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The old method of education was to store the mind with
as many facts, or supposed facts, as could be
accumulated and to give a certain exterior polish to the
personality. The theory was that when a man was born he
was a completed human being and that all that could be
done for him was to load him up with information that
would be used with more or less skill, according to the
native ability he happened to be born with.
The theosophical idea is that the physical man, and all
that constitutes his life in the physical world, is but
a very partial expression of the self; that in the ego
of each there is practically unlimited power and wisdom;
that these may be brought through into expression in the
physical world as the physical body and its invisible
counterparts, which together constitute the complex
vehicle of the ego's manifestation, are evolved and
adapted to the purpose; and that in exact proportion
that conscious effort is given to such self-development
will spiritual illumination be achieved and wisdom
attained.
Thus the light that
leads to happiness is kindled from within and the
evolutionary journey that all are making may be robbed
of its suffering.
Why does death bring misery? Chiefly because it
separates us from those we love. But when we have
evolved the faculty of clairvoyance, in our work of
self-development, the separation vanishes and our "dead"
friends are as much with us as the living. The only
other reason why death brings grief or fear is because
we do not understand it and comprehend the part it plays
in human evolution. But the moment our ignorance gives
way to
comprehension such fear vanishes and a
serene
→
happiness takes its place.
Why do we have
enemies from whose words or acts we suffer? Because in
our limited physical consciousness we do not perceive
the unity of all life and realize that our wrong
→
thinking and
→
doing must react upon us through other
people--a situation from which there is no possible
escape except through ceasing to think evil and then
patiently awaiting the time when the causes we have
already generated are fully exhausted. When spiritual
illumination comes, and we no longer stumble in the
night of ignorance, the last enemy will disappear and we
shall make no more forever.
Why do people suffer from poverty and disease? Only
because of our blundering ignorance that makes their
existence possible for us, and because we do not
comprehend their meaning and their lessons, nor know the
attitude to assume toward them. Had we but the
wisdom to understand why they come to people, why they
are necessary factors in their evolution, they would
trouble us no longer. When nature's lesson is fully
learned these mute teachers will vanish.
And so it is with all
forms of suffering we experience. They are at once
reactions from our ignorant blunderings and instructors
that point out the better way. When we have comprehended
the lessons they teach they are no longer necessary and
disappear.
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