New Era Community

1926

Wayfarer, friend, let us travel together. Night is drawing near, wild beasts are all about, and our campfire may go out. But if we agree to share the night watch, we can conserve our strength.

Our path is a long one tomorrow, and we may tire out. Let us walk onward together. We shall celebrate and rejoice. I shall sing you the song of your mother and wife and sister. You will tell me the tale of your father about a hero and podvig—our path will be one.

Be careful not to step on any scorpions, and warn me if you see a viper. Remember, traveler and friend, we must reach a certain mountain village.

Traveler, be my friend.

We are dispelling superstition, ignorance, and fear. We are forging courage, will, and knowledge.

Every aspiration to enlightenment is welcome. Every prejudice born of ignorance is exposed.

Worker, do the foundations of cooperation and community blaze forth in your consciousness?

If this flame has already illumined your brain, then assimilate the features of the Teaching from Our mountains.

Worker, do not tire yourself puzzling over certain expressions. Each line embodies the highest degree of simplicity.

Greetings to workers and seekers!

1. Family, clan, country, union of nations—each collectivity aspires to peace and the betterment of life. Each unit of cooperation and communal life is in need of improvement and perfectment. No one can demonstrate that evolution has limits. This means that a worker becomes a creator. Let us not be intimidated by the tasks of creativity. Let us find unimpeded paths for science. As we do this, thought about perfectment will be a sign of joy.

2. Depression is the enemy of every improvement. There can be no construction where there is doubt. There will be no learning if there is fear. To observe means to take a step toward justice. To be selfish means to betray selflessness. Without podvig there is no path.

3. Monasteries were often referred to as communities. The communal life has long been a sign of cooperation and mutual respect. Indeed, every workshop can be an embryo of a community in which each contributes his or her skill. Camaraderie is needed if each is to offer skills to the common work.

4. In all creeds unity is said to be the sole bulwark of success. The greatest achievements are within reach if there is confidence in the unity of the coworkers. It is possible to cite numerous cases where trust between coworkers helped in reaching an excellent solution. From the fireside to the reality predestined in space, let people everywhere bear in mind the value of cooperation. The seed of labor dries up without the moisture of reciprocity. Let us not glance backward too often. Hurrying onward together, we will grow exhausted if we keep jostling each other. We will grasp something of wondrous significance if we give voice to the great concept—friend. It is possible to have a community made up of friends.

5. The path of life is one of mutual help. Those who take part in the great work cannot be “humanity-haters.” This term denoting a shameful hatred is a long one, and perhaps for that very reason people will recall it and feel ashamed.

6. Also let us not forget that understanding is simplified by clarity of consciousness. But even if our consciousness is not perfectly clear, let us not veer from the shortest Path. Time is precious! We should not lapse into sluggishness and hamper the progress of others. Laziness and ignorance slumber in the same cradle.

7. Animosity lets in plagues and leprosy. Animosity turns a peaceful fireside into a snake pit. None of the characteristics of animosity suit the community. The common task is advancement of the Common Good.

8. Cooperation must be based on robust rules. This accustoms the coworkers to order; that is, it helps them get into a rhythm. In this way the great laws of the Universe find expression even in everyday work. It is especially necessary to get used to constant work from childhood. Let the best evolution be built upon labor, adopting it as a measure of value.

9. Yet another essential condition must be met. Work must be voluntary. Cooperation must be voluntary. The community must be voluntary. No coercion should be used to compel servitude. The condition of voluntary consent must lie at the very foundation of prosperity and success. No one may bring disintegration into the new house. In their flight, workers, builders, and creators will emulate eagles. Only in broad flight do the dust and dirt of decay fall away.

10. Through love of a favorite craft, an elevated quality will begin to pervade pure work. A beautiful quality will establish itself in the entirety of life. Nothing will remain in darkness. Ignorance will come to be considered a shameful crime. Darkness may be infectious, but Light is attractive. Therefore, let us proclaim love of a favorite craft, which uplifts all of life.

Science, point to the best quality. Science, attract the most powerful energies. Let the knowledge of the spirit shine above every workbench.

11. Many malicious falsehoods have accumulated around the concept of work. Not so long ago work was despised and considered harmful for one’s health. What an indignity that work has been regarded as harmful! It is not work that is harmful but backward working conditions. Work, sacred work, can be made healthful only through conscious cooperation. Not only must the quality of work be uplifted, but coworkers must also strengthen their mutual desire to make the conditions of work clearly understood. Instead of referring to work as a curse, one should draw attention to superior workers.

12. Respect for craftsmanship should be fostered, so that people see it as a mark of distinction. Ancient working communities, guilds, and workshops left evidence of their vitality. One can see how people honed their skills with perfection in mind. They knew how to look after each other and maintain the dignity of their community. So long as people do not learn to defend the dignity of their coworkers, they will not understand the happiness of contributing to the Common Good.

13. It is on the foundation of labor that the concept of justice proves its worth. Likewise, courage grows easily when people take responsibility for each other. Indeed, all as one, but with each offering their particular skills. Let us not crush spirits but welcome people warmly.

14. Our feeling is one of an absence of specialization, because We live for the entire complex of life. Each specialist who approaches Us inevitably loses his monochromatic spectacles. Therefore, try right away to make each specialization just one more course in your meal. Like birds soaring over the earth or bees buzzing above all kinds of flowers, we can imbibe the entirety of existence.

Without a specialization it is easier to prepare oneself for the next evolutionary task: intercourse with the distant worlds and transformation of the lower astral world, the sphere of dark, earthly remnants. Embracing the concept of community means entering the gates to the next attainments, and their timeframes depend on the seekers themselves. Therefore, We welcome all the quests of the community.

15. From a dense jungle I can create a grove, but a stone polished by worshipping foreheads will never yield a seed.

16. Among the mechanical attainments of contemporary civilization, the means of transportation merit special attention. This devouring of space already constitutes a sort of victory over the supermundane spheres. At the same time, a circle of low materialism confines these conquests within the limits of gross matter and brings more harm than good.

The chief danger in this accelerated movement lies in the heightened feeling of irresponsibility. Man grows light as he passes beyond the limits of the ordinary, but due to the crudeness of his feelings he loses his sense of responsibility. Someone who can fly at a speed of 400 miles an hour or soar higher than anyone else takes on the psychology of a boxing champion, and the sense of spiritual responsibility forsakes him.

It is possible to ennoble this conquest by removing its sportive element and redirecting it toward work. Hurry to rescue the unfortunates, fly for the unification of humanity! Then these conquests will enter the stream of evolution, for people must bring these supermundane strivings into everyday life without forgetting about responsibility. For now, these conquests remain at the level of grotesque centaurs. Once people come to understand where they must fly and why, a tenfold increase in the variety of aerial vehicles will be possible.

We can suggest a great many useful experiments to be conducted in the various strata of space: atomic energy, the condensation of prana, colored rays in space, harvests in connection with repeated explosions, and many others that are destined for humanity.

17. Many times you have heard about following Our instructions, and you were able to see for yourself that exact fulfillment of such instructions was practical and beneficial. This is the first step. After this begins action on your own initiative. Having knowledge of the foundation of Our Teaching, you need to become disciples who act in full co-measurement and immutability. When the Master says, “Now you yourselves demonstrate what the results of My instructions are,” it does not mean to revert to old habits, quarrel, sulk, and hurt each other. You can leave all that to the mule drivers. It is for you to remember about Our Community and emulate it by working harmoniously. When the time comes to change the course of the ship, the instructions will arrive; but do not expect to be told how to patch your boot. Otherwise, we will soon be sending each other birthday cards.

You need to grasp once and for all the importance and dignity of the work at hand, and relegate childish habits to the archives.

You can find a hundred worthy solutions without deviating from principles. I wish to see you on the next step.

18. Some dream of kneeling at the feet of the Masters, yet do not dare to go with Them into battle. But precisely now is a time of battle, and We can summon only to battle. Constantly exploring the truths that lead to righteousness, We affirm on Our personal responsibility that this battle is a legitimate one.

19. Learn how to stay fresh throughout the duration of the Battle. The Battle of Light is just beginning: Millions are in it and ignorant of the final result. But you know, and this knowledge should make you wise and elicit an appropriate decision. Your spirit must fledge and take wing in the name of Truth. How high might you ascend through podvig devoted to the evolution of the World! My Ray asks that nothing obstruct its light. Instead of wings of podvig, it is easy to grow black horns—wings of false reasoning. The lower spirits have black emanations that resemble horns.

20. One must strive to the utmost, to the absolute. The utmost, absolute attraction will be that which draws one to the distant worlds. Earthly beauty is lost in the splendor of the supernal rays. Hard pressed to remember yesterday and ignorant of tomorrow, earthly science is insignificant in a world where new luminaries are coming into existence.

How can one approach the Absolute here mentioned? Neither through technical means, nor earthly science, nor the fine arts. It can only be approached through the expansion of consciousness, when the earthly being is absorbed by the emanations of the distant spheres. That is why those who approach Us—or, rather, approach the boundaries of Earth’s orbit—shed their specialization. Only in awareness of the all-inclusive can you endure the splendor of the luminaries. But in order to encompass this brilliance, you need to kindle your inner fires.

The element of fire is the most striking, the most transcendent; and if you wish to classify Our Community according to the elements, refer to the great Fire, which gives all, purifies all, and requires nothing.

21. We are not fans of the astral world, the world of bodily remnants, but like everything else, it cannot be passed by on the path of spiritual development. The world of bodily remnants contains certain elements necessary for interaction between the worlds. For example, modes of locomotion exist there, but these are little understood by the inhabitants of the Subtle World. Although they have the opportunity to strive upward, they are preoccupied with building dark dwellings, copies of the earthly ones. But if they had broadened their consciousness during their lifetime on earth, they would now be able to measure the hem of the garment of the Mother of the World.

Those who are able to perceive with the spiritual consciousness can bring to life the best possibilities. But to maintain this consciousness in the postmortem state, it is necessary to have sensed it during one’s time on earth. Then the present condition of the world of bodily remnants would almost be wiped away. Not the prayer “rest in peace” is needed, but “learn in the space of Light.” With all your awareness keep in mind the tasks of evolution. When the longing to rest disappears, the Gates are drawing near.

22. You can only reach Us in harmony. We have no need of being worshipped; rather, what We need is a certain quality of spirit, something like a harmonious lamp, one whose voltage matches Ours. A flickering lamp is unbearable for doing prolonged work. In everything the same laws apply, and under the law of justice the flickering lamp winds up hurting itself. I advise My lamps not to flicker. The generator is not damaged by the quality of the lamps, but when the voltage of a lamp does not match up, it often ends with a pitiable “pop!” Then the basic metal must be supplied once more. The same laws apply in everything.

23. There is no soulless justice, only radiant goalfitness. Precisely glorious goalfitness can never tyrannize, but instead opens the beautiful gates. And the call of goalfitness fills space with a feeling of victory. The events and creations that follow the principle of goalfitness are not obsolete fragments but precious parts of the Cosmos.

Only awareness of Cosmic individuality can illumine the stages of evolution. Without that, in the worldly understanding, evolution will continue to be nothing more than a profitable investment of capital. However, you already know that without goalfitness capital is only a millstone around one’s neck. Just as an outbreak of infection leads to ulceration, both spiritual and physical, emergence of the madness of greed works harm on both the spirit and the body.

Since on Earth we are also concerned about the body, we need to delve into the origin of diseases. A doctor could say to a patient, “You are having an attack of greed,” or speak of the anemia of conceit, or the stones of disloyalty, or a colic of calumny, or a stroke of hatred.

At cemeteries we love to recall the virtues of the departed person, but it would not hurt to set forth the true causes of the illness—the spectacle would be instructive.

Friends, I repeat: Keep your thoughts pure. This is the best disinfectant, the finest tonic remedy.

24. What is a prophecy? It is a prediction about a certain combination of particles of matter. So while prophecies may be fulfilled, their fulfillment can also be undermined by unsuitable handling, just as might happen with a chemical reaction. This is what people find so hard to understand, though they do grasp the reading on a barometer.

Prophecies can be divided into ones with a definite timeframe and those without definite dates. When we are dealing with a dated prophecy, it means that we have to understand all the intermediate conditions for its fulfillment. A big deadline is made up of smaller deadlines, so it is correct to keep each small deadline.

One should remember that the dark forces are working on the small deadlines in an effort to complicate the big one.

25. Can prophecies remain unfulfilled? Of course they can. We have a whole storehouse full of “lost” prophecies. A true prophecy anticipates the best combination of possibilities, but people may let them slip by.

The topic of the fulfillment of prophecies is a very deep one, for it couples cooperation with the higher knowledge of the spirit. The unwise say, “What a kitchen!” but a kitchen is easily transformed into a laboratory.

Since time immemorial prophecies have come forth from Our Community as benevolent signs for humanity. The paths of prophecies are diverse: Either they are suggested to particular people, impressed on the feelings of the masses, conveyed through manuscripts, or transmitted on inscriptions carved by unknown hands. Prophecies alert humanity better than anything else. True, the symbols are often obscured, but the inner meaning creates a vibration. Naturally, fulfillment of prophecy demands vigilance and striving.

26. If matter is everywhere, then even light leaves behind its protoplasm. One cannot regard all the manifestations of light as accidental occurrences. Some eyes catch the network of light. Because of the sublimity of the energy of light, all of these formations are quite beautiful. Disharmony is far more frequent when it comes to sound. The protoplasm of light is not something abstract; its deposits adorn the plant kingdom. The rhythm of waves and sands, and the crust of the planet are brought into balance to a significant degree by the nodes of the network of light. Learn to love the formations of light. It is not the images impressed on the canvas that have significance so much as the vibrations of light that viewers observe.

The quality of the viewer’s sight is utterly unappreciated. It is like a ray of light acting on photographic film. One should keep in mind that it is by the spiritual glance that we determine how elemental spirits appear. In exactly the same way, the physical gaze arrests the network of light, holding it in space. The importance of this cooperation ought to be recognized. Every movement human beings make is bound up with the essential nature of the elements.

I also want to mention how important it was for the Pythagoreans to have music performed at sunrise. Light is the best filter for purifying sound. Only human savagery could lock away sound in the dust of darkness.

27. Pure thought imbued with beauty points the way to truth. Teachings that require renunciation and obedience to prohibitions are given in condescension to people of limited consciousness. But in the case of someone with an expanded consciousness, there are no stop signs but rather steady progress without prohibitions. Beautified lives allow people to depart in freedom and abundance, in order to return as victors. A seeker who proceeds with awareness of beauty cannot be confused. Only confusion can obstruct the path.

It is not quite right to say, “Beauty will save the world”; it is more precise to say, “Awareness of beauty will save the world.”

You can pass through the obstacles of ugliness on the way to the lighthouse of beauty, scattering seeds without number. When one is able to create a garden of beauty, there is nothing to fear. When the garden of the spirit admits the newcomers, there is no fatigue.

28. The necrosis that the Earth is suffering has reached the utmost limits. We believe that extreme measures are needed to reawaken the spirit. The Teaching is not attained by smiling. For long ages the appearance of deserts has marked the onset of savagery. Signs were given long ago, along with time for people to come to their senses. Decrees were made manifest, but no one paid attention.

29. The Teaching of the New World will protect people from all kinds of distress. Indeed, only the shield of the Community can make sense of the sojourn on Earth. How incredibly beautiful it is to think about cooperation with the distant worlds! This cooperation, begun consciously, will draw new worlds into its orbit of interaction. And this heavenly cooperative will expand its possibilities without end.

While the community is a precondition for all these possibilities, it is through the channel of the spirit that they will be realized. It has been said that sound will be the first thing to get through. Even if these auditory fragments are rudimentary like the jagged edges of the early eoliths, even if whole years pass before any idea of their complex meaning is attained, one fact remains indisputable: This conquest will begin in neither the observatory nor the shop. The ear of the spirit will bring the first tidings, not so somebody can pen a master’s dissertation but so that people can lead lives that forge evolution. The Teaching can say to the sensitive: On awakening, recall the distant worlds; on going to sleep, recall the distant worlds.

When you hear some fragments of sound, do not reject them, for each such fragment may enhance the possibilities of humankind. Unknown words may penetrate little by little; there is no reason to be surprised by this if you recall that in other eras the consciousness expanded in the same way when the time was ripe.

You understand that without community the Earth cannot live on. You understand that without the expansion of the heavenly paths, existence becomes trivial. The New World is in need of new boundaries. The seekers must have a path. Could a path stretching across the entire horizon be seen as narrow? Fortunately, the seekers need not put their ears to the earth, but can turn their gaze upward to the spiritual heights. It is easier for the ray to seek out uplifted heads. And each movement of the world has community as its precondition.

30. Expansion of consciousness is cause for congratulation. No laboratory is able to give one this sense that possibilities continue without limit. Only personally, consciously, and freely can one encompass continuous steps out of space. The Teaching can open the door, but seekers have to enter on their own. It is not reward or justice, but rather indisputable law that lifts the incarnate spirit in an ascending spiral once it has realized the need for movement. There is no way for the Teacher to spur on this realization, because any suggestion would infringe on the personal nature of the student’s attainment.

It is one thing to discuss the distant worlds in abstract terms, and quite another to realize that you yourself are participating in them. Only a seeker who has not barred his own way to the path of beauty can understand how near he is to the manifestation of the distant worlds.

The ear can catch fragments of the Great Breath, but it is knowledge of the spirit that gives man a place in Infinity.

It is useful to turn back to the distant epochs when this awareness awakened. We see that it was not in the days when science was flourishing but rather in times when religion was being proclaimed that cosmic consciousness stirred, for it is not hypotheses but only knowledge of the spirit that leads to the starry paths. So sorry, but there are no astronomical calculations that can speed up the moment of interaction, for the same reason that an ant does not shoot with a colossal cannon. Indeed, it is essential that an achievement like this be manifested by means of the spirit. Here we are speaking in material terms, as it were, but without the spirit it is impossible to make use of this energy. It is the spirit that gives a certain quality to matter. The Earth’s condition requires an extraordinary doctor. The planet is ill, and if efforts to advance it do not succeed, it may be better to remove it from the chain temporarily—it could become like the moon. The hotbeds in the lower strata of the Subtle World have become intolerably dangerous. And it is impossible to overlook how humanity has fallen under the influence of the lower strata of the Subtle World.

The community will help everyone, but expansion of consciousness will help the community.

31. The Master appreciates the desire to wash the dust off the great Images. The Master appreciates the desire to establish simple ways of expressing great words. The Master appreciates the desire to curtail verbosity. To emphasize the essential, you have to approach from what is firmly established.

You can be sure of one thing: Not a single monument, not a single great work has come down to us without being mutilated. As if working with clay, one can take imprints of a community of rational cooperation and aspiration to go beyond the limits of the visible. The Teaching can be expressed by the motto, “Let anyone who disagrees prove the contrary.” It is better to measure backwards than be buried under layers of indelible dust. Precisely, it is knowledge of the guiding principle that will shed light on the mutilated symbols.

You know how people talk about you during your lifetime. What will they be saying centuries from now? But the principle inevitably grows, and the thrusts of its growth make the very earth tremble.

The peoples of the past have left a patina on the freedom of the spirit. Ask yourself, “Who were the persecuted?” and follow that lead. You will find that the early Christians and Buddhists were persecuted, but when the churches and temples turned away from Christ and the Buddha, the persecution ended.

I am telling you to keep the Teaching simple. Complicated expressions are unnecessary, because life is beautiful in its simplicity. Just as one often has to dig around a plant, one inevitably has to make repetitions.

32. It is not the evolution of earthly humanity that is important, but the evolution of the humanity of the Universe. If human hearts were able to accommodate this simple formula, the entire starry vault would become tangible. Indeed, it would be easier for the beings of other worlds to penetrate the Earth’s stifling atmosphere if the appeals of earthly incarnates were speeding toward them.

What, then, are the nearest worlds to which we can direct our consciousness? Jupiter and Venus.

Think deeply about the word for “human” in Russian, chelovek. It denotes a thinking spirit, or chelo, passing through the ages. All the changes of incarnations and the entire value of the consciousness are expressed in a single word. Can you name another language in which the incarnate dweller is so spiritually designated? Other languages do not express the idea of action well. The Master can tell you the words for “human” in a hundred languages, but they are either presumptuous or inexpressive.

33. Of what use are miracles, which are contrary to nature? What is truly a miracle is when you can sit astride your horse and, with the sword manifested, defend the Community of the World. That is how simply the New World begins. Facts will be gathered like ripe fruit. Naturally, the Teaching of magnets deals with not miracles but the law of attraction. Do not conceal the manifestation of the spirit, and the sword will serve the ascent of evolution.

I can give joy only to those who have adopted the community not in incantations, not in the burning of incense, but in their daily life. The Master can send a ray to help, but He will not engage in battle if the sword manifested is being turned against friends of the community. In that case, the sword will coil into a lash of lightning.

34. How can one move hearts? By not losing simplicity. Success comes not with magic but with the word of life. We can get our lesson done by knowing how to approach the very simplest. I am considering how to give the workers the radiance of the distant worlds. When those most heavily burdened raise their eyes to the heavens, we can expect to behold a ribbon of rainbow from the distant worlds.

35. Paracelsus loved to say, “Per aspera, ad astra.” Later this remarkable maxim became a motto on shields and coats of arms, thereby losing all meaning. Truly, once you have understood what it means, it is difficult to tether yourself to the Earth alone. Like smoke rushing up a chimney, the spirit with knowledge speeds into manifest space. What sort of dimensions can the earthly garments offer it? What sort of mobility can it exercise on the face of the Earth? In the earthly sphere, what thoughts is it able to share?

People ask why We waste so much energy on the Earth. It is not for the sake of the Earth but for the purpose of repairing the path. When someone rips up the rails with malicious intent, often the engineer takes a great deal of time to repair them. Were We immediately able to transfer from the Earth those possessing awareness of the Cosmos, would there be anything preventing Us from acting on Our desire to do so? In fact, We are striving to accelerate this process. I feel it is quite possible that cosmic conditions may soon allow commencement of such activities involving interaction with the distant worlds. This process calls for all the thoughts about beauty and all the impetuosity that you can muster. And remember, above beauty, so called, is an all-encompassing concept—the betterment of the Cosmos. The rainbow ray may surpass the imagination. Silver is what gives birth to the rainbow. Viewed under earthly conditions, the rainbow resembles makeup seen up close. Few can sense beforehand the beauty of the supermundane rainbow.

36. I sense that the accumulation of events is bringing on waves of acceleration. These waves will contribute to cosmic evolution.

I am noting down possibilities and have come to the conclusion that right now anything is possible. It is a rare thing for supreme faith to be walking the path with supreme unbelief; for blasphemy and glorification to find themselves in the same chorus; for fury and serenity to give birth to joy. When a setback is a sign of success, when remoteness is a sign of proximity, then the streams of emanations emerging from the luminaries fuse with the inner fires. Such a time signifies a new cycle, and the community itself, yet to be fully embraced, serves as a bridge.

Let us end on a lighter note. Could we speak about stock speculations on Jupiter or brothels on Venus? Such notions are simply obscene. Even a chimneysweep going on a visit takes care to wash his face. Are people unwilling to do even that much? It is time for the Earth to get ready for a new journey.

37. An aptitude for distant transmissions is exceedingly rare. As is always the case, it is necessary to discern the quality of the results. The transmissions may be restless and end up brushed away like so many flies; or they may be heavy like a coffin lid and inspire horror; or they may whiz by like arrows, stirring up agitation without understanding. It is rare for transmissions to be clear; it is rare for them to elicit the cooperation of the corresponding centers. This can be partly attributed to the auras, but the main cause is the quality of the transmission. This quality is called the utility of the will, which means understanding the voltage of your correspondent’s effort. An electric lamp will only light up if the voltage corresponds. Not only the content but also the quality of the transmission is important. The knowledge of the spirit makes the transmission useful. And the transmission’s usefulness will result in joy of reception, for everything in the right proportion brings joy.

38. The manifestation of a pure Teaching must be connected with trust. Therefore, it will be necessary to develop trust that even the plainest evidence cannot shake. My Ray knows where danger lurks.

39. Create an atmosphere of readiness for action. Once an attack is launched, many old obstructions fall away without warning. Many battles are behind us, and still more lie ahead. Every atom in the Cosmos is battling. The stillness of death is unknown to Us.

40. The New Teaching honors the Bearers of past Teachings, but moves forward without the baggage of times gone by; otherwise, the wagonload of textbooks would take on unwieldy dimensions. The most practical thing would be to destroy all the commentaries written more than three centuries after the departure of the Master. Some time or other we have to clean out the bookshelves. From this cleaning, the Images of the Masters of Light will only gain in greatness.

41. We will banish all fear. We will throw to the wind the feathers of fear in all their colors: blue feathers of frozen terror, green feathers of quivering inconstancy, yellow feathers of stealthy retreat, red feathers of panicky palpitation, white feathers of reticence, and the black wings of downfall into the abyss. One has to repeat about the multiformity of fear; otherwise, there will remain somewhere a gray plumelet of bootlicking babble or perhaps the fluff of haste and hustle, with the same idol of fear lurking in the background. Every wing of fear carries one downward.

The Blessed “Lion,” arrayed in fearlessness, ordained that we teach what it is to be courageous.

Swimmers, if you do your very best, where can the most destructive wave carry you? It can only lift you up. And you, sower, when you broadcast the seed, you will anticipate the harvest. And you, shepherd, when you count your sheep again, you will kindle a clear light.

42. The Cosmos is created by pulsation—that is, by explosions. The rhythm of the explosions endows the creation with harmony. It is the knowledge of the spirit that transmits the thread of the Cosmos into manifest life. The stage of emergence must be cut forth with a shining sword. One has to know when to safeguard the flowers of light so that they do not dissolve into the mist of the elements once more.

The gardener knows when it is time to gather the flowers, for he is the one who planted the seeds now unseen. Not the person who purchased the seeds in the marketplace, nor the one who in idleness ordered the seeds sown, but the gardener of the spirit who, braving foul weather early in the year, buried the seeds beneath the spring soil.

Yes, yes, he, the gardener of the spirit, will know when the seedlings are to shoot forth; he will distinguish the young stalks from the weeds, for he has done the work most hidden, and to him belongs the finest blossom.

Truly, it is a great thing to flash the sword at the moment one senses it necessary and to raise one’s hand at the time of explosion.

Truly, here again the currents of the Cosmos are descending upon the ready Earth, which is why the knowledge of the spirit is so precious. This heavenly rainbow is reflected in the drops of earthly dew. Does not the knowledge of the spirit split the light? For the savage spirit Materia Lucida is a curling chaos, while for the knowledgeable spirit it is a harp of light. The waves of luminous matter are like harp strings, each with a distinct resonance; as the waves rush forward the spirit creates from them fathomless symphonies. Between the worlds stretches Materia Lucida like threads. Only over incalculable distances are the waves of thread joined into the vibration of the heavenly rainbow.

You can begin to strive to the distant worlds by following a thread of Light perceived by the spirit; this actually is a very scientific experiment. As was said, small actions require assistance and instruments, while nothing external is necessary for a great action.

43. I feel that the Teaching can become a heavy hammer for the timid. Until recently the very mention of “community” would have filled the heart with dread, but now several barriers have been broken through. Rejection of the threadbare notion of property ownership is followed by another difficult challenge for humanity. When assimilating the significance of the spirit, it is especially difficult to give up miracles. Even Arhats chosen by the Buddha found it hard to part with this possibility.

Three Arhats begged the Buddha to permit them to experience the use of miraculous powers. The Buddha put each of them in a dark room and locked the door. After a long while, the Blessed One called out to them and asked what they had seen. Each of them reported seeing a different vision. But the Buddha said, “Now you must admit that miracles are not useful, because you did not sense the main miracle. You could have perceived an existence beyond the visible, and this perception could have pointed you beyond the confines of the Earth. But you continued to be aware of yourselves sitting on the ground, and your thoughts attracted waves of the elements to the Earth. The swelling of the elemental forms has caused turmoil in several countries. You have shattered rocks and destroyed ships with a storm. You saw a red beast with a flaming crown, but the fire you drew forth from the abyss has burned the houses of defenseless people. Go help them! While watching a lizard with the face of a maiden, you caused waves to rise that washed away fishing boats. Hurry and get help! While you were watching an eagle in flight, a whirlwind scattered the workers’ harvest. Go and make amends! Of what use are you, Arhats? An owl in the hollow of a tree makes better use of its time. Either work by the sweat of your brow on Earth or, in a moment of solitude, lift yourself above it. Let the wise not be occupied with the useless disturbance of the elements.”

Truly, a feather falling from the wing of a little bird produces thunder in the distant worlds.

Breathing in, we commune with all the worlds. The wise one starts from the Earth upward, for the worlds will reveal their wisdom to each other.

Repeat this parable to those who insist on miracles.

44. The essence of striving to the distant worlds lies in assimilating awareness of our life on them. The possibility of living on them acts, as it were, like a connecting canal for our awareness. Precisely, this awareness must be dug out, just as one would excavate a canal. People are able to swim, but a significant number of them do not do so. The evidence that exists concerning the distant worlds does not attract humanity at all. It is time to sow the seed of this idea in the human brain.

Those without family or fortune can most easily accept this thought. Earthly ties are not as lasting for them. The well-off have the most trouble accepting. The blind are able to grasp this notion quite easily, while the cross-eyed have the most difficulty due to a deceptive crossing of the currents that always distorts the range of striving. Try rifling a gun with different spirals, and you get a poor result. Of course, this only applies to a certain degree of being cross-eyed, one in which the nerve centers are affected.

45. Let Me point out that it is important to send good arrows at the right time, and tell you why the spirit then feels at ease. Fragments of other people’s thoughts swirl about in a gray swarm, gradually obstructing space and infecting the air. Then the arrow of the spirit strikes like lightning. Not only does it reach the person designated, it also purifies the space. This purification of space is no less important. Being a more powerful magnet, a purer arrow attracts the gray fragments and bears them back to the sender. In this manner the gray thoughts and their burden are returned to their source without anybody else being harmed. These gray thoughts settle on the aura like smog, and it is their sower who reaps the consequences. It is wise to send forth the words, “Don’t touch!” This formula is the one least likely to involve a counterblow. Actually, this is an ancient protective formula. It is practical to send forth either a positive invocation or a protective formula. Every malevolent sending is impractical. True, use of the sword of spiritual indignation is permitted, but only in rare cases, for indignation of the spirit wears away the sheath.

46. I have never said that bringing the new consciousness into life would be easy. Not the destroyers but moldy, conventional virtue is the enemy. Destroyers know the transitory nature of what they destroy, and the principle of parting with things is easier for them to understand. But rosy-cheeked virtue loves its chest of savings and will always defend it with eloquence. The righteous ones quote holy writ and find subtle arguments as to why they are willing to give not to this person but to somebody else who happens not to exist.

Conventional virtue manifests consummate cupidity and loves to lie. Such fine-looking, rosy-cheeked teachers of virtue, with such buttery, affable smiles! Achievement, human achievement, is unknown to these teachers of virtue, and their resplendent robes are starched with slavery!

47. Schools must teach respect for the spoken word. True, parrots can senselessly broadcast concepts into space, often ones of great significance. But people need to understand that every word is like a thunder-bearing arrow, that a word is like the pedal of a thought.

The loss of the true meaning of concepts has contributed greatly to contemporary savagery. People strew pearls about like sand. Truly, it is time to redo many definitions.

48. Precisely, without fear and as much as possible doing things oneself. It is right to take personal responsibility. Neither miracles, nor quotations, nor manifestos, but affirmation sealed with personal example. Even a daring error is easier to rectify than misshapen muttering.

Precious is an action which has no need of apparatuses or assistants. A person who discovers a precious formula cannot shout it from the window, for its harm would cancel out its greatest benefits.

Like a sealed vessel, an unspoiled mountain, a bow tensed with an arrow—that is how you should be! As a draught from the vessel is fiery, as the mountain is inexhaustible, and as the arrow is deadly—that is how you should act! For who would dare to deny that difficulty is the speediest attainment? Rivers of milk turn sour, and shores of jelly make for uncomfortable seating. So let us make haste in the armor of personal responsibility.

Note that good fortune appears only where complete courage has been shown. Small doubts give birth to a slavish timidity.

Precisely in the days when the planet is seriously ill, one needs to be filled with courage. Groping one’s way forward will not work, but the sword can cut through the harmful veils. Things are very serious right now, and we need to muster up all our courage.

49. The more someone gives back, the more they receive. But the nations have forgotten how to give; even the smallest of them is thinking about how to get more. Meanwhile, the planet is ill, and everything is sinking into this illness. Someone wants to avoid the final battle by infecting the entire planet. Someone is hoping to sail away on the wreckage, forgetting that the ocean will depart with the planet. It is easy to conceive that the planetary body can become sick like any other organism, and that the spirit of the planet is affected by the condition of its body. What should we call the illness of the planet? The best name is “fever from poisoning.” Suffocating gases released by masses of clutter in the lower strata of the Subtle World are cutting the planet off from the worlds that otherwise could send it assistance. The Earth’s destiny might be to end in a gigantic explosion if the thick fabric of this shroud is not broken through. An enormous acceleration is making all the lines oscillate. One might have expected that such acceleration would be urgent for a certain country, but actually it is necessary for the entire planet.

50. Whether the New World enters in a caftan, a coat, or a tunic is all the same. Once we have established the cosmic significance of the community, all the details are no more than dust underfoot. You can forgive any absurdity, so long as it does not oppose the New World.

51. When I repeat one word many times, it means that space is being filled. With the loss of rhythm, such repetition has degenerated into babbling. Rhythm works like waves that break down cliffs. The rhythm of sound should also be part of the procession. The rhythm of sound keeps the crowd from engaging in empty talk.

52. How can one penetrate into the secret recesses of the spirit? Only by way of the unusual. The legend about the holy bandits has as its basis the notion of the spirit sharpened by the unusual. On the other hand, a doughy-skinned baker rarely receives a key to the spirit, unless the daily play of the flame conveys to him the light of the elements.

Herbs fit for use should be gathered, so the place where they grow must be searched for without preconceptions.

53. I shall explain why we speak of an “attack of Purusha.” It would be good if people could internalize the same principle of shared tension. The emergence of a shared danger ought to arouse such shared tension. The first condition for progress is emancipation from ordinary activities. The normal brain centers have to droop in order that a new combination of nerve currents might emerge. The same principle also holds when avoiding fatigue. Such a new tension, when free of the personal element, is called an attack of Purusha.

When playing the search-for-the-stick game, it is the seeker who must look for the stick, not the one who hid it. Not without reason do the Hindus call the Supreme Being the “Player.” Truly, the Earth must be saved by earthly hands, and the Heavenly Forces are sending forth the best manna; but when left ungathered, the manna turns into dew. How, then, not to rejoice when gatherers are found? When, ignoring jeers and taunts, these seekers stride forward with Our Shield in mind?

The tension of Purusha can never be aroused without mobility of thought.

The spirit must strive along a single channel, like a bullet spiraling through the barrel of a gun. The emergence of extraneous circumstances must not spoil the rifling.

54. “Light extinguishers” are special servants of the dark forces who are engaged in smothering fires in the Subtle World. The stronger the onslaught of darkness, the more forcefully do they eliminate each point of light. We do not know a time of greater darkness in the Subtle World. All the false Olympuses have faded into the twilight. But now is not the time to deal with them; now we must turn to the earthly plane. In its present state the world is like a storm-tossed sea.

55. Striving is the boat of an Arhat. Striving is a unicorn revealed. Striving is the key to every cave. Striving is the wing of an eagle. Striving is a ray of the sun. Striving is the armor of the heart. Striving is the book of the future. Striving is a lotus blossom. Striving is a world made manifest. Striving is the multitude of stars.

56. In what way is discovery of the signs of the future similar to weaving? In weaving, the warp is of a definite color, while the groups of threads are distributed according to their various shades. It is easy to identify the warp, and also to find each group of threads, but the designs formed by a given group allow all kinds of combinations, depending on the thousands of things that are going on. Of course, the internal attitude of the subject will be the primary factor. But if the subject’s aura fluctuates too much, the prognosis will be only of relative accuracy. In that case it will resemble a game in which scattered dots have to be connected to discover a certain figure.

Where, then, is the best catalyst to steady the fluctuations of the aura? The best catalyst will be striving. A body in impetuous motion can neither be stung nor shattered. Striving in motion attains legitimacy, and, becoming the law, it proceeds with unstoppable force, for it enters into the very rhythm of the Cosmos.

Thus strive forward in things great and small, and your fabric will be unique, crystalline, and cosmic—in short, beautiful.

Nothing other than striving makes mastery of the elements possible, for the fundamental quality of the elements is striving. In a state of striving, you coordinate the elements with the higher creativity of the spirit, thereby becoming a keeper of the lightning. A new human being shall arrive—a keeper of the lightning. Be assured, only by striving will you conquer.

57. Can you not hear a powerful siren sounding with every motion of the planet? Does not an anguished cry arise with every movement of things? Does not outrage ring out in each movement of the spirits trampled down to the earth?

But have there been better times?

It is better if the boil bursts, and then one can close the opening; but first the pus has to be drained, which is why We do not take half measures.

We are expecting broad actions; when a siren is blasting, one cannot concern oneself with a piece of yarn.

58. You already know the usefulness of obstacles and the advantages of hardships. It could be that even terrors have their uses. Of course, for Us and for you there are no terrors in the ordinary sense. On the contrary, terror without fear turns into an act of cosmic beauty.

Could one possibly think about beauty without a chord of rapture? Nowadays We cry out and send signs of battle, but above all there is rapture in witnessing great decisions. Courage opens every door. While we are telling ourselves, “Impossible,” the universe is shouting, “Go for it!”

Every era has its own word. This word is like a key to a lock. Ancient teachings constantly spoke about a powerful word that is expressed in a clear, concise formula. It is as unalterable as a crystal of a given composition, a formula whose words cannot be rearranged, one that can neither be lengthened nor shortened. A cosmic Guarantee is revealed in the way these signs are molded. Absolute darkness itself shudders before the blade of the Universal Decree, and rays and gases more easily smite the darkness where the Sword of the World has already struck a blow.

Let us accept the command of the Cosmos not with slavish sighs but with wild exuberance! Yes, the time has come for the Light-force to burn up the darkness. The time is at hand, and the clock cannot be set back.

One can track the secret words of all eras and discover a spiral of piercing light. The legion of worms is not reshaping the tip of the spiral; the obstacles are only intensifying the light beam. The law of repulsion is creating new forces. And where the vocal one stays silent, the mute shall speak.

59. A clear, concise command is difficult, but it is stronger than a magic wand. While affirmation is easier, a command is like a pillar of flame bursting from a volcano. A concentrated sense of personal responsibility lies in a command. Assertion of the inexhaustibility of power rings out in a command. The intense striving of the Cosmos is manifested in the vehemence of a command, like an all-crushing wave. Wipe away the tears of goodness; what We need are sparks of the spirit’s indignation!

What a dam do regrets make, while wings grow on the point of a sword! Sands can kill, but for Us a cloud of sand is a magic carpet.

60. Much can be forgiven someone who even in darkness has preserved the concept of the Teacher. The Teacher uplifts the dignity of the spirit. For Us the concept of the Teacher is like a lamp in the darkness. Thus, the Teacher can be called a beacon of responsibility. The ties with the Teaching are like a lifeline in the mountains. The Teacher appears the moment the spirit kindles. From that moment onward the Teacher is inseparable from the disciple.

We see no end to the chain of Teachers, and the consciousness suffused with the Teacher ennobles the disciple’s attainment like a precious, all-pervading fragrance. The bond between disciple and Teacher forms a link of protection in the connecting chain. Within the precincts of this protection deserts bloom.

61. Amidst the steep crags of the world, My Hand sends the solution. Look upon a plank roof as something stronger than iron. Look upon the minute appointed as something longer than an hour. The prolonged path is shorter than the vertical cliff. You will ask, “Why the riddles? Why the esotericism?” Through the tangle of events run threads of many colors. Each ladle is dipped in a well of a different hue. Among events are many that are unfolding rapidly; and though unconnected externally, these distant friends fill our basket, and the ultimate light triumphs.

62. One can rejoice when the thoughts suggested fuse with the recipient’s own thinking; for in cooperation there are no boundaries based on some division of labor, there are only results. It is impossible to divide up the functions of the Cosmos when actions are flowing forward like a river.

When waves come bearing a useful object, what does their structure matter? The important thing is that the object not be lost!

63. The greatest misunderstanding will surround the fact that work is recreation. Many amusements will have to be abolished. Above all, people need to understand that the products of art and science are for education, not diversion. As hotbeds of vulgarity, a wide variety of amusements will have to be destroyed. The vanguard of education must sweep away the dens of fools whiling away time over a mug of beer. Likewise, all kinds of foul language must meet with tougher penalties. Narrow specialization should also be frowned on.

64. It is essential to speak about the vital need for co-measurement. I deem it necessary to distinguish between things that happen again and again and those that are nonrecurrent. It is all right to put off an everyday matter, but when a matter with a definite timeframe calls out to you, you have to seize on it without delay. It can be argued that once lost, a moment of cosmic possibility can never be made up for. There are dishes that can be digested only in a certain order. The hunter does not go hunting out of idleness; rather, he seeks out the best hour, and once it strikes, nothing detains him.

One may find My Stone in the wilderness, but unless it is picked up immediately, it will never be seen again. Those who know Me understand the importance of immediacy, but newcomers must take this law to heart if they wish to draw closer. Truly do I say: The time is short! Out of solicitude I am telling you to not lose an hour, because the threads of the tangle come in every color. Not in pleasure and relaxation but in the darkness of the storm is My Voice useful—be able to hear it!

I know people who have missed the call because they were attending to their porridge. But My arrow comes flying in the hour of need. My Hand is ready to lift the veil covering the consciousness, so you need to co-measure the small and the great, the recurrent and the nonrecurrent. Make every effort to understand wherein lies the great! I am telling you: The time is short!

65. Our condition for coworkers is wholehearted desire to apply Our fundamental teachings in life, not in theory but in practice.

The Master bears the flame of inextinguishable podvig. His teaching is interrupted neither by fatigue nor by distress. The heart of a Master lives by podvig. He has no fear, and the words “I am afraid” never cross His lips.

66. The evolution of the world unfolds through revolutions, that is, through explosions of matter. Every revolution has a progressive upward thrust. In its structure, each explosion acts spirally. Therefore, in its nature each revolution is subject to the laws of the spiral.

The earthly structure is like a pyramid. Now, from each point of the progressing spiral try to lower the four faces of a pyramid. You will get something like four anchors dropped into the lower strata of matter. Such a construction will be illusory, built as it is upon dying strata. Now let us try to build a rhombus upward from each point, and we get a body of conquests of the upper strata that surpasses the movement of the spiral. This will be a worthy construction! Of course, it must begin with the unknown and expand in tandem with the growth of consciousness. That is why the riskiest moment comes when construction is undertaken in the midst of a revolution. A multitude of imperfect elements will pressure the structures downwards into strata of depleted, poisonous matter. Only desperate courage can turn the structure upward into strata untested and wondrous in their encompassment of new elements. That is why I will continue to say that shabby old forms must be avoided in the new structure. Sinking back into the old receptacles is unacceptable. The New World must be understood in all its severity.

67. What is required in Our Community? First of all, co-measurement and justice. Naturally, the latter results entirely from the former. Of course, we must forget about kindliness, for kindliness is not the good. Kindliness is a mere substitute for justice. The spiritual life is co-measured by co-measurement. A person who does not distinguish the small from the large, the insignificant from the great, cannot be spiritually developed.

People talk about Our firmness, but it is only the result of Our highly developed co-measurement.

68. Know what the son of fear and doubt is called—his name is regret. Precisely regret about joining the Great Service is what terminates the fruition of everything that has been done up to that point. A person who doubts ties a stone to his leg. A person who fears suppresses his own breath. But anyone who regrets their work for the Great Service makes further approach impossible.

How could one fail to honor the courage that leads to attainment? How could one fail to be mindful of the hand that restrained the enemy’s dagger? How could one fail to reinforce someone who has devoted his power to the progress of the world? Know that I shall go on repeating this so long as the rainbow bridge does not include every color.

Cedars preserve a healing resin, but only smile when their wondrous sap ends up in shoe grease. Like the cedars, let us preserve the core paths, putting details to work for whatever is useful.

69. Growls and savage shrieks are inundating the Earth. Bestial roaring has replaced human song. Still, how beautiful are the fires of podvig!

70. My Hands know no repose. My Head sustains the weight of the works. My Mind explores the strength of solutions. The power of experience shatters incompatible frailty. When the limit of damage has been reached, I pour forth new possibilities. On the line of retreat, I erect strongholds. I wave the banner in the eyes of the enemy. I call the day of fatigue a day of rest. I regard a lack of understanding as dirt on the doorstep. I can conceal the sacred in the folds of work clothes. For Me a miracle is no more than the trace of a horseshoe. Courage for Me is just a bow in the quiver, resoluteness no more than daily bread.

71. First of all, forget all nationalities and understand that consciousness evolves through development of the invisible centers. Some await a Messiah for a single people; this is ignorant, because the evolution of the planet can only take place on a planetary scale. Precisely universality is what has to be assimilated. Only one blood flows, and the external world will no longer be divided into the races of primal formation.

72. Community—that is, Cooperation—can accelerate the evolution of the planet to an unprecedented degree and provide new avenues for intercourse with the forces of matter. Do not think that community and the conquest of matter exist on different planes. One channel, one banner: Maitreya, Mother, Matter!

The Hand that untangles the threads reveals the path to Our Community. Naturally, We shall not discuss the exact time when Our place came into being. Cataclysms have created favorable conditions, and with Our knowledge We can protect the Center from unwelcome guests. The existence of powerful enemies has warranted Our closing the entrances still more securely and instructing Our neighbors on how to maintain a close silence. To break that silence and betray means to be destroyed.

73. The substance of the New World contains a void called the “knot of immobility,” into which gather all the detritus, all the manifestations that lack understanding of the tasks of evolution. If the brain concerns itself with these paths that lead to manifestations of spiritual incomprehension, then access to what We send is almost lost. Could people possibly forget the creative work that seeks to beautify life?

74. You need to keep track of what is urgent. You need to maintain your personal enthusiasm. Each of you needs to go forward independently—no hand on your shoulder or finger on your lips. Woe to the sentinel who is late to his vigil. Woe to anyone who spills rice on a shield. Woe to anyone who carries water in his helmet. And above all, woe to gray fear. Truly, the net of the world has been cast. The net cannot be pulled in without a catch. Indeed, not even the least of the least will be forgotten. The seed has been paid for. Violence has not been permitted. Let everyone go forward on their own, but I pity those who do not make it. How dark is the way back! I know of nothing worse than intruding on a neighbor’s path. Tell everyone, “Walk on your own until the command of the Master arrives.” You should take joy in the churning and hissing of the sea. Demonstrate understanding of this great time. Uplift the chalice. I am summoning you.

75. Truly, one can look forward to all of the prophecies being fulfilled. I do not see any of the timeframes changing. Think over the envelope of events and understand how unimportant the exterior is: Only the inner meaning provides answers. That which has been sown for generations is beginning to stir; the seed is beginning to sprout.

76. You should know about a technique used in the Battle called the “hurling of boulders.” When the Battle reaches a certain degree of intensity, the Leader tears away pieces of His aura and casts them at the enemy hordes. Of course, the auras of the warriors are also torn violently, so it is a time when the protective net is not strong, but the enemies are hit especially hard. The fabric of the aura burns more powerfully than lightning. We call this a heroic method of fighting. No one should think we are traveling on a luxury train—we are walking above an abyss on a plank. The tufts torn from the aura leave it like the riddled wings of an eagle. You need to keep in mind that we are climbing the walls without any cover. A glass may not sound upon breaking, but the shattering of its fragments is heard when it hits the gorge below. You can figure out the rest. The very greatest Forces are fighting in this Battle for the salvation of humankind.

77. A manifestation should be understood as something that is obvious not to the eye but to the consciousness. Herein lies the difference between your understanding and Ours. What you call a fact is a consequence, whereas We can discern the true fact, which is invisible to you.

A blind person judges lightning by the thunder, while a person who can see is unafraid of the thunder. Thus, one must learn to distinguish true facts from their consequences.

When We speak about a destined event, We see its true source, while those who judge on the basis of visible results alone will lag in their judgment. When We say, “Go against the evidence,” We mean that you should not fall under the illusion of past events. One must clearly distinguish the past from the future. Indeed, humanity is afflicted with this lack of discernment as it whirls about in the illusions of consequences.

A creative spark is contained in the manifestation of an event, but not in its consequences. Preoccupied with consequences, humanity is like the blind man who senses only the thunder. You can imagine the difference between those who judge on the basis of events and those who judge according to consequences.

Tell your friends that they should learn to observe reality by catching the onset of events. Otherwise, they will remain readers of a newspaper compiled by a crook.

If you wish to take part in the evolution of the world, intensify your consciousness to a point where it grasps the emergence of events. One could cite countless examples of pathetic, criminal, and tragic misunderstandings which led to dates and deadlines getting jumbled up.

An oak grows from an acorn buried in the ground, but the fool notices the tree only when he stumbles over it. A great many stumblings are sullying the earth’s crust. At a time when the world is in tension, let us have done with mistakes and misunderstandings!

One needs to grasp how carefully energy must be expended. One needs to understand that only the right doors lead to the chamber of the Common Good.

78. Every book must have a chapter on irritation. We need to get this beast out of the house. I welcome sternness as well as decisiveness. I encourage you to abolish derisive jokes. Everyone in difficulties ought to be helped out. Every sort of vulgarity needs to be nipped in the bud. Everyone should be given a say, and patience be found to listen to them. Baseless rumors must be cut short, and every word disparaging the Teacher must be answered with ten. Precisely, an arrow aimed at the Teacher ought not to be met with silence. Mother and Teacher—in every book a powerful shield must surround these concepts. Let us not allow the light of greatness to be extinguished.

79. When construction takes place on a cosmic scale, service requires a change in consciousness. There may be mistakes. The biggest mistake can be pardoned if its origin is pure, but this purity may only be measured by an enlightened consciousness. Joy in Service can only manifest in an expanded consciousness. It must be remembered that every three-year period constitutes a new stage of consciousness, just as every seven years brings a renewal of the centers. Hurry up and recognize that the timeframes for development of the consciousness are nonrecurring and therefore one must not let them slip by.

It is fair to ask those who are planning to enter the path of Great Service what they intend to give up. Is he only expecting fulfillment of his sweetest dreams? Or perhaps she finds convenient the idea of appropriating worldly wealth for a grain of faith and occupying a position that is incompatible with her consciousness?

It is impossible to enumerate the ways that consciousness expands, but in all of them lies awareness of both truth and selfless devotion.

80. One has to understand clarity of thought and apply clear thought to the future in order to avoid roughness in how one acts. Advance in a way that differs from others. Every ounce of decisiveness is precious. I want to fill you with daring. Better to be considered unusual than to be dressed in a uniform of banality. Seekers should read My Teachings. Seekers should apply them to every aspect of life, and not just on holidays. Ask yourself, “Is it possible to strive in the morning and parrot in the evening?”

81. It is wise to draw a line between the past and the future. One should not keep poring over everything that has been done—that goes against the principle of co-measurement. It is better to say, “Yesterday is gone; let us learn to welcome the new dawn.” We are all growing, and the things we do are expanding with us. Anyone over twenty-seven is no longer a youngster; at that age we can understand the podvig of Service. There is no use digging in yesterday’s dirt. We are proclaiming a new step beginning today. Let us start to work, surrounding ourselves with a thousand eyes. Let us acquire purity of thought and co-measurement in actions. Let us fill our days in this way; let us get used to being flexible and decisive. Likewise, let us not forget that there is nothing on Earth higher than the Plan given for the Common Good. Let us show understanding of the Teachings of Life: how Moses called forth human dignity, how the Buddha directed people to the expansion of consciousness, how Christ taught the usefulness of sacrifice, and how the New World is turning people toward the distant worlds! Think of all the analogies that surround us! Think about the foundation stone. Think about the path given. Think about how the boundaries of the Cosmos impinge on you. Recall the steps of wondrous exertions made not in the library but amidst the struggles of life. Ponder the fact that although a great deal has not been taken up and assimilated, we are still holding our positions. Therefore, do not be discouraged by mistakes, but ascend by the Hierarchy of the Teaching.

82. On the day when a new step is beginning, let us speak without reproach about this great era, a time when we are learning to break away from the Earth and, while in the body, are already communing with the Highest Worlds.

No one is deprived of anything; come, extend your hand to the altar of the spirit. Affirm the spirit in connection with matter, and remember how the heart thrills before the radiance of the mountains.

My Word ought to establish you in the beauty of podvig. As we embark on the path, let us leave behind instructions for action and again focus our consciousness beyond the earthly. It is wonderful to be in possession of a subtle body when one’s spirit no longer feels disturbed before distant flights. Therefore, let us rejoice in each of the movements on the Earth’s crust; let us learn to take flight in them, as it were.

To fly—what a beautiful word! In it there already lies a pledge that we will attain our destination. When things get difficult, think about flights; let each aspirant think about wings. To the bold ones I am sending all the currents of space!

83. Truly, every time there is a fire, a dozen escape routes are necessary. You have a powerful action when it is backed up by ten solutions. The inexperienced need to have a fire burning behind them, but those who have been called can have all the entrances open.

You need to be able to understand how the blade of the enemy bends. You need to be able to smile when the hooves of the enemy’s horse are heard. You need to know when an arrow is flying over your head, so you do not duck needlessly.

84. It is difficult to accommodate the large, but still more difficult to accommodate the small with a broadened consciousness. It is difficult to place a small reality in the scope of a great understanding. How does one insert a large sword into a small scabbard?

Only a tested consciousness understands the value of a kernel of reality. Rulership is in neither crowns nor crowds, but rather in the cosmic expanse of ideas. Thus, the Teachings of Life complement each other, without any need to attract the multitudes.

I told you I would give a third book when community was accepted. However, We do not require multitudes but need only the consciousness of those whom We deem necessary, which is why We are giving the third book. It is also why We are repeating the facts of Truth, and why We prefer blessing a birth to presiding over a funeral procession.

With some people you have to blast the Teaching into their ears, with others you can only place milestones; and there are still others who can only be given monosyllabic hints, if their consciousness is even able to absorb that much. How much, then, does the Teaching welcome those who can assimilate every last morsel, valuing the worldwide significance of each!

Whenever eons crumble, entire worlds begin to shift; and that is the reason your thoughts are being directed to economy in the use of thought energy.

85. Each organism is propelled by a particular energy, but it is necessary to establish the exact direction of the basic striving.

Once some disciples of the Buddha asked the Blessed One about how they should understand fulfillment of the rule to give up possessions. One disciple had left behind everything, but the Buddha continued to reproach him regarding possessions. Another disciple remained surrounded by things, yet he drew no reproach.

“The sense of ownership is measured not by things but by thoughts. Thus, community must be accepted by one’s consciousness. You can have things yet not be an owner. The Teacher sends forth a wish that evolution grow in accordance with the law. The Teacher can discern those who have liberated their consciousness.”

Thus spoke the Blessed Buddha, who asked His followers not to think about possessions at all, since renunciation means the cleansing of one’s thought, and it is only through purified channels that the basic striving can make its way.

86. Let me remind you of a tale that Akbar heard.

A sovereign asked a sage, “How do you distinguish a nest of treachery from a stronghold of loyalty?” The wise man pointed to a crowd of gaudily dressed riders and said, “There you have a nest of treachery.” Then he pointed to a solitary traveler and said, “And there is a stronghold of loyalty, because nothing can betray solitude.” And from that day on the sovereign surrounded himself with loyalty.

The Master has accepted the full measure of loyalty. To the hand of the traveler, My Hand is like a fire illuminating the darkness. Close to My Shield is the silence of the mountains. I know, I know how hard-pressed My community is. It is in silence that the complete revelation of the foundations of the formative process takes place.

Understanding of matter can grow only where betrayal is impossible.

87. When a problem with inheritance comes up, one can recommend that a person leave to the community a request that a given person be allowed to use certain objects for a trial period of three years. In that manner the process of inheritance will be transformed into cooperation with the people who deserve it. One can entrust specially selected people with the task of overseeing the quality of the projects designated.

It is useful to deepen the awareness of being constantly tested, because people still do not know how to work well when they are conscious of being tested. But in fact, all the matter that composes the world is engaged in a process of mutual testing. At the same time, be sure it is understood that testing means improvement.

88. We always start out with a very small outline. This practice is many centuries old, and it also is a basic cosmic principle. A firm, indivisible seed will give rise to the growth of the elements. But the jittering and insensitivity of constant repetition gives rise to nebulousness. The sensitivity of the life principle demands that one economize with the firm seeds. That is why chemists value indivisible bodies. Truly, a structure must be indestructible when it has been called forth by evolutionary necessity. One has to understand the difference between what is admitted and what is given as something indisputable.

89. Our Community has no need of affirmations and oaths. Expenditure of labor is the real thing; discharge of duty is what is never forgotten. Is it possible to be prolix where one has responsibility for people’s lives, where an hour may be the longest measure of time? Is it possible to betray the possibilities of an era in which spirit and motion are being denied?

One has to overcome timidity and sense the vortex of the spiral, maintaining the courage of tranquility in the very heart of that vortex. I have said a great deal about courage and against fear because We have only a cosmic scientific approach! Upon entering, each must discern where his fears lie and whether his courage is steadfast.

I do not see a single detail of dialectics or methodology. We know only the austere flowers of necessity. One must come to Us fully aware of immutability.

Austerity is not aridity, nor is immutability limitation. In spite of the pull of the earthly sphere, you will sense the vortex of space, and you will extend your hand to the distant worlds. It is impossible to force someone to perceive the worlds coming into manifestation, but it is precisely through this awareness that we accept responsible work and devote ourselves to the actual possibilities of evolution.

90. In order to understand mobility of action, try muddying the surface of a pond and observe the immobility of the lower strata of the liquid. How powerfully you need to stir the surface in order to convey the rhythm to the bottom without it being refracted. The negative forces do not have a channel that reaches the bottom, because for this, one needs to decompose the primary substance, and such an experiment is impossible for them.

Newcomers often ask where the boundary line is between the mobile stratum and the irrefutable foundation. Of course, there can be no clear-cut boundary, but the law of refraction is an established one, and an arrow cannot reach its target unless the predetermined line is countervailed.

How, then, to eliminate damage to the strata? Naturally, one has to place powerful pillars that break up the flow. I have mentioned the spindle of the spirit in the midst of a spiral; keep this structure in mind, because inflexibility, when surrounded by centrifugal motion, is able to resist any sort of disturbance. The structure of Our Community resembles those same spindles surrounded by powerful spirals. This is the best structure for the battle, whose outcome is predetermined.

Thus, one has to understand Our structures in a material sense. And why would We be in need of an incomprehensible abstraction, when the principle of the Cosmos is one? The way in which crystals grow demonstrates how multifaceted the world of gravity is. Seekers can understand the need to proceed along material lines in the quest for higher knowledge. A person who does not love the clarity of crystals will never reach Us. The achievement of pure unrepeatability brings forms to perfection. You can show a crystal to a child, and the child will grasp its perfection. Precisely the crystalline structure of the community will lead to perfection of form.

91. Why is it necessary to be awkward? Why is it necessary to produce an impression of ignorance? Why do Our people have to be careless? Why do they have to grow so contentious when an argument is going on? Why do they have to chatter on and on? Sidestep unnecessary muck. You see how each detail has to be pointed out; otherwise, the practices of Our Community will not take root among you.

The discipline of freedom characterizes Our communities. Not only is the spirit disciplined, but so are the qualities of external activities. It is not Our practice to grieve too much. It is not Our practice to criticize people too much. It is not Our practice to count on people too broadly. It is not Our practice to expect too much. One has to be able to replace a complex plan with something simpler, never vice versa, for Our adversaries work to complicate the simple. Think about how you can strengthen your friends.

Keep the air in your homes clean, send out your best wishes to those who are coming, and wait for Us eagerly. Let each community wait for its Teacher, for the community and the Teacher constitute the two ends of one column. Even when doing daily chores you need to remember the foundation of the house. Again we arrive at the need to alter the quality of the consciousness, for that makes the transition easy.

92. Menacing hands will not reach you when you go forward coiled in a spiral of devotion. If only the crude sight of the physical eye were able to see the armor of devotion! But in that case, of course, humans would no longer remain in the lower consciousness. Lessons from former lives do not reach closed eyes. Anyone approaching Our Community in the shabby old consciousness is like a person crossing an abyss without wings. Anyone who attempts to approach us in pride will be hit with something like an explosion of ozone. But how to explain that it is not We who set off the explosion but the proud one himself? It is like a person wearing shoes with metal soles who dies upon entering a powder magazine. Knowing how to use metal spikes may make one a good runner, but any worker will tell you to wear soft shoes when walking on an explosive surface. Thus, a saturated atmosphere requires a buffer.

Take the Blessed Buddha, for example: When He was going into the mountains, He took His time and prepared thoroughly to make the trip easier. This means saving energy. Indeed, this is the only kind of economy that is permissible and justifiable; unless it is adopted, chasms may open up between the worlds, and who knows with what gas they might be filled? I can advise you to conserve energy, because every instance of unwarranted waste diffuses and impacts space at great distances. We need to take care of the Cosmos in every blade of grass, if we are to become citizens of the universe.

93. About the quality of travel.

One has to realize how necessary it is to travel! Not only do we need to tear ourselves away from home, but we also have to overcome the very concept of home. To speak more precisely, we have to expand the idea of home. Where we are, that is home. Evolution is doing away with the very notion of home, of the dwelling that has become a prison. Progress in emancipation of the consciousness will make mobility possible. Not achievement, not hardship, not exaltation, but the quality of consciousness is what allows one to break away from the old haunts. In a long familiar place there is so much soot, so much acidity and dust. While We are opposed to the cloistered life in cells and caves, cottages with a moldy atmosphere are still worse. We summon those who can give their thought room to expand.

I wish to see you moving over the face of a world in which, because of their great number, national boundaries are being erased. How can we fly when pinned down by a tiny nail? We need to think hard about how much humanity needs to travel!

94. You often say that books nowadays are far from perfect. I would go further: The errors in books are equivalent to a grievous crime. Falsehoods in books must be prosecuted as a kind of serious slander. The falsehoods uttered by speakers are prosecuted according to the number of listeners. Writers’ lies ought to be prosecuted according to the number of books printed. It is a serious crime to fill public libraries with falsehood. You need to get a sense of the true intentions of the author in order to assess the nature of his errors. Ignorance is the worst foundation, with fear and baseness occupying the next place. Such qualities are inadmissible in a community. In the new construction, their eradication must be undertaken. As always, prohibitory measures are unsuitable; but errors, once discovered, must be deleted from books. The need to withdraw the book from circulation and reprint it will bring the author to his senses. Every citizen has the right to prove that something contains mistakes. Of course, one should not suppress new viewpoints and theories; but people must not be misled by misinformation, because knowledge is the armor of the community, and its defense is the duty of every member.

Books must be checked within a year; otherwise, the number of victims will be great. One should especially safeguard the book at a time when its dignity is being undermined. Bookshelves are now lined with abscesses of falsehood. It would be unacceptable to preserve these parasites. One might ask someone to sleep in an uncomfortable bed, but one would not tell anyone to read an untruthful book.

Why turn over the nicest hearthside seat to a dishonest buffoon? Precisely, it is bad books that are polluting the consciousness of children. Attention should be drawn to the problem of books!

95. One day a woman stopped between the images of the Blessed Buddha and Maitreya, unsure of Whom to worship. Then the image of the Blessed Buddha spoke: “In line with my My Teaching, pay honor to the future. While standing in defense of the past, turn your gaze to the sunrise.”

Remember how We work for the future, and with all your being strive toward it! In rays of knowledge We shall bring a Teaching strange to the world, for the light of the world is covered in darkness.

96. The timetable needs to be sped up, for otherwise ignorance will solidify. A host of plagues has swarmed onto the threshold of the New World. The whirlwind has swept up piles of rubbish. The ability to face with courage the muck and filth of ignorance gives one access to unusual means. The time has come to openly acknowledge the merits that make people suited to the work. Why should people of talent have to perish amid the chains of bigotry?

Children should be asked whether they can abandon the fear of looking ridiculous in the eyes of the many. Are they ready to give up personal comfort for the sake of the New World? You have to put the questions sternly, for the flame kindled is unafraid of the wind.

Devotion is what carries one across the abyss, but a tremor of sensitivity must wing this devotion onward.

97. On the path, do not rest under a rotting tree. In life, have nothing to do with people whose consciousness has died out. Underdevelopment of consciousness is not as contagious as extinguishment. The extinguished consciousness is an actual vampire. The abyss of an ignorant consciousness cannot be filled from without. These are the people who needlessly drink up other people’s energy. After being with them, one feels an overwhelming fatigue. You need to pass them by as you would a stench, warding off their putrefying fluids. It is difficult to draw the line between underdevelopment and extinguishment, but one distinction will be obvious: Underdevelopment may be accompanied by a tremor of devotion, but the extinct crater is full of ash and brimstone. The Teaching does not refuse to expend energy on the underdeveloped, but after a certain degree of extinguishment is reached, it is no longer possible to fill the abyss with new substance. Only a cataclysm, with all the terror of unexpectedness, can melt the solidified lava.

Remember the treasure of the consciousness. The tremor of the substance of the Cosmos manifests the pulsation of the awakened consciousness. Indeed, the rainbow of knowledge issues from the tremor of consciousness. A visible stream from an invisible source.

Drawing on all the experiences of the past and all the attainments of the future, remember about consciousness.

98. When it is cold, even a dog provides warmth. There has never been a time with so few people; therefore, do not drive away even wretched adversaries, so long as the cell of their spirit has not been overgrown with weeds. I would like you to recall how the Blessed One showed consideration even to adversaries.

This book is read at the entrance to the community. The newcomer should be forewarned about all the perplexities he will face. It often seems that the contradictions are insoluble. But traveler, where are the contradictions when all we see is an abundance of road signs? The abyss is cut off by the mountain, and the mountain is bounded by the sea. Mountain shoes are not suitable for the seaside. The newcomers have to change their weapons every hour. Not only are mobility and quick thinking necessary, but also skill in changing weapons. It is not easy to get used to changing weapons. Alongside the sense of ownership stands habit, and it is difficult to replace habitude in handling objects with adaptability of consciousness. To someone thinking superficially this may almost seem like playing with words, but for those leading the destinies of whole nations it is essential to understand the distinctions between these concepts!

It is impossible for the poisoned consciousness to distinguish between moments of freedom and moments of bondage. A person lost in speculation about where dwells freedom and where slavery is unable to think about the community. A person who oppresses the consciousness of a brother or sister is unable to think about the community. A person who distorts the Teaching is unable to think about the community. The foundation of the community lies in freedom of thought and reverence for the Teacher. To acknowledge the Teacher means to fall in line with those who are fighting the fire. If everyone rushes pell-mell to the fire from the spring, it will be trampled and serve no purpose.

How good it would be to have a deeper understanding of attentiveness in one’s consciousness, for this will safeguard the concept of the Teacher. Truly the Teacher, truly knowledge, truly the evolution of the world—these will be paths to the distant worlds.

We shall write about the distant worlds in the book Infinity. Here let us keep in mind that the gates of the community lead to the distant worlds.

99. A seal is a guardian of a secret. Secrecy has always existed. Where there is little knowledge, there is secrecy. It is frightening to realize that a certain aspect of consciousness remains on the very same level as it was in the Stone Age. A mode of thinking alien to human thought does not want to move forward—precisely, it does not want to.

When the Master pours forth knowledge, above all it serves to saturate space; this means that a teacher is not alone, even when there are no students visible. Remember this, you who are approaching the community! Remember the secret—not to despair.

The secret of the future lies in the spontaneity of striving. The eruption of a volcano cannot be delayed, nor can transmission of the Teaching be postponed. The dictate of the times allows no delay, whether it streams into the chalice of the consciousness or ascends into space. It is impossible to determine when the personal consciousness will be more important and when the spatial multiplier will. And at a moment when the closest one is not listening, the spatial echo is thundering forth. Therefore, when you approach the community, do not despair.

The book The Call knew no obstacles. The book Illumination was like a cornerstone. The book Community is like a ship at sea facing a storm, when every sail and every rope is infused with life.

The manifestation of the community is like that of a chemical compound; therefore, be pure, be aspiring, and forget the chains of negation. Do not imitate tyrants and fanatics by resorting to prohibition and negation. Do not emulate gilded imbeciles by sinking into ignorance and conceit.

Of course, a community will not admit a thief, who by theft affirms the worst aspect of ownership. Show sternness; be able to respect secrecy by not ever repeating the dates, not even to yourself—like a wave that swallows a stone into its depths but once.

100. Comprehend the Teaching; understand that without the Teaching there is no path. It is necessary to repeat this formula often, for in life a great deal is done without the Teaching. The Teaching must color every act and every word. This coloring, like that of a splendid fabric, will beautify the results of your words. According to the results must the quality of the sending be judged. You should get used to the fact that what is sent may seem incomprehensible, because only its inner meaning has a shield.

Grow used to infusing everything you say with meaning, thereby banishing senseless babble.

It is difficult to relinquish the sense of ownership; likewise, it is hard to overcome babbling.

101. Know how to take it when you are called materialists. In action as well as thought, we cannot detach ourselves from matter. We have to deal with either the higher strata or the grosser aspects of the very same matter. One can demonstrate these interrelationships scientifically. One can also show scientifically how the quality of our thinking acts upon matter.

Egoistic thinking attracts the lowest strata of matter, because this kind of thought isolates the organism, a solitary magnet being unable to attract more than its tension allows. It is different when thinking is conducted on a global scale; you can obtain, as it were, a group of magnets and gain access to the higher strata.

This is most easily observed with a certain sensitive instrument that registers the quality of thinking. You can see spirals moving upward or submerged in a darkish vapor, the most vivid display of the materiality of thinking being affected by the quality of the inner potential. These simple manifestations have a twofold significance: First, they expose the ignorant who conceive of matter as something inert that has nothing in common with the principle of consciousness; second, they have meaning for the seekers who will come to realize their responsibility for the quality of their thought.

It is instructive to observe how thought contaminates space—it is analogous to the firing of a gun. The bullet flies far, but the dispersion of the smoke depends on atmospheric conditions. Density in the atmosphere causes smoke to blanket the dawn for a long time. Therefore, keep watch over your thinking. Also learn to think beautifully and briefly. Many people do not see the difference between a thought for action and a reflex of the brain. You need to be able to cut short the reflexive spasms that lead to a state of semi-consciousness. The way in which reflexive activity develops is similar to intoxication.

The community is attained in clarity of thought. The emergence of thought generates a sense of responsibility that is both clear and inexpressible. We are taking great care to see that the awareness of responsibility does not leave you.

102. The education of the people should be conducted from the initial instruction of children, from as young an age as possible—the earlier, the better. You can be certain the only reason the brain gets fatigued is dullness. Every mother approaching her child’s cradle may give voice to the very first formula of instruction: “You can do anything.” There is no need for prohibitions. Even harmful things need not be forbidden; instead, it is better to turn the child’s attention to what is more useful and attractive. The best education will be that which accentuates the attractiveness of the good. Moreover, there is no need to distort beautiful Images on account of some supposed childish lack of understanding; do not underestimate the children. Firmly remember that true science is always appealing, concise, exact, and beautiful. It is necessary that families possess at least a rudimentary understanding of education. By the time a child is seven, much has already been lost. Usually after a child has turned three, its entire organism is extremely receptive. On the very first step the guide’s hand must point to the distant worlds and draw the child’s attention to them. The young eye must perceive Infinity. Precisely the eye must get used to accepting the Infinite.

It is also necessary that a word express an exact thought. Lies, vulgarity, and mockery must be banished. Betrayal, even in embryo, is inadmissible. Working “like grown-ups” is to be encouraged. Up until the age of three, a child’s consciousness easily assimilates the concept of community. How wrong it is to suppose that children have to be given their own things, since a child easily understands how things can be held in common.

The realization that “I can do anything” is not idle boasting but only awareness of one’s apparatus. The least gifted among us can discover the channel that leads to Infinity, for every work of quality opens the gates.

103. Schools must be citadels of knowledge in its entirety. From the primary to the most advanced level, each school must be a living link joined to all other schools. Knowledge must be enhanced throughout the student’s entire life. Applied knowledge must be taught, but in a way that does not divorce it from historical and philosophical studies. The art of thinking must be developed in every worker. Only then will the worker understand the joy of perfectment and know how to make use of leisure time.

104. Every school must be a true citadel of education. Schools should have a useful museum in which the students themselves take part. There should be a cooperative, and the students must be trained in such cooperation. All aspects of art must be included. Without the paths of beauty there can be no education.

105. When the teacher grasps the abilities of the students, the class will be an extremely enjoyable hour. The workers of the future will be treated fairly only when their abilities are recognized. Often the students themselves do not understand their own destination. As a friend, the teacher points them in the right direction. Coercion is not at all suitable in schools. Only persuasion is appropriate in the acquisition of knowledge. More experiments, more conversations—what joy there is in the application of one’s energies! The little ones love doing the work of the grown-ups.

106. When the family is unable to do so, let the school teach cleanliness in everything. Dirt comes not from poverty but from ignorance. Cleanliness in daily life is the entryway to purity of heart. And who would not wish that the people be pure? Schools must be equipped to become seedbeds for the beautification of life. Every subject can be thought out with love. Every object must be made a partner in leading a happy life. Cooperation will help find the way in which each person’s everyday life should take form. Where individuals cannot come up with solutions on their own, the community will help out. Not prizefighters but creators will be the pride of the nation.

107. The school must not only inculcate love of books but also teach how to read, and this latter task is no easier than the former. In order to delve into a book, you have to be able to concentrate your mind. Not the eye but the brain and the heart do the reading. In many homes the book does not have pride of place. It is the duty of the community to establish the book as a friend of the home. The cooperative, first of all, has a bookshelf whose contents are quite extensive. There will be accounts about the values of the motherland and her connections with the rest of the world. Heroes, creators, and workers will be depicted, and the concepts of honor, duty, and responsibility to one’s neighbors will be set forth, along with the principle of compassion. Many examples will prompt readers to learn and discover still more.

108. While teaching students to respect useful inventions, the school will protect them from slavery to devices. As signs of darkness, all forms of slavery will be destroyed. The teacher will be an instructor and friend who leads the way by indicating the shortest, best path forward—not with a show of force but with a summoning smile. But if treachery has seeped into the school, the harshest condemnation will put an end to such madness.

109. Schools will determine where there is laziness, where there is an unusual character structure, where there is madness, and where special understanding should be shown.

110. Let the fundamentals of astronomy be included among the subjects of study, positioning it as an entryway to the distant worlds. By doing this, schools will arouse the first thoughts about life in those worlds. Space will come alive, as studies in astrochemistry and rays enrich the students’ vision of the magnitude of the Universe. Young hearts will feel themselves to be not ants crawling on the earth’s crust but bearers of the spirit, who are responsible for the planet. Let us focus attention on schools, because it is from them that cooperation will be established. Nothing will be created without cooperation. There will be no stability in governments or alliances so long as the same old selfishness holds sway.

111. I have given many warnings about selfishness. This deadly sister of ignorance wreaks havoc and extinguishes the best fires. Do not consider a reminder about selfishness to be out of place when you create cooperatives. Quite the contrary: Each statute should to be written with other people in mind and not only oneself. Among the various appellations, the word friend will be the most heartfelt. Precisely the heart is what does not allow selfishness. The heart lives by self-abnegation. How powerful the heart is when concerned about the future and not thinking about itself.

112. It is highly useful to be able to combine gentleness of love with strictness of duty. The new life will not flinch in the face of contrasts. Rather than compelling everyone to work under one yoke, it will allow latitude of receptivity. It is not proper for people to perch in a chicken coop. It is time they got to know the planet and to help it. They cannot soothe themselves with calculations about how many years are left before the sun goes out. Many different conditions can upset all those calculations. And you should not forget that people are able to gnaw each other in two. Such concerns must not be forgotten, now that the Earth is flooded with hatred.

113. Greed is gross ignorance. Only true cooperation can save humanity from such a malignant mange. A greedy man has it stamped on his face. He has nothing to do with the heart; his cup is a bitter one. And for the greedy person, the Subtle World is only a source of torment.

114. People study the life of bees, ants, and monkeys, and they are amazed by migratory birds, astonished by their order and harmony; but from all this they fail to draw conclusions that could improve life on earth. Natural history should be taught in schools in as complete and engrossing a way as possible. It is necessary to explore examples from the vegetable and animal kingdoms in order to convey an understanding of the treasures lying latent in humankind. If relatively primitive organisms sense the foundations of existence, then it is incumbent on humans to make still greater efforts to flourish. Everywhere one can find valuable evidence. From their very first lessons, let students rejoice in the wonders of life. Likewise, let them understand how to deal with flights and clairaudience. Thus, clairaudience will be a natural condition. Also, the Subtle World will be studied along with the subtle energies. There will be no division into the physical and the metaphysical, because everything exists, which means that everything can be experienced and cognized. Superstitions and prejudices will finally be crushed.

115. While nobody dares to rise up against the school, few people think about improving it. Curricula are not looked over for years at a time, and meanwhile discoveries are forging ahead. New information is rushing in from everywhere: The aerial spheres, the ocean depths, and the mountain treasures all have wonderful stories to tell about themselves. The history taught now must be updated in a hurry to avoid its being invalidated by recent excavations. In the new schools prohibitions have to be removed so that students can see reality, which is so wonderful when truthfully revealed. Wide is the field for intellectual competition!

116. Protect children from everything false: Protect them from bad music, protect them from foul language, protect them from spurious competitions, and protect them from assertion of egoism, especially as you need to inculcate a love of continual learning. The muscles must not get the better of the mind and the heart. What kind of heart takes a liking to blows of the fist?

117. It is absurd to think that sweat is only a physical phenomenon. During mental work there arises a special emanation that is valuable for the saturation of space. While the sweat of the body can nourish the earth, the sweat of the spirit restores prana by being chemically transformed in the rays of the sun.

Labor is the crown of Light. It is necessary that the students of the school keep in mind the significance of labor as a factor in the universe. The consciousness will grow strong as a result of labor. The importance of labor should be strongly emphasized.

118. People may ask, “What attributes should be valued in a teacher?” You already know about the quality of action and therefore can make use of new approaches to action. The teacher who progresses on new paths should be preferred. Each word and act of such a teacher bears the seal of unforgettable novelty. This distinction generates the power to call and to attract. The teacher is neither an imitator nor an interpreter, but a powerful stonemason who works with new ores. The call of innovation must be accepted as a foundation. There are times when one can only go forward. Let us sustain the call of the will in a constant race forward, and let us not linger when we fly over the abyss.

You must tell the builders of life to find new words forged by new necessities. Awareness of the newness of each hour will give them the impetus.

Tell your friends how much happiness comes from being forever new! Indeed, each electron of the New World will provide new power. Understand the power of the new call. You can make use of it in everyday life.

You know full well that My Words are for application.

119. You are right in thinking that without technological advances the community is impossible. Every community is in need of technical devices, and Our Community cannot be thought of without assuming the simplification of life. We need a clear opportunity to put to use the achievements of science, for without it we will become burdens to each other. As practical realists We can affirm this with confidence. Moreover, We are in a position to insistently rebuke all pseudo-realists. Their submissive science and blindness prevent them from accomplishing what they seek to achieve.

Just like the Pharisees of old, they hide their fear of admitting what is already obvious to other people. We do not like the ignorant, and We have no love for cowards who out of fear trample the possibilities of evolution.

Extinguishers of fires, haters of light, it does not matter from what direction you come creeping! You want to put out the flame of knowledge; but an ignorant community is no more than a prison, for community and ignorance are incompatible. It is necessary to know. Don’t believe—know!

120. We are ready to support every inventor, because even the smallest inventor is trying to make improvements in life and is concerned about enhancing the economy of energy. The Teacher recognizes it when a person ensures the conservation of energy and shows care for it. This tenacious thrift makes it possible for the student to be trusted. Of course, this thrift is something far removed from stinginess. The commander who conserves his select troops is acting conscientiously. Every possibility is our warrior, but we need to understand things in an integral way.

How careful one needs to be with inventions, in order to not deprive them of their immediate goalfitness! Let awareness of world evolution help you to find the right arrows. Your ears must pick up the steps of evolution, and your resolve must not be subject to deception.

How awful is sloppiness in an inventor, how pernicious is a rash reaction, and how inexcusable is an error arising from ignorance!

We can appreciate the work of an inventor on a global scale when we become aware of the direction of world evolution. Until one has grasped the basic principles of matter, it is difficult to understand how the laws of dynamics can be applied.

121. The new consciousness, supported by technology, will generate a powerful aspiration to knowledge. Precisely, it is the community that must be the most sensitive apparatus working for evolution. In other words, in a conscious community nobody is able to assert that a fully developed study of the world exists. Every blunt barrier is swept away by the sharpened vibration of the collective. Even a hint of completeness makes it impossible to stay in the community. Who would be willing to accept the stamp of stupidity?

If a worm crawling in the darkness sets no limits on its progress, you who turn your eyes to Infinity can surely do much better than the worm!

With imperfect inventiveness some of you have picked up invisible rays and inaudible rhythms. Even with crude fantasies and crude instruments, it has been possible to catch certain cosmic currents. But even a fool understands that the imagination can be refined and instruments improved. On the basis of self-improvement, you will reach the Infinite. I will continue to speak about the possibilities of improvement so long as the most close-minded ignoramus remains unashamed of his limitations.

There cannot be community members who limit their own consciousness, thereby becoming like the feet of women in old China. That ugly outrage was also caused by the darkness of custom.

What sort of community members would be willing to cover themselves in the mildew of superstition? Just as nowadays nobody uses a ramshackle, obsolete steam locomotive, no one can persist with an infantile understanding of reality.

A childish materialism acts as a narcotic for the masses, while enlightened knowledge will prove to be the ladder to victory.

Without negations, without superstitions, without fear, you will proceed to the true community. Without any miracles you will find lucid reality, and with the prospector’s pick you will open the hidden depths. Learn to love the fearlessness of knowledge.

122. It is necessary to indicate the quality of the knowledge required. Knowledge must be free of conditions. Every kind of conventional, restricted science causes irreparable harm. A free combination of elements will make possible unique new achievements.

Who can order the chemist to use only one group of elements? Who can compel the historian or philosopher to avoid touching on historical facts? Who can tell the artist to paint with just one color? With knowledge everything is open.

The only thing granting preeminence in the various domains of knowledge will be greater ability to convince and attract. If you want to attract people with your knowledge, make it appealing—so appealing that yesterday’s books will seem like dried leaves. The victory of persuasive power will liberate everyone from insufferable prohibitions.

Above all, make sure to expel prohibitions from the lives of the students. This is especially easy for community members, because their book can be particularly inspiring and appealing. Naturally, a cut-and-dried account of the community is unbearable. A pathetic pedant will repel anyone who cannot endure a blasé attitude toward beauty. There needs to be an inspirational quality around the community.

Plants reach out to the light—this law of primordial consciousness is immutable. Follow the path of immutability and build life! Nothing is abstract, and life absorbs every thought. Therefore, be realists of the true reality.

123. Collectivism and dialecticism are two useful tools when thinking about materialism. The essence of materialism is a special mobility that does not overlook a single manifestation of life. The Master reveals only the necessary milestones. One can develop propositions by thinking along the lines suggested. It is necessary to substantiate materialism to such a degree that all the scientific achievements of our time can, in a constructive way, be included in the concept of a spiritualized materialism.

We have spoken about subtle bodies, about magnets, about the luminosity of auras, about the radiation issuing from every object, about the transference of sensitivity, about the change of ponderability, about the penetration of one stratum of matter by another, about the sending of thought through space, about the cementing of space, about the receptivity of the nerve centers, and about the understanding of the word matter. Many phenomena that are invisible but can be detected by devices should be accepted by those who wish to apply such technology in ordinary life. Idealistic drivel needs to be replaced by sound reasoning.

We, the Bearers of Spirit, have the right to demand that matter be respected and cognized correctly.

Friends, matter is not manure but substance radiant with possibilities. The hardship of humanity arises from its contempt for matter. Luxurious recreational facilities have been built, but hymns to knowledge are not being sung.

124. People will ask how to start on the Teaching. Does this really require the rebirth of the consciousness? Of course, the consciousness is reborn after one assimilates the Teaching. At first it is necessary to open and purify the consciousness. The opening of the consciousness takes place instantaneously, with a single stroke of the will. Desire to open up your consciousness!

125. My young friends, once again you have gathered in the name of the Teaching, and again you have had an evening with guests. Meanwhile, it has been said and repeated that the hour of conversation about the Teaching should be free of commonplace gossip. Let this hour be held less frequently if it means that its quality is going to be better maintained. You make your way through the back streets, overcoming the fatigue of the day’s work, and bring along a bit of the common good; but the objects accumulated in the familiar room fracture your aspiration, and without noticing it you turn into dust-covered tenants. Not only that, one of you, observing what is going on, becomes a self-appointed overseer and sinks into petty irritation. The fabric of the conversation is torn, and an undignified attempt to patch it up begins. We urge you to be consciously responsible human beings, even if only for an hour. If an hour a week is difficult for you, better to make it every fortnight. Learn to eliminate all stressful, beastlike habits during that time: smoking, alcohol, eating, petty gossip, delving into trivial matters, blame, and anger. Upon gathering, sit a few minutes in silence. If any one of you does not find the strength to enlighten his consciousness, let him return in silence to the cold and darkness. We are the enemies of all coercive magic, but natural control of the consciousness must be achieved as a prerequisite for real construction. Surely you can put aside personal concerns for an hour. If that is difficult, how can you think about the progress and growth of the consciousness? An ox knows all about chewing its cud, but that does not take it any further than digestion. Make an effort to bring beauty, simplicity, and purity to your conversations.

Let the most unexpected problems of knowledge and the boldest images of beauty force you out of your musty corner. Understand that I wish to see you display distinction and the capacity to encompass, even if just temporarily. Such seeds of cooperative thinking will give you the tenacity to achieve. Not only resolve but also tenacity is necessary.

Understand concentration to be a way of training the consciousness. Let Me see you striving forward with aspiration and awareness. I am speaking with immediate execution in mind.

126. Do you feel the substantial harm caused by wrong actions? In your egocentrism can you not see that the harm primarily affects you yourself? But in the plan of action, you are not alone; rather, every step you take impinges on people who are responsible, people who are striding forward selflessly. A great deal of irreparable damage is done during frivolous gatherings. The Teaching has often pointed out the ties that bind the collective. Care must be taken to protect those who are running risks in order to speed up results. Mentally protect yourself from harmful, dark moods that come on abruptly. I also want to ask whether you have learned to read the books of the Teaching. Does there not lurk some desire to tether your thoughts to a single post? We are all quite fond of lovely parables, forgetting that the wisdom expressed in each of them brings the gift of life to those who understand.

Regarding the evening gatherings, it is quite ingenious to note an unusual way of framing an issue or a very odd expression. But consider—do not multitudes of lives hang on each letter of such expressions? The importance of the hour to which he has been called should flash forth in the consciousness of every participant. When I spoke about frivolity and light-mindedness some time ago, you needed to immediately open up your consciousness to the seriousness of the moment and make yourself accept a sense of responsibility. Apart from your daily affairs, apart from personal and group successes, you need to sense evolution with all its peculiarities.

So think clearly. Strive to improve your gatherings.

127. When a really ignorant, unaware person comments that the Teaching seems to be one more of those communitarian doctrines, know how to respond. Explain that so long as it is based on work and a knowledge of reality, no community does harm to the cause of human perfectment. When the very Cosmos is in motion, one cannot remain in a seemingly motionless state: One goes either backward or forward. Everyone cognizant of community is moving forward. And there cannot be communities opposed to each other, any more than the various kinds of hunger can be in conflict with one another. Against the community will speak only those who have begun to move backward, becoming part of cosmic refuse.

Inexperienced community members still harbor a great deal of suspicion and conceit, but We regard the community as an established way of living. And We can speak of it with all the clarity that comes from long experience. No mental chaos frightens Us. We have seen plenty of cosmic refuse, and We do not plan on becoming part of it.

With the forces of knowledge We shall defend community—a way of living based on fellowship.

128. You are often amazed that the Teacher anticipates the smallest details. But who told you that these details are small? Often one breaks a leg stumbling over the most insignificant stone, and a stalk of grass may be what plunges one into an abyss.

Even in everyday life you eliminate the dangers that loved ones face. Doesn’t it make sense, then, that in Our Community the lives of coworkers are still more greatly protected? The lips of Friends will not keep silent, but one has to learn to heed the warning call.

In small groups it is easy to adjust one’s attention, but cooperation with humanity means one has to get used to unexpected developments. I do not exaggerate: At every moment something is going wrong, but you must not get used to this constant trouble or else your vigilant sensitivity may get lost. Like an eagle on a summit, you must not lose the keenness of your sight. And sharp-eyed vigilance grows only with danger.

Welcome dangers!

129. Beware of obtrusion, not only in regard to other people importuning you to join them but also in regard to you doing the same thing to others. It is impossible to calculate how much harm obtrusion does, and likewise impossible to watch without contempt when the Teaching is being sold in the marketplace at a discount. Learn to understand that the Teaching, being aware of its own significance, will not expose itself in the bazaar. Only extreme ignorance on the part of Its followers can induce them to place the Teaching in the ignominious position of lying and groveling. One may feel sorry for the people who, out of ignorance, have taken on this meaningless task.

But do not suppose that because you criticize somebody else’s obtrusiveness you yourselves have easily avoided making the same mistake. There is a fine line between assertion and imposition. It is often easy to demean oneself by doing something without knowing just what or why. Each drop that spills to the side turns into burning acid. A forcibly induced swelling only results in dropsy, and you know that it is impossible to cure. Therefore, only quality, not quantity.

Those who knock are responsible for themselves, but whoever has been induced into coming will be a millstone around the neck of the person who rang that summoning bell.

So only summon at the right time, and thereby avoid obtrusion.

130. Who should one treat with special severity? Oneself, of course. And how should one carry the Teaching? In private. How to walk a path between hypocrisy and brazenness? Not with rows of witnesses but only before the judge, oneself! Everyone values their own dignity, just as everyone appraises the pearl of their own consciousness. The Teaching of life is evaluated by the pearl of consciousness. Would we ever spit out the very treasure of our existence?

We must be able to carry the Teaching with us as the last fire, the last food, the last drop of moisture. We must manifest the same love and thrift we would show toward our last opportunity or last water. When acting in private we can show the extent of our devotion. One has to learn to create a world of personal responsibility for the state of one’s consciousness; then a judgmental attitude will turn into truthful judgment.

131. About the quality of advice.

Often advice does not hit the mark because it is given to the other person as if one were addressing oneself. The condition of the brother or sister coming to ask advice is not taken into consideration, and instead the adviser puts himself in the place of the person being advised. Then all the compassion, sympathy, and care flow around the adviser himself. The clear harm that arises from such advice extends not only to the immediate situation but also to the victim being advised. The adviser’s alien thoughts pierce the victim’s consciousness like sharp wedges. The clefts so created are hard to heal, for while the advice may be quite practical, an entirely different kind of aura is needed to carry it out.

Of course, as you well remember, it is the relationship of the auras to spatial matter that determines the quality of the result. It is not the size but the color that makes possible a particular approach to an action. The size of the aura will give tension to the action, but the path will be suggested by the color. So an approach to action that works with one group of colors, will not work with a different group. When things are determined beforehand without taking that into account, the rays get displaced and the will becomes paralyzed. The infirmity of many workers is due to the mixing of heterogeneous color groups. In this regard, it would be very useful to have a simple physical instrument to determine the basic radiations. Just think how much it would alleviate the condition of workers and deepen the intensity—true economy! Aside from the increase in productivity, it is necessary to realize how the right correlation of colors will affect the wellbeing of the workers. A great deal of animosity and misunderstanding will disappear without the use of threats and prohibitions.

Builders of life! Do not forget how easy it is to ensure comfortable conditions for the workers by using simple technical equipment. Not a fuzzy philosophy or idle dreams but a few physical instruments will make a real difference.

Already in America, Germany, and England the basic radiation is being determined; even this crude stage of investigation will help in delineating the primary groupings, while later it may be possible to approach the methods of Eastern laboratories. First of all, banish every kind of ignorance and without putting on airs just know more! To lead the masses requires expansion of one’s consciousness.

Also, deepen the primary school curricula. This advice of Mine is something to be carried out right away!

132. Do not choke on verbosity. In verbosity resilience and resourcefulness get lost. Verbosity cuts a rut like the thread of a screw, and nothing new can emerge from this muzzle. All kinds of bullets are cast in a factory, but a factory does not provide you with a new banner. A community without flexibility and resourcefulness becomes a very boring affair. How are you going to find the special bullet for each member if everybody has to conform to the same rifling? Here comes a child, here a girl, here a warrior, and here an old man: You cannot give everyone the same advice, or all your visitors will flee.

Of course, you will say, “We know perfectly well how to behave.” To which I will have to answer, “So much the worse for you if you know what to do but don’t do it.” It takes a lot of courage to listen to your threadbare speeches. You need to learn to speak with more concision and substance, or the community is going to be disbanded out of boredom. Boredom is a dangerous beast! Flexibility and resourcefulness alone keep the tree of freedom fresh.

133. The community, being a fellowship, primarily stipulates that those who would join must make two conscious decisions: to labor without limit and to accept tasks without refusal. It is possible to eliminate weakness of will among the applicants by instituting a two-tier organization. Labor without limit can result in expansion of consciousness. However, there are many fundamentally good people who, daunted by the constant work and colossal tasks involved, fail to envision the result. All the same, they basically have accepted the idea of a community. It would be disastrous to include these still weak people in the community, but it is impossible to reject them, since that risks extinguishing the fire of their aspiration. For this reason, you need to have a second organization: friends of the community. There without departing from their usual way of life these newcomers can deepen their awareness of community. This two-tier structure makes it possible to sustain far more sincerity in the work. If you allow all the applicants formal entry into the community, you will periodically have to expel the unfit. In other words, the community will cease to exist altogether. It will simply be a community in name only, compared to which the Sanhedrin of the Pharisees will seem like a highly moral institution.

The friends of the community allow you to have a reservoir to draw on without betraying the principles of the Teaching. The friends of the community do not hide their weaknesses, and this makes it possible for you to provide them with effective support. Actually, We use the word friends because it is easier to understand in the West. Among Us they are called disciples of a certain rank, but the West does not comprehend Our concept of discipleship very well. Therefore, let us keep a title that is easier to understand.

It would be absurd for the West not to accept Our simple propositions, which have been consolidated through long experience.

Our Communities are ancient! Why did the best people understand the value of the community and not propose any other form? Beyond the community, on to the distant worlds!

134. Certain characteristics indicate acceptance of the Community’s tasks. Let us consider sincerity and pity. Sincerity is nothing more than the shortest way to achievement. Sentimental people needlessly dress sincerity in romantic rags. Sincerity is a concept both genuine and invincibly astute. Examples can show how sincerity is not for the sake of some nebulous niceness but resembles the thrust of a well-aimed spear. Any doubt will destroy the power of that thrust. That is why for Us sincerity is the shortest path to achievement. Pity is quite another matter. Pity is a puddle in which even a sure foot may slip. A person who pities descends to the level of the pitied. The power of the person who pities dissolves in the tearful twilight of that which he pities, yielding a maudlin outcome.

Pity should not be confused with compassion. In the case of compassion, nothing dissolves; rather, the crystals of action grow. Compassion does not weep—it helps.

Let us consider accusation and manifestation. An accusation has practical benefits for the person accused. Either the accusation is deserved, and then its formulation is instructive inasmuch as it reflects an understanding different from one’s own; or, as is more often the case, the accusation is unfair and an opportunity is given to calmly observe how one’s action has been refracted in the malice of ignorance.

Manifestation should not be understood to mean doing something obtrusive; rather, it is related to the quality of being invisible. Peoples have long dreamt of a cap of invisibility, and that dream can come true without witchcraft. It is possible to divert attention from oneself, but this is much harder than attracting it. Therefore, you have to learn to understand what motivates observers. When one is carrying out a mission, the ability to be invisible is important.

Let us consider interaction and striving. During interaction it is necessary to maintain other people’s need for you. Do not ask for advice; just let it be given to you. Do not let your striving turn into a chase, or else pleasure-seekers and guards will hurry after you.

So become familiar with everything that the missions require!

About fear and betrayal I have been speaking for a long time now.

135. As nothing is complete, and nothing immobile, let us act consciously in dealing with what can be foreseen. When I succeed in foreseeing the actions that must be taken, I do not consider this as final. On the one hand, you and a great many karmic circumstances can disturb the degree to which the foreseen comes into being; on the other hand, We and new karma can improve the interconnection between the various factors.

Truly, when something can be simplified and made beautiful, we must go ahead and improve it. Someone blindly attached to what the current brings is like a person caught in a shipwreck. One needs to comprehend the meaning of the current. The mobility mentioned is only preparation for realization of the great current. As an expanding spiral fed by the forces of matter, the eternal stream rushes forward. Thought can overtake the light that follows the current.

After delving into the details of everyday life, you should turn to the manifestations of the great Motion. You should take flight and thus break away from the Earth. Bring the manifestation of the great current to your workbench and lend wings to your labor. How else can you infuse perfect technique into what you produce? Being enriched by the tremor of possibilities will give your work rhythm. From each seed consciously manifested rises a silver thread to the distant worlds. Thought will penetrate the strata of the atmosphere and create threads.

How to explain that without the unity of the worlds life on Earth’s crust is an absurdity? Awareness of the smallness and imperfection of the Earth can help enhance attraction to the distant worlds. Let us not forget that we are microorganisms that inhabit the folds of our planet.

One has to learn how to think. No lecture can teach a person how to think. The quality of thought is forged in seclusion, in solitary engagement with every kind of intelligent striving. Indeed, it is thought that strikes a spark of life from the substance of matter.

136. Have you noticed what a difference there is between acting on an external order and acting while aware of the impetus? I can order that water be brought, and the water will be received. But if the person drawing the water is imbued with awareness of the need for it to be brought, over half the obstacles in the way will be eliminated. Therefore, We avoid external commands, preferring instead to prompt the person’s will so that the consciousness perceives the need to act. Apart from the obvious consequences, the karma created by an external command is an important consideration.

See to it that commands are prepared ahead of time so that they enter into the minds of those who are to carry them out. Indeed, without cooperation a command is like an arrow flying into the wind. Even the unexpectedness of a command must be foreseen. Then before the unexpectedness hits, its tension has already been gotten through.

Be able to bring about cooperation not only in actions but also in thinking. Only then will a coworker be able to act without supervision. When a mission comes up, coworkers must necessarily take independent action. The current will carry forward those who aspire.

137. A Hindu tale about the origins of the cosmos:

“Long ago there lived a dreadful monster that devoured people. One day when the monster was pursuing an intended victim, the man dove into a lake to escape. The monster sprang after him, but the swimmer, attempting to save himself, leapt onto the monster’s back and held on to its protruding crest with all his might. The monster could not roll onto its back, for its belly was unprotected, so it ran about furiously, waiting for the man to become exhausted. But it occurred to the man that in his desperate plight he was saving humanity, and with this world-embracing idea his forces intensified and never flagged. The monster, meanwhile, sped up so quickly that sparks formed into a fiery wake. In the midst of flames the monster began to rise above the Earth. The man’s universal thought had uplifted even the enemy.

When people see a comet, they offer thanks to the valiant one who strives onward forever. Their thoughts speed upward to give fresh strength to the rider of the monster. White, yellow, red, and black people direct their thoughts to him who rose in flames long, long ago.”

Dedicate yourselves to the guiding thought of help to humanity. Think clearly that you are performing neither a personal task, nor a group task, but an absolutely useful task. What you do outside of time and the limitations of space is labor that connects the worlds. Keep in mind the guiding fiery thought.

When being guided every day, one may lose awareness of the guiding thought. Weak minds think that they have been left without a link to the guide—everyday habits make them ordinary. But precisely, it is in the midst of the everyday that one can cultivate fiery thought. As metal is forged with an ordinary hammer, and grain rich with great vital substance is gathered with an ordinary sickle, amid ordinary affairs discern the thread of greatness!

138. About uplifting the enemy.

The Teaching of the Community shows great solicitude in addressing the upliftment of enemies. For the purpose of uplifting enemies, one should avoid burdening them with direct proposals. Rather, personal aspiration to accomplish global missions can attain such intensity that the enemy will inevitably turn in the same direction. We must not forget that the enemy is already linked to us by his very enmity. In this link lies the enemy’s weakness. Hating us, the enemy begins to fill his being with his conception of us. The enemy chains his consciousness to us and often ends up a mere imitator, something which, of course, he will never admit. When hatred gives rise to imitation, the enemy will start by copying external methods, and then the cosmic scope of the task may lure him inwardly as well.

When we know that an enemy is attached to us, we can look on him as a foolish member of the household. So look deep into the essence of your enemies and find a place for them. They may render excellent service as legs for your workbench. Out of stubborn ignorance they will make every effort to monitor you. But you have nothing to hide, because you are working for humanity. Therefore, the enemy must become an imitator or perish. Naturally, this perishing is not by your hand but by a spark of the world apparatus. That is why I insist on fiery aspiration.

139. You should banish all words of negation. The negater is poor; the affirmer is rich. The negater is immobile; the affirmer is ever aspiring. The negater is wrong, always; the affirmer is right, always. The affirmer may attain relative correctness in terms of time and place, while the deadness of the negater is absolute. Ignorance is the mother of negation. In expelling negation, the Teaching subjects no one to slavery. The negater is already a slaveholder, for he does not want to release his interlocutor from his bubble. The Teaching of community must work to open up all paths.

140. If a person you are talking with displays stubbornness and prodigious ignorance, ask him how much he has traveled and for how long. You will probably get the answer that he has traveled no further than a sparrow’s flight. Also you will hear that when he visited new places, he ended up in the same old conditions due to ignorance of the language and lack of general knowledge. Such a person will be especially argumentative, without being ashamed of his ignorance.

In fact, the experience of traveling is what provides the most useful key in opening up comprehension of cosmic lives. A true traveler has a clear idea of the path traveled and expresses with clarity the direction desired. Such a traveler evaluates past events and envisages the best possibilities.

Traveler, how do you conceive of the path beyond the earthly crust? So much effort has been expended in defining the life beyond. It seems to people as if they will immediately go into free fall. This faint-heartedness arises from the poor development of observational skill.

Experienced traveler, you know that the embryos of all possibilities are expressed on Earth. You know the imperfections of the past, and you will grasp the embryos of future combinations. The imperfection of the path traveled will remind you of the rudimentary life in the worlds of less-developed consciousness. Glimpses of possible solutions in new combinations will lead you, traveler, to the preordained paths inscribed in the all-embracing reality that extends beyond the stars. To you mystical signs are unnecessary, for you walk the visible path, and each blade of grass presents you with a register of the forces of nature. Phantoms are for the idlers who huddle around the stove; for you the waves of light-bearing matter. Seals of prohibition are for those who squat in a chicken coop; for you the real images of rays. For them are magic and miracles; for you the creative power of the pure strata of matter.

Traveler, I rejoice to meet you and am glad to see how resolutely you stride forward. Traveler, you know what you are seeking—help can be given to you!

141. We approve of the abridgment of language. The creation of new definitive expressions is desirable. This new language frees people from immobility of speech. There is no point in worshiping dead words. It is far more joyful to observe how the meaning of an audial phenomenon penetrates and convinces. Everyone understands that what persuades the hearer is not the words but what the brain center sends. Sweet talk achieves its goal thanks to its emotional impact on the listener. It is easier to win someone over with a silent gesture than with cold rhetoric.

When people say, “This is the language of my father,” ask them, “Can your father’s shabby old shoes still be worn?”

Every field of study is in need of new formulas. Likewise, the various phases of life bring forth new expressions. You should rejoice in each new expression. Nothing is worse than embracing a corpse! Even as things stand, you are attached to a multitude of dead objects. The burial of each obsolete letter is accompanied by lamentations, as if there did not exist progressive activities of tremendous significance. Some people are illiterate, stinky, and covered with nasty insects. Which of the threadbare old prejudices to mourn? The whole chestful of insects ought to be burned! This will be not destruction but regeneration!

Seek out regeneration everywhere in life!

142. People have correctly observed that protection should be provided to the young of animals. Maternity is as important to animals as it is to human beings. When animals are spared, they will repay us with milk, wool, and labor. The question of animals living near humans is very important. You can imagine how the atmosphere changes when there are friends living around one’s dwelling. Ask an Arab about his horse or a Northerner about his reindeer, and they will speak about them not as animals but as members of the family.

Moving from animals to plants, you already know that it is beneficial to sleep on cedar roots. You know how well the needles of conifers collect electricity. Not only are extracts from plants therapeutic, but the emanations of plants have a strong influence on their surroundings. You can imagine how a flowerbed arranged with a definite purpose in mind is able to benefit people. It is ridiculous to plant the beds in a way that causes the flowers to cancel out each other’s benefits. Beds of well-matched or kindred flowers are what best meet the needs of our organisms. How useful are the combinations found in fields of wild plants! The combinations of plants that are natural neighbors should be studied as instruments in an orchestra. Scientists are right when they regard plants as subtly sensitive organisms. The next step will be to study the impact of groups of plants on each other and on human beings. The sensitivity of plants and their influence on the environment is truly astonishing! Plants are, as it were, a substance that binds the planet, acting through a network of imperceptible interactions. Of course, the value of plants was pointed out long ago, but the mutual interactions of plant groups have yet to be studied. Until recently people did not understand the vitality of plants and carelessly cut clumps of heterogeneous plants without heeding the impact of what they were doing. A man with a bouquet is often like a toddler with a torch. Exterminators of the vegetation covering the planet’s crust are like state criminals.

Remember, We do not like cut flowers.

143. You are beginning to do many things correctly. You do away with handshaking, thereby recognizing the power of touch. You avoid handwriting, thereby recognizing the stratification of living energy. You abbreviate the language, thereby recognizing the need for cosmic conservation. You establish mutual aid societies, thereby recognizing community. You begin to reevaluate transitory values, thereby recognizing evolution. You do away with the use of coercion, thereby recognizing the Teacher. You do away with profanity, thereby recognizing the value of sound. You do away with vulgar dancing, thereby recognizing the significance of rhythm. You do away with crude shows, thereby recognizing the importance of color. You do away with freeloading, thereby recognizing the power of energy. You do away with backwardness, thereby recognizing the will. Even if the scientific significance of your actions is not always clear to you, you are doing the right thing by demonstrating the inevitability of evolution.

You see how many things We agree with you on. Only a really dense person would think that Our ways contradict yours.

The consciousness of the peoples is sending forth young shoots like the sprouts of healing flowers! The stream of the people’s aspiration carries humanity to new knowledge. You may express this assertion with a poetic metaphor or a dry formula, but the significance of the popular stream will remain unshakeable. Whether someone prefers to take the difficult path or understands the usefulness of cooperation, the direction of evolution will remain unchanged.

Global regeneration, cooperation, mutual assistance, and community will flourish.

144. Let us say to a person who is afraid of all regeneration, “You are decomposing.” This process begins much earlier than physical illness. How can you see that disintegration is on its way? Only by noticing a rigid inability to accept. How can you ascertain that the disintegration is becoming a danger to the public? By noting when the person’s sluggish mentality considers the community to be harmful nonsense. We need to bypass such living corpses. Some people are simply unable to accommodate the concept of community, but those in the category of angry attackers must be excluded from social intercourse. It should be understood that even the slightest contact with such organisms is harmful. There can be no question of kinship. Venerable is old age in a body when the consciousness is clear, for then, in reality, there is no old age. But premature decay envelops a person with an intolerable stench.

When the Buddha called a person malodorous, he mainly had in mind the spiritual awareness. Once the gangrene starts spreading, it is impossible to cure. In Our undertakings, avoid touching such people. Spending time with them is like taking away a morsel of food from a hungry person waiting to eat.

How eagerly are people awaiting each word about the New World! The aspiration of souls possessing a new awareness will make new combinations possible. We are waiting for those who are able to call each new day a desirable day, for whom the best day gone by is inferior to the day ahead. And they will be right, for each new day is clothed with the prana of a new evolution. The air becomes new, actually changed by the disintegration of the worlds. How necessary it is to study the composition of the atmosphere with the most sensitive devices! Research on the composition of the air is an essential part of biology. Until now we have spoken about the air quite loosely, forgetting all about its psychic influence.

145. About the development of opportunities through action.

When a definite action is created, it is similar to the movement of a ship. The atmosphere disturbed sends forth splashes of intensified matter. All of them arise in the magnetic sphere of the action and are temporarily subject to it. The strata of the atmosphere intersected are extremely diverse, and the usefulness of the particles perturbed can be quite unexpected. A person who takes the disturbed particles of matter into account and, acknowledging them, compresses them into unity truly possesses the power of action.

I have often spoken to you about concentrating on action. Precisely, it is unshakeable aspiration that must imbue every action. Yet it would be wrong to let scatter the sparks of the blow, those beneficial details. The farmer knows each and every grain, and the fisherman lets no fish escape his net. The fires of unexpectedness bring light to the path.

Summon the luminous messengers from the abyss of matter. You need to estimate how many opportunities are entering into the spiral involved. It would be inexcusable if you passed up the opportunities attracted. I am not saying that you have to torment yourself over the expanse of your action. You should keep a sharp eye on the range of impact; then opportunities will fall into your lap like ripe fruit. You need to study the quality of the atmosphere. You need to study the quality of action. Actions may become meaningless, and the atmosphere overflow with waves of different lengths. You can thereby protect yourself from madness.

146. Brawling is madness. There are no cases where a fight can resolve a dispute. The loftier the matter, the more inappropriate the fight. One can posit cases that necessitate the destruction of an enemy, but such destruction is not a reaction to an affront. Nothing can offend the conscious warrior.

147. “Hero” is what we call a person who acts selflessly, but this definition is inadequate. A hero is someone who acts selflessly, unswervingly, and consciously, someone whose action in the name of the Common Good brings closer the current of cosmic evolution.

One may come across heroes in present-day life. Heroism should not be thought of as a concept that has no application. If we fear to give voice to such a concept, we cut off our own path to the realm of truth. We have to recognize heroism in life; we have to fearlessly accept the presence of enemies; we have to remember that the sword is the staff of the hero. The ability to turn the sword into a staff is a skill that must find a place in our daily work.

How all the magic formulas will droop in the face of the irrepressible leap across the abyss to the life-giving Sun! Only those who know reality can speak of the Sun without indulging in superficial tearfulness.

We want to see you winning steadily. Every victory teaches composure, but this composure throbs with soaring aspiration. Do not be afraid of big definitions, and when embarking on an achievement tell them to have your meal ready the next day. A person must go off to an achievement as if summoned by a work bell. For the striving aspirant the thinnest surface is thick enough. Aspire!

148. People do not eat corpses, but they are fine about eating slaughtered animals. One has to ask, “What’s the difference? Isn’t a slaughtered animal also a corpse?” It is for purely practical reasons that We advise you not to eat meat. Naturally, everyone understands that to consume decomposing cells is harmful. But when does this decomposition begin? The moment life activity ceases, the body loses its protective radiation, and immediately decomposition sets in. That is why worldly wisdom about not eating corpses is disingenuous. We recommend farinaceous food, dairy products, and vegetables, foods in which there is less decomposition.

While it is true that the course of a plant’s life is similar to that of an animal, you can see that with plants decomposition begins much later. It is better to have plant food fresh or dried over very high heat. It is better to have unleavened bread made without fats. There already are enough fatty substances in butter and vegetable oils.

Your term vegetarianism is unfortunate, for it emphasizes separating food on the basis of principle rather than substance.

Food in the community must be vegetable, since the members of the community must seek to maximize practicality in everything.

On the path let us not be finicky. Let us not forget the usefulness of all kinds of resins. On the path let us remember that two meals a day is enough. And let us not sit too long at the table.

149. Maintain a correlation between expansion and consolidation. Remember: not only leaping but also retaining new ground. Many cases could be cited where expansion did not provide new possibilities. Expansion, of course, should be understood with respect to the consciousness. If the victory of the consciousness is not consolidated by technical means, instead of a steady light the consciousness is filled with sharp, painful sparks. As with everything in life, one needs to understand the moment of assimilation. When living fully, people begin to notice, as it were, a pulsation in their experiences. This pulsation continues quite apart from the amount of work or any external stimuli. One should protect this pulsation inwardly and not attribute it to overwork or passing emotions. At these moments of assimilation, the consciousness accustoms itself to some new acquisition. Due to inexperience people often grow concerned about the temporary silence of the consciousness, but such consolidation of the conquest leads on to the next leap. During a period of assimilation, do not force the consciousness to undertake any tasks. The butterfly is getting ready colorful new wings—do not damage its cocoon.

To observe the movements of the consciousness, you should photograph the physical radiations. These photographs must be taken with great precision. You have heard about the symptoms of diseases appearing quite visibly in photos. Besides these perturbations you may notice, as it were, blue spots floating in the field of radiations. They indicate that the consciousness is condensing at such moments. Then the image may show something like spurts of flame sweeping away the blue condensations, which means that the hero is ready for the next podvig. When undertaken properly, photography of the radiations will result in people gaining a far more substantial understanding of features of the human organism that are less visible to the naked eye.

One could even set up a completely “scientific” institute in which anyone could drop in, sniff the screen and photographic plate, and inspect the sleeves and pockets of the person conducting the experiment. It would have no trickery and be exactly what everyone wants: straightforward, free of charge, approved by the government, and with no requirement that one takes a bath beforehand. But the last feature is not so simple, since taking the photo means one has to rub down the body with alcohol to remove perspiration.

Consolidation of the consciousness is essential!

150. Acceleration of mutual understanding lies not in uttering words but in touching the brain centers. There is a remarkable experiment in which the speaker establishes a current of understanding and then suddenly switches languages, selecting a tongue unfamiliar to the listener—and the phenomenon of understanding continues. Of course, you know of and have experienced silent suggestion where a lengthy thought is communicated with lightning speed. It is interpreted in the language most familiar to the listener, though the tongue in which it was expressed may be totally different.

Experiments on thought transmission are becoming common, but the quality of sending and receiving is not being sufficiently investigated. Least observed is the moment when the current of understanding closes the circuit, after which formal words are no longer necessary. The steadiness of this current depends least of all upon the tension of the brain muscles. People may very well burst a blood vessel with such tension, but it is not going to give rise to understanding.

You have long known about the disintegrative sound, which acts through not tension but quality. Understanding is similar to this sound. In ancient times it was said, “Open the gates of understanding, or else my lightning will reduce your bolt to ashes.” Indeed, the lightning of thought—the first of all creations—penetrates every bolt.

There comes a moment when the listener’s eyes darken and sparks of an uncharacteristic color run through the physical radiation; this color belongs to the radiation of the sender. Of course, the light has succeeded in beaming through most quickly, and it has powerfully affected the light of the listener’s consciousness. It means that the field is occupied and able to receive still more.

With experiments in thought transmission it is important to survey the entire district to find out how the message spread. By doing so one can ascertain the spiral nature of the message’s diffusion. From this one can understand that messages sent out into space will not be successful in the sense of precise timing. Envisioning a concrete goal makes it possible to go still further and occupy a vast area in a definite direction.

Let us end with a smile. Can you imagine thoughts thundering in space? One disciple asked, “If thought is ponderable, then isn’t space weighed down with thoughts and gravity thereby disturbed?” What do you think?

151. Here is one more revealing experiment. A person is placed in the middle of a dark, spacious room. Several people move silently along the walls and ask him brief, sudden questions. In the dark it is almost impossible to determine exactly where a voice is coming from. But what is more remarkable, when a question is sent out into space by someone who inwardly is ignoring the person standing in the center, the voice often seems to come from the opposite direction. In this way one can see that it is not the external organ but the internal sending process that has primary significance.

Of course, a spark of light is the first thing to hit the target. The ability to sway a crowd lies not in eloquence but in understanding the nodes of the crowd and sending a light-bearing messenger there in a timely manner. Inability to speak impersonally and fixation on a single listener are equally harmful. We also recommend making use of the phonograph for conveying scientific data. However, one cannot expect to arouse burning emotion through mechanical means of communication.

Personal electrification of a crowd is also useful inasmuch as the nodes kindled begin to act something like resonators and energize a wide area around them. How does one locate the most effective and resonant nodes in a crowd? Balls of light fly between the speaker and the crowd, and the centers of the energies burn bright and clear if the speaker is not a chatterbox but a leader of the Common Good.

Try comparing the physical radiations of a chatterbox with those of a leader of the Common Good. How the radiation of the leader sparkles, what straight arrows shoot from his shoulders, and what purple waves rush forward, providing protection and engendering new power! But the radiation of a babbler is furrowed with zigzags, the ends of which turn inward.

Devices for photographing physical radiations will soon be given to children as holiday presents, and as usual know-it-alls will warn them against dangerous pastimes: “You can live just fine without knowing yourself!”

152. We condemn tardiness of every kind. Avoidance of tardiness is made possible when one’s life is characterized by two external qualities: precision in work and vigilance.

Precision in work must be developed in every worker. A complete, instantaneous transfer of attention allows one to crystalize every moment of work. With discipline it is possible to make each thought clear and distinct. The hops and leaps of plump bunnies are not what is called for.

Alongside precision stands eternal vigilance. Not the cold words of decadent know-it-alls who advise, “Don’t be surprised at anything!” but a fiery call—“Be eagle-eyed!” Such tension is not a tightrope ready to snap, but a rainbow of foresight.

One should not think that vigilance could make a person cold and aloof. A warrior on watch is filled with the light of possibilities. True, he is not surprised at anything, because he foresees the birth of new possibilities.

When you exclaim, “Always ready!” you are, as it were, answering to Our call. Someone who is always ready can experience the entire crucible of tension.

Day and night Our coworkers are ready for all the radiance of the Cosmos. In readiness they will pass by day unseen, and at night they will find the resplendent path. Nothing disturbs you when you are constantly being disturbed. The seeker’s character prevents the ship from getting icebound.

We condemn tardiness.

153. Someone will declare: “Is it really so difficult to be vigilant, to have a sense of proportion, to be mobile and devoted? I feel that I can accommodate all these requirements; won’t you take me on the long journey and let me join the Community?” But has this hasty traveler given thought to an essential condition for the qualities of which he speaks? Constancy has been forgotten. A tiny flickering flame accommodates all the qualities of fire, if only for an instant, but darkness swallows them up as swiftly as a brazier melts a snowflake. One cannot place trust in a moment of accommodation; only constancy, tempered by toil and obstacles, generates accommodative power that one can trust.

A true musician does not think about each finger making sounds; only a learner considers which fingers to use. A true coworker does not think about intentionally applying the qualities necessary to work. The music of the spheres fuses with the song of successful labor.

Think about how constancy resembles a ladder of fire.

154. Somebody resolves: “I will go up the ladder of fire.” Do so—the path is open to everyone. But remember: If fear is felt, the rungs will dissolve into molten flame. Where will you go, not having acquired quality in your work? When we say it is good to sleep on cedar roots, it is easy for a follower to act on that advice. Sleeping is simple, especially when you are being advised to sleep. But when you are told, “Keep constant watch,” the steps of the ladder will grow hot. One thing bears repeating: The ladder is not easy.

A leader who hides real danger is no good. Danger is overcome only with complete knowledge.

I see another fool coming, this one with still more defects. “Why the solemn proclamation?” he sneers. We shall answer, “The solemnity of the warning is proportionate to the indignity of the squeaks you emit when in danger. Biped, how many times have you lost face when confronting the slightest difficulty! We have seen you blacker than coal, and negation has filled you with stench. You aren’t faring well, having burned the steps, and now you’re standing at the abyss begging for alms.”

A new person comes asking, “How can we reconcile the Teaching with science?” If science teaches genuine knowledge, then the Teaching is science. What purpose does science have if it is swollen with preconceptions? Anyone who finds Our language upsettingly solemn, confines science to the shackles of mediocrity. For a person who is thinking about the community, no harm arises from creeping reptiles.

I assure you, I know the structure in all its complexity. I will not hide how far the stones have to be carried or how serious the water shortage is. Precisely this awareness, precisely the infinitude of the stars are what establish the fiery steps!

155. The development and structure of the community loves intensity. It can be seen how intensity facilitates all kinds of manifestations. Even simple physical tension strengthens elementary manifestations. Not only burdening of the nerve centers but also muscular contractions enhance the emanation of sensations. Not sitting in quiet comfort but tightening one’s limbs in toil provides a saturation of energy. Naturally, however, physical tension is only for the most elementary manifestations; tension of the brain centers is necessary. The best kind of tension is sustained vigilance.

Here is a picture of Our Community. Our resources are intensified for the Common Good. Everyone works with complete willingness and readiness. Our wireless link has just brought an urgent message: Personal action is needed. The Elect Council chooses the person to do the job. Sometimes that person knows the entire scope of the job, but sometimes is only informed of an intermediate step. Often there is only time to select appropriate clothing, and a book begun goes back to the library unread. Often the duration of the assignment is not determined. Often its consequences are not something one can see. What makes the chosen one tear himself away with joy? What helps him to hurry through the severe cold over blocks of ice? What command can arouse this intensified labor? This jubilant readiness grows out of the habit of vigilance.

When I advise you to develop intensity and vigilance, I am not saying that to burden you. My advice has jubilation as its end result. Those who fear intense labor are afraid of the forms and laws of energy. Let them lumber shapelessly toward decomposing moons. Let their own decay augment the decomposition of that which is subject to radical reworking.

Learn to anticipate jubilation!

156. One can well imagine that the path of those bearing a mission is not a restful one. People fancy a procession of some sort of magicians, almost wizards with caps of invisibility. But it is by human hands and feet that the World Community is being built, and in this lies the beauty of its construction.

It is rare, however, for the messenger of the Community to meet with a welcome in cities. The very soul of the city snarls at him. In fact, the very existence of the Community is denied in the city. The very atmosphere does not allow any rest to the messenger.

Here he, the solitary one, has walked, swum, and flown through the regions designated, and he has already begun delivering his messages. Who has received him? First, distrust: Does the Community really exist? Second: Can the Community be active and participate in distant matters? Third: Isn’t the arrival of the messenger and the need for his influence just a coincidence? I remember how one messenger, indignant at the lameness of this last suggestion, responded: “You who talk about coincidence should remember that you yourself are a coincidence of material particles. But if your coincidence has turned out to be a failure, the laws of matter provide a reason for that.” However, when it comes to the transfer of money and objects, thoughts begin to coincide in a most propitious manner. Facts and warnings are listened to attentively. The city dweller is not averse to getting ahold of a useful piece of information, even if it comes from the Community. Thus, apart from a few coworkers, the messenger everywhere encounters a greedy abyss. Give us money, give us advice for tomorrow, make away with our enemies, and get lost quick without disturbing our digestion with thoughts about universal fellowship.

Of course, awareness of cooperation-community is progressing, but the thinking of the narrow-minded is stuck in stagnation.

We summon coworkers who know the difficulties. We summon those who will not turn back. We summon those who know that joy is a special wisdom!

We may provide the most challenging information, but Our advice leads to jubilation!

157. When sending forth a messenger, We offer wishes for success in encountering the dragon. Of course, this is not a harmless, preglacial dragon with a tail, but ferocious human egoism that explodes into dangerous paroxysms called attacks or frenzies of egoism. Where do these dragons nest? They say that the wickedest nests will be in luxurious chambers, or behind a moneychanger’s counter, or in a merchant’s storeroom. But one is more likely to find a harmless moneychanger or an honest merchant than break through the armor of denial and exclusion. The denier is not only ready to defend his ignorance, but he dreams of encircling all humanity with a wall of terror.

Where, then, is the root cause of a frenzy of egoism? Humans, sowing terror, are themselves insanely afraid. In the denier dwells not only ignorance but also abject fear. Tell the children what signs to look for to find a nest of egoism. They should understand that an egoist, first of all, does not admit anything, while seekers of the Common Good make it their first task to encompass possibilities.

Our messenger need only utter an elementary truth to be suspected of entanglement with some Community intrigue. The messenger says, “Energy and light,” seemingly the simplest of concepts, and the city-dweller already senses an assault on his wellbeing. The urbanite is so used to thinking of himself as something dense and dark that he will not admit he could be a source of physical light. But even children are not surprised if they emit an electric spark.

It is necessary to check school curricula and emphasize the transmission of accurate knowledge. Superstition drives people into crevices of fear. Educational thought needs to be set right immediately, or else one more generation of imbeciles will disgrace the planet. There is a need for enhancement of natural science with an understanding of what this term means. Biology, astrophysics, and chemistry will attract the attention of the youngest child’s brain.

Give children the opportunity to think!

158. Magnetism and gas formations—neither of these dynamic factors has been studied at all. Magnetism attracts attention when a horse cannot lift its shoe off the ground. Gases are mentioned when people and animals fall dead. Only that kind of gross manifestation is talked about, but magnetism and gases are found across the face of the planet. No place is featureless, each locality being unique in having characteristics with deep practical significance.

One may marvel at the naiveté of people who settle somewhere without any understanding of the local conditions. One can see how many opportunities are thereby lost, and how many dangers could be averted.

You yourselves conducted an experiment with a hazel branch, and you were amazed at how this ancient, primitive device strained, quivered, and moved in response to underground water and minerals. Of course, the source of this obvious reaction lies not in the branch but in the human apparatus. In what detail and with what diligence must be researched the influence of each locality on individuals and entire groups of people! Many areas are teeming with rumors about the characteristics of the locals: In some locales the people suffer from goiters; in some they lose teeth; in some leprosy nests; in some the spleen breaks down; in some the heart becomes enlarged; in some the character grows sluggish; in some there is vigor and vitality. A great number of such features strike the eye. It can be observed that these features are not a matter of racial or climactic conditions. The very structure of the soil underfoot contains the main causes for the difference in the various characteristics people assume. This offers a wide field for study to anyone approaching with a sharp eye free of prejudice.

159. Not only do people not pay attention to the emanations of the earth, but they are hardly aware of the quality of the water they consume, even though they are used to “taking the waters.” To protect their health people came up with the idea of using boiled water, forgetting that certain aquatic organisms cannot live in boiled water. True, a great many microbes perish when boiled, but just when it is cooling the boiled water takes on a large quantity of dead particles from the atmosphere.

If you wish to lower the brain’s receptivity, drink cold boiled water that has been standing for a long time—it imparts a sluggish, stale quality to the organism.

We tell people to use boiled water only when it has just been boiled and is still very hot.

We make use of springs, allowing the water to be purified by alum or pumice stones. Tufa, which is found around geysers, is also useful in purifying water. Pure water not only quenches thirst but also ozonizes the entire atmosphere. We treat wounds by immersing them in pure water. Light and water are Our medicines.

Our efforts are directed at applying the simplest means. When forming new communities, make sure that all the methods are kept simple. You need to start by dealing with highfalutin speech that is blind to the nature of its audience. Take the talkative traveler to the bank of a mountain stream—let him feel ashamed!

Just this morning the song of the stream banished fatigue in a way that nothing else can. The emanation of its energy is as powerful as a strong jolt of electricity.

160. We avoid suggestion except in cases where it is needed to avert immediate danger. Another such case is when you come across a mature consciousness awaiting a spark from outside; but any forceful incursion is reprehensible. This principle must be adopted in the community, especially when one knows the limitless influence of the will. If you know that the will moves not only human beings and animals but also objects, then the wave of your will must be directed with accuracy and care.

You know that talk of objects being moved by the will is not an exaggeration. There is no magic involved; rather, thinking of a magnet will give you the right idea. For a visual illustration, imagine elder-wood figurines being subjected to electricity.

We especially study the will, which may be sharper than arrows. One cannot protect oneself from these arrows. You could set up a shield if you knew the exact direction in which the arrows move. But who can know that direction?

161. Observe the readings of seismic waves. The points are not distributed along the equator or a meridian but form their own curve. Sometimes increased activity in seismic shocks and shifts coincides with intensification of the so-called sunspots, which results in tension throughout the solar system. You do not need to be a prophet to understand that at such periods the brain’s activity will proceed in a special way.

Social aspirations also have their distribution curves. One needs to be careful and not interrupt this sequence of events. Fissures arising from shifts are everywhere similar, whether they open up in the ground or in popular aspirations.

The new world must possess the sensitivity of the best seismograph.

Anyone who complicates the procession of peoples can be awarded a wreath of ignorance. What such a person does cannot be excused by ignorance of the law, and it is likewise improper for a leader to reverse direction. No one can be guided by the personal; rather, by comparing the values of the Common Good, one is able to choose the swiftest path.

One must not squander a single opportunity.

This may seem like a simple, boring truth, but nobody puts it into practice, and plans of action are drawn up in dark rooms, not on watchtowers.

One needs to observe not what one wishes to see but what is there in reality.

162. Anyone who professes devotion to the actual and authentic should especially welcome the discernment of reality. Not simulated stammering before the methodology of a recognized authority, but battling ablaze in search of reality. Indeed, irrepressibly, inalterably, with such ferocious aspiration that the lofty mountain can no more conceal the expanse being sought than can the tiny mound.

As we take off, we learn the great gift of patience. Radiant, creative patience is not like the murky cloak of nonresistance to evil. The non-resisters sit stooped, like a luckless fisherman. They wager a length of yarn, but that cannot restrain the dance of the elements. Creative patience knows what the keys to the New World are; therefore, patience creates power and, with every hour of reality, only grows in intensity.

Nonresistance is like a bottle of perfume left open a long time, while creative patience is like aged wine in a sealed bottle.

Observe the intensity of creativity in every social structure. Sound is the structure in which diverse creativity is inspired and winged on. If creativity is burdensome for a structure, it is a sure sign that it is flawed. Do not allow such flaws to nest in the structure. Summon masons and rebuild the walls until song resounds freely.

An old legend says…

There came a messenger from a distant world to give people equality, brotherhood, and joy. The people had long since forgotten their songs and were deadened with hatred.

The messenger banished darkness and crowding, struck down contagion, and established joyous work. Hatred died down, and the messenger’s sword was hung on a wall. But everyone was silent; nobody could sing. Then the messenger gathered the little children, led them to a forest, and told them, “These are your flowers, your streams, and your trees. No one has followed us here. While I rest, you go fill yourselves with joy.” With timid footsteps the children began to venture into the forest. After a while, the littlest one stopped in a meadow and raised his eyes to a ray of the sun. Just then a yellow oriole sounded its call. The little one followed after it and soon cried out joyfully, “Our sun!” One after another the children returned to the meadow, where a new hymn to Light rang out. The messenger said, “The people have begun to sing. The time has come!”

163. Creativity is the basis of the evolutionary course. How, then, can the expression of creative power be strengthened? It can only be bolstered by the wellspring of cheerfulness. Joy is a special wisdom. Cheerfulness is a special technique. A deepening of cheerfulness arises from awareness of the creativity of the elements. Of course, creative patience and cheerfulness are the two wings of the worker.

We do not understand the sentimental word inspiration very well. When the consciousness is at work, it does not go calling on inspiration like a basement tenant paying visits to a benefactor to beg favors! Were it to do so, the division into weekdays and holidays would resume, and one might start celebrating birthdays again. Our Community has one never-ending holiday of labor, where cheerfulness serves as the wine of joy.

It is impossible to find consolation in inspiration. One can learn to keep one’s consciousness on a certain level of creative patience and sing like the birds, for whom song is an expression of being, but one has to remove the scarecrows put up to prevent song, for the level of the song corresponds to the level of the quality of work. One needs to speed forward with cheer—like an arrow in flight, as the ancients would say!

Doesn’t it seem strange that I speak so often about patience, about obstacles, about cheerfulness, about the ceaselessness of struggle? Precisely, it is at different times and from different angles that I forge the armor of fearlessness. Remember, this tempering cannot be accomplished overnight. The sword is tempered at various temperatures; even the Buddha did not reject the notion that in the happiest hour one should recall misfortune without diminishing joy.

But tempered joy knows no scarecrows. Joy is a special wisdom.

164. The doctor foresees the course of the illness, and you follow the measures prescribed. The astronomer forecasts the solar eclipse, and you provide yourselves with the necessary eyewear. The social psychologist predicts the course of events, and you cry “Prophet!” and in terror hide yourselves in the darkest corners. Your ostensible reason for doing this, of course, is adherence to scientific methods, but actually it is hypocrisy and fear that prevent you from considering where more genuine knowledge lies—in the shortsighted judgment of the doctor who creeps along on the outer surface, or the farsighted marksmanship of the social seer in whom experience harmonizes with immutability. Recall your social prophets who centuries ahead mapped out the events humanity was to face. You do not call them mystics or frauds. Together with Us, you call them farsighted psychologists. Regarding this definition, We will agree with you—and pause. Let us recall, in passing, that the reviled word prophet means “someone who foretells.” Social prophets have foretold the course of events, which means that the underlying concept is no less real than that of medicine or astronomy.

Mahatma means a great soul who encompasses the manifestations of the New World. But let us not be obtrusive, as this characteristic is condemned in the community. Agreement is achieved not by pushing and shoving but by whispering into the sensitive ear. Show understanding of what it means to have a sensitive ear for which the Infinite is transformed into the limit of human possibilities. He is right who can completely cover an opponent’s opinion without touching on its beginning or its end. To do this one needs to possess predictive power, even to a small degree—or rather, one needs to have far-ranging insight into the real.

165. In the development of communities, make sure that self-interest does not emerge under the guise of adherence to the rules. The destruction of creative conquests ensues from dark self-interest. People will say that this worm is far too deeply burrowed in human ignorance. All the more reason to know the cause of its generation. The most serious cause will be privilege. All one’s forces must be marshaled in destroying this harmful phantom. The structure of the community first of all envisages equality. Admit any form of inequality, and right away you run up against ruinous privilege. Inequality creates a seesaw: The greater rise of one leads to a still greater rise of another. There is only one way to prevent the pillars from being undermined: equality.

There are cynics who say, “Let them sway—it will increase the energy in space.” There is something to this remark, but in actual fact the common cause is so much in need of solicitude that a true economy of energies must be adopted. The most economical principle is equality: It eliminates privilege and self-interest.

166. The true fire-blossom is genuine selflessness; however, it must be manifested not only in actions but mainly in the consciousness. Like fleeting shadows, actions are a poor reflection, and a whirlwind of shifting conventions obscures the meaning of an act. Is it possible to judge action without knowing cause and effect? In that case a savior will appear to be an assailant, and a giver will seem to be a miser. But it is not easy to ascertain awareness of selflessness—individuality is inescapable. A blend of selflessness and individuality can only arise when there is a clear grasp of the future. Selflessness is not built upon past experience; only a real sense of the future can shape an inner judgment about the limits of the possible. Anyone who thinks in the still of the night, “The past has taught me the value of selflessness,” is a prisoner.

One needs to sing a hymn to selflessness in the rays of the sun, as a bird does with its unique expression, knowing the day in the future when the migration is destined to begin. The concept of migration is significant in understanding selflessness.

You can understand the future as a turn from night to day. The drowsy will sleep right through it, but the Community is staying on watch. For Our Guards, no patrol is without significance.

167. It has often been said that one can find relaxation not in sleep but in a change of work. Of course, there are those who deprived themselves of sleep and got poor results. In preparation one must first teach the nerve centers to work in groups. One needs to disconnect the work of the centers. One has to be able to connect the most unexpected groups and then quickly change their combinations. Thus, a street performer playing several instruments at once is already performing a useful exercise for this purpose. Dictating to several scribes at the same time is useful. A combination of reading and dictation is useful. Moving one’s hands in opposite directions is useful. Stopping one’s breath and thought is useful. One can enumerate many exercises of the will about which one might say: The bees create a hive with patience.

168. Express your wishes with caution. Everyone knows many parables and fairytales that speak of the ugly consequences of imprudent desires. Remember how a raja obtained the beautiful palace he so desired, but on entering it thought of a tiger attacking, whereupon a tiger appeared and tore him to pieces. The symbols in parables contain a great deal of reality. If people understood the power of the will, many phenomena could be explained in practical terms. Of course, it is not a forced tension of the will but the dynamism of the well-coordinated centers that yields fulfillment of desires. That is why an often-repeated desire turns into a blunt blade and fails to cut through space. Meanwhile, the resonance of an unexpected coordination impacts even the densest surface.

Tales of sorcerers who send people deadly diseases are not fiction, but it is not a matter of sorcery, only exercise of the will. Even the weakest hypnotist can make a person experience the sensation of drowning. He can also order a subject to die on a certain date. Such cases have been verified.

Now, imagine a will brought up under favorable conditions, and you will soon agree that the “deadly eye” of the East has a basis in fact.

One cannot harbor doubt about the power of the will, but it is quite another matter to identify this power in real life. How to discover and discern the conditions under which desire is thrust into the being who is the target of our will? We especially need to observe the sparks of our consciousness. When the body is almost invisible, the lightning of thought still flashes, and at the tip of this lightning is life and death.

A ruler was known to have said to criminals, “You can’t live more than a day,” and by nightfall their bodies would be found lifeless. The responsibility for such sendings is great. In fact, each hour we are sending arrows in every direction.

Be careful when expressing desires.

169. When using the command of the will to treat illnesses, remember that you cannot eliminate contagious diseases with suggestion. A common mistake is not being able to discern the range of possible influence. Furthermore, the treatment of contagious diseases by suggestion can cause irreparable damage. It is better not to touch the dog settled firm at the gateway; if you start whipping it, its rage will increase tenfold. It is the same with microbes: They can be vanquished by rays or by resistance from the forces of the organism, but the will’s whip makes many nerve centers droop, and then the inflammation will spread to new areas. Rays cut away the roots of the infection, while the will spurs it to new activity.

Of course, it is difficult to diagnose a disease in its embryonic state; only examination of the secretions and a picture of the radiations will provide definite results. The secretions may sometimes lead one into error regarding the true cause of an illness, but the hieroglyphs of the radiation will reveal its basis. Each peculiarity of the organism’s activity generates a color and a hieroglyph. Observations can be conducted at every hospital.

170. We have spoken about conditions and differences. Naturally, the question comes up: What is usual and what unusual? From Our perspective, everything is usual. In the eyes of a person of small consciousness, many things are unusual. The distinction between the usual and the unusual depends only on the level of the consciousness. It is more accurate to speak of something being encompassed or not encompassed, recognized or not recognized. We have a different understanding of the unusual. Just as different types of thinking are distinguished as, say, mathematical or philosophical, there are different types of consciousness, each with a usual grouping of centers. Among these circles of consciousness there often stands out a grouping of centers that is uncharacteristic of a particular type of consciousness. Such branches of consciousness are truly unusual inasmuch as they give their owner many possibilities but little earthly happiness. And it is rare that the owner himself can specify the symptoms that accompany these branches. These unusual features drown in the routine of the consciousness. Even an experienced psychologist will be hard-pressed to spot such unexpected blossoms.

Though diseases are clearly reflected in the person’s radiation, unusual branches of the consciousness are barely formulated. True, the radiations provide a full picture of a person, but everything that is mentally unrealized gives rise to wavering images whose outlines are difficult to fix. Herein lies the domain of unusualness for any given type of consciousness, and such blossoms growing on stones are especially precious.

Think about psychosis, think about crime, think about lack of balance.

171. To some it may seem that much of what has been said is common knowledge. One needs to assert concepts of a different order: This is the only way that consciousness can be assimilated. You can imagine two people talking who, though their level of development is roughly the same, do not understand each other. Perhaps between one consciousness and another only a few small links are missing, but this slight discrepancy makes the gears of thinking turn differently, and as a result entirely different levers are set in motion. Only when there is complete mutual understanding will nobody suffer harm. After all, We are not uttering revelations, nor are We preaching; We are simply clarifying the various details so that the consciousness can assimilate them for the joint work. Thus, into the field of vision enter various details that someone has already thought through, but in order to strengthen the chain, these details must be asserted in the present time and place.

Precisely, it is necessary to clean the chain of thinking. One has to summon up every ounce of solicitude to make cooperation succeed. Of course, people joined in communal consciousness are not given to taking offense, but untimely expressions of thought may set one’s companion on fire, thereby doing harm to the cause, which is why We watch over the gradual growth of the consciousness. It is not Our job to just inflate the dimensions of the consciousness. Only organic development and diverse intake determine the actual volume of the treasury.

Sitting on the bank of a stream, exercise your imagination and recall Our conversations. Not one of the stream’s waves can be repeated, though to the eye they all look alike.

Observe the harmony of cooperation.

172. Does anyone harbor doubts about how to reconcile the assimilation of consciousness with the exchange of opinions called a dispute? Are disputes really necessary? Won’t they be manifestations of dissimilation? With Us disputes as such do not exist, but find expression in a mutual enrichment of consciousness. Precisely it is long assimilation that makes it possible to turn contradictions into something that enriches the stock of knowledge. Contradictions are usually just different aspects of one and the same phenomenon. Of course, when contradictions issue from ignorance, the dispute turns into a garbage pit.

Just allow consciousness to illumine the crypts of thought, and ridiculous disputes will turn into rational discussions that bring benefit and joy.

173. It has been noted that certain people bring success with them, as it were. Superstition calls them lucky. Science attributes their success to strength of will. We will add that usually these people have an assimilated consciousness. They become representatives of the collective, drawing into outcomes a force intensified by many participants, some of whom at the moment do not even suspect an expenditure of energy. It is not at all necessary that everyone in the collective know everyone else. A wave of energy is instantly passed on through the nodes of transmission; therefore, the presence of an international collective is so necessary in taking action. That is why a wave of internationalism is needed, for the diversity of dynamics will yield greater intensity.

In Our Community one finds people of many nationalities and various specializations; this is practical for condensation of the waves of the will. It is possible to preserve the entire potential of the individuality and to fine-tune the harmony among consciousnesses. We are against narrow specialization; the best design of the collective keeps this condition in mind.

You recently discussed the importance of rays in wireless transmission. Precisely it is rays that contribute to connecting the collective over long distances. Precisely the rays whose existence was denied until quite recently are weaving a new blanket for the planet. These rays have an advantage over other waves in that they transmit more easily without disturbing the gravity of the atmosphere. Sound, of course, was what first attracted the attention of humankind. Light and color attracted less study, but as sound is only a reaction of light, in-depth knowledge will turn to the significance of light and to the higher energy—luminiferous matter. Materia Lucida has attracted all of the finest minds; even if they did not find a way to use it consciously, they believed it would inevitably play a significant role in the upcoming evolution.

Rays and light waves bring a key to the new evolution.

174. People have known about the exteriorization of sensitivity for a very long time. It was attained by mechanical means or by a strong command of the will, and served as a very persuasive reason for someone to be burned at the stake. Even now modern inquisitors, hoping to detect some shaggy tail of necromancy, end up driving bold quests underground.

Great minds have sensed with solicitude the achievements of knowledge. Community members should be open to all of the new possibilities.

Once its principle has been found, a phenomenon’s dimensions depend on technique. Thus, the transference of sensitivity can adopt a great variety of dimensions. Suppose, for example, that a new community must be established in a certain location. The place might have all the necessary features, but surrounding conditions may temporarily constitute a formidable danger. Let us then take a new place and transfer to it the possibilities of the first. In our consciousness we will not break away from the possibilities of the initial location, and we will experience the effects of the original decision when laying the foundations for the future structure. Whether something is to be on the 50th parallel or is 20 degrees south, it is essential to preserve illumination in its construction.

The tale about an invisible city whose bells could be heard reminds us of the man who was unaware of a strong sensation because of the transference of sensitivity. Perhaps My example is not yet clear to you, but the principle of transference of sensitivity can be magnified until it applies to entire peoples. This principle makes it possible to avoid many dangers.

We may acknowledge that the human body is the most powerful psychic instrument, but we cannot ascribe the same power to a physical device. Physical devices are subservient to the higher energy that we call psychic construction. In terms of its quality, this energy can only be likened to light.

We have just spoken about the power of rays and their new applications; it is impossible to neglect the possibilities of the human organism. How can we study the distant worlds when we pay no attention to how we ourselves function? You expend great effort in discovering the rays, but do you study how they affect the brain and other centers?

175. You know about many thought reading experiments. Speak about them to Western people, as they have no idea how common this psychological property is in the East. Out of ignorance they even call it a superstition. However, if a thought is an organic creation, then it can be detected. Even crude physical instruments can register the tension of a thought. Even thermometers and electrical devices react when a thought arises. The fact that thought even changes the body temperature shows the extent to which the psychic apparatus dominates the physical; indeed, one may call it a part of the physical. There exists an instrument that records the flow of thoughts; this flow appears in the radiation and can be described in detail using a comparative method. Anyway, this approach is amenable to Western thinking.

There are few attempts to connect the mechanical with the psyche. Meanwhile, you know how a scientific attitude toward the psyche alleviates and transforms one’s entire existence. I have said that the community is impossible without technical means; this concept includes both physical and psychic technology, as otherwise the community members would begin to resemble windup toys.

I repeat: Pay urgent attention to the possibilities of the psychic apparatus.

176. “Psychomechanics” is a correct way to define the application of psychic energy. One can find interesting experiments concerning factory work. Every experienced worker knows that machines require rest. It is difficult to formulate a precise definition of this phenomenon, but it is quite familiar even to workers who have no notion of psychomechanics.

We have done experiments at textile factories where there were hundreds of looms and as many as a hundred fairly experienced workers. The looms begged for rest once they had been used more than a certain length of time, regardless of how experienced the weaver was. When the weavers were given a psychic test, it became clear that in the hands of operators possessing psychic energy the looms needed less rest, as if a current of living energy were being transmitted to the loom and enhancing its vitality. This vital coordination between worker and machine must be adopted in communities of labor. Only when psychomechanics are studied can this advantageous condition be attained.

A task of the government is to bring into existence the most productive conditions by taking sensible measures and directing scientists to facilitate the life of the collective, this including, ultimately, anonymity.

We know that sometimes the symbol of a personality is necessary for nations, but all the same, anonymity remains vital to the ideal of true evolution. It is one of the conditions for realizing the short duration of earthly existence, and it is the best path to joyful cooperation. The antipode of anonymity will be the records of ancient kings, no longer known to anyone, in which they adorned themselves with glorious designations. These titles elicit no more than a smile, and most often have nothing to do with promotion of the Common Good. In view of its antipode, the community will certainly strive for anonymity. But without psychomechanics, such anonymity will be ugly. A person who has defined his place among manifestations and objects can become anonymous. A person who has understood space can offer up his personal self. In this way can communities approach indestructibility.

We do not value communal moths. Do not forget that drunkenness is the enemy of psychomechanics. Do not think that psychomechanics is for the select few; it is the property of the rational collective and is tested on everything that happens in everyday life.

177. Is it possible to acquire psychotechnics without a Teacher? It is impossible. Psychotechnics involves dangerous processes. Would you allow your children to go into a physics laboratory without a supervisor?

How does one find the Teacher? Let us not forget that the laws of the will have the property of attracting the attention of whoever the call concerns. It is not necessary that the Teacher be discovered in the house next door; one can be guided at a distance. But there are times when the warning of an experienced hand is absolutely necessary.

A range of psychic phenomena are closely connected with atmospheric and astrochemical events. There exist magnetic storms that, although invisible, are palpably lethal; a physical guide will give useful advice on how to avoid the dangers characteristic of each metal. There exist psychic storms during which the Teacher’s hand becomes indispensable.

You know that physical phenomena have an impact on large groups of people. This should be called not madness but rather a particular manifestation of collective unity. One can imagine the influence of subterranean gases and the dust from atmospheric bodies. Some paralyze psychic activity, while others are so pathogenic that the Pilot must take urgent measures.

In speaking of the possibilities of psychotechnics, we are not aiming at the destruction of anyone’s apparatus. As Members of the Community, We are pursuing the task of true economy, and each psychic apparatus must be protected. Special care and rigor are needed, for the potential of the psychic energy often does not match the intellectual level, and one has to determine the quality of the psychic capacity. To force the psychic energy in a direction not natural to it would be the most dangerous kind of coercion.

The deposits of luminiferous matter and astrochemical rays impart an extraordinary sensitivity to psychic energy and saturate it periodically with rays. Of course, the quality of the consciousness will exercise a decisive influence. Therefore, let us handle psychic energy with care.

178. Let us recall the qualities that are absolutely inadmissible in the communities: ignorance, fear, falsehood, hypocrisy, selfish desire, embezzlement, drunkenness, smoking, and profanity. Someone will ask, “Are you seeking to recruit angels?” We will answer, “Is everyone on your Earth a liar or a drunkard? We know many who are brave and truthful.” They will come back, “The requirements are too lofty.” We shall answer, “Could all of you really be foul-mouthed and selfish? These conditions are only daunting for a smug mediocrity who secretes money under his bed. In the Himalayas for long ages people have been found who are unafraid of these conditions.”

I advise you to take a closer look at the community members. If someone is unable to encompass all of the conditions, let him be deprived of every opportunity to cooperate. Let him remain in an animal state until he feels the urge to live like a human being.

As long as the consciousness has not accepted the community, the slightest requirement will seem insurmountable. You can abandon every weakness once the task ahead is clear. Think about applying yourself to the future, and fear of the present will dissolve. Do not take what I have been saying for fine rhetoric, but like masons reshape your stony hearts. After the heart petrifies, the brain follows.

Is there any question about your wanting to overcome your defects? To begin with, do not lie, do not be afraid, and learn something every day. There is no need to repeat this to community members, but there may be false members, and these must be set apart as if they were infected with syphilis.

I desire that my advice reach schools. I want children to remember the Friends who have dedicated themselves to the Community of the World—to the Common Good.

179. Imagine you see a person doing harm who is, at the same time, someone with a spark of psychic energy. Of course, you will begin setting forth the finest qualities of an evolving person. It often happens that your interlocutor immediately begins agreeing with you, while not applying to himself anything that you are saying. It is not wise to tell him that he is doing wrong, but you can say that his action does not agree with the direction of evolution. It is not a matter of good or bad; it is just that his actions are not goal-fitting and therefore not practical. If your companion is posing as a community member, the conversation is easier to have. Then, as adherents of the community you can demand that the foundations of evolution be preserved. Even for the breeding of pigs certain living conditions are required. If a person has resolved to make his social life a life of podvig, how can he remain in the same old vulgar hangouts? How can falsehood or cowardice live under the guise of cooperation?

We are least concerned with verbal affirmation. The state of both consciousness and action is what matters to Us. Just as doctors follow what is going on inside of the patient and the consequence, and take no notice of the things that the patient makes up, We pay no attention to verbal assurances but instead weigh the quality of action. We employ an ancient method of testing. The test is lengthy and unexpected. Do you remember the exercise in which the Buddha used the unexpected to test his disciples?

Can the unexpected test fear or falsehood? Precisely the unexpected can do so. Necessity will not be a decisive factor. Before a judge, the thief appears to be a model of honesty. Observe him not in court but in the darkness of an alley. Do not reject tests, for determination to carry out podvig in everyday life must be tested by the fire of steel. Those who trust words are either inexperienced or unsteady. Experience can be transformed into immutability only by unalterable aspiration and striving.

Do you know how to strive?

180. Whether I am rushing forward or motionless, I am striving. Whether I am learning or giving out knowledge, I am striving. Whether alone or in a crowd, I am striving.

How to intensify striving? Where are its roots and conditions? You have heard about the quality of work and action. These are the conditions: overloading to the maximum degree and awareness of the insecurity of life. Overloading will set the body in the direction of tension. Awareness of the danger in every moment of life will enhance sensitivity and knowledge of irrevocability.

Just as a mote in the eye turns into a beam, a feather falling from a bird’s wing arouses thunder in the distant worlds. How can one make clear to the Western mind the sensitivity of the cosmic machinery? How to explain that violent explosions are more harmful than the disintegration of a celestial body, because the disintegration of a celestial body takes place in total coordination with all the surrounding conditions? You yourselves do not build a factory above a dangerous cavern, but select a better site, and We too are speaking about the best conditions.

It is possible to create a symphony of explosions, and also possible to create a harmony of machines. Even people with defective hearing notice that they sometimes hear a quiet voice better than a shout, which means that quality is important, and not just tension. Precisely the quality of each action imposes a deep responsibility and is full of dangers that may lead to irreparable harm.

You need to get used to walking the edge of the precipice with full awareness of the depths that surround you, and be able to act fearlessly while being overloaded. Thus, porters bear their heavy loads up mountains with a song. This song, washed with toil, does not disturb space.

We have been to your theaters and felt little need for them. Song, sound, and color should not be cooped up in artificial hothouses. These values must go hand in hand with life, anonymously enveloping people with the caress of beauty.

In order to find a way to people’s hearts, the great artist Ashvaghosha preferred spending time in the marketplace and the square. Beauty teaches striving and aspiration.

You know and understand the lofty concept of Avatara, but in order to attain it you must become an Avakara—one aflame with aspiration.

181. How true it is that precision in time ought to be observed. Let us look at the question not only from the viewpoint of basic honesty but also from that of practicality. A person sets a certain timeframe and in doing so sends out a spatial command; the person who agrees to the timeframe closes the circuit of the current. A stream of volitional energy fixes, as it were, an astral image of the decision. To this bridge come boatloads of possibilities, strengthening and supplementing the original proposal. It is easy to imagine what happens if one side of the bridge disappears. Spatial timeframes being far more exact than the mechanism of your watch, splendid opportunities crumble like sand and disappear, never to recur.

Consider what an interesting problem it would be for statistics to compare the success of a timely decision with the failure brought on by lateness. The results would be edifying, and someone might regret the ignorance involved in delays. True, a great many people live like pigs, devouring precious blossoms. One cannot help but protect space from their heedless ignorance. If they could catch a glimpse of the space they have scarred, they themselves would cry, “Prohibit this reckless dissipation!”

Safeguard the purity of space. Be responsible for co-measurement. You cannot just set fire to other people’s wiring! So many beautiful lamps have been ruined due to a lack of solicitude! And you yourselves will overwhelm space with lamentations when things have been damaged beyond repair. And yet there was an hour when a single gesture could have kept for you everything you needed and asked for.

Teach every child to understand the importance of deadlines. Otherwise, one more generation of flabby invertebrates will devour each other.

In the community precision of deadlines and dates is established as a fundamental.

182. Most certainly, people should settle in well-tested localities. Even a bear chooses its den with more care. Of course, plants will indicate the best possibilities. Look for places with cedar and pine, heather and oak, places where the grass and flowers are vividly colored. The area has to be naturally electrified. The long needles of conifers are the best condensers of electricity. Above 11,000 feet, heights without vegetation offer valuable prana.

183. Which is more like Our Community, a chorus singing psalms or an armed camp? Rather the latter. One can imagine how It must observe the rules of martial organization and leadership. Without repelling and attacking, is it possible to discover ways to advance the Community? Is it possible to take a fortress by storm without knowing what is inside? The conditions, both defensive and offensive, must be deliberated. Knowledge rooted in experience and vigilance on watch are needed. Those who regard the Community as a house of prayer are wrong. Those who call the Community a workshop are wrong. Those who think of the Community as a sophisticated laboratory are wrong. The Community is a hundred-eyed sentinel. The Community is the hurricane of the messenger. The Community is the banner of the conqueror. At the hour when the banner is being rolled up, the enemy is already undermining the foundation of the towers. What, then, happens to your laboratories? Where do all your toil and effort end up? Truly, skipping one watch opens ten gates. Only vigilance provides the Community with ramparts.

Victory is only an obligation. Strengthening one’s forces only means the emergence of a new whirlwind. Awareness of power is only a test. Defiance is only faintheartedness. Like a wave of the ocean does the Community advance. Like the thunder of an earthquake does the Teaching of immutability resound.

Before the rising of the Sun, We march forth on vigilant watch.

184. Community members often ask what causes the unexpected bouts of sadness that they sometimes experience. They need to know that without these spasms of sadness no progress is possible. After crossing over a chasm one feels a weakening of the leg muscles. During the expansion of consciousness, one crosses over many invisible chasms. The growth of the consciousness node by node results in leaps, and psychic spasms make the nerve centers contract. Do not be afraid of such spasms; a brief rest will remedy these contractions. The growth of consciousness is more difficult to follow than the growth of hair. The consciousness conquers and eradicates. The burning of old bridges does not offer one any signs pointing onward, but it does give one the opportunity to advance. It is worthwhile not only to strive onward but also to destroy the rubbish left behind. Now you are seeing how so many people could have moved onward, but they could not let go of the age-old garbage. Guard both of My signs, the sign of Service and the sign of Community. One points to breaking away from the old, the other indicates evolution.

You can discover aspiration; do not close the door!

When you compile books, make sure that each work can be perused independently of the others. So in action, see to it that each member individually can express the entire group.

185. The best way to judge how a task should be performed is a difficult question. We know that the answer is about quality, not volume or quantity. But new people often overlook quality, and some mark of external size makes them unable to see the essential. Out of light-mindedness they occupy themselves with blowing bubbles, and then they mistake the rainbow of decomposition for the light of illumination. Even fairly experienced minds busy themselves with mechanical calculations instead of evaluating the essence of things. How to convey to them that quality alone can illuminate and validate them!

Distinguish great works from long-dead ones.

186. Every community needs to have means of defense. We are not violent conquerors, but nevertheless we keep tabs on Our enemies, and We are not mistaken about their numbers. Rays, gases, and aerial patrols will be the best external resources, but most effective of all will be what psychic energy produces. We have no intention of ending up like a flock of defenseless sheep! Real knowledge is ready to respond! It is not Our job to intimidate anyone, but We do need to warn: “Ignoramus, beware!”

Now is the time to whisper to everyone united in community: “Be conscious of your psychic commands.” There are and there will be cases when in full consciousness you have to take upon yourselves the responsibility for a decisive order. At such times, intensify all the sharpness of your sight in order to clearly delineate the scope of your goal. The ugliest results will arise from a misdirected order. Along the way the order may affect a whole range of phenomena in a manner one would never expect, and who can control the consequences of an unwise arrow? Long ago did I say to the enemy, “I will take all your arrows in my shield, but I will send you only one.” These words contain Our entire advice.

Every community member needs to know the technique for combat, but most of all it is necessary to detect fake community members and banish them far beyond the walls. Neither length of beard, nor time spent in shackles, nor injuries, nor assurances, nor any other incidental features can serve as evidence. Only the fullness of a consciousness clear in its daytime vigilance and sincere in sleep can verify the look of true longing. Often sleep is more sincere than the waking state. Every form of sincerity has the right to be armed. And a command born of immutability engenders and strikes.

187. How can one feel protected to the utmost? Only by establishing the closest bond with the Teacher. Only in powerful cooperation and respect is concealed the best opportunity to pass through the dangerous spheres. The bond with the Teacher is a living power that penetrates into the future.

There are earthly ancestors and cosmic ancestors; sometimes these concepts coincide, but due to imperfection most often they are disconnected. So there is a chain of earthly ancestors and also a rainbow of cosmic ancestors. It is not difficult to distinguish which manifestation will be the path of evolution.

Of course, each Teacher has His own Guide, and the treasure of thought ascends into the distant worlds. Veneration for the Teacher and development of striving to the distant worlds extend like a rainbow, linked by the essence of light.

Learn to appreciate how lofty the concept of the Teacher is. Draw this line from edge to edge, from arrival to departure. Know how the Teaching of Light has been revealed to you, and remember the silvery thread of the bond. The bond with the Teacher is as light as an eagle’s wing, and the eagle’s eye looks ahead. What else could you choose once your consciousness has been opened? The construction of the community can help one to gather thoughts. After all, not pack mules but eagles are indicated in the analogy.

The hand of the Teacher summons to the threshold of the community. And from the mountain We see to where the wheel of necessity is flying.

188. “Victim of misfortune”—this is a name given to someone who joined the community out of despair. Having suffered complete failure, the man offered up his misfortune, and the wages of failure were still more misfortune. But precisely the person who brought misfortune regarded himself as the greatest contributor: He has sacrificed, he has renounced, and he has chosen, and now he is waiting, invoice in hand.

We prefer the sacrifice of success. Those who have something worthwhile to renounce expect payment least of all.

So lay out the community using the stones of sacrifice as landmarks.

189. The fisherman joyfully returns with a prize catch. Humankind was not made for misfortune. A human being is the very same joyous fisherman with a diverse catch. True, the catch is different, but it is the same inalienable joy—the joy of thinking about the future. Neither fish nor birds nor animals know the future. But humans already know the inevitability of the future. Immense joy is contained in this summons of space. Whoever fears the future is still in an animal state, and not yet ready to partake of the world repast.

Learning to deepen and elevate thought about the future means occupying a place in it that will expand together with the consciousness. He who does not wait for external assistance knows the value of his own hammer. He who knows the path to the future can carry his catch without fear. Meanwhile, a portion of humanity does not even see a thread to the future. Torn and scattered like autumn leaves, their steps raise dust from bazaars far removed. A cloud of dust will cover the gates of the community, and rubbishy thinking will end up as rubbish.

When it is dark, when it is threatening, then fasten your consciousness on the future. We call the future a flying carpet. Teach children to soar high. Replace the myth about the ark with one about an airship.

190. It may be asked how to take the measure of a newcomer. Of course, not by words. Better to accept the ancient method of the East: by the eyes, the gait, and the voice. The eyes do not lie; with special artistry the gait and voice may conceal the truth, but a combination of the three is infallible.

Do people really suppose that they can act like a naïve child and simply hide a lie with shameless words? Words are not worth a nod of the head. The species of the bird is revealed by its flight. A bird of prey gives itself away from afar. The cry of the eagle does not resemble the nightingale’s song.

What can one do when some people insist that all Hindus look alike, that it is impossible to distinguish Chinese, Mongols, and Arabs from one another! Can these people be entrusted to discern differences in the eyes and gait? For them all people walk on two legs and stare.

Failure to analyze can be offensive to even the most patient guide. Many people cannot even figure out what job a person does by noting the characteristics of his home. The degree to which people fail to observe is astonishing. People are unable to notice objects that threaten the crown of their heads. They cannot enumerate ten things around them. They cannot state the simplest details of their surroundings. For them, everything is nothing, nil, and nowhere. This is no longer a degree of indifference, but the stupidity of the ignorant. Bypass such bipeds!

One should develop observational skills in children from their very first days. Indeed, the consciousness of children is alive from the first hour, but not for those to whom all Hindus look alike.

The power of observation, or rather vigilance, is the beginning of the “eagle eye,” which you have known about for a long time. For some, just to hear about vigilance means to foresee, and to foresee means to behold the world’s path to the community.

191. Analysis, diagnosis, control, cooperation, and prognosis appear to be favorite topics in the West. We also utter those terms. What would seem to be the difference? There is a great difference: For the West these topics are table talk, at best guidelines that nobody observes. In Our Community these terms are not pronounced, but every hour they are put into practice.

Can the above concepts be applied in city life? We have just talked about the lack of observational power, which makes diagnosis impossible. We spoke about the lack of patience, and that means analysis is impossible. The lack of courageous fortitude precludes control. Lies and hypocrisy will not allow cooperation. Fear casts a shadow on any kind of prognosis. It remains, then, to set the longest tables possible and repeat in chorus half-understood words.

Better to leave to decaying cities the privilege of monkey see, monkey do—and by the way, these urbanites have begun to graft monkey glands onto each other. Indeed, everyone receives what they merit. Nobody told them about a far more goal-fitting method of restoring strength, in which the patient is placed for a long time in a mineral bath of a certain composition and subjected to an alternating current, the treatment being accompanied by a specific suggestion. Rational means will come to light when the community takes on a conscious character, and nothing will be borrowed from the monkeys.

When the banner of the community is unfurled as awareness of necessity, then life will take wing in the action of each day. As long as someone thinks that it is an experiment, the community will be confined to the alchemist’s retort. Only a firm awareness of historical necessity will bring the community into life.

Think hard, think rigorously about the immutability of the community. From rigor arises the finest joy.

192. The development of observational power will make it possible for you to pay attention to the conditions around you. Anyone understands that if the walls of a room were covered with an arsenic-containing substance, or a sulfur compound, or resin, or mercury, or musk, such materials would affect the condition of the organism—this is a crude example. But now go ask your biochemists and engineers how the materials of a dwelling affect the physical and psychological foundations. What is the difference between a house made of brick and one made of basalt, between a granite house and a marble one, between iron and wood, between oak and pine? For what kind of organisms are iron beds suitable, and for what kinds are wooden ones best? Who needs a woolen carpet, and who a wooden floor? About many conditions modern technology will be as ignorant as the ancient cave dwellers. And yet who would not agree that wood and minerals have considerable medical significance? This means that fundamental analysis has stalled due to a lack of observational power. Inquiry has proceeded along conventional lines, and somewhere a bonfire has been prepared for people who observe too much. Take my word for it, even now the spirit of the Inquisition is not very far away; the difference is in what the inquisitors wear and their ways of eradicating new quests.

193. The Teacher Milarepa often talked with animals. Near his retreat bees nested, ants built cities, parrots flew about, and a monkey sat itself down in imitation of the Teacher. The Teacher said to the ants, “Tillers and builders, no one knows of you, but you go on erecting lofty communities.” To the bees he said, “You gather the honey of knowledge, the nectar of the finest forms—and no one shall interrupt your sweet toil.” Then noticing a parrot he said, “From your screeching I see that you’re getting ready to be a judge or a preacher.” And then he admonished the frisky monkey: “You’ve destroyed the ants’ tower and stolen someone’s honey. Perhaps you’ve decided to become a usurper?”

Who, if not the usurper, appropriates other people’s work and casually crushes structures under heel? Many centuries have passed since the time of the Teacher Milarepa, but usurpers continue living with the psychology of monkeys. At the basis of such aimless freeloading lies an appalling irresponsibility. And what lies at the basis of irresponsibility? Of course, the same old ignorance and fear of the future. No punishment, no restraints will undo ignorance.

Usurpers, large and small, you need to learn to discover the healing power of honey and the ants’ sweat. It would seem that this idea has been around long enough, but certain joints of the human consciousness have become so rusty that scores of centuries cannot turn them.

Over dessert you will chat about prognosis, but the stars shining through the window will attract less attention than a moth fluttering around the candle.

Destroy the worthless, wherever it may be concealed. Uncover ignorance, whatever mask it may wear. The world is divided according to the quality of consciousness, and the degree of ignorance is a yardstick. Of course, you know that ignorance is cured not by turning the pages of a book but by the synthesis of encompassment.

194. When I visited your countries, I noticed that people are quite afraid of the word control. On the other hand, with Us this concept is easily encompassed. The hand that knows its work is not afraid to share with a friend. This means that goodwill and knowledge are needed, for one easily sees that with them psychomechanics can exercise control over any concealed activity whatsoever. It is already possible to see through walls, already possible to record all sounds and thoughts. For concealment, an extraordinary boldness of consciousness is necessary. It is impossible to attain such courage without lengthy preparation. One can achieve an equilibrium of conditions only by uplifting the quality of work. Then each worker can exercise self-control. And each one can then ask someone else, a controller, to personally demonstrate what works better. The willing controller must himself be able to work with greater thoroughness. Therefore, it is a rule with Us that every critical comment must be based on superior knowledge. This proficiency creates a convincing quality that extends a long, long way.

You yourselves know what it means to be assigned a task. Reliability bestows power, reliability is unafraid. Following the reliable, one can be sure that the decision is timely and the means ample.

It is a poor leader who puts the plan into practice only in the daytime or only at night. One cannot go forward with confidence when thinking about the inadequacy of the leader. The guarantee can be verified, because the Community does not fear control. The necessary decision comes not by falling into darkness but by smiling in expectation, regardless of appearances.

In knowledge is the end of fear.

195. Write down what I say about psychic infection. It is an old topic, but even now this knowledge is not applied in life. People still fear physical infection even to excess, while forgetting the main channel of all contagion. Is it possible to kill, curse, and rage without strata forming in space? Everything forms clear, heavy deposits, creating above the site of an event a shroud of something like harmful gases. Does anyone expect that the toxic emissions of evil energy will just dissipate? Quite the contrary, they will condense and affect the prana. Never settle on bloodstained sites.

New endeavors must be carried out at new locations.

196. Phenomena must be accepted in their full reality. For materialists this condition is especially imperative. But precisely materialists, more than others, tint diverse phenomena with their own colors, thereby obstructing the evolutionary process. As experienced Builder-Realists, We can see the harm of intolerance based on the grossest ignorance. Where is there any reality when thinking is constrained, when instead of a thousand features only five are known! A statement becomes a distortion if encased in a ready-made cliché of conventionalities. A smile of knowledge breaks through the sluicegate of intentional obstruction. A builder cannot harbor fantasies about the ground under the structure. Such a position is all the more criminal inasmuch as the material viewpoint offers the most unrestricted, legitimate possibilities.

Fetishism, by its very nature, is restrictive. But precisely matter manifests victory through the understanding of freedom. Realists must be free; otherwise, the light of freedom will sink into the darkness of fetishism. As the radiant crown of humanity, insight into the nature of spirit-matter creates the jewel of life.

Hurry up and get rid of the rubbish!

197. People will ask, “How are you looking after the established communities?” Let us take the newest one. What can be said on its anniversary? No one has fallen back, but the overall results have been weak. The rapid but sporadic cooperation is making it difficult for members to understand co-measurement. A speck of dust takes up more attention than a boulder. There is a striking amount of conflict over precedence, so it would be good to elect a temporary chairperson. The problems with attracting newcomers are more serious. Words about the Teaching are not being found, and no defense is being mounted against slander. The door should be kept open for those who knock, but the sword of the spirit must always be kept sharp. It is a shame to lose coworkers. Stick closer together or your work will miss the deadlines. I would be glad to call you closer—give Me a reason to do so. My Hand is with you in every audacious action.

198. Not long ago, in line with the plan of My Friend, We often visited Western cities. That inevitably led to encounters with random individuals who suspected something about Us. Extremely persistent inquiries were addressed to Us about the techniques of psychomechanics as well as requests for highly accurate biochemical formulas. At the same time, with all the arrogance of the West these people showed no concern for their own consciousness, and made no effort to find out whether they possessed the appropriate physical qualities. It is sad to observe that this pushiness was utterly devoid of aspirations for the welfare of society. Just as the caveman with his club hurried to despoil others of their colored shells and make them exclusively his own, these dwellers in stone chambers sought to appropriate qualities that did not belong to them. The caveman, at least, adorned himself with the shells, but the contemporary wiseacres degraded knowledge into an after-dinner chat over something relaxing—it was a spectacle of shameful frivolity.

In accordance with My Friend’s plan, We even had the patience to spend time on correspondence. But it was impossible to attract anyone to constructive work.

The person who cares least about his consciousness is the one who can put it in a little purse with copper coins. Is it possible to forget about the state of one’s consciousness when we are coming in contact with the subtlest energy?

Actually, We do not ignore the methods of Western science, but We consider psychic energy to be the foundation. Having come to the conclusion that psychic energy is necessary for both the researchers and the experimental procedures, We first of all take care to create favorable conditions for the accumulation of this energy.

Anyone who wishes to till the field must have his own plow. Anyone who wishes to attain must understand his armor. The people of the West have beclouded their consciousness with the weightiest thoughts, while the joy of acquiring knowledge has become something almost indecent. The joy of learning must be a privilege of the New World.

199. People may ask, “Why is it that in Your Community a considerable area is set aside for ancient buildings and books? Why doesn’t this antiquity weaken aspiration to the future?” There are two reasons: First, the aspiring consciousness does not look back; second, the buildings have been erected and objects collected only for advancement into the future. Stratification of striving to the future pervades the entire existence of the Community. All the attraction of objects is engulfed in the stream of aspiration. Basalt pillars do not conjure up past events; rather, by their durability they bear out their fitness for the future. The books do not carry thought back to the past; it is only for the future that they reveal experience. Transference of the entire consciousness into the future can anchor the existence of the Community. I shall not tire of repeating that the community must be accepted by the consciousness. No external evidence serves to assure Us. It is necessary to have a quality of consciousness that always speaks the same, whether sleeping or waking, for any other solution is inadmissible, even in the form of a joke.

The future of humanity, the future of the Cosmos—is there anything more sacred? However, this jubilant sacredness lies not in a gilded enclosure but in the arrow of aspiration, in the tip of the rhomb that has shifted the completeness of the square, propelled it into the future.

Among the aerolites there is one metal, morium, which has the ability to condense electrical energy. Possession of this metal makes it possible for one to receive powerful showers of sparks and even flames. This saturated flame must shine in the consciousness, where it grows stronger and flares. Festive lights from the store are unnecessary. It is better to be few in number than to tell lies in the name of the future of humanity.

200. Community-cooperation is the single sensible way for human beings to live together. Solitude is the solution to the problem of living outside of the community. Everything in between these involves various degrees of compromise and is doomed to break down. People speak about a hereditary theocratic authority—the very construction is absurd. The words heredity and Theos are incompatible. And who will determine the degree of Theos? Only consciousness of cooperation-community establishes the evolution of the biological process.

Anyone who wishes to devote himself to true community acts in harmony with the fundamentals of existence.

A conscious community excludes two enemies of society: inequality and inheritance. All inequality leads to tyranny. Inheritance is a compromise and brings rot to the foundations. The community needs clarity of construction, distaste for conventionalities, and faith in children as a symbol of the advance of humankind.

Only from within the community can we think about the future. Let us shift the consciousness toward the improvement of life as a whole, and the struggle for existence will be replaced by the conquest of possibilities. That is how to think about the community. Improve your consciousness.

201. Even when the consciousness is in a deepened state, there may be difficult hours. It may seem as if the bond with the Teacher does not exist, that the Teacher does not exist. However, the one who knows will say, “Maya, begone! I know my bond with the Teacher.” A great many thoughts may come up which appear to be personal and unconnected with the Teaching, but the one who knows will say, “Maya, begone! I know the foundations of the Teaching.” It may seem that, deprived of all coworkers, one has to shoulder the burden in vain, but the one who knows will say, “Maya, begone! I know that true coworkers are spread across the face of the globe.”

The Maya of all ages knows when to touch the brain. Out of the depths of experience Maya summons a fine thread of vacillations, covers reality over with appearances, with “evidence,” and sweeps away the furrows of achievements. Multicolored Maya, it is time we got to know you, so that we can say with complete confidence, “Maya, begone!”

202. Often the community is accused of violating the freedom of the individual. This charge is applicable to every sort of compromise system but not to the community. In a conscious community there is a place for every kind of work. Each member is free to choose whatever job he or she wishes to do, since every task is being refined as the worker advances. The boredom of mechanical performance is absent, because in doing his job each worker is also conducting an experiment. He understands the significance of the task of introducing improvements into the work without disturbing its overall pace.

Let us cite Our Community as an example. Our Friend, the chemist V., wishes to investigate a new way to split rays—no one is stopping him. Our Friend K. wishes to improve the radio using new light waves—no one is stopping him. Our Sister P. is focused on a social problem of a neighboring country—no one is stopping her. Our Sister U. is occupied with researching agriculture and introducing innovations—no one is stopping her. Sister O. loves medicinal plants and educational issues—no one is stopping her. Brother H. has installed a remarkable loom and is also working on the reorganization of communities. Brother M. is engaged in historical research. Our shoemaker is writing wonderful philosophical treatises. Absolutely everyone finds a job that suits him or her and can change it at will. Precisely, desire to work and an open consciousness in which every job becomes engrossing are needed. After all, the work is being performed for the future, and all of the workers are carrying their best stone. And now We, with the mountains before Us, are speaking for the future. And you will go transmit these words to the valley dwellers, and once more they will recall the possibility that the Community exists.

203. You have already heard from reliable travelers how guides refuse to lead them in certain directions. They would rather let themselves be killed than move forward. It is true. The guides have been psychologized by Us. But if a reckless traveler goes ahead anyway, a landslide will roar down in his path. Should the traveler surmount this obstacle, a shower of stones will carry him away, for the unwelcome one will not get through.

204. Seeing something as “secret” means that one lacks knowledge. At times Our Community has been accused of reclusiveness and unwillingness to help people. You yourselves know Us and have seen Us in various places, and have also seen Our agents.

Our material sendings have been substantial. You know that Our letters arrive swiftly and Our messengers are not late. Tell this to your young friends.

If the material bond is hardly discernible, the cause must be sought in a lack of coordination in the consciousness. If We are not in a hurry to take some action, it means that We do not want to spoil anything by moving prematurely. We never waste a stroke where there is a lack of will. We never insert a word whose meaning is unclear. We always refrain from mad expenditure of energy, for We know from experience how precious the arrow of energy is. Have no doubt that beyond the limits of ponderable matter We are immersed in the interaction of the subtlest energies, and each particle of these precious treasures must be wisely expended. We have been filling our libraries for centuries now, and it only makes sense to protect them from fire. On some symbols there are two spirals: As much as it is possible to ascend on one, it is equally possible to descend on the other. Let this be kept in mind by those who have no problem claiming, “We have already attained.” In any case, those who suspect Our Community of inaction are simply uninformed.

205. We have no need for well-meaning Nicodemuses who come by night and keep silent by day in the Sanhedrin. Everyone should keep the secrets entrusted to him, but he must have a ready word about Us, firm words able to stun adversaries. Say: “It’s interesting to see someone discussing something he knows nothing about.” If they criticize the notion of hidden treasures, say, “Even the ocean is full of sealed bottles.” If they speak against the Community, say, “Anyone who worships Christ, the Buddha, or Moses will not dare to speak out against the Community of Good.” The worst thing is to make a false accusation, for in it are falsehood, slander, betrayal, and ignorance. Say, “Being that the Master exists, why not make use of His sensible advice? You don’t make use of it, because you don’t know how to receive it. Hurry and find out about the Mahatmas not as historical relics but in real life, and in the meantime keep your ignorance to yourself.”

206. Truly, the struggle is against appearances. Reality is not the apparent, the evident. The appearance presented by all the characteristics does not correspond to the reality. The old teachings of positivism replaced reliability with evidence, and for them there is but one excuse: They had neither microscope nor telescope, no instruments for gazing down or up. But an inquiring mind is unconcerned with conventional evidence; it needs reality in the setting of cosmic laws. It understands that the pearl is invisible in the depths and that layers of air may hide flocks of eagles.

Recently We spoke about the defense of reality. Remember that it is not illiterate people who will rage against reality but the little literates who argue furiously for their myopic evidence. They will believe that the world hemmed within their horizons is reality, but that everything else, everything invisible to them, is a dangerous fiction. What lies at the basis of this beggarly narrowness? It is the same old idea of ownership in a different guise. This is my pigsty, and therefore everything outside of it is unnecessary and harmful. This is my evidence, and therefore nothing exists outside of it. The familiar fable of the seven blind people and the elephant provides ample proof of the limitations of evidence.

Just as We say, the Community is battling for reality. And here you have another kind of ally: those who aspire and strive for the truth, for whom evidence is nothing more than an unclean windowpane. Chemical and biological evidence may be complicated, but evidence related to plans for developing life and activity is still more so. Without the growth of consciousness, we will remain in a constant mirage; as if suffering from catalepsy, we will be frozen and twisted in terror.

Maya, begone! We wish to know reality—and we shall!

207. Do not encourage discussions of cosmogony until the consciousness is grounded.

Keep an eye on the goalfitness of the instruction in schools. Set up opportunities for quick learners to advance as rapidly as possible. If a lively ship has to shorten sail in order to keep formation, does this not mean that possibilities are being killed? Do you know how the sleek harmony of a ship’s thrust has been created? Has it not been constructed to withstand the most dangerous conditions? Would one really use it to transport frozen vegetables? Always retain the opportunity for responsible advancement. From the first year of school make sure that the slow-paced do not shackle the quicker ones. Let the teacher carefully discern those who are able to advance rapidly. There is no need for praise, but one should clear the way for them. Intermediate courses ought to be created; the speedy ones can run up these steps. Do not conceal the difficulties from them. For a certain type of consciousness, anything like a heroic challenge already brings light and joy.

It also depends on the teacher to quickly determine the direction of the student’s thought, because erroneous guidance is a serious offense, and by it the best workers may be lost. Every immobile program is a corpse whose stench is insufferable beneath the sun of knowledge. As soon as possible it is necessary to strengthen the school by examining the teacher’s consciousness. Create a better situation for the teachers, so that they can be entrusted with responsibility for the consciousness of the community workers.

The schools of the future cannot possibly resemble the “stockyards” where recent generations of students were maimed. Fanaticism and prohibitions are replaced by possibilities.

Offer courses in handicrafts, allow freedom of choice, and demand high-quality work. In order to do this, each teacher must understand the meaning of quality.

208. You can gather young coworkers on a broad basis.

The Master would like to see intense searching rather than petty backbiting. Darkness hovers over those who are afraid; substantial damage attracts their notice less than an extra hair growing on a neighbor’s head. Is it possible for anyone to think about the community when they are busy gossiping? But the difficulty decreases when we realize that the soldiers of slander can remain outside the walls of the new cities.

Let the slanderers look over the list of everything they have slandered. Will this not be a list of humanity’s evolutionary discoveries? No slander has any effect on the outcomes of evolution. But slander is a devourer of vital energy, and from the standpoint of goalfitness must be done away with. A ridiculous word of abuse is often not accompanied by a definite thought, but the substance of the slander breeds in darkness, and the thought conveys it inaudibly, as silently as an owl in flight.

Someone is asking, “Why pay so much attention to slander?” The inquirer does not know about energy conservation.

There is no need to get upset about the litter on the road, but woe to the people who threw it there!

209. You have already seen how I put questions to a newcomer. From his answers it was possible to form an opinion of his qualities. Each of you will have to teach the people who come to you. If they start with a question, answer with a question of your own. You know that the quality of a question gives direction to what follows. We must not allow imprecision to creep into the thought behind the question. Often this initial nebulousness spreads like a butter stain on a bedspread and becomes indelible.

The time will come for you to stubbornly insist that the person you are talking with ask you the questions. The first question, however, must come from you. So first of all ask what brought him to you. After that invite him to talk about when he first felt the worthlessness of contemporary life, and then have him describe how the concept of the Master first arose in his consciousness. Have him speak about how he understands podvig, how he perceives the difference between appearance and reality, and whether he can realize the community in his consciousness. That is how one needs to approach the thickets of desires and dreams. Do not be afraid to appear stern; it would be far worse to seem like a soft, crumpled cushion. Sternness generates roots, and if you also display intensity, then a bridge will be created.

It will be necessary to exclude all questions about the person’s previous family life. Even one such question can plunge the conversation into the ordinary, whereas it is essential that all means be used to preserve the extraordinary nature of reality.

In a flash of lightning, reality prepares the path.

210. Nobody can accuse Our Community of scholasticism. Rather, an inexperienced person may be stunned by the intensity of the tempo and the seeming unexpectedness. Life itself is what gives the Community flexibility. New connections are being born, links that require an immediate departure or a hasty return.

Reading Our old letters, you see how accurate Our prognosis of social events has been. Even today you have received corroboration of what We predicted about the state of the consciousness in the world. The sensitivity of Our apparatus allows us to read the waves of careless thoughts arising around the globe. It is just like a newsroom.

It is wrong to imagine that Our Community is sitting in the shade, singing the praises of an invisible Creator. The design for every construction must be co-measured with the circumstances of the stage of evolution. We realize what an intense rhythm the present time requires.

Anyone seeking well-oiled work can come to Us. He can come if he finds his way.

211. Gratitude is the adornment of justice. The community should know the essence of gratitude. No goal-fitting action is lost; rather, it carries gratitude with it. The very nature of gratitude will lead to a closer attunement of the consciousness.

Positive acceptance of cooperation is not the result of a formal inquiry. Only by action and determination is it possible to draw near to the heart of the Community. Teach people not to let opportunities slip by. While determination and action lead to gratitude, rashness and negligence create a barrier that is hard to remove. A coworker who misses out on an action due to immobility is left to his own devices. This is not a punishment but a practical way of showing him how he has failed. Of course, people rarely admit to failures, so a small independent exercise is assigned, and then something does not go smoothly, something squeaks and creaks and gets stuck. No one should suspect that magic is at play; it is just that the attention of the Community has flown away for a time, and the stilts of inexperience are swaying in the wind. In any case, the influence of the collective, represented by the Community, will be a powerful one, and without this focus it is difficult for a person who has experienced the beneficial paths of the Community to go forward.

It is in the nature of humanity to listen to every bit of news about the Community. People may try to assert that the Community is impossible, but no one will dare to claim that it is harmful. We summon to the absolute, We propose incontestable actions, and We wish to see will and independence. Nothing dubious should penetrate the consciousness of the workers. We have gathered a great store of knowledge, and We can put it to use because We employ it not for ourselves but for the Truth. And the crude “I” has already been replaced by the creative “we.”

Teach people to understand the Community as a spring boiling over with possibilities!

212. Whoever affirms the Community contributes to accelerating the evolution of the planet. Any kind of petrifaction or inertia signifies a return to primitive forms.

Pay attention to history: You will see unmistakable spikes of progress, and you will clearly see that these spikes coincide with manifestations of the idea of community—cooperation. Tyrannies were destroyed, the achievements of science spread, new ways of working emerged, and acts of benevolent daring blazed forth when the banner of cooperation was unfurled.

If humanity had thought about cooperation more often, it would have long since entered into universal understanding of the Common Good.

213. Tell the hypocritical meditators: If meditation means tension of energy and accumulation of force for a leap upward, then the “Lion” could have ordained such activity. But if meditation means indolence and indifference, then it is impossible to suppose that this shameful pastime was ordained as a noble practice.

A great deal must be removed from the path. Everything entrenched has to be reexamined. We have grown used to regarding random stumps as landmarks, but being worthy members of a rational society we all bear responsibility for every ridiculous relic. One should not look upon oneself as a victim of the general foolishness.

You should not be complacent when you realize that you are somehow to blame. Better to give a sober reckoning of the ways you give in to your weaknesses. Better to consider, without a crooked smile, what can be rectified from today and examine the quality of each of your actions. And you should begin the examination with the most ordinary things. Have you slept too long? How are you speaking to the people around you? Haven’t you put off an urgent task? Haven’t you set deadlines and then not kept them? Haven’t you lost concern for the Common Good? Question yourself about such things again without hypocrisy.

214. Once a person begins examining his own actions, it becomes easier to keenly observe other people’s behavior. You know quite well how strongly We oppose prejudices and concepts that have outlived their usefulness. It is precisely from this standpoint that We are advising you to approach other people’s customs with caution. Often at their basis there lies mature knowledge, so while as realists we have to wash away the deposits that have amassed over time, to destroy the significance of the rational basis would be unjustifiable.

If an architect finds a foundation strong, he makes use of it for a new building. A global economy of resources is necessary. The luxury of destruction has departed to the pages of history past. The world is in need of not new elements but new combinations. And the path of the new conqueror is illumined not by the glow of raging fires but by the sparks of newly attracted energies. The channels of possibilities are inseparably linked. There is great danger in disrupting the flow of energy. We have spoken about caution not only to maintain economy but also to avoid danger. It is easy to sever an underground cable and deprive an entire city of light. One could easily destroy a useful foundation and bring on long years of harmful confusion. That is why We commend rational determination and decry the luxury of destruction.

215. The solar ray withers and destroys, but light restores. Saturation is needed, not a sharp blow. Creators need to know how to saturate the atmosphere. A guarantee of success lies in the saturation of the atmosphere, which restores everything that exists.

Therefore, it is necessary to build in a way that makes the entire past agree with the future.

Everything that is faulty and accidental is destroyed, but the thread of knowledge must remain unbroken. This is not a concession to the past; it is the flow of eternity.

If people learned to sense the wave of santana, they would attain to consciousness of the Cosmos.

When a traveler stands on a peak, does he not feel as if his body is towering high, as if it is a link between the planets? Indeed, it is not isolation from the earth but encompassment of the capacity to connect that allows a human being to truly act.

An alien teaching insists on a show of subservience, but the community is so saturated with possibilities that the one Hierarchy will be the ladder of knowledge. Nobody appoints a Hierarch, but a person who listens and comes to know thereby acknowledges the ladder. The Teacher will be a natural Leader.

In Asia the concept of the Teacher is recognized to be legitimate. The Buddha has ordained that every future Teacher is to be especially revered. In this disclosure of possibility lies the entire pledge of the future.

Saturation of the atmosphere will crystallize the forthcoming solution to the world’s problems.

216. Beware of those who have no time. Pointless busyness above all indicates inability to make good use of the treasure of time and space. Such people can do only primitive kinds of work. It is impossible to engage them in anything creative. We have already mentioned people who make appointments that they do not show up for and steal other people’s time; now We shall touch on the petty idlers and dullards who clutter up the path of life. They are as busy as a bottleful of hot peppers; they always harbor bitterness about work; they are as puffed up as turkey-cocks; and they manage to stupefy the entire workplace by releasing vast clouds of smoky stench. They come up with hundreds of pretexts to fill in the cracks of the rotten work they do. They cannot find an hour for the most urgent matters. In their stupidity they are ready to get huffy and reject what is most essential for them to accept. They are as unproductive as those who steal other people’s time. They must be excluded from new construction. For them can be left the job of carrying bricks.

We know many workers who will find an hour for the most important; they do not feel they are too busy. Whoever works without stint will receive in abundance. This ability to encompass work is necessary for the expansion of consciousness. Is there anything that can substitute for joy in the growth of consciousness?

In Our Hindu scriptures you have come across the expression play in regard to cosmic concepts. The play of the Great Mother of the World—is it not visible to the enlightened consciousness? And is not the drama of blood transformed in the light of radiant matter? But for the luminous play one must have an hour ready.

217. There are two kinds of skepticism: that of a benevolent person seeking confirmation, and that of a cowardly property owner resisting everything new. The second kind is common in poorly educated circles. Never start an argument with people of this type. Suggest that they read and enrich their education. The first kind of skeptics are welcome to Us, as useful coworkers come from their ranks. Of course, they are usually better educated and richer in experience. Therefore, it is easier for them to compare data from different fields of knowledge. Naturally, they are already prepared to accept the community, and for them comparisons will only be for removal of a temporary visual impairment.

Being realists, We know reality and rejoice when someone is seeking by the path of reality. This reality makes it possible to not attach significance to ignorance. The snow removed by the spring sun will not occupy our attention, but if it creates a quagmire we will pitch our camp on higher ground.

218. A certain state of matter shapes a human individual, bringing to life conscious individualization, and from this moment the battle begins against the community. When, as they say, the beast awakens in a person, precisely then the individualization, unnourished by the consciousness, turns into malignant egoism. That is when the campaign against enlightenment and cooperation begins. Such egoism does not become a noble awareness of the personality, but returns to the animal state, while having lost the collective values of animals. Such a person is worse than a wild beast. Is it possible to build a community out of these bestial people who lack a common language? At that point the builders must rework the foundations of human individuality.

Every framework, every programed convention must be examined, but only the brave people who have left behind the fetters of conventions can undertake the examination. Thus, it is necessary to preserve the podvig of the human personality.

Those who have conquered the beast can be found, but go seek them without relying on the old formulas. If your circumstances are turning you to worn-out ways of thinking, it is better to set fire to those surroundings than end up as their servants.

We have known such builders in old armchairs. We have seen such prophets with checkbooks and loudmouth leaders at public banquets. No old walls, not even the inner sanctuaries of a bank, will strengthen the consciousness of a community. If a community member dreams of resembling a capitalist even in an outward way, it means that the foundations of his community are rotten.

Destroy the human beast. Humans with tails are no more part of evolution than are centaurs.

Active awareness of the community is needed.

219. All coercion is condemned. Compulsory slavery, compulsory marriage, and compulsory labor all arouse indignation and condemnation. But of all forms of coercion, the most criminal and monstrous spectacle is the compulsory community. Every kind of coercion is doomed to meet with a reaction, and the worst form of coercion is doomed to elicit the worst reaction.

One way or another, however, the world community is destined, which means that the elements which do not embrace the concept of community must be convinced of its inevitability. Is it not words that convince? Yet it is not the words but only the thought that convinces and regenerates the consciousness. Thought can only be sharpened by psychic energy. The development of this energy will provide the builders of the community with a way forward. If they themselves are convinced of the immutability of the community, no one can prevent them from sending a powerful thought to convince opponents.

It is only necessary to understand the significance of psychic energy in the evolution ahead and to study its manifestations scientifically. There is no need to display it by performing spectacular tricks. With great solicitude and responsibility one should set about discovering the treasure of humankind. There is not much time left for turning many opponents into useful coworkers. Of course, if you were to approach them with frightening warnings, it would be crude and unworthy of community members.

Luminous, all-conquering thought will fully meet the requirements of the New Era of cooperation that lies ahead.

Do you think that this is all a utopia? Then make your way to Us and see how conscious human thought works!

220. When We speak about the beauty of the coming evolution, We are called utopian optimists. When We speak about the horrors of contemporary life We are called pessimistic dreamers. But We can be neither optimists nor pessimists: We are practical realists.

You can imagine the number of people who wish to join Our Community. There are so many positive recommendations, so many appeals expressing approval, but the sole basis of assessment is the person’s real character. Act along these lines when founding new communities. Make sure that family ties do not matter. Make sure that former friendships and antagonisms are closely examined, so that no recommendations can sway decisions: personal questioning, personal testing, and personal responsibility. I suggest you begin the testing with an offer to relax, not to work. Anyone who is glad not to work is no coworker of yours. You might ask whether the contributions of the newcomer have been recognized by ungrateful humanity. No complainer is a coworker of yours. You could ask whether he himself is responsible for his past, or other, bad people are. Your coworker will not lay blame for his past on others. Also note whether he moves things around when left to himself. If imbued with a sense of the importance of what is going on around him, a person will not disturb an arrangement he does not know about. A person who has a sense of the meaning of things will treat your order with care. Keep an especially sharp eye on the silent ones.

Just know that at present many people are ready to accept the community, and many are able to cultivate their psychic energy. Be ready to explain to them that first of all they should learn to recognize the presence of this energy. Only what is consciously realized can be cultivated and increased.

Those who wish to test their psychic energy without sensing its presence are wrong. That would not be realistic.

221. When We speak about the formation of psychic energy into a conscious weapon, people may ask where to begin. One must start with awareness of its presence. To develop this awareness, it is necessary to touch upon one of the most fundamental concepts. Sometimes, unhappily, this concept has been called faith, but it is better to call it trust. Faith corresponds to self-hypnosis. Trust answers to self-analysis. Faith is indefinite in its essence. Trust confirms immutability. We follow the path of immutability. Awareness of the power of the human apparatus is no superstition. To understand this, it is enough to consider the processes of thinking or reflection, or even of digestion. It is not difficult to notice a manifestation of the nerve centers, but something unifies their activity consciously, something that does not enter the limits of reason. This organ has been called the spirit, but again this definition is vague, as it lacks aspiration and striving.

The Great Aum is psychic energy nourished with prana. It can be considered a physical organ, as it is subject to change. Sensing this all-connecting organ, each community member must be filled with joy. Such cooperation allows one to think about the dimensions of the world. A person with this awareness begins to sense the possibility of mastering psychic energy.

Affirmation will encourage one to desire activation of the organ discovered. Given a sense of responsibility, this desire will lead to one finding a Teacher. It is all about quality and the expansion of consciousness.

I have always said “permitted” and never forbidden anything. If you search for what most nearly correlates with psychic energy, you will find it to be action.

222. People get flustered even when dealing with unfamiliar utensils at a meal. It would be an irreparable error to send a thought without taking into account the quality of the person receiving it. Long ago the need to speak in words understandable to each listener was discussed, but this advice is rarely carried out in real life.

When persuading someone through the application of psychic energy, one has to use the language of the person being persuaded. You have had many opportunities to notice how the language of the Master matches the expressions that the disciples use. This has led to absurd suspicions of counterfeiting, for some found it strange that some characteristic expressions of the disciple appeared in what the Master said. Few considered that this approach made the communication easier to assimilate. It also needs to be understood that during cooperative work ways of expression come to be shared in common—the hieroglyph of understanding is deepened. But the ignoramuses go on repeating slanders about counterfeiting, never reflecting on their own behavior or recalling that they themselves use different expressions when talking with different people. We are only expanding use of the very same principle. We propose adopting the language of the listener in all its characteristics. It does not matter to Us what some mediocrity may accuse Us of; what We need is a good outcome. If you have to use a really bizarre expression to avert danger, do not hesitate for an instant! This is a necessary condition for perfecting thought transmission.

First of all, you should test your resourcefulness and adaptability in a great variety of conditions. Applying methods of thinking with ease will create wings for your thought. You can start with the most characteristic expression of your listener. This familiar word can easily find a foothold in the listener’s consciousness, but to make this happen you need to observe with compassion everything that is characteristic. You will have to possess a thousand eyes!

223. When it comes to thought transmission, the methods of the West and the East differ. For suggestion the West has tried to take a direct, aggressive approach that involves touching, fixing one’s gaze on the subject, and loud muttering of a command, all of which, in their primitiveness, remind one of the lower-ranking sorcerers of South India. Besides, such a command does not wield power for very long and usually impacts the consciousness for the sake of one specific action alone. The East first of all seeks inner contact with the state of consciousness, which allows it to be saturated more powerfully over a longer period of time.

The Westerner tries to bore through you with his eyes, but when the Easterner sends a thought he avoids looking at you, because the act of looking would decrease the sharpness of the command. Of course, the eyes of the sender are kept open as he forms a picture of his correspondent, and in the mental image he is able to more fully embrace the recipient’s essence. No amount of tension strengthens the impact; that can only be done by the immutability of consciousness and the fidelity of tone in the psychic sound. A boulder breaks apart not so much from a direct blow as from the detonation. The most difficult thing is easily achieved if there is sufficient awareness and calmness is not disturbed. The trouble is that people believe calmness means inaction.

Action—energy—light!

224. It has been repeated again and again: Be able to find joy in eternal labor and eternal vigilance. You have heard music and singing in Our Community. They ought to be regarded as part of the work. Usually under the influence of sounds people fall into mental inactivity and cannot even conjure up images. This arises from the habit of understanding rest to be lethargy. One can get used to utilizing art as a means of condensing forces. A work of beauty can bring not only an enhancement of activity but also a sharpening of forces. But one must accept this fact consciously and learn to utilize the emanations of creativity.

Is it possible to think of building a community without the crystals of sound and color? Truly, it would be a mole hole! The bearers of sound and color should bring an unspilled vessel to the community. Knowledge and creativity will be the Amrita of the Community.

It is impossible to overfill oneself with knowledge; countless are the ascents of creativity. In this boundlessness lies the inducement to eternal labor. A worker may feel satiated, and for him keeping watch only means taking joy in conscious vigilance. One’s being quivers in the spirals of light, and the light rings out.

Certainly, creativity finds its way into every job, but certain sparks of the great Aum direct the current of life. This manifestation of creative power forms the nodes of evolution, and through it is fastened the thread of the Mother of the World, fastened in the labor of eternal action.

People should not laugh at Our language of Eastern symbolism. Each symbol comprises a complex description of the properties of matter. We see no need to abolish a concise hieroglyph intelligible to hundreds of millions of people, especially since these succinct signs are so beautiful. And you, the people of the West, have the right to transform the lengthy only into the beautiful.

Color and sound will be the Amrita of the Community. Knowledge will reveal the eternity of labor. Action encompasses the great Aum.

225. The study of psychic energy is facilitated by the identical nature of the fundamental laws. Both external-physical conditions and mental states are subject to an analogous process involving steps of formation and results. Let us look at the simplest example: A person goes with the wind or with the current and saves a great deal of energy. When a person enters into the right current of evolution, he gets through obstacles with miraculous ease. It is just a matter of wisely determining the structure of evolution.

To proceed in the direction of evolution does not at all mean to be dragged along in the wake of the majority. The whole history of humanity demonstrates that it is the minority that has divined the course of evolution. And these few have drawn from somewhere the strength to overcome the obstacles.

“When cosmic transformation contacts psychic energy, a condition arises—a stream of good fortune.” Thus spoke the Buddha. He demonstrated the difference between the apparent and the real. His analogy likening appearance to a mirage is appropriate to any contemporary discussion of such topics.

Is it possible to discern the course of true evolution if blind evidence obscures reality and prejudice reigns as the established opinion? When will people awaken to the mirage of prejudice! Every prejudice harbors malicious intent toward a human being. This is not a moral but a practical warning. What sort of idea about the community can prejudiced people come up with? It would be absurd to speak with them about the free expansion of consciousness, for they have no concept of freedom; but without freedom one cannot find the channel in which the stream of good fortune flows.

Think deeply on the laws of psychic energy.

226. When someone finds himself in an imperfect community, in horror he turns to opposition—this is a mistake. Understanding the imperfection, he should begin something more perfect. Let new communities burst forth like new springs in the desert. Tender grass will grow green around the springs, and in time their streams will merge into one current. The failure of one community should be a reason to build new ones. That is how to think about the new possibilities.

We are realists and can freely administer space. The Great Aum calls to action!

We are assiduous in keeping up on our new places, and for us no journey is too long. Through the coils of the serpent we are climbing to the open space on the hilltop, because we have preserved a store of psychic energy and nothing can dampen our spirits.

The invited guest who finds one door locked does not leave, but goes around the house to check all the entrances.

Be able to discover opportunities in imperfection!

227. A dead consciousness is like the husk of a lost seed. The concept of complete dissolution—that is, death—does pertain to products of psychic energy. One can imagine the atrophy of a consciousness that is not nourished by striving and imperceptibly disintegrates in a current of subtle energies, imperceptibly and irrevocably.

People speak about the necessity of feeding the mind with books—this will be something external. But without striving and aspiration the feeding of the mind will be a fruitless formality. Aspiration must arise from within, independent of external causes. The obstacles life brings cannot affect the quality of aspiration. The fundamental impulse, which starting from the mineral cell has evolved the human being, must not fade away once the stone cell has got up on stilts. At that point there should arise satiation with everything hitherto experienced and an irrepressible striving forward.

A person who has lost aspiration and striving can no longer be called a conscious being. Moments in which the consciousness disintegrates have a distinct effect on the physical radiation. One can see something like puffs of gray vapor drifting down from the solar plexus, which confirms the fact that we are dealing with energy—in short, the great Aum has turned to ashes. Already in childhood we see how aspiration is reduced to ashes.

Come, gardener, and with a smile remove the dust from the petal! A smile is like the wing of great Aum. Gardener, you have chosen to care for the flowers. All the colors of the dawn ring out in the joyous resonance of space. It is time to think about the distant worlds.

228. The time has come when we shall say to each worker, “You belong to us!” When we shall revise the paths and the signs, starting from the celestial ones. When we shall abbreviate languages and expressions of thought. When we shall read the ancient verses for the last time.

Life has been divided according to periods and styles, with tribute being paid to the measures of imperfect eras. We shall ask: Who divided the sky into constellations? Who divided languages into dialects? Who has recalled the legacy of all peoples? Style has determined the characteristics of each age. The external notches of designs bear the prejudices and conventions fabricated by falsehood. It is time to divide the legacies only according to the inner potential. One needs to discern the process of accretion in life. Coffin shapes should be left to the dead. True, one ought to perceive the steps in the procession of culture, but the zigzags of effeminacy must be disregarded. Cowardice clad in clumsy armor did not lead to panhuman joy, but the retort of the humble alchemist often shone with the light of the Common Good. Without succumbing to superstition, we must survey the milestones of humanity’s development under the sign of the community. We must see how the victory of the community grew, kindling the fires of knowledge and beauty. True knowledge and beauty comprise the best community.

Let us select and affirm everything that is best, and the one who discerns what is best will become a community member.

229. Steadfastness, calmness, resourcefulness, and speed—demand these of everyone who professes devotion to the community. But there may be calmness during sleep, steadfastness in taking inaction, resourcefulness at mealtime, and speed in pocketing money.

Testing is constantly applied in the community. The newest forms of life are not exempted from being tested. You know that We are opposed to school tests being announced beforehand. We are also against people being warned of testing periods in advance. The superficial knowledge and hypocritical behavior encouraged by advance notification delay rather than accelerate development. I do not recall a single outstanding leader whose character was formed under these hypocritical conditions.

Begin building the community as a home for knowledge and beauty. There will be no conventional standards in this home. Everyone will strive to know and to express their knowledge. Only ceaseless learning will be of help; only intense labor will prevent one from heading into a dark corner. But We are waiting for the striving aspirants to leave the old life behind. There is nothing worse than bringing along dried-out scraps. Such scraps rob people of joy.

The new structure must stand far apart from dwellings, in order that household chores not affect the place where the future of humanity is being forged. We agree that the community members do not put too much store on life, and in this they acknowledge the continuity of existence. However, for community members the quality of consciousness should be a matter of intense concern. We have to repeat about consciousness, because people are not used to perceiving it.

Sentimentality is often mistaken for compassion, anger for indignation, and self-preservation for courage.

Everyone must understand how urgently necessary it is to purify their ideas not only in thought but also in action.

230. Two Western inventions, mysticism and metaphysics, would seem to have been permanently eliminated. Any modestly equipped laboratory can tell one plenty about the one matter. But as soon as people go beyond the boundaries of yesterday’s experience, they begin to cover up their helplessness by resorting to vague, dusty terminology. They rise up against “metaphysics” and “mysticism,” labeling with these epithets all the scientific possibilities of the coming day. The metaphysics of yesterday has turned into the scientific truth of the average educated person, mysticism has turned out to be historical fact, and the walls of the tomb have convinced many more, the greatest range of minds.

So We shall ask: “Why does the skeptical man in the street tirelessly spin legends and weave myths?” A millennium is sufficient time to polish a truly exquisite myth, and a prominent figure is lauded onto a paper Olympus. And newborn skeptics tug on the edge of his mantle, while persuading their comrades to enthrone new heaven-dwellers. A new tailor modifies the mantle, and a myth is born. We are not speaking of these phoenixes for a smile. It is necessary, once and for all, to assimilate that thing called reality. And every sort of ignorance must be realistically detected and removed from the community. Run-of-the-mill mythmaking does not suit the community.

Our Community takes along those who have grasped reality and true materialism. It is impossible to imagine a mystic or a metaphysician within Our compound. On getting punched, the metaphysician cries, “I’ve been physically assaulted!” On beholding the radiance of life, the mystic rubs his eyes.

Why are you living? In order to learn and to perfect yourselves. Nothing vague will satisfy us.

231. Evidence is a hen’s reality. Only through intense perfectment can one approach reality.

Perfectment may appear to be an ecclesiastical concept, but We understand it to be the improvement of a real apparatus. Improvement of the apparatus as an integral whole is worthy of humanity.

While acquiring greater understanding of the physical apparatus, people should aspire to improved forms.

232. You know that the requirements of Our Community are not easy, but one’s ability to meet them is enhanced by participation in all other communities. Many social bodies pay no attention to the inner nature of their members. Once you have undergone Our discipline, you will not view as a community a place where only certain outer features of communal life are observed.

We allow certain of our conversations to be written down, not so that someone or something might be reproached or compared, but for the benefit of the consciousness of those who at some point have heard about Our Community, who learned something about an impossible dream that came true. In the night hours some were tormented with thoughts and immediately began embellishing the legend. It is necessary that they have access to Our conversations.

The geographer can be reassured: We do occupy a definite spot on the Earth. The conspirator can take comfort in knowing that We have plenty of coworkers in various parts of the world. The dissatisfied community member can ground himself in being aware that the Community exists on a practical level.

In various countries you have met in the flesh people who clearly are Our members and coworkers. Our conversations do not involve anything abstract. We are working along the lines of the great evolution. Everyone who approaches Our Community becomes a devotee of the real.

Work for reality.

233. Many times we have discussed the expansion of consciousness and the attainment of many useful qualities. How does this accumulation take place? To notice the growth of a hair may be difficult, but it is far more difficult to detect the growth of consciousness. It is a mistake to think that one can keep track of the growth of consciousness. After all, the tracking apparatus is undergoing the very same tension. Its antennae are always searching ahead. So long as one’s dynamic motion has not been paralyzed, one cannot lose what one has won. So it is only at rare crossroads that the traveler can review how he has undergone fundamental change, that gift of evolution. One should not lose dynamic momentum by indulging in painful self-examination. The right direction is discovered in actions and results. Therefore, We prefer even a mistaken action to inaction.

234. The world has been split into two parts. Knowing the imperfection of half the manifestations of the new, and foreseeing the deceitful ruses of the old, We always remain in a world that is imperfect and new. We know everything and evaluate everything. You have a personal influence, so people will come to you with a question: “How should I think?” Answer briefly: “With the new world, rejecting all limited judgments.” Ponder on how you can leave old habits behind. Make every effort to accept the full chalice.

Not words but the saturation of space impels you with an immutable command. The elimination of fear will help you in a difficult hour. It is especially difficult to overcome the awareness of being alone. Wise legends often mention a lone battle. The warrior—he is a scout, he is an adviser, he is a problem-solver, he is a hero. Note that this word has almost been banished from the vocabulary of the old world. The hero has become unacceptable in the life of petty hearts. As an outsider he would feel ashamed amid the self-satisfaction of mediocrities. Learn to be wherever there are heroes. The world will be set atremble by the reality of heroism.

Nowadays one can speak about the hero rather than about technicians. Let children call themselves heroes and apply the qualities of remarkable people to themselves. Let them be given books that lay out the truth clearly, where models of hard work and willpower are depicted without any attempt to gloss things over. Even for medicinal purposes, this bold, cheerful call to life is irreplaceable.

Such material must be provided without delay. With this in mind, take good care of those few who are able to provide it. Their annihilation cannot be justified. Someone will say that this is nothing new, but he himself has no idea how to show the care indicated. You need to show resourcefulness not only in your cap but in your brain as well.

The New World has its revered Masters and will continue to have Them as a gauge of its consciousness.

235. Let us take up a few very simple concepts. What is new? Nothing. There is only new awareness of the ways that the properties of matter manifest—new for the contemporary state of mind. It must be understood that true assertions lie not in self-contained separation from the past but in genuine continuity. Only in fearless affirmation of an order of succession can manifestation be strengthened. This simplest of notions would seem to be accessible to a child, including as it does the power of continuity, of solidarity. But institutional solidarity has yet to be comprehended. Often people try to limit manifestation, thereby causing undeniable harm. Any fragmentation hacks away like an axe on a living organism.

Maintain solidarity, something almost forgotten on Earth. It is better to be mistaken in the order of succession than to separate and split.

236. People may ask what to do about traitors. It is easy to expel liars and idlers, but betrayal has to be cut short.

We can cite a case in which one of our coworkers committed an act of treachery. The person on watch told him, “Be your own judge.” As if nothing had happened, the traitor smirked and went on living. But a year later, deprived of sleep, he lay in wait for death while in dread of it. To fear death means to pass the heaviest judgment on oneself. Dread of death shuns growth and envies everyone who welcomes change in life. The dread of death is indescribable. It is not the kind of fear that spurs one to flee, but a freezing paralysis. One can tell the potential traitor, “Preserve yourself from the dread of death.”

We see, of course, how the formation of the community eliminates the trappings of death; how the very process of transition becomes generally imperceptible. How cemeteries are destroyed and prisons done away with. Is not the prison a brother of the cemetery? Labor opens up the prisons. Fire purifies the cemeteries. Labor and fire—the cause and effect of energy.

237. To renounce or to multiply still more? Naturally, to multiply sanguinely, joyfully, but for the Common Good. However, the slightest hint of sectarianism or hypocritical restriction will contradict the sun-like evolution of the community. Austere joy avoids the darkness. Moles prescribing prohibitions and restrictions will never see the sun.

It is possible to adapt the consciousness to such a degree of slavish sycophancy that every new piece of knowledge will seem like crime or insanity. Can reality tolerate ignorant restrictions? We can speak in this way because We are not anarchists but community members.

Many times the discipline of the will and the command of the consciousness have been discussed. Long ago the cheerfulness of responsibility was set forth. Now we must direct our discernment to eradication of the narrow-mindedness found in sectarianism and superstition. The sectarian dreams of seizing power in order to subjugate everything to his own inflexible consciousness. The superstitious person is worried most of all that he might accidentally do something that conjures up an inauspicious sign, and he thinks about himself a lot. Superstition and sectarianism are signs of a very low consciousness, because the creative potential is negligible in a person for whom the principle of encompassment is utterly alien.

One has to expose superstition and sectarianism in every way possible. Do not hesitate to dwell on these issues, for by doing so you will eradicate falsehood and fear.

The community is the repository of all possibilities and all accumulations. Anyone who narrows the boundaries and power of the community ends up a traitor. The community is a chalice of sun-like joy!

238. The incendiary sparks are spreading rapidly; the old world is under stress. How to discern the twists and turns in the boundary lines? They cut through countries, cities, homes, and families—even individuals are divided within by their halfway thinking. Is it worth taking into account all the convolutions of the old world?

In legends giants crossed the seas on the monolithic slabs they broke off from cliffs. Let us be like the giants, with our thoughts resembling the monoliths. Let us dispel timid halfway thinking; otherwise, it will take possession of us and deliver us to the shameful punishment of being beaten to death with account books. We know monolithic thinking.

When incendiary fires are raging, think monolithically.

239. Even the most undisputable plan may meet with difficulties. It will be asked how a solution can be found without excessive expenditure of energy. There may be changes in the essence of the plan, or in its scale, or in its location. To alter the plan in its essence is tantamount to betrayal. To reduce the scale of the plan is to act in an utterly shortsighted way. Our solution is to change the location so that the new conditions may even deepen the plan’s fundamental meaning. We do not approve of the principle, “Fight to the death.” It is more courageous to go on to victory without losing strength. But this requires full understanding of the rightness of one’s striving, as well as invincible tension.

We love archery. The unwavering tension of the bowstring precedes the flight of the arrow. Space sings, and the spiral involved in the action increases the utility of the particles of matter. Thus, a new armor is being forged.

How very fortunate if it is possible to find a new place that deepens the potential of the place occupied before. Do not limit the plan by deciding on a single place: The essence of the plan is what is important.

Let us speak to those who prowl around and whisper at night but keep silent in the daytime. Talk to them about worthy words, or even at night they will sink into darkness. Without resorting to a command of the consciousness, suggest to them that they strive to succeed in the new life. The new life still has rough edges, and the essence of evolution is still not expressed. But the person who knows where he is headed will sidestep the filth on the path.

240. Is it possible to be satisfied with a life of personal enrichment? Is it possible to appropriate the free primary matter that permeates every object? Learn to perceive the inevitable presence of matter in every object. People often agree to recognize matter in the ethereal reaches of the cosmos but consider it absurd to acknowledge there being matter in the manufactured objects of everyday life. However, recognition of the lofty matter in every object elevates one’s understanding of all the details of life.

Certainly, you will find doubt everywhere. Just when you are dealing with scientific, physical observations, people are sure to talk about the metaphysics of your reasoning. Pay no attention to the arguments of the ignorant. Only one thing is important: to regard Worldwide Cooperation as an evolutionary necessity.

Ignorance, obstinacy, and baseness cannot hinder the establishment of the community. It is imperative that we recognize that the evolution of cooperation is inevitable. It is imperative that we turn each hour of life into a vital movement forward. Is it possible to live like blind adders?

You know where you are awaited and who is hoping to receive your message. Knowing this will wing onward your urgent, solitary journey.

241. When you come, come as if forever. When you depart, depart as if forever. When you come, possess everything because you have renounced everything. When you depart, leave everything because everything has been encompassed. Affirm renunciation amidst belongings. Affirm ownership in the middle of the desert.

If you see a thirst for things, quench it. Verbal renunciation is like the gesture of a monkey.

Ask the person you are talking with what he thinks about the community. Establish understanding in line with what he thinks. A word contains a thousand thoughts. It is overly crude to attribute precise expressiveness to a word. Only by comparing concepts can one determine the quality of thinking. Ask, “What exactly is most unacceptable for you? What are you most drawn to?” Ask more than once, or the most essential will be forgotten. People are not used to clearly defining what is unacceptable. The feeble old man does not agree with something but is afraid to figure out why. The child is drawn to something but does not know how to ponder on the basic reason for this attraction. The new age is in need of responsible clarity. How essential it is to force people to think about the reasons something is unacceptable! To perceive the reasons is to get halfway to conquest, to possession.

I possess because I have renounced.

242. You will have to encounter people who make fun of every word they cannot understand. Their receptive equipment is covered with calluses of ignorance. For example, if you mention “Shambhala” to them, they will take this true idea to be a fetish, a superstition. What are the signs of the Era of Shambhala? It is an age of truth and cooperation.

Study how the word “Shambhala” is uttered in the East. Try to delve into the thought underlying this concept, even in a small way. Try to understand the rhythm in how the narrative about Shambhala is structured, and you will sense a great reality that makes the chords of humanity vibrate. Let reason help you to ponder the values accumulated by the finest efforts and aspirations. The concept of Shambhala cannot be left out of the book Community.

Friends, understand what a tense and wondrous time this is!

243. Leaving Our mountains, you will inevitably experience a feeling of anguish. The psychological basis of this feeling is unavoidably intensified by the impossibility of talking about what has taken place. Apart from the exceptional cases mentioned, no one who has been with Us will say anything about it.

I advise anyone who wishes to reach Our Community to supplement his knowledge. After receiving ordinary schooling, Westerners usually forsake knowledge or draw out a slender thread of specialization from the web of knowledge instead of weaving a complete net that can hold a good catch.

When We say, “Know,” We are insisting on a thorough exploration and utilization of possibilities.

The dream of returning to the mountain valley, where knowledge can be enhanced, will constantly lead the aspirant to achievement. One needs to remember that the accumulation of knowledge means a continual flow. The main thing is to maintain the striving that drives all systems of cognition.

Striving is the key to the lock.

244. We often speak to you about the new and the young. Let it be understood once and for all that it is a matter not of age but of newness of consciousness and youthfulness of striving. The length of someone’s beard does not matter, nor is it valid to excuse someone on the grounds that they are still young. The flame of striving and aspiration does not depend on the body. The magnet of the primary substance acts independently of the ongoing flow of manifestations.

Of course, the very idea of a magnet implies something that goes beyond the physical sphere. Apply the magnet to the psychic domain and you come up with an extremely valuable observation. The association of ideas has a certain basis in the magnetic wave. If one investigates the transmission of magnetic waves, one will be able to establish the progression of ideas in the same direction. The quality of the ideas may be different, but the technique by which they propagate will be similar. A well-known experiment on the magnet’s connection with thought provides an adequate example of the influence that an invisible physical energy exerts on a psychic process. The qualities of magnets are diverse, and one can tune them like instruments. The range of magnetic waves is inconceivable. The waves impact people according to their inner aspiration and psychic striving, not their age. When it comes to the study of distant transmissions, magnetic waves will serve as an unusual conductor. So we started from distant horizons and are ending with this similarly distant task of humanity.

Notice that the system of exposition consists not in uniformity but in a spiral embracing the diverse conditions of a single aspiration, a single striving.

Think about magnetic waves and psychic striving.

245. Adaptability is the best way to conserve one’s strength. People often ask how to develop this quality. The development of adaptability, naturally, takes place in the flow of life. Everyone knows what it is to sense the boundaries between spheres. When you go out of a playhouse onto a gray street, you feel as if you have fallen into a lower sphere. When after solemn festivities you return to your regular work, you are struck by the sadness of the routine. When you come out of the bitter cold into a beautiful building, it seems to be the crown of perfection. A sluggish adaptability generates a number of false perceptions. This falseness makes you timid and unwieldy. People grovel before the mirage of an effect. They restrict their ideas when facing the unexpected, whereas precisely the opposite ought to be taking place. Be strict in accustoming yourself to the reception of contrasting sensations and to the mastery of the unexpected. Everything is expected, because everything is realized.

The falsity of a mirage makes people afraid of certain expressions. You become shy of using the word spirit, even though you know that spirit is a certain state of matter. You timidly avoid the word Creator, even though you know perfectly well that each material formation has its creator. Falsehood and fear are poor advisers. One could cite a multitude of superstitions that reduce adults to the level of children. We ask that you abandon all superstitions and get to know things in all their reality. We pity people who go about hopping on one leg. This spectacle calls to mind the story of the nanny who, to prevent her charge from running away, instilled in him the notion that walking on one leg was a mark of high birth.

246. A person who is not free, someone whose thoughts center on himself, whose acts are done on behalf of himself, sinks into an ocean of false currents. Even speech, as a means of expressing oneself externally, is remodeled by him in a personal way that conforms to his egoism. Notice how when he says the words of a foreign language the accents are displaced without regard for meaning or philology. People alter foreign sounds according to the customs of their own country. Indeed, the ignorance of vanity and contempt for one’s neighbors results in distortion of their tongue. Pondering and penetrating into the significance of a neighbor’s feelings is incompatible with the coarseness of petty conceit. A feeling of irresponsibility and an abiding sense of entitlement create the feudal lords of our modern times.

Notice that a person who garbles the meaning of what is being communicated by senselessly shifting the points of emphasis will be someone who lacks awareness of evolution. A sensitive person will prefer to make do with simple expressions in order to avoid mutilating a meaning he does not really grasp. Nobody can listen to a messenger who distorts the meaning of his mission.

You who condemn others, turn to yourself! Wrongful owner, do not forget that someone else’s thirst for property is merely a reflection of your own! Be concerned, first of all, with the capacity of your own consciousness. If the beast of ownership has not been engulfed for good by your consciousness, you will remain captive, under the seductive spell of the mirage of Maya. By exploring and learning, one can solve in the joy of light the difficult problem of ownership.

The baker is allowed to eat up all the bread, but he does not do so. A person who has realized the essence of all things does not need them. The consciousness ought to be the primary object of concern. Take up everything in its actuality throughout the entire spectrum of life.

A person who is not free, whose acts are performed on behalf of himself, will sink into an ocean of false currents.

247. When lightning singes the wings, when thunder startles the ear, when the anchors of prosperity disappear, then will Our messenger knock. The smile of contentment will not open the door to him. The log of self-importance will block the entrances before him. Reality will be revealed to the person who wishes to receive the guest. Although the path of evolution is immutable, each person disposes for himself. The blade of the sword is being forged, but the self-satisfaction of the slag is increasing. Signs of the extinction of light are emerging. In the forge, the blade has already been tempered. Manifestations of a wondrous New World have been affirmed. There is still a mountain of rubbish, but the ashes of the slag are the cradle of the blade. It is all right to know all the imperfections, but disparagement of the New World will be a stumbling block on the path. The Reptile is still alive. Each blade must be raised from the ashes. The spine of the Reptile has hidden the distant worlds. The enemy has concealed the entrance into the World of Light, but the stars will show through the rifts in the spine. Though the refuse pit does not bring on despondency, the golden spine of the Reptile towers alluringly. We shall accept all the blades directed at the Reptile and count them with care.

It is time to make ready the Banner of Maitreya.

Who ever said the time of Maitreya would be one without lightning, without whirlwinds!

We prefer to test you in flight.

248. It is hard for the hut of old prejudices to collapse.

First of all, let us remember that it is impossible to keep maturing fruit from fully ripening. Let us review the pages of history: The time came for the liberation of thought, and the fires of the stake blazed, but thought flowed on. The time came for popular rule, and the firing squads thundered, but the people rose up. The time came for the development of technology, and the reactionaries were terrified, but the machines moved on, pulsating to the tempo of evolution. Now has come the time for people to become aware of psychic energy. All the inquisitors, retrogrades, fogies, and ignoramuses may be horrified, but the opportunity for realizing the new attainments of humanity has matured amidst all the untold possibilities that this power provides. The inquisitors and reactionaries can go ahead and build prisons and madhouses, for later these will serve quite well as labor camps where they can live. But the ripened stage of evolution cannot be pushed aside, any more than humanity can be deprived of all means of communication.

The denier of evolution can withdraw into a life of seclusion and dream about the raptures of regression. But life itself, reality itself, will point to new, indisputable phenomena. Only the sensible mind of a realist will work these manifestations into a well-thought-out scientific system. All the myopic mystics and garden-variety literati will be seated on the dunce stools.

The banner of the newly realized energy is being raised. Each new acquisition ought to fill every heart with joy. The thinking of the community member should thrill at the possibilities of new, useful studies of reality.

We summon to knowledge, for only knowledge can help one to encompass the complex of apparent contradictions. The laws of the great Aum are identical under all conditions.

Know, know, know—otherwise the hut of old prejudices will fail to collapse.

249. Do not be late in researching psychic energy, and do not be late in applying it; otherwise, an ocean of waves will wash away all the embankments, turning the stream of thought into chaos. Adopt the slogan, “Those who do not delay are not late.” Do not reject the rule of the realist about precision in labor. Without delay and with clarity of thought one will be able to discern the structures of the community.

Tell your friends how limited the time is, how an opportunity lost does not come back. Tell them that the Teaching of the Community must proceed in harmony with manifestations of the energy. A common mistake is to separate social structures from scientific. It is difficult to imagine a scientist who exists apart from society. In a time when evolution is accelerating, can anyone think of remaining in seclusion? Can anyone sleep through manifestations of lightning? Free of fear and self-pity, one must take on the burden of keeping watch. There is no fatigue when there is nobody else at the gate, when the power of psychic energy can gush forth in an irresistible stream. Liken your situation to that of Holland, where the sea level is often higher than the land. How tireless the watch must be that oversees the canals and dikes!

Accept the influx of psychic energy as a fruitful wave. The loss of such opportunities brings irreparable harm to communities. Leave it to the old world to fear research into psychic energy. As for you, young, strong, and free of prejudice, leave no stone unturned in your investigations and accept the gift that is lying at your very gates.

Watch with an eagle eye, and with the leap of a lion seize the destined power. Do not be late! Show a thirst for the teaching of reality.

250. The manifestation of atomic energy is related to research into psychic energy as well as to study of the theory of magnets. Without these other factors, only certain manifestations of this primary energy can be obtained. Seekers must strive ardently for simplicity in their quest.

Tell them to firmly express their desire to connect the thread of what is physically visible with what is physically ponderable but usually imperceptible to the eye. Conduct an experiment to photograph physical radiations and formations. Vividly colored radiations will appear even in full daylight. Such photographs can astonish petty deniers. Other experiments you are familiar with could be suggested, but they would be explained away as miracles. For children, even a festive dinner table seems like an unprecedented miracle. Knowing the habits of children, We will speak in the scientific terminology of yesterday.

It is strange to observe by what unexpected paths humanity is approaching the new entrances. The tactics by which the adversary draws near can be amazingly complex. It is impossible to predict how the outworn thinking will twist and turn in order to avoid disturbing its tiny cottage of cards.

Where, then, is the finite? Yet Infinity strikes like a hammer. The very Infinity from which, through courageous cognition, wings are growing.

Do not get upset about the slow pace at which certain characters ascend—they are afraid of appearing ridiculous. Others are looking for individual ways to express themselves. So much the better: Let it seem as if they are finding it out for themselves. But awaken the quests. Let them give form to their conjectures.

Let them accumulate experience in full individuality.

We prefer the insight of experience to the tear of faith.

251. Contemporary industry and the entire manufacturing process are so imbalanced, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that they make it impossible for things to be distributed properly. Coercive, indiscriminate distribution breeds deceit and lies. Should we expect new possibilities from inaction, or should we deepen consciousness in its essence? You remember the words of the Buddha about the disciple who, though surrounded with objects, was able to consciously renounce ownership. There is no point in trying to take things away by force, thereby arousing a passion for junk. The main point is to intelligently carry out an educational program that makes clear the degrading nature of ownership. It does not matter that somebody gets to keep his own chair. What is important is that young people realize the absurdity of a person clinging to his own chair. It is important that this consciousness manifest not as a rejection but as a conquest freely undertaken. When without deceit people realize the impracticality of ownership, then a team of coworkers will emerge and grow.

252. The poisonous breath of ownership can be destroyed only by a well-thought-out school program. Literature opposing ownership does not exist. Only a few have vanquished the dragon of junk. But many dream about acquiring personal possessions. How truthful must historical comparisons be! With what strict care must biological details be selected in order to illustrate the illegality and pointlessness of property! The laws governing the properties of matter show how ownership does not agree with human nature.

Understand, it is necessary to deepen one’s mastery of the principles of liberation. Be able to look with courage into a well of insufficient depth—how quickly the surface grows scummy and the stagnant water gets covered over with thorns.

Deepen what has been started!

253. Indeed, imagination is only a reflection. Nothing is born of nothing. It is difficult to envision the indestructibility in space. The destruction of a whole range of phenomena registers in the brain. The destruction of entire epochs is becoming obvious. How, then, to understand the reality that space is being densified and replenished? Many signs are right before their eyes, but people do not know how to link up what is taking place. Let us consider, for example, the fact that people already realize that psychic energy can knock quite insistently on the door of humanity. Already they are noticing the emergence of strange illnesses in which vital energy flows away for no apparent reason. However, the cause and effect involved are not being correlated.

Thus, a certain case you are familiar with could teach you how necessary it is to study and apply psychic energy. A wave of psychic energy would restore vitality and convey a new joy of being. But for this people would need to become aware of psychic energy—in other words, to enter into the rhythm of evolution. Instead of that, the patients are stuffed with medicines. The ill could easily have been helped, but instead they meekly prepare themselves for death.

When We summon people to the realization of psychic energy, We are not looking to turn them into magicians; We are only indicating the very next step of evolution and, in the name of the community, urging them not to miss the deadline. Hurry to store up strength and use it to help on the upcoming evolution.

Naturally, that evolution is certain to take place, but why be crushed when a song of joy is destined!

254. If on the road you come across a valuable object covered with mud, you do not pass by with your nose in the air. You pick up your find and clean off the mud. Likewise, if you discover a valuable person covered with filth, you stop and make an effort to clean the person up. It is the duty of a community member to affirm justice. The Teaching cannot reject genuine treasures. The community cannot cogitate on whether someone is ours or not. The community says a person is valuable for evolution or is not. The most severe selection is according to the essence. Stern goalfitness obliges one to protect the true treasures. When defending the treasures, do not waste time. Every hour counts. And give up vague expressions. Also, each treasure is for you what a sail is for a ship.

Clearly, great treasures have been cast in the mud right before you. Clearly, the paths to the World Community are being violated. Each wayfarer can endure the greatest calamity if he possesses confidence in the Vigil of Our Community. Each has to maintain this confidence—otherwise, it is over!

Just as you would clean a sorry diamond you discovered in the mud, clean the dirt off the faces of great workers!

255. Do not continue an argument with the ignorant. Maintain an obvious silence if you see that a person you are talking with is being irresponsible. Assert your knowledge with silence. That way, the people with whom you have nothing in common will not obscure your vision. Teach your young friends to stay silent when there is no bridge to somebody’s consciousness. Teach them to brandish the sword only once if an arrow of insult is let fly.

256. Growling must be heard without a shudder. One needs to understand where the growl is coming from. The ear must distinguish the roar of a tiger from a cry of victory. Outbursts of screaming must be discerned with great intensity by the human consciousness, if that noisy stream is to be crossed. The value of the path that runs through shrieks and cries is far higher than the solitary trumpet.

257. The manifestation of disease may be understood as the pricking of the panhuman substance. It is strikingly obvious that people of developed consciousness often fall ill. Headaches, as well as disorders of the eyes, teeth, and extremities, are related to the psychic domains. Cancer, tuberculosis, diseases of the liver and spleen, and enlargement of the heart—all of these arise from imbalances in the psychic centers. Only the application of psychic energy can protect the best people. Without it they will act like sponges and soak up the excesses of humanity.

It is with good reason that We insist on realization of psychic energy—the time has come!

258. Let us turn once again to the mirage of Maya. The evident futility of working on humanity will arise quite clearly before you. How obvious are the features of mutual debasement! How blatant are the hypocrisy and the lies! How suffocating is the ignorance, and how deadly the laziness! This mirage of evidence obscures the horizon of reality. But like the white elephant of Maitreya, reality marches on.

Precisely when falsehood and conceit seem to hold sway, a great change in the course of evolution is taking place. The voice that whispers in the night will depart into darkness.

The stronger the thunder, the more powerful the lightning. Everyone claims: The New Era arrives in storm and lightning. Lightning requires positive and negative energies. If Maya does not provide negative evidence, how can the blade of positive reality flash forth?

Let us put it briefly: Never before on the planet has the thought of cooperation been elevated to such heights.

You will see all the mirages and will know the immutable reality of the worldwide cooperation that is on its way. The force of the interaction must be great. The brilliance of the lightning hammer must be dazzling, and the thunder must deafen. Every piece of evidence must serve the immutable reality.

Let your friends illumine their consciousness with the lightning of reality. Let us turn no more to the mirage of Maya, nor dream of quenching our thirst from its illusory lakes. The unfolding of evolution is immutable. The realization of immutability will light your way!

259. When people ask what to call the method of the Teaching, tell them, “The method of revealing the pathways.” The opening of the nerve centers is the next step. Intuition should suggest how carefully one needs to protect the individuality. Least suitable is the system of ordinary lectures.

There may be appeals to the multitude, but construction takes place by means of individual conversations. One of Our Teachers usually just began sentences, leaving it to the disciple to complete the thought. That is how He elicited finely tuned, free-flowing inter-thought.

The principle of freedom of approach, freedom of service, and freedom of work must be protected. The tendency to have difficulty in the beginning only indicates imperfection. Affirmation of wisdom will lie in the definite milestones that surround the figure of the knowledge outlined.

By revealing the right door, we shall convey the right direction.

260. Let us affirm justice. Each shall receive his just deserts. The ardent, the brave, the cowardly, the lazy—everyone will come for their wages. Reassure them, cleanse them, and point them to the entrance. He who understands will knock until the door opens.

The Master feels: The shield is growing incandescent. The fairytale ordained is coming true. Symbols and portents are pouring onto the Earth, and only the deaf are not startled. I sense the beauty. The Teaching is revealed in a special way, ever the same and yet never repeated, heading to a single goal, yet always taking wing in a new flight—at once manifest and invisible! That is how the New World can be described.

The house was on fire, but people went on playing dice and mistook the smoke of the fire for that of the hearth.

Count the hours, because now you can no longer reckon in days. Can you really not hear the sound of the wave?

261. In the life of every friendly association there may come a time when development in a certain direction can have harmful consequences. At such times, the leader must find a path with new tasks that is broad enough to absorb friction. Let us not call the friction “rivalry” or worse. In dangerous straits ships sail in single file; in the development of the community there may be a need to delink the movement of the participants. Instead of eventual harm, there will be mastery of new domains. When muscles are swelling, be able to provide an outlet for the energy. If the members are not afforded sufficient space, dissension is assured.

It is essential to offer a variety of tasks, for otherwise the forces of the growing consciousness will collide. It depends upon the leader to avoid turning useful forces into a jarful of scorpions. Fortunately, so many things need doing now that it is not difficult to direct the forces to some pressing problem. Often the buildup of forces is confused with antagonism. Often instead of taking calm advantage of an opportunity, people fan the coals of hatred.

I advise all the associations not to let this psychological moment slip by, but instead to provide new tasks in a timely manner. I sense how complications can be avoided by relying on the most practical means to guarantee victory. The Teaching of reality has to correspond to the course of evolution and its degree of complexity. The manifestation of new worldwide structures must be robustly protected.

262. We look with sorrow on those who have been unable to come up with the right words. There was a time when they still could have strengthened the foundations, but phantoms obscured reality and the opportunity departed. Where, then, and on what road will you come upon the messenger? How many seas will you cross in order to catch the one word you missed hearing? How to attract back the opportunity you lost?

The unapplied thoughts stand vacant, like a house without an owner. An unusual light flashed out, but they took it for a table candle. Striving along the path of the unusual was mistaken for the same old soup. Now they have to search and knock. No one will help, because the cause has given rise to the effect.

Tell your friends that they should watch as keenly as falcons for the sparks of opportunities. Take the time to understand how unexpectedly the messenger arrives and how contentment closes one’s eyes. Truly, every message missed is a heavy burden; therefore, resonate in time.

No one would advise receiving the first messenger poorly so that the second might reach you sooner. The world is harboring one hope: to avoid the unusual and strew ashes on the message of the new consciousness. Find the right words!

263. Testing and deprivation.

How solemnly and pompously do people dress these concepts up! But you know that testing means the improvement of quality, while deprivation means the acquisition of possibilities. A person tests himself, and thereby gets to know the properties of matter unfamiliar to him. A person is deprived of ignorance, and thereby opens up new possibilities for himself. Where the ignoramus feels despondent, the one who is learning discovers jubilation.

People will say, “We have given up joy for the community.” Answer, “What a graveyard your community is, if it runs on Lenten oil.” How teary and dreary are their deprivations! How they smack their lips at all the forbidden dainties!

Deprivations are unknown to Us, for the capacity to encompass excludes deprivation. Our Teaching envisions the world as rich, joyous, and fascinating. Nowhere are holy fetters and flagellations decreed. The community envisioned therein sails forward like a ship laden with treasures. Cognition of the countless properties of matter shines bright. The matter of yesterday is being clothed in a radiant fabric of energy, one which has no need for a new name, but which permeates all space and quivers as the rainbow of human rejoicing.

When one electron of matter can pour forth an entire stream of grace, where is there any place for deprivation and joyless testing?

Count the hours as the new solutions approach!

264. Before departing, accept a small reminder; it will not place a burden on the travelers. Knowing the location of the coworkers at any given time, you will never be alone. It would be ridiculous to leave coworkers in the dark.

What, then, makes outsiders not believe in communication with Our Community? Either utter ignorance or else envy. They wish to be admitted to the Central Apparatus, although they have not the slightest clue how to make use of it, nor any thought about the great responsibility involved in approaching the Energy Source. Establishing the Teaching in life allows one to approach the most dangerous levers. But unless one has practical experience, no explanation will help.

Now, how can the consciousness be expanded if one does not make use of past experience? Of course, illumination is possible, but this occurs so rarely that We do not count on it. Moreover, even experienced cognition must be elicited and directed outward; otherwise, it will float about like flakes in a reaction that has gone awry. In the monotony of everyday existence, only a few sense the reality of the Cosmos. Among the scrolls of births, illnesses, sorrows, and deaths, few find the scroll of the path without end and beginning. How to speak to a hungry person about eternity? Based on what he is experiencing, he will imagine eternal hunger. Who and where, then, is the person who will first break bread and then lead on to eternity? The bread of the Earth and Knowledge are manifested only in cooperation.

New coworker, does the fire of joy burn within you at the thought of the community?

265. When the direction has been determined, when the consciousness has been tested, and when resoluteness has been weighed and measured, then a word must be found that expresses the step. “The light-force is burning away the darkness”—that is how the present three-year period has evolved. But during these three years, a seven-year period of “enlightenment” has ended. We can give the new seven-year period a brief designation: “Struggle” is its name. Struggle in full awareness, with resoluteness and no retreat.

You know about the organism’s renewal every seven years; similar phases can be observed regarding actions. Now the struggle indicated will take on a new meaning. Humanity has cried out about the impossibility of remaining in ignorance. The sole entryway into progress is the community. There may be many ways to interpret community, but its streambed is one. Pushing off from the old shore, humanity will inevitably reach, as indicated, the evolutionary bluffs, the upright cliff of the New World. Only the blind do not notice the unprecedented speed with which the signs of evolution are arising. Each sphere of life points to the development of concepts. As their time arrives, they manifest not in some secret laboratory but in everyday life. Entire whirlwinds of world energy illumine the future path. This manifestation of energy is, naturally, sustained by all of the elements. Attraction to evolution will compel everyone to ascend in the struggle of the worlds.

People who talk about the onset of peaceful construction do not know the dates. The struggle is responding to the cosmic torrent.

You are setting forth not at a time of quietude, but at the dawn of a New World. For your journey We wish to give you a magnet, a token of the still hidden properties of matter waiting to be explored. And We shall give you a piece of a meteorite. This fragment will remind you about the investigation of the basic energy, about the great Aum.

266. We respond with care to your aspirations, and We expect similar sensitivity from you.

We protect you on all the paths, and We can expect the same solicitude.

Wherever there is at least an embryo of cooperation, rejection is out of place. A sober mind clearly discerns its friends.

According to Our custom, all arguments must be exhausted before relations are severed.

I do not see any obstacles to cooperation; rather, We can create ten new groupings. It is because the consciousness of Worldwide Cooperation must grow. The stubbornness of ignorance will not prove an obstacle.

Your books are housed in Our libraries. Are Our books likewise found in yours? We are able to discuss your books. Have you read Ours?

We consider knowledge to be the foundation of the Community, and We place no restrictions on it. We believe experience and goodwill to be the basis of the Community. We provide the conditions most conducive to the success of friends. We will learn your intentions toward Us.

267. Two sailors were shipwrecked and cast away on a desert island. Both nearly died of hunger and fright, for they believed themselves to be cut off from the world forever. A ship rescued them. And then a sturdy lighthouse was built on the island. The very same sailors were stationed at the lighthouse to help others who were stranded there. Now their frame of mind altered. Happy to send out a beam of salvation, they no longer felt disconnected from the world. This shows how awareness that one is communicating with the world and being useful to others completely transforms people. Working for a common cause is a key to success.

268. Alive is he who wants to live. Amazing is the resistance to growing danger, when the meaning of life is clear. Nobody becomes firmly established merely by soulless commands. Coercion is a relic of the past. We now have to strive toward different, effective measures. The study of energies will reveal how many of the subtlest possibilities have been provided humanity. But it should be remembered that the most horrific explosions can be triggered by a single touch or shock—this happens with the crudest explosives. What can be said, then, about the strongest, subtlest energies? And among these still ignored energies is—thought.

269. Life will grow stronger not by means of mechanics but through the ideas of communal life. A person who settles in a village cannot be an enemy of all his neighbors. Good relations must be established, but only cooperation will lead to substantial benefits. It is necessary to implement a rational exchange—so we will arrive at what is called a cooperative. But cooperation will not last if in its foundation lie concealment and greed. Trust is essential. A partnership based on trust was the original form of the cooperative. Of course, everything has to be improved. Thus, since those times science has made so many advances that communal life can become not only a matter of business but also one of the heart. The Living Ethics will act as a fortifying principle.

270. We need to strengthen each other. An entire science can be founded to explain the effect of energies. Psychic energy itself, inherent in every human being, is in need of hygiene. One need not assume that there is anything supernatural in all this; the new life knows nature in all its infinitude. Therefore, it is necessary to brightly and openly take part in the establishment of the communal life as the basis of the world.

271. The cooperative is not a shop but a cultural institution. Trading may be part of it, but the basis should be educational. Only along these lines is it possible to apply cooperation to the new life. Such a blend will not be easy, because people are used to connecting commerce with selfish greed. This delusion is difficult to eradicate. Still, it is urgently necessary that school education make the meaning of healthy exchange understood. Receiving pay for work is not a crime, nor does it mean being greedy. It is possible to see that labor is the one just value.

Thus, without commotion or confusion everything can be elucidated under the banner of Enlightenment and Peace.

272. Peace is the crown of cooperation. We know many equivalent concepts—cooperation, fellowship, community, cooperative—the most hearty, unifying fundamentals that shine like beacons in the darkness. People should not get frightened at the thought of their neighbors having good fortune; rather, they should rejoice, because our neighbor’s happiness is our happiness. A podvizhnik will not leave the Earth so long as suffering is left unhealed. A united fellowship can easily heal the wounds of a friend—the members need only develop the art of thinking for the good. This is not easy to do amid the hustle and bustle of daily life. But the example of the podvizhnik can encourage everyone and fill them with new strength.

273. How much suffering will humanity have to go through before it realizes the advantages of unity! The most destructive forces have been targeted at the embryos of unification, in order to cast a dark shadow over them. Every unifier is exposed to personal danger. Every peacemaker is reviled. Every worker is ridiculed. Every builder is called a madman. Thus, the servants of dissolution are attempting to remove the banner of Enlightenment from the face of the Earth. Work is impossible in the midst of animosity. Construction is unthinkable where explosions of enmity are taking place. Fellowship is battling misanthropy—the hatred of humankind.

Let us bear these ancient truths in mind.

274. Can there exist in the community associations of women, men, and children? Of course, there can. A true association can be divided along many lines, according to age, gender, occupation, and thought. It is necessary that such branches grow strong and healthy, that they not only avoid interfering with people’s aspirations but also render help to each other—and this help must be voluntary. One should encourage every rational affiliation. Precisely when there are all kinds of cooperation is it especially possible to flourish. We do not put on shackles; rather, We expand the horizon. Let children undertake the most probing assignments. Let women carry high the ordained Banner. Let men give Us joy by constructing the City. Thus, above the transitory will emerge the signs of Eternity.

275. When calculations grow complex and the Infinite is eclipsed, then the simplest principle will again be recalled: From heart to heart—such is the law of fraternity, community, fellowship.

Worker, does your consciousness tremble or expand when energy is transformed into an ocean of light?

Worker, is your heart frightened or exulted when before you looms Infinity?