We also feel that one should not accept posts in companies involved in any way in harming the world and mankind. Arms factories, for instance, would not be acceptable, and neither would laboratories involved in nuclear tests and similar things. In our opinion, posts in such places should not be accepted by pupils of the Spiritual School. Even simply writing a letter or holding a telephone conversation can, by its nature and by the kind of thoughts and feelings activated, damage the astral body very seriously indeed.

Be that as it may, every one of us needs to reflect on these things and arrive at a decision. This will be easy if the decision is made on the basis of the Living Soul-state. Your thoughts must be pure, your intellectual consciousness must be completely cleansed. If not, then you will be making your pupilship into an illusion. Parents should take care that the education their children receive serves to protect their receptivity to the merciful help of the Gnosis. It is important to preserve this receptivity from degeneration and harm, before it is too late.

For remember that ordinary life in society can become a deadly danger, particularly for those who strive for the Gnosis. That is why the modern Spiritual School and its pupils need to concern themselves with the problem of social functions, to protect the School and its pupils' lives from being made unnecessarily difficult.

In this connection, it would be good to draw your attention to the question of fear. Many people are living in fear; they are anxious about everything and more. They are afraid to break with what is immoral, afraid of situations which are not good, and fall below the norms they usually set themselves. In the light of the hermetic axiom: 'Receiving all things, Relinquishing all things, Renewing all things', such an attitude of fear is quite out-of-place. If one lives in accordance with one's principles, in harmony with one's Soul-power, in keeping with the requirements of the Liberating Life, there is no need to worry oneself about anything.

Fear is a delusion. If you stand in the Soul, not a hair on your head will be touched without the will of your heavenly Father. That is why the Sermon on the Mount commands: "Do not be anxious. Seek first the Kingdom of God within you and His Righteousness, and all other things will be added unto you". Anxiety, Worry and Fear seriously damage the astral vehicle and make it open to demons, so that one's pupilship becomes an illusion.

Another important point is conservatism, which is perhaps still present in you. You are unable or unwilling to let go of everything that does not serve the Great Aim. Conservatism takes different forms in different people. We only wish to say that detachment, which is so necessary, is not yet absolute in you. Your attachment to things, to matter, to money perhaps, to situations, to people, insofar as it exceeds the norms of the Gnosis, harms the astral body, with all the results of that. The astral body is very fiery and with that fire you can burn yourself and affect others too, with unholiness.

From "Our Way of Life and Present Circumstance" - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis Volume III - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

The thought-life of the candidate stands as a critical aspect in the process of Soul Rebirth. If our daily occupations require us to think in a way that ultimately results in harm to others, then we will not make much progress on the Path. All of us should take stock of what we do for a "living" to ensure that we are not involved in something that will ultimately hold us back on the Path of Return. A man who owns a liquor store may think that he harms no one, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bankers introduce and abstract artificial stress into the world through their usurious practices (i.e., the charging of interest). Untold damage has been done to humanity via the stranglehold that international banking holds upon all aspects of human existence.

Whatever occupation you may find yourself in, try to conduct yourself as the Gnosis dictates:

Do no harm.

~ g
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