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Light on the Path - Mabel Collins · Family Ties - Navigating Alcohol Recovery

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Lie on the Path. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Light on the Path by Mabel Collins, Chapter one, Section one.
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  Speaker 1: These rules are written for all disciples. Attend you to them.
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  Speaker 1: Before the eyes conceive, they must be incapable of tears,
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  Speaker 1: before the ear can hear. It must have lost its
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  Speaker 1: sensitiveness before the voice can speak in the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the masters. It must have lost the power to wound
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  Speaker 1: before the soul can stand in the presence of the masters.
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  Speaker 1: Its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.
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  Speaker 1: One kill out ambition. Two kill out desire of life.
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  Speaker 1: Three kill out desire of comfort. Four Work as those
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  Speaker 1: work who are ambitious, Respect life as those do who
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  Speaker 1: desire it. Be happy as those are who live the happiness.
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  Speaker 1: Seek in the heart the source of evil, and expand it.
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  Speaker 1: It lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple,
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  Speaker 1: as well as in the heart of the man of desire.
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  Speaker 1: Only the strong can kill it out. The weak must
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  Speaker 1: wait for its growth, its fruition, its death. And it
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  Speaker 1: is a plant that lives and increases throughout the ages.
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  Speaker 1: It flowers when the man has accumulated unto himself the
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  Speaker 1: mimerable existences, He who will enter upon the path of
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  Speaker 1: power must tear this thing out of his heart, and
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  Speaker 1: then the heart will bleed, and the whole life of
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  Speaker 1: the man seem to be utterly dissolved. This ordeal must
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  Speaker 1: be endured. It may come at the first step of
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  Speaker 1: the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life.
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  Speaker 1: It may not come until the last, But o disciple,
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  Speaker 1: remember that it has to be endured, and fasten the
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  Speaker 1: energies of your soul upon the task. Live neither in
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  Speaker 1: the present nor the future, but in the eternal. This
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  Speaker 1: giant weed cannot flower there. This blot upon existence is
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  Speaker 1: wiped out by the very atmosphere of eternal fault. Five.
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  Speaker 1: Kill out all sense of separateness, six, kill out desire
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  Speaker 1: for sensation, seven, kill out the hunger of her growth. Eight.
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  Speaker 1: Yet stand alone and isolated, because nothing that is embodied,
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  Speaker 1: nothing that is conscious of separation, nothing that is out
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  Speaker 1: of the eternal, can aid you learn from sensation unobserved,
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  Speaker 1: because only so can you commence the science of self
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  Speaker 1: knowledge and planch your foot on the first step of
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  Speaker 1: the ladder. Where As the flower grows unconsciously but eagerly,
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  Speaker 1: anxious to open its soul to the air, so must
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  Speaker 1: you press forward to open your soul to the eternal.
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  Speaker 1: But it must be the eternal that draws forth your
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  Speaker 1: strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For in the
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  Speaker 1: one case, you develop in a luxuriance of purity. In
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  Speaker 1: the other, you harden by the forcible passion for personal stature. Nine.
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  Speaker 1: Desire only that which is within you. Ten. Desire only
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  Speaker 1: that which is beyond you. Eleven Desire only that which
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  Speaker 1: is unattainable. Twelve For within you is the light of
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  Speaker 1: the world, the only light that can be shed upon
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  Speaker 1: the path. If you are unable to perceive it within you,
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  Speaker 1: it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is
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  Speaker 1: beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself.
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  Speaker 1: It is unattainable, because it forever recedes. We will enter
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  Speaker 1: the light, but you will never touch the flame. Thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Desire power ardently. Fourteen, Desire peace fervently. Fifteen. Desire possessions
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  Speaker 1: above all sixteen. But those possessions must belong to the
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  Speaker 1: pure soul only, and be possessed therefore by all pure
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  Speaker 1: souls equally, and thus be the especial property of the whole.
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  Speaker 1: Only when you lighted hunger for such possessions as can
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  Speaker 1: be held by the pure soul, that you may accumulate
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  Speaker 1: wealth for that united spirit of life, which is your
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  Speaker 1: only true self. Piece you shall desire, is that sacred
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  Speaker 1: piece which nothing can disturb, and in which the soul grows,
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  Speaker 1: as does the holy flower upon the still lagoons. And
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  Speaker 1: that power which the disciple shall cover is that which
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  Speaker 1: shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men.
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  Speaker 1: Seventeen seek out the way. Eighteen seek the way by
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  Speaker 1: retreating within, nineteen seek the way by advancing boldly without
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  Speaker 1: twenty Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament.
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  Speaker 1: There is one road which seems the most desirable. But
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  Speaker 1: the way is not found by devotion alone, by religious
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  Speaker 1: contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by self sacrificing labor, by
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  Speaker 1: studious observation of life. None alone can take the disciple
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  Speaker 1: more than one step onward. All steps are necessary to
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  Speaker 1: make up the ladder. The vices of men become steps
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  Speaker 1: in the ladder one by one, as they are surlanted.
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  Speaker 1: The virtues of man are steps indeed necessary, not by
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  Speaker 1: any means to be dispensed with. Yet though they create
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  Speaker 1: a fair atmosphere and a happy future, they are useless
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  Speaker 1: if they stand alone. The whole nature of man must
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  Speaker 1: be used wisely by the one who desires to enter
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  Speaker 1: the way. Each man is to himself absolutely the way,
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  Speaker 1: the truth, and the life. But he is only so
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  Speaker 1: when he grasps his whole individuality firmly, and by the
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  Speaker 1: force of his awakened spiritual will, recognizes this individuality is
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  Speaker 1: not himself, but that thing which he has, with pain,
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  Speaker 1: created for his own use, and by means of which
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  Speaker 1: he purposes. As his growth slowly develops his intelligence to
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  Speaker 1: reach to the life beyond individuality. When he knows that
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  Speaker 1: for this, his wonderful, complex, separated life exists, then, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: and then only, he is upon the way. Seek it
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  Speaker 1: by plunging into the mysterious and glorious steps of your
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  Speaker 1: own inmost being. Seek it by testing all experience, by
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  Speaker 1: utilizing the senses, in order to understand the growth and
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  Speaker 1: meaning of individuality and the beauty and obscurity of those
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  Speaker 1: other divine fragments which are struggling side by side with you.
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  Speaker 1: And form the race to which you belong. Seek it
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  Speaker 1: by study of the laws of being, the laws of nature,
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  Speaker 1: the laws of the supernatural, And seek it by making
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  Speaker 1: the profound avaisance of the soul to the dim star
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  Speaker 1: that burns within steadily. As you watch and worship, its
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  Speaker 1: light will grow stronger. Then you may know you have
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  Speaker 1: found the beginning of the way, And when you have
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  Speaker 1: found the end, its light will suddenly become the infinite light.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty one. Look for the flower to bloom in the
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  Speaker 1: silence that follows the storm, not till then it shall grow,
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  Speaker 1: It will shoot up, It will make branches and leaves
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  Speaker 1: and form buds while a storm continues, while the battle lasts.
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  Speaker 1: But not till the whole personality of the man is
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  Speaker 1: dissolved and melted, Not until it is held by the
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  Speaker 1: divine fragment, which has created it as a mere subject
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  Speaker 1: for grave experiment and experience. Not until the whole nature
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  Speaker 1: has yielded and become subject unto its higher self, can
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  Speaker 1: the bloom open men will come a calm such as
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  Speaker 1: comes in the tropical country after the heavy rain, when
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  Speaker 1: nature works so swiftly that one may see her action.
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  Speaker 1: Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit, and
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  Speaker 1: in the deep silence, the mysterious event will occur which
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  Speaker 1: will prove that the way has been found. Call it
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  Speaker 1: by what name you will. It is a voice that
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  Speaker 1: speaks where there is none to speak. It is a
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  Speaker 1: messenger that comes, a messenger without form or substance. Or
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  Speaker 1: it is the flower of the soul that is opened.
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  Speaker 1: It cannot be described by any metaphor, but it can
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  Speaker 1: be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the
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  Speaker 1: raging of the storm. The silence may last a moment
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  Speaker 1: of time, or it may last one thousand years, but
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  Speaker 1: it will end. Yet you will carry in strength with
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  Speaker 1: you again and again. The battle must be fought and won.
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  Speaker 1: It is only for an interval that nature can be still.
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  Speaker 1: These written above are the first of the rules which
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  Speaker 1: are written on the walls of the whole of learning.
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  Speaker 1: Those that ask shall have, Those that desire to read
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  Speaker 1: shall read, Those who desire to learn shall learn. Peace
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  Speaker 1: be with you. End of chapter one, Chapter two of
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  Speaker 1: Light on the Path. This is a libri box recording.
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  Speaker 1: All Librivoq's recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot or Light
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  Speaker 1: on the Path by Mabel Collins, Chapter two, Section two.
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  Speaker 1: Out of the silence that is peace, a resonant voice
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  Speaker 1: shall arise, and this voice will say it is not well.
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  Speaker 1: Thou hast reaped. Now thou must sow, And, knowing this
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  Speaker 1: voice to be the silence itself, thou wilt obey. Thou
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  Speaker 1: who art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear,
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  Speaker 1: able to see, able to speak, Who hast conquered desire
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  Speaker 1: and attained to self knowledge, Who hast seen thy soul
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  Speaker 1: in its bloom, unrecognized it, and heard the voice of
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  Speaker 1: the silence. Go thou to the whole of learning and
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  Speaker 1: read what is written there. For THEE one stand aside
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  Speaker 1: in the coming battle. And though thou fightest be not
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  Speaker 1: thou the warrior. Two Look for the warrior and let
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  Speaker 1: him fight in THEE three. Take his orders for battle,
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  Speaker 1: and obey them. For obey him not as though he
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  Speaker 1: were a general, but as though he were thyself, and
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  Speaker 1: his spoken words were the utterance of thy secret desires.
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  Speaker 1: For he is thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger than thyself.
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  Speaker 1: Look for him, thouls, in the fever and hurry of
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  Speaker 1: the fight, Thou mayest pass him, and he will not
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  Speaker 1: know THEE unless thou knowest him. If thy cry meet
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  Speaker 1: his listening ear, then will he fight in THEE and
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  Speaker 1: fill the dull void within. And if this is so,
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  Speaker 1: then canst thou go through the fight cool and unwearied,
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  Speaker 1: standing aside and letting him battle for THEE? Then it
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  Speaker 1: will be impossible for THEE to strike one blow amiss.
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  Speaker 1: But if thou look not for him, if thou passing by,
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  Speaker 1: then there is no safeguard for THEE. Thy brain will reel,
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  Speaker 1: thy heart grow uncertain, and in the dust of the battlefield,
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  Speaker 1: thy sight and senses will fail, and thou wilt not
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  Speaker 1: know thy friends from thy enemies. He is thyself, Yet
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  Speaker 1: thou art but finite and liable to error. He is
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  Speaker 1: eternal and is sure. He is eternal truth. When once
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  Speaker 1: he has entered THEE and become thy warrior, he will
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  Speaker 1: never utterly desert THEE, and at the day of the
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  Speaker 1: great peace, he will become one with THEE. Five. Listen
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  Speaker 1: to the song of Life. Six, Store in your memory
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  Speaker 1: the melody you hear. Seven, learn from it the lesson
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  Speaker 1: of harmony. Eight. You can stand up right now, firm
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  Speaker 1: as a rock, amid the turmoil, obeying the warrior, who
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  Speaker 1: is thyself and thy king, unconcerned in the battle, save
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  Speaker 1: to do his bidding, having no longer any care as
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  Speaker 1: to the result of the battle. For one thing only
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  Speaker 1: is important that the warrior shall win, and you know
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  Speaker 1: he is incapable of defeat. Standing thus cool and awakened,
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  Speaker 1: use the hearing you have acquired by pain and by
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  Speaker 1: the destruction of pain. Only fragments of the great song
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  Speaker 1: come to your ears, while yet you are but man.
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  Speaker 1: But if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so
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  Speaker 1: that none which has reached you is lost, And endeavor
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  Speaker 1: to learn from it the meaning of the mystery which
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  Speaker 1: surrounds you. In time, you will need no teacher. For
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  Speaker 1: as the individual has voice, so has that in which
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  Speaker 1: the individual exists. Life itself has speech and is never silent,
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  Speaker 1: And it's utterance is not as you that are deaf
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  Speaker 1: may suppose a cry. It is a song. Learn from
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  Speaker 1: it that you are part of the harmony. Learn from
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  Speaker 1: it to obey the laws of the harmony. Nine, Regard
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  Speaker 1: earnestly all the life that surrounds you. Ten learn to
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  Speaker 1: look intelligently into the hearts of men. Eleven Regard most
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  Speaker 1: earnestly your own heart. Twelve, For through your own heart
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  Speaker 1: comes the one light which can illuminate life and make
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  Speaker 1: it clear to your eyes. Study the hearts of men,
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  Speaker 1: that you may know what is that world in which
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  Speaker 1: you live and of which you will be a part.
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  Speaker 1: Regard the constantly changing and moving life which surrounds you,
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  Speaker 1: for it is formed by the hearts of men, And
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  Speaker 1: as you learn to understand their constitution and meaning, you will,
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  Speaker 1: by degrees be able to read them larger word of life. Thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Speech comes only with knowledge. Attain to knowledge, and you
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  Speaker 1: will attain to speech. Fourteen. Having obtained the use of
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  Speaker 1: the inner senses, having conquered the desires of the outer senses,
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  Speaker 1: having conquered the desires of the individual's soul, and having
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  Speaker 1: obtained knowledge, prepare now of disciple to enter upon the
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  Speaker 1: way in reality. The path is found, Make yourself ready
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  Speaker 1: to tread it. Fifteen. Inquire of the earth, the air,
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  Speaker 1: and the water, of the secrets they hold for you.
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  Speaker 1: The development of your inner senses will enable you to
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  Speaker 1: do this. Sixteen Inquire of the holy ones of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: of the secrets they hold for you. The conquering of
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  Speaker 1: the desires of the outer senses will give you the
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  Speaker 1: right to do this. Seventeen. Inquire of the inmost the
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  Speaker 1: one of its final secret, which it holds for you
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  Speaker 1: through the ages, the great and difficult victory. The conquering
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  Speaker 1: of the desires of the individual soul is a work
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  Speaker 1: of ages. Therefore, expect not to obtain its reward until
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  Speaker 1: ages of experience have been accumulated. When the time of
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  Speaker 1: learning this seventeenth rule is reached, man is on the
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  Speaker 1: threshold of becoming more than man. Eighteen. The knowledge which
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  Speaker 1: is now yours is only yours because your soul has
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  Speaker 1: become one with all pure souls and with the inmost.
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  Speaker 1: It is a trust vested in you by the most high.
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  Speaker 1: Betray it, misuse your knowledge, or neglect it, and it
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  Speaker 1: is possible even now for you to fall from the
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  Speaker 1: high estate you have attained. Great ones fall back even
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  Speaker 1: from the threshold, unable to sustain the weight of their responsibility,
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  Speaker 1: unable to pass on. Therefore, look forward always with awe
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  Speaker 1: and trembling to this moment, and be prepared for the battle. Nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: It is written that for him who is on the
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  Speaker 1: threshold of divinity, no law can be framed no guide
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  Speaker 1: can exist. Yet to enlighten the disciple, the final struggle
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  Speaker 1: may be thus expressed. Hold fast to that which has
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  Speaker 1: neither substance nor existence. Twenty Listen only to the voice
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  Speaker 1: which is soundless. Twenty one Look only on that which
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  Speaker 1: is invisible, alike to the inner and the outer sense.
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  Speaker 1: Peace be with you. End of chapter two Chapter three
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  Speaker 1: of Light on the Path. This is LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Light on
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  Speaker 1: the Path by Mabel Collins. Chapter three notes, Part one
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  Speaker 1: Note on rule one. Ambition is the first curse, the
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  Speaker 1: great tempter of the man who is rising above his fellows.
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  Speaker 1: It is the simplest form of looking for reward. Men
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  Speaker 1: of intelligence and power are led away from their higher
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  Speaker 1: possibilities by it continually, yet it is a necessary teacher.
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  Speaker 1: Its results turn to dust and ashes in the mouth,
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  Speaker 1: like death and estrangement. It shows the man at last
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  Speaker 1: that to work for self is to work for disappointment.
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  Speaker 1: But though this first rule seems so simple and easy,
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  Speaker 1: do not quickly pass it by. For these vices of
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  Speaker 1: the ordinary man pass through a subtle transformation, and reappear
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  Speaker 1: with changed aspect the heart of the disciple. It is
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  Speaker 1: easy to say, I will not be ambitious. It is
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  Speaker 1: not so easy to say, when the Master reads my heart,
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  Speaker 1: you will find it clean utterly. The pure artist, who
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  Speaker 1: works for the love of his work is sometimes more
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  Speaker 1: firmly planted on the right road than the occultist, who
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  Speaker 1: fancies he has removed his interest fro himself, but who
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  Speaker 1: has in reality only enlarged the limits of experience and desire,
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  Speaker 1: and have transferred his interest to the things which concern
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  Speaker 1: his largest span of life. The same principle applies to
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  Speaker 1: the other two seemingly simple rules. Linger over them, and
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  Speaker 1: do not let yourself be easily deceived by your own heart.
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  Speaker 1: For now at the threshold a mistake can be corrected.
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  Speaker 1: But carry it on with you, and it will grow
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  Speaker 1: and come to fruition, or else you must suffer bitterly
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  Speaker 1: in its destruction. Note on rule five. Do not fancy
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  Speaker 1: you can stand aside from the bad man or the
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  Speaker 1: foolish man. They are yourself in a less degree than
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  Speaker 1: your friend or your master. But if you allow the
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  Speaker 1: idea of separateness from any evil thing or person, to
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  Speaker 1: grow up within you. By subduing, you create karma which
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  Speaker 1: will bind you to that thing or person till your
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  Speaker 1: soul recognizes that it cannot be isolated. Remember that the sin
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  Speaker 1: and shame of the world are your sin and shame,
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  Speaker 1: for you are a part of it. Your karma is
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  Speaker 1: inextricably interwoven with the great Calma. And before you can
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  Speaker 1: attain knowledge, you must have passed through all places foul
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  Speaker 1: and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled garment you
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  Speaker 1: shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be
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  Speaker 1: yours to morrow. And if you turn with horror from it,
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  Speaker 1: when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling
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  Speaker 1: the more closely to you. The self righteous man makes
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  Speaker 1: for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is
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  Speaker 1: right to abstain, not that yourself shall be kept clean.
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  Speaker 1: Not t on Rule seventeen. These four words seem perhaps
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  Speaker 1: too slight to stand alone. The disciple may say, should
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  Speaker 1: I study these thoughts at all? Did I not seek
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  Speaker 1: out the way? Yet? Do not pass on hastily palls,
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  Speaker 1: and consider a while? Is it the way you desire?
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  Speaker 1: Or is it that there is a dim perspective in
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  Speaker 1: your visions of great heights to be scaled by yourself,
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  Speaker 1: of a great future for you to compass. Be warned
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  Speaker 1: the way is to be sought for its own sake,
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  Speaker 1: not with regard to your feet that shall tread it.
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  Speaker 1: There is a correspondence between this rule and the seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: of the second series, when after ages of struggle and
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  Speaker 1: many victories, the final battle is won, the final secret demanded.
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  Speaker 1: Then you are prepared for a further path. When the
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  Speaker 1: final secret of this great lesson is told in it
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  Speaker 1: is opened the mystery of the New Way, a path
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  Speaker 1: which leads out of all human experience, and which is
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  Speaker 1: utterly beyond human perception or imagination. At each of these
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  Speaker 1: points it is needful to pause long and consider well.
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  Speaker 1: At each of these points it is necessary to be
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  Speaker 1: sure that the way is chosen for its own sake.
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  Speaker 1: The way in the truth come first, then follows the
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  Speaker 1: life note un will twenty seek it by testing all experience.
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  Speaker 1: And remember that when I say this, I do not
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  Speaker 1: say yield to the seductions of sense in order to
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  Speaker 1: know it. Before you have become an occultist. You may
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  Speaker 1: do this, but not afterwards, when you have chosen and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: entered the path. You cannot yield to these seductions without shame.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Yet you can experience them without horror. Can weigh, observe,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and test them, and wait with the patience of confidence
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: for the hour when they shall affect you no longer.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: But do not condemn the man that yields. Stretch out
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: hath become heavy with maire. Remember o disciple, that great
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: though the gulf may be between the good man and
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the sinner, it is greater between the good man and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the man who has attained knowledge. It is immeasurable between
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the good man and the one on the threshold of divinity. Therefore,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: be wary lest too soon you fancy yourself a thing
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: apart from the mass. When you have found the beginning
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of the way, the star of your soul will show
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: its light, and by that light you will perceive how
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: great is the darkness in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: hol are obscure and dark until the first great battle
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: has been won. Be not appalled and terrified by this sight.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes fixed on the small light, and it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: will grow. But let the darkness within help you to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: understand the helplessness of those who have seen no light,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: whose souls are in profound gloom. Blame them, not shrink
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: not from them, but try to lift a little of
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the heavy calmer of the world. Give your aid to
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the few strong hands that hold back the powers of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: darkness from obtaining complete victory. Then do you enter into
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a partnership of joy, which brings indeed a terrible toil
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and profound sadness, but also a great and ever increasing delight.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: No ton will twenty one. The opening of the bloom
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: is the glorious moment when perception awakes. With it comes confidence, knowledge, certainty.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: The pause of the soul is the moment of wonder,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and the next moment of satisfaction, that is the silence.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Know o Disciple, that those who have passed through the
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: silence and felt its peace and retained its strength, they
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: long that you shall pass through it. Also. Therefore, in
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the whole of learning, when he is capable of entering there,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the disciple will always find his master, those that task
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: shall have. But though the ordinary man asks perpetually, his
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: voice is not heard, for he asks with his mind only,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and the voice of the mind is only heard on
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that plane on which the mind acts. Therefore, not until
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the first twenty one rules are passed, do I say
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: those that ask shall have to read. In the occult
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: sense is to read with the eyes of the spirit.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: To ask is to fill the hunger within the yearning
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: of spiritual aspiration. To be able to read means having
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: obtained the power in a small degree of gratifying that hunger.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: When the disciple is ready to learn, then he is accepted, acknowledged, recognized.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: It must be so, for he has knit his lamp
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and it cannot be hidden. But to learn is impossible
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: until the first great battle has been won. The mind
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: may recognize truth that the spirit cannot receive it. Once
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: having passed through the storm and retained the peace, it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: is then always possible to learn. Even though the disciple waver, hesitate,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and turn aside, the voice of the silence remains within him.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And though he be leave the path utterly, yet one
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: day it will resound and rend him asunder and separate
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: his passions from his divine possibilities. Then, with pain and
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: desperate cries from the deserted lower self, he will return. Therefore,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I say, peace be with you. My peace. I give
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: unto you can only be said by the Master to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the beloved disciples, who are as himself. There are some,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: even among those who are ignorant of the Eastern wisdom,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to whom this can be said, and to whom it
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: can daily be said with more completeness. Regard the three truths.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: They are equal. End of Chapter three, Chapter four of
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Light on the Path. This is a LibriVox recorder. All
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: libriuvox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Light on
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the Path by Mabel Collins, Chapter four notes, Part two,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Note on section two. To be able to stand is
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to have confidence. To be able to hear is to
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: have opened the doors of the soul. To be able
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to cease to have attained perception. To be able to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: speak is to have attained the power of helping others.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: To have conquered desires to have learned how to use
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and control the sun. To have attained to self knowledge
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: is to have retreated to the inner fortress, from whence
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the personal man can be viewed with impartiality. To have
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: seen thy soul in its bloom is to have obtained
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: a momentary glimpse in thyself of the transfiguration, which shall
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: eventually make THEE more than man to recogniz to achieve
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the great task of gazing upon the blazing light without
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: dropping the eyes, and not falling back in terror, as
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: though before some ghastly phantom. This happens to sun. And
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: so when the victory is all but one, it is
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: lost to hear the voice of the silence. Is to
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: understand that from within comes the only true guidance to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: go to the whole of learning, as to enter the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: state in which learning becomes possible. Then will many words
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: be written there for THEE, and written in fiery letters
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: for thee easily to read. For when the disciple is ready,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the master is ready. Also no Ti Rule five. Look
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: for it and listen to it first in your own heart.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: At first you may say it is not there. When
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I search, I'll find only discord. Look deeper. If again
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: you are disappointed, pause and look deeper again. There is
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a natural melody, an obscure fount in every human heart.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: It may be hidden over and utterly, concealed and silenced,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: but it is there at the very base of your nature.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: You will find faith, hope, and love. He that chooses
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his ears to
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the melody of his heart as he blinds his eyes
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to the light of his soul. He does this because
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: he finds it easier to live in desires. But underneath
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: all life is the strong current that cannot be checked.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: The great waters are there in reality. Find them, and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: you will perceive that none not the most wretched of creatures,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: but is a part of it. However, he blinds himself
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to the fact and build up for himself a phantasmal
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: outer form of horror. In that sense, it is that
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I say to you, all those beings among you the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: struggle on are fragments of the divine. And so deceptive
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: is the illusion in which you live that it is
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: hard to guess where you will first detect the sweet
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: voice in the hearts others. But know that it is
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: certainly within yourself. Look for it there, and once having
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: heard it, you will more readily recognize it around you.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: No toneral ten from an absolutely impersonal point of view,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: otherwise your sight is colored. Therefore impersonality must first be understood.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Intelligence is impartial. No man is your enemy, no man
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: is your friend. All alike are your teachers. Your enemy
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: becomes a mystery that must be solved, even though it
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: take gages for man must be understood. Your friend becomes
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a part of yourself, an extension of yourself, a riddle
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: hard to read. Only one thing is more difficult to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: know your own heart. Not until the bonds of personality
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: are loosed, can that profound mystery yourself begin to be seen.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Not till you stand aside from it. Will it, in
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: any way reveal itself to you your understanding. Then, and
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: not till then can you grasp and guide it? Then,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and not till then can you use all its powers
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and devote them to a worthy service. Note on rule thirteen.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: It is impossible to help others till you have obtained
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: some certainty of your own. When you have learned the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: first twenty one rules, and have entered the whole of
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: learning with your powers developed and since unchained, then you
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: will find there is a fount within you from which
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: speech will arise. After the thirteenth rule, I can add
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: no words to what is already written. My piece I
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: give unto you. These notes are written only for those
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to whom I give my peace, Those who can read
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: what I have written with the inner as well as
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the outer sense. End of chapter four, Chapter five of
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Light on the Path. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: were to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Light on
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: the Path by Mabel Columns, Chapter five. Calmer, consider with
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: me that the individual existence is a rope which stretches
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: from the infinite to the infinite, and has no end,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in no commencement, neither is it capable of being broken.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: This rope is formed of innumerable fine threads, which, lying
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: closely together, form its thickness. These threads are colorless, are
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: perfect in their qualities of straightness, strength, and loveleness. This rope,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: passing as it does through all places, suffers strength accidents.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Very often a thread is caught and becomes attached, or
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: perhaps is only violently pulled away from its even way.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Then for a great time it is disordered, and it
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: disorders the whole. Sometimes one is stained with dirter with color,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and not only does the stain run on further than
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: the spot of contact, but it discolors other of the threads.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: And remember that the threads are living are like electric wires,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: more are like quivering nerves. How far then must the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: stain the drag awry be communicated. But eventually the long strands,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the living threads, which in their unbroken continuity form the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: individual pass out of the shadow into the shine. Then
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the threads are no longer colorless, but golden. Once more
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: they lie together level. Once more harmony is established between them,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and from that harmony within the greater harmony is perceived.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: This illustration presents but a small portion, a single side
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: of the truth. It is less than a fragment. Yet
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: dwell on it by its ay you may be led
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: to perceive more. What it is necessary first to understand
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: is not that the future is arbitrarily formed by any
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: separate acts of the present, but that the whole of
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the future is in unbroken continuity with the present, as
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the present is with the past. On one plane. From
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: one point of view, the illustration of the rope is correct.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: It is said that a little attention to occultism produces
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: great comic results. That is, because it is impossible to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: give any attention to occultism without making a definite choice
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: between that of familiarly cold good and evil. The first
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: step in occultism brings a student to the tree of knowledge.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: He must pluck and eat. He must choose. No longer
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: is he capable of the indecision of ignorance. He goes
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: on either on the good or on the evil path,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: and to step definitely and knowingly, even but one step
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: on either path produces great karmic results. The mass of
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: men walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal they aim at.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Their standard of life is indefinite. Consequently, their karma operates
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: in a confused manner. But when once the threshold of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: knowledge is reached, the confusion begins to lessen, and consequently
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the karmic results increase enormously, because all are acting in
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the same direction on all the different planes. For the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: occultist cannot be half hearted, nor can he return when
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: he has passed the threshold. These things are as impossible
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: as that the man should become the child again. The
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: individuality has approached the state of responsibility by reason of growth,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: it cannot receive from it. He who would escape from
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: the bondage of karma must raise his individuality out of
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the shadow into the shine, must so elevate his existence
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: that these threads do not come in contact with soiling substances,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: do not become so attached as to be called awrye.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: He simply lifts himself out of the region in rich
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: karma operates. He does not leave the existence which he
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: is experiencing. Because of that. The ground may be rough
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and dirty, or full of rich flowers whose pollen stains,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and of sweet substances that cling and become attachments. But
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: overhead there is always the free sky. He who desires
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to be calmerness must look to the air for a home,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and after that to the ether. He who desires to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: form good karma will meet with many confusions, and in
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the effort to sow rich seed for his own harvesting,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: may plant a thousand weeds, and among them the giant
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: desire to sow no seed for your own harvesting, desire
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: only to sow that seed, the fruit of which shall
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: feed the world. You are a part of the world.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: In giving it food, you feed yourself. Yet in even
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: this thought, though looks a great danger which starts forward,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: unfaces the disciple, who has for long thought himself working
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: for good, while in his inmost soul he has perceived
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: only evil. That is, he has thought himself to be
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: intending great benefit to the world, while all the time
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: he has unconsciously embraced the thought of karma. And the
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: great benefit he works for is for himself. A man
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: may refuse to allow himself to think of reward, but
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: in that very refusal is seen the fact that reward
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: is desired, and it is useless for the disciple to
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: strive to learn by means of checking himself. The soul
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: must be unfettered, the desires free, But until they are
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: fixed only on that state wherein there is neither reward
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: nor punishment, good nor evil, it is in vain that
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: he endeavors. He may seem to make great progress, but
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: some day he will come face to face with his
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: own soul and will recognize that when he came to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: the tree of knowledge, he chose the bitter fruit and
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: not the sweet. And then the veil will fall utterly,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: and he will give up his freedom and become a
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: slave of desire. Therefore, be warned, you who are but
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: turning toward the life of occultism. Learn now that there
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: is no cure for desire, no cure for the love
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: of reward, no cure for the misery of longing, save
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon that
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: which is invisible and soundless. Begin even now to practice it,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and so a thousand serpents will be kept from your
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: path live in the eternal. The operation of the actual
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: laws of Karma are not to be studied until the
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: disciple has reached the point at which they no longer
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: affect himself. The initiate has a right to demand the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: secrets of nature and to know the rules which govern
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: human life. He obtains this right by having escaped from
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the limits of nature, and by having freed himself from
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the rules which govern human life. He has become a
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: recognized portion of the divine element, and is no longer
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: affected by that which is temporary. He then obtains a
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the law which govern temporary conditions. Therefore, you
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: who desire to understand the laws of Karma, attempt first
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: to free yourself from these laws. And this can only
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: be done by fixing your attention on that which is
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: unaffected by those laws. End of Chapter five, end of
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Light on the Path by Mabel Collins. Thank you for listening.