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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |How Best to Become a Theosophist|10-240}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |How Best to Become a Theosophist|10-240}} | ||
{{Style P-No indent|error of thinking that it was holy to macerate and disfigure their bodies, under the delusion that the body was all sin, and the soul only holy.}} | |||
But the Theosophist knows, on the contrary, that the body is a necessary part of our triune nature; and, as the temple of the spirit, must be rendered clean, pure, strong, and beautiful. | |||
But can we Theosophists in London, surrounded by the noise and care and routine of daily life, with its money anxieties, attain to that life of holy self-sacrifice, the result of which with the saints was the gift of miracles? | |||
This question is not so easily answered, because we have no examples to refer to. But with the Spirit all things are possible. At the same time, “strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” | |||
But, as our rule says, the object of this society is by investigation and ''experiment ''to discover the nature and power of the soul and spirit; and if so, may I now ask, are there any in this society willing to enter upon these experiments in person? | |||
Let us all begin as neophytes, and see how far we can practise a life of self-denial and unselfishness, free from scandals, strifes, envy, and jealousy, but full of brotherly love. | |||
The essence of all sin and therefore of all weakness is selfishness, and the foundation of all true spiritual power is love, self-denial, and unselfishness. And as like attracts like, let us set our affections on things above, for if we do so, angelic spirits will minister unto us, for thus should “we surround ourselves with the forms of our affections.” | |||
“Draw near unto God,” for thus only does the Spirit draw near unto you; and thus it is that we can see how the highest science of psychology, namely, a knowledge of how to save the soul, consists merely in believing and in asking truthfully, sincerely, and unselfishly. | |||
If you do this, then not only will gradually come to you health and strength of body, but clearness and purity of mind, and that “Spirit which will lead you into all truth.” | |||
Those who have watched the transformations which sometimes take place in ecstatic entrancement, where perhaps some almost ugly and ignorant person suddenly becomes radiant, and moves with consummate grace, as she utters words of heavenly wisdom, will easily understand how the enlightened, trained, and purified Christian neophyte may rise to beatific visions. | |||
If any such is prepared to say, “I no longer desire to feed on the husks which the swine do eat; I desire to c forsake the sins which so easily beset me” and who says, “I will arise and go to my Father;” “I will set my face stedfastly to go to Jerusalem,” as He did who knew that insults, crucifixion, and death awaited Him; or who, like the child Samuel, as he watched in the temple, says, “''Speak, ''Lord, for Thy servant ''heareth;”''—if there be any such a one, then while ''listening, ''he or she will become conscious that there is One ‘‘who stands at the door and knocks,” and very suddenly, it may be, you will be led rapidly through the vestibule and into the presence chamber, and “your eyes shall behold the King in His beauty,” while by an ineffable effulgence, “ ''the secret of the Logos”—“the kingdom of heaven within you”—“the Lord of the Temple”''—will be revealed. Then no'' ''longer will you ask how best to become a theosophist;'' ''for you will know, because you have already, while'' ''on earth, attained to the spiritual resurrection of'' ''your body, and to eternal life in the presence of'' ''your God. | |||
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