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LIGHT ON THE PATH

A TREATISE

Written for the personal use of
those who are ignorant of the

Eastern Wisdom and who desire to
enter within its influence

Written down by M.C.

Adyar Centenary Edition

1982

1st Adyar Edition

1911

14th–18th Reprints

1968–1981

Adyar Centenary Edition

1982

ISBN 0-8356-7192-5

© The Theosophical Publishing House, 1911

Adyar, Madras 600 020, India.

CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Light on the Path:

Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Part II . . . . . . . . . . 9

Karma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

INTRODUCTION

On the title-page of the first edition of this book, published in 1885, it is described as

‘A treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom
and who desire to enter within its influence.’ 1 But the book itself begins with the
statement that ‘These rules are written for all disciples.’ The latter description is surely
the more accurate one, as the history of the book will show. As we have it at present it
was dictated by the Master Hilarion through the mediumship of M.C.2—a lady well
known in Theosophical circles, who at one time collaborated with Madame Blavatsky in
the editorship of Lucifer. The Master Hilarion received it from His own Teacher, the

Great One who among Theosophical students is sometimes called ‘The Venetian’; but
even He is the author only of part of it. It has passed through three phases; let us set
them down in order.

It is but a small book even now; but the first form in which we see it is smaller yet. It
is a palm-leaf manuscript, old beyond computation; so old that even before the time of

Christ men had already forgotten its date and the name of its writer, and regarded its
origin as lost in the mists of prehistoric antiquity. It consists of ten leaves, and on each
leaf are written three lines only, for in a palm-leaf manuscript the lines run along the
page, and not across it as with us. Each line is complete in itself—a short aphorism. In
order that these thirty lines may be clearly distinguishable, they are printed in this
edition in black type. The language in which these aphorisms are written is an archaic
form of Sanskrit.

The Venetian Master translated them from Sanskrit into Greek for the use of His

Alexandrian pupils, of whom the Master Hilarion was one in His incarnation as

Iamblichus. Not only did He translate the aphorisms, but He added to them certain
explanations which we shall do well to take along with the original. For example, if we
look at the first three aphorisms, we shall see that the paragraph marked 4 (which
follows them) is clearly intended as a commentary; so that we should read it thus:

‘Kill out ambition; but work as those work who are ambitious.

‘Kill out desire of life; but respect life as those do who desire it.

‘Kill out desire of comfort; but be happy as those are who live for happiness.’

All these explanations and amplifications of the Venetian Master are printed in
ordinary type, and they (with the original aphorisms) represent the book as it was first
published in 1885; for the Master Hilarion translated it from Greek into English and
gave it in that form. Almost immediately after it was printed, He added to it a number of
most valuable notes of His own. For that first edition these notes were printed on
separate pages, the backs of which were gummed so that they might be attached at the
beginning and the end of the little book which had just passed through the Press. Those
notes are given here in their appropriate places, and each is headed with the word

‘Note’.

1 In a later edition (1894) it was also called: ‘A Fragment from the Book of the Golden Precepts.’

2 Mabel Collins

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The beautiful little essay on ‘Karma’ is also from the hand of the Venetian Master,
and was included in the first edition of the book.

This Light on the Path was the first of three treatises which occupy a unique
position in our Theosophical literature —directions from those who have trodden the

Path to those who desire to tread it. I remember that the late T. Subba Row once told us
that its precepts had several layers of meaning—that they could be taken over and over
again as directions for different stages.

First, for the aspirants—those who are treading the Probationary Path. Then they
begin all over again at a higher level for him who has entered upon the Path Proper
through the portal of the first of the great Initiations. And yet again, when Adeptship has
been attained, it is said that once more in some still higher sense these same precepts
may be taken as directions for one who presses onwards to still higher achievements. In
this way, for the man who can understand it in the whole of its mystic meaning, this
manual carries us farther than any other.

Next in time came The Voice of the Silence, written down for us by Madame

Blavatsky herself, but consisting in reality of three addresses delivered by the greater

Teacher Aryasanga (known to us now as the Master Djwal Kul), and afterwards written
out from memory by his pupil Alcyone. This book contains directions which carry us up
to the level of the Arhat. It is written in many ways from a point of view quite different
from that of the Master Hilarion: indeed, an examination of the similarities and the
differences will be of great interest to the careful student.

The third of these guidebooks to the Path has only just been given to us by the same

Alcyone who reported for us the sermons of Aryasanga. In At the Feet of the Master he
repeats for us the teachings given to him by the Master Kuthumi—teachings which were
intended to prepare him for the first of the great Initiations. The third book, therefore, is
more limited in its scope than the others, but has the advantage of extraordinary
clearness and simplicity, for the instructions which it contains were intended for the
comprehension of a physical brain still very young.

The archaic Sanskrit manuscript which was the basis of Light on the Path was also
translated into Egyptian; and many of the explanations of the Venetian Master have
more the ring of Egyptian than of Indian teaching. Egyptian or Indian, there is no more
precious gem in our Theosophical literature—no book which will better repay the most
careful and detailed study. But, to quote from the Foreword to At the Feet of the Master:

It is not enough to say that they are true and beautiful; a man who wishes to
succeed must do exactly what is said. To look at food and say that it is good will
not satisfy a starving man; he must put forth his hand and eat. So to hear the

Master’s words is not enough; you must do what He says, attending to every
word, taking every hint. If a hint is not taken, if a word is missed, it is lost for
ever; for He does not speak twice.

Definitely intended for the quickening of the evolution of those who are on the Path,
these books put forward ideals which men in the world are not usually prepared to
accept. Only so far as a man lives the teaching, will he be able really to understand it. If
he does not practice it, it will remain a sealed book to him, and he will think of it as

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unpractical and useless. But any honest effort to live it will at once throw light upon it.

Only in that way can this priceless pearl be appreciated.

C. W. LEADBEATER

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LIGHT ON THE PATH

I

These rules are written for all disciples:

Attend you to them.

Before the eyes can see they must be incapable of tears. Before the ear can hear it
must have lost its sensitiveness. Before the voice can speak in the presence of the

Masters it must have lost the power to wound. Before the soul can stand in the presence
of the Masters its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.

1. Kill out ambition.

Note—Ambition is the first curse: the great tempter of the man who is rising
above his fellows. It is the simplest form of looking for reward. Men of intelligence
and power are led away from their higher possibilities by it continually. Yet it is a
necessary teacher. Its results turn to dust and ashes in the mouth; like death and
estrangement it shows the man at last that to work for self is to work for disappoint-
ment. But though this first rule seems so simple and easy, do not quickly pass it by.

For these vices of the ordinary man pass through a subtle transformation and
reappear with changed aspect in the heart of the disciple. It is easy to say: ‘I will not
be ambitious;’ it is not so easy to say: ‘When the Master reads my heart, He will find it
clean utterly.’ The pure artist who works for the love of his work is sometimes more
firmly planted on the right road than the occultist who fancies he has removed his
interest from self, but who has in reality only enlarged the limits of experience and
desire, and transferred his interest to things which concern his larger span of life. The
same principle applies to the other two seemingly simple rules. Linger over them, and
do not let yourself be easily deceived by your own heart. For now, at the threshold, a
mistake can be corrected. But carry it on with you and it will grow and come to
fruition, or else you must suffer bitterly in its destruction.

2. Kill out desire of life.

3. Kill out desire of comfort.

4. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those do who desire it. Be
happy as those are who live for happiness.

Seek in the heart the source of evil and expunge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of
the devoted disciple as well as in the heart of the man of desire. Only the strong can
kill it out. The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death. And it is a plant
that lives and increases throughout the ages. It flowers when the man has
accumulated unto himself innumerable existences. He who will enter upon the path
of power must tear this thing out of his heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the

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whole life of the man seems to be utterly dissolved. This ordeal must be endured; it
may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life; it
may not come until the last. But, O disciple, remember that it has to be endured,
and fasten the energies of your soul upon the task. Live neither in the present nor
the future, but in the Eternal. This giant weed cannot flower there; this blot upon
existence is wiped out by the very atmosphere of eternal thought.

5. Kill out all sense of separateness.

Note—Do not fancy you can stand aside from the bad man or the foolish man.

They are yourself, though in a less degree than your friend or your Master. But if you
allow the idea of separateness from any evil thing or person to grow up within you, by
so doing you create karma which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul
recognizes that it cannot be isolated. Remember that the sin and shame of the world
are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your karma is inextricably interwoven
with the great Karma. And before you can attain knowledge you must have passed
through all places, foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled garment
you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be yours tomorrow.

And if you turn with horror from it, when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling
the more closely to you. The self-righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire.

Abstain because it is right to abstain—not that yourself shall be kept clean.

6. Kill out desire for sensation.

7. Kill out the hunger for growth.

8. Yet stand alone and isolated, because nothing that is embodied, nothing that is
conscious of separation, nothing that is out of the Eternal, can aid you. Learn from
sensation and observe it, because only so can you commence the science of self-
knowledge, and plant your foot on the first step of the ladder. Grow as the flower
grows, unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you
press forward to open your soul to the Eternal. But it must be the Eternal that draws
forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For in the one case you
develop in the luxuriance of purity; in the other you harden by the forcible passion
for personal stature.

9. Desire only that which is within you.

10. Desire only that which is beyond you.

11. Desire only that which is unattainable.

12. For within you is the light of the world—the only light that can be shed upon the

Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.

It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. It is unattainable,

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because it for ever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the

Flame.

13. Desire power ardently.

14. Desire peace fervently.

15. Desire possessions above all.

16. But those possessions must belong to the pure soul only, and be possessed
therefore by all pure souls equally, and thus be the especial property of the whole
only when united. Hunger for such possessions as can be held by the pure soul, that
you may accumulate wealth for that united spirit of life which is your only true Self.

The peace you shall desire is that sacred peace which nothing can disturb, and in
which the soul grows as does the holy flower upon the still lagoons. And that power
which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the
eyes of men.

17. Seek out the way.

Note—These four words seem, perhaps, too slight to stand alone. The disciple
may say: ‘Should I study these thoughts at all, did I not seek out the way?’ Yet do not
pass on hastily. Pause and consider awhile. Is it the way you desire, or is it that there
is a dim perspective in your visions of great heights to be scaled by yourself, of a great
future for you to compass? Be warned. The way is to be sought for its own sake, not
with regard to your feet that shall tread it.

There is a correspondence between this rule and the seventeenth of the second
series. When after ages of struggle and many victories the final battle is won, the final
secret demanded, then you are prepared for a further path. When the final secret of
this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way—a path which
leads out of all human experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or
imagination. At each of these points it is needful to pause long and consider well. At
each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the way is chosen for its own sake.

The way and the truth come first, then follows the life.

18. Seek the way by retreating within.

19. Seek the way by advancing boldly without.

20. Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament there is one road which seems
the most desirable. But the way is not found by devotion alone, by religious contem-
plation alone, by ardent progress, by self-sacrificing labor, by studious observation
of life. None alone can take the disciple more than one step onwards. All steps are
necessary to make up the ladder. The vices of man become steps in the ladder, one
by one, as they are surmounted. The virtues of man are steps indeed, necessary—not

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by any means to be dispensed with. Yet, though they create a fair atmosphere and a
happy future, they are useless if they stand alone. The whole nature of man must be
used wisely by the one who desires to enter the way. Each man is to himself abso-
lutely the way, the truth, and the life. But he is only so when he grasps his whole
individuality firmly, and by the force of his awakened spiritual will, recognizes this
individuality as not himself, but that thing which he has with pain created for his
own use and by means of which he purposes, as his growth slowly develops his
intelligence, to reach to the life beyond individuality. When he knows that for this
his wonderful complex separated life exists, then, indeed, and then only, he is upon
the way. Seek it by plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths of your own
inmost being. Seek it by testing all experience, by utilizing the senses in order to
understand the growth and meaning of individuality, and the beauty and obscurity
of those other divine fragments which are struggling side by side with you, and form
the race to which you belong. Seek it by study of the laws of being, the laws of

Nature, the laws of the supernatural, and seek it by making the profound obeisance
of the soul to the dim star that burns within. Steadily, as you watch and worship, its
light will grow stronger. Then you may know you have found the beginning of the
way. And when you have found the end its light will suddenly become the infinite
light.

Note—Seek it by testing all experience; and remember that when I say this I do
not say: ‘Yield to the seductions of sense in order to know it.’ Before you have become
an occultist you may do this; but not afterwards. When you have chosen and entered
the Path you cannot yield to these seductions without shame. Yet you can experience
them without horror; can weigh, observe, and test them, and wait with the patience of
confidence for the hour when they shall affect you no longer. But do not condemn the
man that yields; stretch out your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet have
become heavy with mire. Remember, O disciple, that great though the gulf may be
between the good man and the sinner it is greater between the good man and the man
who has attained knowledge; it is immeasurable between the good man and the one
on the threshold of divinity. Therefore be wary lest too soon you fancy yourself a thing
apart from the mass. When you have found the beginning of the way the star of your
soul will show its light; and by that light you will perceive how great is the darkness in
which it burns. Mind, heart, brain all are obscure and dark until the first great battle
has been won. Be not appalled and terrified by the sight; keep your eyes fixed on the
small light and it will grow. But let the darkness within help you to understand the
helplessness of those who have seen no light, whose souls are in profound gloom.

Blame them not. Shrink not from them, but try to lift a little of the heavy karma of the
world; give your aid to the few strong hands that hold back the powers of darkness
from obtaining complete victory. Then do you enter into a partnership of joy, which
brings indeed terrible toil and profound sadness, but also a great and ever-increasing
delight.

21. Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm; not till then.

It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves and form buds,
while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not till the whole personality of
the man is dissolved and melted—not until it is held by the divine fragment which
has created it, as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience—not until the
whole nature has yielded and become subject unto its higher Self, can the bloom

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open. Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the heavy
rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will
come to the harassed spirit. And in the deep silence the mysterious event will occur
which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a
voice that speaks where there is none to speak—it is a messenger that comes, a
messenger without form or substance; or it is the flower of the soul that has opened.

It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and
desired, even amid the raging of the storm. The silence may last a moment of time
or it may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you will carry its strength with
you. Again and again the battle must be fought and won. It is only for an interval
that Nature can be still.

Note—The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment when perception
awakes; with it comes confidence, knowledge, certainty. The pause of the soul is the
moment of wonder, and the next moment of satisfaction—that is the silence.

Know, O disciple, that those who have passed through the silence, and felt its
peace and retained its strength, they long that you shall pass through it also. There-
fore, in the Hall of Learning, when he is capable of entering there, the disciple will
always find his Master.

Those that ask shall have. But though the ordinary man asks perpetually, his
voice is not heard. For he asks with his mind only; and the voice of the mind is only
heard on that plane on which the mind acts. Therefore not until the first twenty-one
rules are passed do I say that those that ask shall have.

To read, in the occult sense, is to read with the eyes of the spirit. To ask is to feel
the hunger within—the yearning of spiritual aspiration. To be able to read means
having obtained the power in a small degree of satisfying that hunger. When the
disciple is ready to learn, then he is accepted, acknowledged, recognized. It must be
so, for he has lit his lamp, and it cannot be hidden. But to learn is impossible until the
first great battle has been won. The mind may recognize truth, but the spirit cannot
receive it. Once having passed through the storm and attained the peace, it is then
always possible to learn, even though the disciple waver, hesitate, and turn aside. The

Voice of the Silence remains within him, and though he leaves the Path utterly, yet
one day it will resound, and rend him asunder and separate his passions from his
divine possibilities. Then, with pain and desperate cries from the deserted lower self,
he will return.

Therefore I say: Peace be with you. ‘My peace I give unto you,’ can only be said by
the Master to the beloved disciples who are as Himself. There are some even among
those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, to whom this can be said, and to
whom it can daily be said with more completeness.

These written above are the first of the rules which are written on the walls of the

Hall of Learning. Those that ask shall have. Those that desire to read shall read. Those
who desire to learn shall learn.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

8

LIGHT ON THE PATH

II

Out of the silence that is peace a resonant voice shall arise. And this voice will say: It
is not well; thou hast reaped, now thou must sow. And knowing this voice to be the
silence itself thou wilt obey.

Thou who art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear, able to see, able to speak,
who hast conquered desire and attained to self-knowledge, who hast seen thy soul in its
bloom and recognized it, and heard the Voice of the Silence—go thou to the Hall of

Learning and read what is written there for thee.

Note—To be able to stand is to have confidence; to be able to hear is to have
opened the doors of the soul; to be able to see is to have attained perception; to be
able to speak is to have attained the power of helping others; to have conquered desire
is to have learned how to use and control the self; to have attained self-knowledge is
to have retreated to the inner fortress whence the personal man can be viewed with
impartiality; to have seen thy soul in its bloom is to have obtained a momentary
glimpse in thyself of the transfiguration which shall eventually make thee more than
man; to recognize is to achieve the great task of gazing upon the blazing light without
dropping the eyes, and not falling back in terror, as though before some ghastly
phantom. This happens to some, and so when the victory is all but won it is lost.

To hear the Voice of the Silence is to understand that from within comes the only
true guidance; to go to the Hall of Learning is to enter the state in which learning
becomes possible. Then will many words be written there for thee, and written in fiery
letters for thee easily to read. For when the disciple is ready the Master is ready also.

1. Stand aside in the coming battle, and though thou fightest be not thou the war-
rior.

2. Look for the Warrior and let him fight in thee.

3. Take his orders for battle and obey them.

4. Obey him not as though he were a general, but as though he were thyself, and his
spoken words were the utterance of thy secret desires; for he is thyself, yet infinitely
wiser and stronger than thyself. Look for him, else in the fever and hurry of the fight
thou mayest pass him; and he will not know thee unless thou knowest him. If thy cry
reach his listening ear then will he fight in thee and fill the dull void within. And if
this is so, then canst thou go through the fight cool and unwearied, standing aside
and letting him battle for thee. Then it will be impossible for thee to strike one blow
amiss. But if thou look not for him, if thou pass him by, then there is no safeguard
for thee. Thy brain will reel, thy heart grow uncertain, and in the dust of the battle-

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field thy sight and senses will fail, and thou wilt not know thy friends from thy
enemies.

He is thyself, yet thou art but finite and liable to error. He is eternal and is sure.

He is eternal truth. When once he has entered thee and become thy Warrior, he will
never utterly desert thee, and at the day of the great peace he will become one with
thee.

5. Listen to the song of life.

Note—Look for it and listen to it first in your own heart. At first you may say: ‘It is
not there; when I search I find only discord.’ Look deeper. If again you are disap-
pointed, pause and look deeper again. There is a natural melody, an obscure fount in
every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly concealed and silenced—but it
is there. At the very base of your nature you will find faith, hope and love. He that
chooses evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his ears to the melody of his heart, as
he blinds his eyes to the light of his soul. He does this because he finds it easier to live
in desires. But underneath all life is the strong current that cannot be checked; the
great waters are there in reality. Find them and you will perceive that none, not the
most wretched of creatures, but is a part of it, however he blind himself to the fact and
build up for himself a phantasmal outer form of horror. In that sense it is that I say to
you: all those beings among whom you struggle on are fragments of the Divine. And
so deceptive is the illusion in which you live, that it is hard to guess where you will
first detect the sweet voice in the hearts of others. But know that it is certainly within
yourself. Look for it there and once having heard it, you will more readily recognize it
around you.

6. Store in your memory the melody you hear.

7. Learn from it the lesson of harmony.

8. You can stand upright now, firm as a rock amid the turmoil, obeying the Warrior
who is thyself and thy king. Unconcerned in the battle save to do his bidding, having
no longer any care as to the result of the battle, for one thing only is important, that
the Warrior shall win, and you know he is incapable of defeat—standing thus, cool
and awakened, use the hearing you have acquired by pain and by the destruction of
pain. Only fragments of the great song come to your ears while yet you are but man.

But if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is
lost, and endeavor to learn from it the meaning of the mystery which surrounds you.

In time you will need no teacher. For as the individual has voice, so has that in
which the individual exists. Life itself has speech and is never silent. And its utter-
ance is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry; it is a song. Learn from it that
you are part of the harmony; learn from it to obey the laws of the harmony.

9. Regard earnestly all the life that surrounds you.

10. Learn to look intelligently into the hearts of men.

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Note—From an absolutely impersonal point of view, otherwise your sight is
coloured. Therefore impersonality must first be understood.

Intelligence is impartial; no man is your enemy; no man is your friend. All alike
are your teachers. Your enemy becomes a mystery that must be solved, even though it
takes ages; for man must be understood. Your friend becomes a part of yourself, an
extension of yourself, a riddle hard to read. Only one thing is more difficult to know—
your own heart. Not until the bonds of personality be loosed can that profound
mystery of self begin to be seen. Not till you stand aside from it, will it in any way
reveal itself to your understanding. Then, and not till then, can you grasp and guide it.

Then, and not till then, can you use all its powers, and devote them to a worthy
service.

11. Regard most earnestly your own heart.

12. For through your own heart comes the one light which can illuminate life and
make it clear to your eyes.

Study the hearts of men, that you may know what is that world in which you live
and of which you will to be a part. Regard the constantly changing and moving life
which surrounds you, for it is formed by the hearts of men; and as you learn to
understand their constitution and meaning, you will by degrees be able to read the
larger word of life.

13. Speech comes only with knowledge. Attain to knowledge and you will attain to
speech.

Note—It is impossible to help others till you have obtained some certainty of your
own. When you have learned the first twenty-one rules and have entered the Hall of

Learning with your powers developed and senses unchained, then you will find there
is a fount within you from which speech will arise.

After the thirteenth rule I can add no words to what is already written.

My peace I give unto you.

These notes are written only for those to whom I give my peace; those who can
read what I have written with the inner as well as the outer sense.

14. Having obtained the use of the inner senses, having conquered the desires of the
outer senses, having conquered the desires of the individual soul, and having
obtained knowledge, prepare now, O disciple, to enter upon the way in reality. The

Path is found; make yourself ready to tread it.

15. Inquire of the earth, the air and the water of the secrets they hold for you.

The development of your inner senses will enable you to do this.

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16. Inquire of the Holy Ones of the earth of the secrets they hold for you.

The conquering of the desires of the outer senses will give you the right to do this.

17. Inquire of the inmost, the One, of its final secret, which it holds for you through
the ages.

The great and difficult victory, the conquering of the desires of the individual
soul, is a work of ages; therefore expect not to obtain its reward until ages of
experience have been accumulated. When the time of learning this seventeenth rule
is reached, man is on the threshold of becoming more than man.

18. The knowledge which is now yours is only yours because your soul has become
one with all pure souls and with the inmost. It is a trust vested in you by the Most

High. Betray it, misuse your knowledge, or neglect it, and it is possible even now for
you to fall from the high estate you have attained. Great ones fall back, even from
the threshold, unable to sustain the weight of their responsibility, unable to pass on.

Therefore look forward always with awe and trembling to this moment, and be
prepared for the battle.

It is written that for him who is on the threshold of divinity no law can be framed,
no guide can exist. Yet to enlighten the disciple, the final struggle may be thus
expressed:

19. Hold fast to that which has neither substance nor existence.

20. Listen only to the voice which is soundless.

21. Look only on that which is invisible alike to the inner and the outer sense.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

12

KARMA

Consider with me that the individual existence is a rope which stretches from the
infinite to the infinite, and has no end and no commencement, neither is it capable of
being broken. This rope is formed of innumerable fine threads, which, lying closely
together, form its thickness. These threads are colourless, are perfect in their qualities of
straightness, strength, and levelness. This rope, passing as it does through all places,
suffers strange accidents. Very often a thread is caught and becomes attached, or
perhaps is only violently pulled away from its even way. Then for a great time it is
disordered and it disorders the whole. Sometimes one is stained with dirt or with color,
and not only does the stain run on further than the spot of contact, but it discolors
others of the threads. And remember that the threads are living—are like electric wires;
more, are like quivering nerves. How far, then, must the stain, the drag awry, be
communicated! But eventually the long strands, the living threads which in their
unbroken continuity form the individual, pass out of the shadow into the shine. Then
the threads are no longer colorless, but golden; once more they lie together level. Once
more harmony is established between them; and from that harmony within, the greater
harmony is perceived.

This illustration presents but a small portion—a single side of the truth; it is less
than a fragment. Yet, dwell on it; by its aid you may be led to perceive more. What is
necessary first to understand is, not that the future is arbitrarily formed by any separate
acts of the present, but that the whole of the future is in unbroken continuity with the
present, as the present is with the past. On one plane, from one point of view, the
illustration of the rope is correct.

It is said that a little attention to Occultism produces great karmic results. That is
because it is impossible to give any attention to Occultism without making a definite
choice between what are familiarly called good and evil. The first step in Occultism
brings the student to the tree of knowledge. He must pluck and eat; he must choose. No
longer is he capable of the indecision of ignorance. He goes on, either on the good or on
the evil path. And to step definitely and knowingly even but one step on either path pro-
duces great karmic results. The mass of men walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal
they aim at; their standard of life is indefinite; consequently their karma operates in a
confused manner. But when once the threshold of knowledge is reached, the confusion
begins to lessen, and consequently the karmic results increase enormously, because all
are acting in the same direction on all the different planes; for the occultist cannot be
half-hearted, nor can he return when he has passed the threshold. These things are as
impossible as that the man should become the child again. The individuality has
approached the state of responsibility by reason of growth; it cannot recede from it.

He who would escape from the bondage of karma must raise his individuality out of
the shadow into the shine; must so elevate his existence that these threads do not come
in contact with soiling substances, do not become so attached as to be pulled away. He
simply lifts himself out of the region in which karma operates. He does not leave the
existence which he is experiencing because of that. The ground may be rough and dirty,
or full of rich flowers whose pollen stains, and of sweet substances that cling and be-
come attachments—but overhead there is always the free sky. He who desires to be

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karma-less must look to the air for home; and after that to the ether. He who desires to
form good karma will meet with many confusions, and in the effort to sow rich seed for
his own harvesting may plant a thousand weeds, and among them the giant. Desire to
sow no seed for your own harvesting; desire only to sow that seed the fruit of which shall
feed the world. You are a part of the world; in giving it food you feed yourself. Yet in
even this thought there lurks a great danger which starts forward and faces the disciple
who has for long thought himself working for good, while in his inmost soul he had
perceived only evil; that is, he has thought himself to be intending great benefit to the
world, while all the time he has unconsciously embraced the thought of karma; and the
great benefit he works for is for himself. A man may refuse to allow himself to think of
reward. But in that very refusal is seen the fact that reward is desired. And it is useless
for the disciple to strive to learn by means of checking himself. The soul must be unfet-
tered, the desires free. But until they are fixed only on that state wherein there is neither
reward nor punishment, good nor evil, it is in vain that he endeavors. He may seem to
make great progress, but some day he will come face to face with his own soul, and will
recognize that when he came to the tree of knowledge he chose the bitter fruit and not
the sweet; and then the veil will fall utterly, and he will give up his freedom and become
a slave of desire. Therefore be warned, you who are but turning towards the life of

Occultism. Learn now that there is no cure for desire, no cure for the love of reward, no
cure for the misery of longing, save in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon that
which is invisible and soundless. Begin even now to practise it, and so a thousand
serpents will be kept from your path. Live in the eternal.

The operations of the actual laws of karma are not to be studied until the disciple
has reached the point at which they no longer affect himself. The initiate has a right to
demand the secrets of Nature and to know the rules which govern human life. He
obtains this right by having escaped from the limits of Nature and by having freed him-
self from the rules which govern human life. He has become a recognized portion of the
divine element and is no longer affected by that which is temporary. He then obtains the
knowledge of the laws which govern temporary conditions. Therefore you who desire to
understand the laws of karma, attempt first to free yourself from these laws; and this
can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by these laws.

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