The Complete Works of Yogy Ramacharaka. William Walker Atkinson
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of view, otherwise your sight is colored. Tberefore mpersonality 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 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 are loosed, can that profound mystery of self begin to be seen. Not until 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 see all its powers and devote them to a worthy service.
The eleventh precept tells you to “Regard most earnestly your own heart.” And the twelfth precept goes on to say: “For through your own heart comes the one light which can illuminate life, and make it clear to your eyes.” In your own nature you will find all that is in the nature of other men—high and low—pure and foul—it is all there, the foul outlived, perhaps—the pure yet to be lived, perhaps—but all there
And if you would understand men, and their motives. and their doings, and their thoughts, look within, and you will understand other men better. But do not identify yourself with all the thoughts you may find in your heart. View them as would an outsider, look at them as you would upon objects in a case in a museum—useful to study but not to make a part of your life. And, remember this, that none of the things in your heart is good enough to use or master you—although many of them may be used by you to advantage. YOU are the master, and not the mastered—that is if you are a delivered soul.
The thirteenth precept says that: “Speech comes only with knowledge. Attain to knowledge, and you will attain to speech.” The little accompanying note is explanatory (in part) of this precept. We here—with print it:
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 sense unchained, then you will find there is a fount within you from which speech will arise.
Do not be worried if you anticipate being called v,pon to impart words of comfort and knowledge to others. You need not prepare yourself. The person will draw forth from you (through Spirit's guidance) just what is beet for him or her, Fear not—have faith.
We must come to an end, We have tried to explain, partially, the wonderful teachings of this little manual—“Light on the Path,” so that the beginner, perhaps, might be able to grasp the loose end of the teaching, and then gradually unwind the ball at his leisure. The task has grown heavier, and the work less satisfactory, as the precepts passed before as. Words are finite—truth is infinite—and it is hard to even attempt to explain infinite truth in finite words. The thirteenth precept is the last one that we consider. The remaining ones must be read alone lay the student, with the light of the Spirit. They are only for those who have attained spiritual sight, and to such their meaning will be more or less plain, according to the degree of unfoldment which has come to the individual.
We feel that our task has been poorly executed, although many have written us that these lessons have opened their spiritual eyes, and that many things here—tofore very dark, are now seen plainly. We trust that this is indeed so, and that many more may obtain help and comfort from our words, although to us it seems that we have written nothing. And yet, we know that if these words had not some task assigned to them—if they were not intended to form a part of the great work, they never would have been written. So we send them forth to go where they will, without R full knowledge on our part of their destination. Perhaps some into whose hands they may fall may understand better than do we why they were written and sent forth. They were produced at the dictates of Spirit—let Spirit attend to the placing of them where they are called for.
In our following lessons we will take up other phases of occultism which may be of interest and profit to our students. Rut before leaving the beautiful precepts and teachings of “Light on the Path," let us urge upon our students the importance of that little manual. It contains within its pages the greatest amount of high spiritual teaching ever combined into so small a space. Let not the student imagine that he has mastered it, because he seems to understand its general teachings. Let him read it again a little later on, and he will see new beauties in it. We have never met a student—no matte." how highly developed—who could not learn something from the little manual. Its teachings are capable of being interpreted in many diferent ways, for it portrays the experiences of the soul as it journeys along the path. You will remember that the upward ascent is along the spiral path, and the soul goes around md around but ever mounting higher. One may think he grasps the meaning of the first precepts of the little manual, but as he again reaches a certain point, just one round higher, he may again take up the first precepts and find in them new meaning suitable for his newly discovered needs. And so on, and so on. Not only is there spiritual progression along spiral lines extending over ages, but in each life—time there is a spiral path to be mounted, as will be apparent to all of us who will stop to consider the matter. The sou1 which has not found the entrance to the path, seems to go around and around in a circle, traveling over the same ground, and making no real progress. Rut once it discovers the little path which enters the circle at one of its points, and takes steps thereon, it finds that while it still goes around and around, it is really traveling the spiral, and is mounting one round higher with each turn. And we known of no little book so helpful on the journey as this little manual—"Light on the Path.”
We trust that we may be pardoned for inserting in this leson the following words from our introduction to the little manual in question. They are as appropriate at the close of this lesson as at the beginning of the little book:
"The little treatise," LIGHT ON THE PATH," is a classic among occultists, and is the best guide known to for those who haev taken the first step on the Path of Attainment. The writer has veiled the meaning of the rules in the way always customary to mystics, so that to the one who has no grasp on the Truth these pages will probably appear to be a mass of contradictions and practically devoid of sense. But to the one to whom a glimpse of the inner life has been givn, these pages will be a treasury of the rarest jewels, and each time he opens it he will see new gems. To many this little book will be the first revelation of that which they have been all their lives blindly seeking. To many it will be the first bit of their spiritual bread given to satisfy the hunger of the soul. To many it will be the first cup of water from teh spring of life, given to quench the thrist which has consumed them. Those for whom this book is intended will recognize its message, and after reading it they will never be the same as before it came to them. As the poet has said: "Where I pass all my children know me," and so will the Children of the Lighr recognize the book as for them. As for teh others, we can only say that they will in time be ready for this great message. The book is inteded to symbolize successive steps of the neophyte in occultism as he progresses in the lodge work. The rules are practically those which were given to the neophytes of the great lodge of the Brotherhood of Ancient Egypt, and which for generations have been taught guru to chela in India. The peculiarity of the rules herein laid down, is that their inner meaning unfolds as the student progresses on The Path. Some will be able to understand a number of these rules, while others will see but dimly even the first steps. The student, however, will find that when he has firmly planted his foot on one of these steps, he will find the one just ahead becoming dimly illuminated, so as to give him confidence to take the next step. Let none be discouraged; the fact that this book attracts you is the message to you that it is intended for you, and will in time unfold its meaning. Read it over and over often, and you will find veil after veil lifted, though veil upon veil still remains between you and the Absolute.
Lesson V.
Karma Yoga
The Yogi Philosophy teaches that while there is but one goal for true human endeavor—one end to be sought—still there are different paths to that goal, each path best suited to the particular temperament of the individual. Temperament, of course, is not the result of accident or chance, but is the result of the particular